However, although Macbeth is presented as a hero in the first couple of scenes, there is evidence that all is not well and not quite what it seems. The earliest indication of this is the fact that Macbeth’s first words echo the witches. The witches proclaim that “fair is foul and foul is fair”. The first time we hear Macbeth speak, he is commenting on the day of the battle as being “so foul and fair”. This can lead us to a variety of different conclusions. Either it is merely coincidence or Macbeth is clearly associated with evil from the very beginning. While, at the time of writing, it could have been very tempting to suspect the latter, when looking at it from a 21st century perspective, this does not seem as likely. One would be prudent to suggest that it is total coincidence. The alliteration of the soft ‘ff’s’ in “foul and fair” suggests an air of ambiguity around Macbeth and the witches. It again hints that all is not what it seems.
Then comes the ultimate question: did Macbeth think about becoming king before the prophecy was made? I think he did. There is evidence for this in his immediate reaction towards the witches’ final prophecy. Banquo notices Macbeth “starts and seem to fear” when he hears the proclamation that he will become king. This indicates that he may have had these thoughts before. Regicide was an unforgivable crime in those days, and any thoughts, even dreams, about becoming king could be seen as attempted regicide. He would naturally “start and seem to fear” therefore, if he thought that the witches had read his mind. There is also evidence that Banquo guesses his true feelings. The repeated negative sibilance in “start” and “seem” implies a spiteful, snakelike hissing edge. Banquo is angry that Macbeth has had these thoughts. Although Shakespeare presents Banquo as a good man, his use of negative sibilance hints that he could be slightly jealous that Macbeth will be king and not him.
Shakespeare further adumbrates the audience by giving Macbeth the title of a traitor – the Thane of Cawdor. Furthermore, the use of Shakespeare’s stagecraft in 1,4,16 is incredibly ironic. Duncan is commenting on how he cannot “find the mind’s construction in the face” and how he never thought that the Thayne of Cawdor whom he had deeply trusted could turn traitor, when who should enter but Macbeth! This is quite an obvious hint, and would be more obvious to an audience watching the play as opposed to somebody reading it. Most of the people in the audience would by now have realised by now what Shakespeare was getting at.
The final piece of evidence that leads me to think that Macbeth had though about regicide before the prophecy hade been made lies in 1,5 and Lady Macbeth’s response to Macbeth’s letter. The fact that her mind jumps straight to murder in response to his letter insinuates that they might have discussed it together before. The very fact he wrote to her with this news when he would have seen her that very night shows us that he felt is was extremely important. It shows his “burning desire” to be king, and also shows his love towards his wife. In 1,7,48 Lady Macbeth strongly hints that Macbeth had suggested regicide to her before. Her commenting “…that made you break this enterprise to me” shows this. All this evidence shows us that, although at the beginning of the play there is no doubt he is a great man, there is still some doubt over his true colours and his real character. This evidence shows us that there may have been a seed in his mind, a small thought, of regicide and becoming king.
Although, Macbeth was not totally innocent at the beginning of the play, he was not yet so wicked as to attempt regicide. Indeed, his soliloquy in 1,3,127, just after the ‘king’ prophecy has been made, tells us he is still a noble man. The king’s murder is still “yet but fantastical”. Macbeth euphemises murder as “that suggestion” and a “horrid image” that “unfixes (his) hair”. His use of euphemism here shows how much the idea of murder frightens and disgusts him. The idea of his killing the king and turning nature upside down, comes up repeatedly throughout the play. Here, Macbeth describes his reaction towards regicide as “against the use of nature”. This shows that he has never really been as scared before. His mind is settled with him saying, “if chance will…without my stir”. This shows us he is still a good man.
In 1/5 it is evident from the way Macbeth addresses his wife in his letter as his “dearest partner of greatness” that they were very close, and knew each other very well. So we can assume that Lady Macbeth’s description of Macbeth is accurate and that Macbeth was indeed “full o’ th’ milk of human kindness”. This reinforces the morality of Macbeth and leaves no doubt in the audience’s/reader’s mind that he would not have committed regicide on his own free will. So how did an inherently moral man descend to the level of a murderer? There must have been some external provocation from other sources. Although he may have already had a small seed of regicide planted in his mind, it is evident from the text that it is Lady Macbeth who persuades him to act on it by “pouring (her) sprits in (his) ear”. Her immediate response to Macbeth’s letter at the beginning of 1/5 is “to catch the nearest way”, i.e. to murder the king.
