I would say that the main climax or crisis of the play is when the murder of King Duncan takes place-Duncan killed by Macbeth himself with the aid of Lady Macbeth. This was the first unnatural act in the play-this was unnatural because Macbeth had everything going for him-he had the title of Thane of Cawdor, he even had a strong friendship with Ducan so it seemed unnatural for Macbeth to even think about killing Ducan.
The next unnatural event is the first meeting with the witches- they all had facial hair and
The play has many characters including what I would say were the two main characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. I would say Macbeth is the tragic hero of this play. At the beginning of the play, he has the title of Thane of Glamis, and later becomes the Thane of Cawdor. As Duncan’s cousin, he has a link to the royal throne, and is pushed to grab it by the witches and his wife. In my opinion I would say Macbeth is greedy and ambitious. His personality changes and develops through the play. In the beginning he is a warrior to serve the king and can’t consider the idea of killing Duncan to get the throne. As the play progresses, he becomes cold, hard and more ambitious. After the murder, his personality further develops to guilt and near madness. This unease causes him to commit more murders (Banquo and the Macduff family) and further dig himself into his grave. He says to Banquo,
“Tonight we hold a solemn supper, sir, and I’ll request your presence.”
He said this in order to kill Banquo that night showing his cold and cruel heart. Lady Macbeth is Macbeth’s wife. Although loving Macbeth greatly, she has no children. Like, Macbeth,
To murder a king who, was loyal to Macbeth, he required help, this help was available to Macbeth at very short hand – his wife and the three witches, to which we found out that Macbeth and the three witches had dealings before- when Macbeth enters with Banquo he says,
“So foul and fair a day I have not seen.”
The same words used by the witches in there paradox in scene 1. Soon after this the witches start to name Macbeth as Thane of Glamis,
“All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis.”
They then name him as Thane of Cawdor,
“All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor.”
After that they go on to say that he will soon be King-replacing the present king, Duncan,
“All hail Macbeth, that shalt be King here after!”
This is what influences Macbeth to go on and kill the King, it is also his wife that influences and comes to his aid when he goes to kill Duncan - the king.
As a result of their decision there are many unnatural consequences. One of which is the floating dagger with the handle pointing towards Macbeth,
“Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come let me clutch thee.”
As a result of killing their loyal king, Lady Macbeth and Macbeths state of mind changes-they both find it very hard to sleep at night, and if they do fall asleep they have nightmares, Macbeth says;
“…wicked dreams abuse the curtained sleep”
Another unnatural consequences is that after the murder Macbeth can’t say Amen when ‘God bless’ us is said;
Macbeth - “…I could not say amen when they did say ‘God bless us’.
Later in the play Macbeth gets it into his mind that Banquo and his son must die because he thinks that they might interfere with his running for the throne,
Macbeth says “Our fears in Banquo stick deep
There is none but he
Whose being I do fear………
A fruitless crown…a barren sceptre…the seed of Banquo kings!”
This too produces unnatural consequences one of which is when Macbeth is having a meeting with the lords he starts to fit and sees the ghost of Banquo and starts to talk to it.
This also leads to Lady Macbeths sleep walking and eventually to her suicide.
After her suicide Macbeth says,
“I have almost forgot the taste of fears. The time has been my senses would have cool’d to hear a night shriek......I have supped full of horrors” – unnatural state of mind.
There is no way to go around fate. At the beginning of the book, the witches made several prophecies about Macbeth and Banquo. While Macbeth tried to stop some of those prophecies such as the one about Banquo’s sons becoming kings, it happened anyway.
Extreme ambition leads to downfall. Macbeth was made extremely ambitious and jealous by the prophecy and his wife. He followed up that ambition with action and through it brought about his death.
Bad things can happen to good people with one fatal flaw. Macbeth was a good person in the beginning of the play. He loyally served the king. However, because of his ambition, his entire world fell apart.
Shakespeare uses a lot of symbolism in this play. The most often used is that of blood symbolizing guilt. Blood is stained on Macbeth’s imaginary knife before the murder. Both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth suffer from visions of blood after the murder, especially Lady Macbeth who is driven insane by it. The blood is seen as their guilt and they cannot get rid of it until the crime is punished by their own deaths.
Backing up with quotes and by cloes reference to the text I have shown that unnatural deeds to breed unnatural troubles. I enjoyed this play. I found its message about greed to be powerful. The characterizations of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were deep and I enjoyed the way they seemed to switch places and personalities after the murder.
