The witches have changed Macbeth from a brave warrior to an evil, murderous, traitor.
“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” This quote is significant as it illustrates the change in Macbeth throughout the play, now even the witches consider Macbeth to be evil. However, when looking at the path of destruction that Macbeth has left behind him it isn’t very surprising. Just one man driven by his ambition to be king has led to a chain reaction of murders
It can be noticed that the temper of Macbeth has become a lot worse. He is a lot more irritable and snappy “Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, thou lily-lier’d boy”. Macbeth turns on people for no apparent reason, when a servant tells Macbeth about the soldiers that are n the way to the castle Macbeth calls him a coward, he implies that the servant has ever been in battle and so would become soaked with blood quickly. He is attacking the boy’s masculinity and has done so for no reason. Macbeth’s irritability shows that he is finding it difficult for him to carry on. Macbeth is finding it increasingly more difficult to carry on living a double life. His irritability could be seen as a further indication of his depression and so it shows how he is handling things and how they are getting on top of him. Macbeth is keeping everything private and to himself. The audience seeing Macbeth in both his public and private persona allows us to be more in touch with the effect of everything and the audience can see more than the other characters in the play can see and so see the effect of keeping up his false face.
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Meagan Abraham – 12AS English – Ms. Chidambe
Comment on the shifts and changes in Macbeth’s reactions in Act 5.
In William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”, the audience witness’s one man’s overriding ambitions bearing the brunt both for himself and those around him. In the play the main character is heavily influenced and persuaded by external forces, particularly the supernatural and the immense ambition of Lady Macbeth.
The audience is highly approving of Macbeth initially. This sense of approval and admiration is further emphasized by the award and praise heaped on Macbeth from King Duncan. Not only does the King refer to Macbeth as “worthy cousin”, but also, the King confers upon Macbeth the new title “Thane Of Cawdor”.
As the audience hears Macbeth´s thoughts, our opinion of him is beginning to deteriorate. It is important to note that although both the witches and Lady Macbeth have a very strong part to play in persuading Macbeth to commit murder, it is he who initially utters the word “murder” and thinks he must commit the deed.
The audience’s perception of Macbeth further deteriorates as we witness how on the one hand, Macbeth accepts and the praise of his King yet on the other he aligns himself with the dark supernatural world of murder. Macbeth´s keenness and gratitude demonstrates how caught up in a hypocritical situation he is.
Throughout the play it has been Lady Macbeth who is the stronger of the two partners, she was the initiator of the murder of Duncan and it is her who helps Macbeth with his instant guilt and the problems he has initially due to the crime. In Act 5 Scene 1 we see that she is not as strong as we thought, her conscience is catching up with her. The scene is a visual enactment of her conscience, she is sleepwalking and in her dreams she re-enacts the murder, she dreams of her and her husband killing Duncan. “Yet here’s a spot”, this shows that she is feeling guilty and repaying the murder over and over again in her dreams, the spot is blood on her hand. When Macbeth murdered Duncan he didn’t take the daggers with him, and she had to go back to put them at the scene of the crime. In doing so she got blood on her hand, but dismissed it as being nothing and as being easily washed away. However we see here that it was more to Lady Macbeth and it is playing on her mind, it is as if although she has washed the blood away it is still there. The audience should be able to see how distressed Lady Macbeth is at this point, that despite her appearance of calm and composed it is eating at her. The way that this will be acted should convey this idea; Lady Macbeth is finding it difficult to hold onto her sanity and keep strong and together.
The physical enactment of Lady Macbeth’s conscience allows Shakespeare to create sympathy for Macbeth because the audience knows, despite the fact that he has not shown recently, that Macbeth is feeling the same as his wife. The audience has always seen Lady Macbeth as the strong person in the relationship, she is the one who kept Macbeth going and tried to decrease his pain and suffering. She has never let anything bother her, but now we see how things have truly effected her. Although not an opinion I agree with, some critics believe that the implications of this are that if Lady Macbeth is suffering so greatly Macbeth must be suffering so much more as he is the one who has always shown the remorse for the murder of Duncan.
Macbeth wants the doctor to make the memories he has disappear. From this initial reaction the audience can see that Macbeth is too suffering, just as we saw his wife do so. He wants the cause of suffering to be removed from the mind of himself and Lady Macbeth, he has had enough and is clutching onto the hope that the doctor will be able to make him better. He is looking for way out. However the doctor explains to Macbeth that there is nothing he can do for Lady Macbeth ad so consequently for him. At the news of this Macbeth is angered and lashes out at the doctor “Throw physic to the dogs; I’ll have none of it” Macbeth is infuriated by the fact that the doctor hasn’t got a miracle cure for his guilty conscience. Macbeth says that the doctor is useless and wants nothing to do with his advice. The hope that Macbeth had, that the doctor would help, has been taken away from him with the diagnosis of the doctor.
Lady Macbeth is so consumed with guilt that in later in Scene 5 she commits suicide. Macbeth reacts to the news of the death of his wife in a cold and unfeeling manner. “I have almost forgotten the taste of fears” when he hears the screams of a woman, not knowing who it is, he shows no reaction. We can see that Macbeth has become so used to horror and death that he can no longer be shocked. It is as if it is a common occurrence for him. His senses have become chilled; he has lost all emotion. This illustrates that Macbeth has actually suffered because of what he has done and he has become detached form everything and nothing will stir him, not even the screams of a Lady. This makes us think that Macbeth is now just a shell, he feels nothing and so really has no life. He goes about doing the things that he has to but he is not there emotionally. When Macbeth learns that the screams where those of his wife he is not upset at all “She should have died here after”. He simply says that Lady Macbeth would have died anyway and it is best that she is out of life, it is the easiest and best option for her. It almost seems that Macbeth cannot feel sad because he is envious of her death. She no longer has to live with the guilt and suffering but he does, it is not that easy for him to get out of it he has to live with his conscience everyday and he cannot feel sad at her death because she has been set free. There is monotony in his speech, “To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow”. Macbeth is summing up his life, it is a repetition and he doesn’t get a break. His life is the same all the time – he has no escape from what he has done. Macbeth has given up on life to him it is meaningless. “The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!” Macbeth sees life as just being something to fill the gaps in and that everything leads to death. Life is short and at this moment in time he can see no meaning to it “Signifying nothing” he is empty of his soul and wonders what the point in life is. He sees those who expect something out of life as being fools. Macbeth is showing here that he greatly regrets his actions and has to live with what he has done everyday of his life and there is no escape from himself, it is getting him down greatly. The audience can clearly see that Macbeth is severely depressed. This aids the creation of sympathy because the audience is now in touch with how he is feeling and just how badly his actions have effected him. It doesn’t take away the fact that what he has done is unforgivable but it does help the audience to see Macbeth in a different light. We can see how much he is suffering and it has made him anxious, alone, depressed and afraid. It is not until now that it becomes apparent that Macbeth has reached the point of desperation and life has lost all meaning for him. He is in such desperation that he has come to envy the dead. His guilt is tearing him up inside leaving only a fraction of the man that used to be. Macbeth deeply regrets what he has done and we can see that the way he has acted, the things he has done have turned Macbeth into a manic-depressive.