Throughout the next couple of scenes she proceeds to persuade him against his will and the moral and human leanings of his nature by using some clever tactics. She is knows that Macbeth is against harming Duncan, whom he admires, so she doesn’t talk about ‘murdering’ him. Instead she uses other descriptions, and other phrases, which all relate to murder. She talks about “the night’s great business” and how Duncan “must be provided for”. Her cunning is emphasized by her use of sibilance in her speech in 1,5,60-70. Indeed, she even comments on “the serpent under” her. This use of both positive and negative sibilance dotted with subtle alliteration in her lines both reassures Macbeth and shows the audience that she is deliberately manipulating Macbeth to her benefit, against his will. She also reassures Macbeth that she has plan and he should “leave the rest to (her)”. Lady Macbeth also tries to show Macbeth that all he needs to do is commit the murder. She will plan everything out. In doing this, she ensures that Macbeth need not think about the deed, just carry it out. Lady Macbeth realises that all she has to convince him is show him that they can act with impunity, and she therefore she assures him that “false” appearances will cover their tracks. This way Macbeth’s conscience will not get in the way. Although soothing, her lines to Macbeth are quite lively and the sentences contain many punchy monosyllables (“Your face my Thane is a book where men…”). This shows us that she has made a plan and is acting on it. It also shows she is the dominant partner in their relationship.
Yet, despite this, Macbeth holds out till the beginning of 1,7, where he contemplates the effects of murder on “the life to come” and “on nature” and reasons with the audience why killing Duncan is unjust. His soliloquy shows the audience that he is still a good, ethical man. He then tells Lady Macbeth that he “will proceed no further in this business”. She responds aggressively by cruelly humiliating him and questioning his masculine qualities. Her use of “green and pale” suggest cowardice, and so she goes on next to assault his manliness, questioning his sexuality, his honour and his reputation. She maliciously turns his words back on him, calling him a “beast” instead of a “man” and saying this cowardice “unmakes” him, which is a humiliating pun on ‘unman’. Lady Macbeth’s utterance is designed to contrast her self-control and dependability with his vacillation and unmanliness. Faced with this verbal mortification, Macbeth argues no further, and his next words – “if we should fail?” show no morality.
Another source of external provocation of Macbeth came from the witches, although they have a fairly minor part in the first two scenes. These “weird sisters” personify evil in the Jacobean era and community. If Macbeth had the seed of an evil idea in his mind, it was definitely the witches who proverbially germinated it. They exploited his pride and ambition, and used it to create chaos in nature. This mirrors how evil in the Jacobean era, influenced all breaches of society and all types of people.
Indeed, in 1,7, Lady Macbeth possesses an uncanny resemblance to the witches. She is equated to the witches by their equivocal relation to an implied norm of femininity. Banquo is quite confused about the witches’ sex and he comments on their strange, masculine “beards” and Lady Macbeth invokes the “murd’ring ministers” to “unsex” her. Both can also be seen to have un-natural power over the weather. We know that the witches have unnatural power over the weather from their conversation in 1,3 when one of them mentions having control over the wind (lines 14–17). Lady Macbeth also implores the forces of nature to succumb to her evil in 1,5, (line 49) where she makes a plea to the evil “spirits” for “thick night” to come and “the dunnest smoke of hell” to appear on the day of the murder. Later on in 2,1, we do indeed hear that “the moon is down”, and “there is husbandry in heaven”. The final similarity that equates the witches to Lady Macbeth is the way they both address Macbeth. In 1,3, the witches all “hail Macbeth”, and address him by his various titles, claming at the end that “he shalt be King hereafter”. In 1,5, (lines 51-52), Lady Macbeth also hails her husband as “Great Glamis”, and “worthy Cawdor”, and also ends by claiming he will be “greater than both hereafter”. This indicates that Lady Macbeth may well have been possessed by evil spirits. It shows us that, although there is a shift of emphasis when she ‘replaces’ the witches, Macbeth is still exposed to the same evil force.
Macbeth is the tragic tale of a good, moral man’s plummet into the depths of the Tudor chain of being. He is the typical Shakespearian tragic hero. Macbeth was an inherently ethical man. He excelled on the battlefield and showed great potential. It was evil, in the form of his own wife, and a group of witches, that drove him to his downfall. They exploited his “vaulting ambition” – his main weakness, to there own malicious ends, and in doing so created turmoil in God’s chosen order and the whole of nature.
