When Macbeth’s name is first introduced, in Act 1, Scene 1, the witches introduce it. The third witch says “There to meet with Macbeth” This, after the witches have been discussing when they shall next meet is very strange. It seems like they can look into the future. These witches being on stage would have no doubt angered the audience at the time of showing. But when they mention Macbeth’s name the audience would start asking questions. “How can they know that they will meet with Macbeth?”
“What has he got to do with them?”
Questions such as these intrigue the viewer and make s/he want to stay on and find out the answers. This is the perfect way in which to open the play.
The fact that the witches first introduce Macbeth also makes the audience question his relationship with evil.
When the viewer sees Macbeth for the first time, the witches are involved again. It is in Act 1, Scene 3. This scene is also, I feel, the start of the plays turn. This scene contains the first set of prophecies. The witches explain to Macbeth that he shall be King. “All hail Macbeth, that shalt be King Hereafter.”
They tell Banquo “Thou shalt get Kings, though thou be none.”
These prophecies tell the future. They, again, intrigue the viewer and get them questioning.
I think that at this point, after the prophecies, a small distrust develops between Macbeth and Banquo. Banquo doesn’t seem to trust the witches. I think that as they give Macbeth good news and Banquo fairly good news, he seems to be second to Macbeth. I think that this develops a, kind of, jealousy on Banquo’s part. Macbeth, on the other hand, with it being such good news seems to believe the witches. I think that at this point of jealousy on Banquo’s behalf, his belief in the prophecies fades. From this point on, Banquo doesn’t seem to trust Macbeth. This distrust between Macbeth and Banquo, and the witches prophecies, I feel, is the first real sign of things to come.
Lady Macbeth is easily one of the most sick and twisted characters in the whole play. In Act 1, Scene 5, she calls down the evil spirits to her body. Up until this point, the viewer only sees a brief glimmer of Lady Macbeth but in this brief time she seems a normal, healthy woman. However, when she calls down these evil spirits, she turns for the worst.
The speech she makes is filled with evil and ghastly sentences.
“Come you spirits
That tend on moral thoughts, unsex me here
And fill me from the crown to the toe topfull
Of direst cruelty”
As Lady Macbeth carries on, it seems like she tells the spirits to take away her remorse, guilt and conscience, and replace it with cruelty and evil. Shakespeare, I feel, wanted the viewer to question this woman at this stage. I think that he wanted the viewer to wonder who would ever want to do this to themselves and for what cause.
The fact that this speech is a soliloquay shows that this woman is not lying and that she is being deadly serious. I think that the viewer would have been quite taken a back and scared by the comments made by Lady Macbeth. I also believe that Shakespeare would have wanted this scene to be very serious on stage and quite frightening to watch.
After calling down these spirits she says some awful and quite horrific things. Lady Macbeth is actually the person who convinces Macbeth to murder Duncan. After the episode previous, it seems that she is pure evil.
Macbeth, after being told to kill Duncan agrees, but later on, he explains that he doesn’t want to. Lady Macbeth then says:
“I have given suck and know
How tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
And dashed the brains out, head I so sworn
As you have done to this.”
Basically, she says that she would rather smash her own child’s head to pieces than break a promise like Macbeth.
This imagery is very horrific. Her behaviour is appalling and unnatural. I don’t think that anything natural in this world could do something as horrific as what she said. This, I feel, would have forced the audience to ask questions about Lady Macbeth’s personality. “Is she really like this anyway?”
“Is this a sign that the spirits have truly come?”
I personally feel that at this point, the evil spirits had come down to her and I also think that this point is her worst and most evil.
Around the time of the killing of Duncan, in Act 2, Scene’s 1 and 2, there are a lot of supernatural and unnatural things going on.
In Act 2, Scene 1 (before Macbeth kills Duncan), Macbeth sees a dagger in the air. Macbeth doesn’t know how it got there so he tries to clutch it. His hand slides through it. The dagger’s handle is towards him and the blade pointing towards Duncan’s room. But how can Macbeth suddenly just think up and see this dagger when previously in the scene he hadn’t given it a thought? Could the witches put it in his head? Could they be tempting and slowly forcing Macbeth to go through with the murder?
The atmosphere at this point would have been very tense. The audience would be very intrigued and quite puzzled over what would happen next. This would add greatly to the atmosphere.
In Act 2, Scene 2, Macbeth enters with two bloody daggers, indicating that he has killed Duncan. He meets Lady Macbeth. The atmosphere would be very tense in this scene. This can easily be predicted by the audience because of the previous events and after hearing the comments made by Lady Macbeth, they would wonder what she would do next. I think that any scene with Lady Macbeth in would be very tense after her horrific comments.
Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that he has done “the deed”. He explains that as he went into Duncan’s room he passed two sleeping guards. They both woke up but told their prayers to fall back to sleep. When they finished and said “Amen” Macbeth could not bring himself to say “Amen” as well. This would have a big effect on the audience. People in the days of Macbeth were very religious and someone not saying amen to a prayer was unheard of. But Macbeth saying this would show the audience that he really had descended into evil. He is to evil to pray.
Macbeth, after the killing tries to wash his hands of the blood. But he explains that there is so much blood that if he washed them in the sea, they would turn it red. This, I feel, was added by Shakespeare to show the audience the enormity of this crime committed.
As Lady Macbeth and Macbeth speak, a loud knocking is heard on quite a few occasions. The audience would definitely be wondering what was going on. Who would be knocking a door late at night? Is this the work of the witches? But what was very intriguing was the comment made by Macbeth. “Wake Duncan with thy knocking: I would thou couldst.”
I think that although Macbeth is quite evil at this point, he still has humanity. It shows that he still has regret and that he still has a conscience. He hasn’t completely fallen into evil yet.
“His gashed stabs looked like a breech in nature”.
As Macbeth says this, the audience realises that the evil is now unleashed on the normal world. This quote gives the image that a gash in nature has been brought about and all of the evil from hell can now enter. The effect on the audience would have been great. People’s reactions would be of fear to this statement. The signs of this statement being true begin to arise later on in the play.
In Act 2, Scene 4, Ross explains that,
“By th’clock ‘tis day
And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp”
This shows that natural things are going wrong and the world is becoming unnatural.
The Old Man explains that a mousing owl killed a hawk. Ross again explains that Duncan’s horses broke out of their stalls, attacked the people and then ate each other. All of these things are unnatural and it shows that all aspects of nature have been damaged by the murder of Duncan.
At the time of the second set of prophecies even the witches identify Macbeth as evil.
The second witch says, “Something wicked this way comes”
Why not someone?
Macbeth, I feel, tries to show his evil and his power by commanding the witches.
“I conjure you” and “Answer me” both show his evil. He now thinks that he is more powerful and more evil than the witches.
I think that Macbeth is shown as going further and deeper into evil when the witches ask him whether he wants to hear his prophecies from them or their masters. Macbeth of course says, “Call ‘em, let me see ‘em” Macbeth at this point is so evil that he actually wants to meet the devil. The audience would be quite thrown back in this scene. Watching a man become so evil that he would actually want to meet the devil would (I can imagine) be very scary for a religious person.
Towards the end of the play, when Macbeth is told that Macduff’s army is advancing on his castle, he doesn’t cower or panic. He decides to fight. He calls upon his armour bearer, “Seyton”. If pronounced in a certain way, it sounds like the devils name, “Sayton”. I think that this is the way Shakespeare would have wanted it to sound. I think that Shakespeare added this very cleverly and I think that he was trying to tell the audience that Macbeth, at this time in the play, was so evil that the devil himself was standing next to him.
From the start of the play, right through to the end the supernatural is involved. The supernatural affects Macbeth massively and I feel that it plays a massive part in Macbeth’s descent into evil.
After starting his descent into evil, he doesn’t, not for one single moment, rise from it. Once starting his descent, he carries on falling and falling until the point at which he is so evil that it seems like the devil himself is next to him. I think that as the play develops, the influence of the supernatural on Macbeth decreases. Although this decreases, Macbeth still becomes more evil. I think that after the killing of the King, Macbeth starts to rely less and less on the supernatural.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the play of Macbeth. I think that Shakespeare develops the theme of the supernatural very well and very cleverly as the play develops. The atmosphere and certain points in the play have a massive affect on the audience, not so much now as they would have when this play was first written, but they do still have a great effect.
