In Act one Scene 3 as Macbeth returns from the victorious battle; he is puffed up with self-pride and flushed with success. As he enters the area he proclaims, “So foul and fair a day I have not seen,” this is echoing the Witches’ words in the first Scene and it evidently shows that he is in tune with what the Witches think.
The demonic forces of evil-symbolised by the Witches-suggest to his inordinate imagination the prospect of attaining now the greatest accolade he has ever desired. The Witches cannot read his innermost thoughts, but from observation of facial and other bodily manifestations, they surmise with comparative accuracy what passions drive him and what dark desires wait their fostering. The Witches, each addresses Macbeth in a different manner, the first one is Thane of Glamis-his title, and the second one addresses him as Thane of Cawdor-he does not know that Duncan has given him the title yet, and the third as, “that shalt be king hereafter.” After hearing these strange prophecies, Macbeth remains in a sort of ecstatic stupor of joy for becoming king or shock of having his most deep and dark secret exposed, that is the “start” that Banquo notices. Macbeth desperately wants more information, but the Witches do not tell him how it will be accomplished; it is Macbeth who thinks of murder and regicide. Nevertheless, it is the Witches who arouse his passions and stir up a vehement and inordinate apprehension of the imagination, which so perverts the judgement of reason that it leads his will towards choosing means to the desired temporal chattels.
The Witches succeed in tricking Macbeth into believing their prophecies; they do that by starting with a known fact, then they progress into what will be soon a confirmed fact- and then Macbeth will indeed believe the last and final prophecy. In addition, when Ross and Angus come and confirm the Witches second prophesy and have given proof to the power to the Witches‘ words, Macbeth will be on the look out for any kind of hint that he will be named king, as he believes that the third prophecy will come true. Moreover, Ross gives him that thought that he would be named king as Ross says, “And for an Ernst of a greater honour,” indeed this whole affair has stroked the fires of his ambition to become king.
Banquo is well aware of the danger of taking words that, “sounds so fair,” at their face value; it is he who sums up with characteristic clear-sightedness the deceitfulness of evil temptation:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s
In deepest consequence.
While Banquo talks to Angus and Ross, Macbeth engages in profound thought, he considers the prophecies “good” and “ill,” but he is shaken by the conflict between the grandeur of his ambition, “the swelling act of imperial theme” and the horrifying thought of the murder of the sovereign King. The “horrid image” of Duncan’s murder in his own mind, rises involuntarily in his imagination, attacking his physical being, “unfixing” his hair, and making his, “seated heart” knock at his ribs. Neither his body nor his mind is fully in his control, this is so because the Witches have chosen a perfect time to approach Macbeth. He is full of the glory of the recent battle and fresh from fighting and as his inner thoughts now plan of cutting out the interim period between the present and the realization of the third prophecy of coming true and the thoughts wander towards murder and death. Nevertheless, in the end Macbeth concedes that he could also just let fate run its course and rejects his first impulses and hopes that he won’t resort to treachery, “If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me without my stir,” and “Come what come may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day.” Banquo however notices the dream of power and says, “Look how our partner’s rapt.”
In this scene we see how Macbeth full of glory after the battle, and suddenly his character changes dramatically as he first is told about his future and then it is confirmed, he then goes through a stage of dark thoughts before arriving to a calm conclusion. He goes through a roller coaster ride of mood swings. However, the seed of evil has already been planted and it will soon sprout and take shape. Macbeth as I have mentioned earlier, is a gentlemen till he covets the kingship, but he is not a criminal, but once he permits himself to demand a satisfaction which cannot be honourably attained, he is likely to grasp any dishonourable means to achieve that goal.
In the start of Scene 4, Macbeth is full of hope and anticipates that he will be named king. He has latched onto certain words as clues and possible indicators that he will be named the heir to the throne, “And, for an Ernest of a greater honour” and, even Duncan himself has hinted to Macbeth that, “More is thy due than all can pay”. Macbeth on hearing these words of encouragement and praise is so buoyed up by the excitement and the near certainty of hearing the confirmation of the last prophecy that to hear Duncan proclaiming that his eldest son would be the new king would have been devastating to him indeed we even feel as if he has been betrayed. He would be mortified, demoralised and crushed, but those feelings would turn quickly into one of, anger, wrath, and seething rage. In Macbeth’s soliloquy, there is a grim determination of a man who is about to risk it all, his honours, and his praises, which he has deservedly gained for the ultimate honour of kingship that he can now obtain only by deceitful murder. The tension of steeling himself to murder is increasing the disintegration of his personality; if he could, he would conceal his intentions even from himself,
The eye wink at the hand. Yet let that be,
Which the eye fears when it is done to see. (51-52)
Indeed the last two lines of his soliloquy convey in graphic clarity of his bitterness and his evil intent, “Stars hide your fires, let not light see my deep and dark desires.” Furthermore, we will believe that he will carry out the deed, because, “In soliloquy lies truth.”
In Scene 5, we see that as soon as Macbeth enters the castle Lady Macbeth echoes the formal threefold greeting the Witches have given him. She ignores his recent victories and begins to, ”pour her spirits in thine ear,” by preventing him from thinking of anything but the promise of the throne. Their brief conversation is highly charged and is full of passion and force by Lady Macbeth, but one must notice that Macbeth has seemingly on the long ride home, to have lost most of his “deep and dark desires,” and some of his resolution as he had shown in the end of Scene 4. We can deduce that, because he is quieter than before, and he manages only three lines in the whole scene, and seems to have calmed down a lot. Indeed even his wife can see that he has lost some of his desire, by commenting on his facial expressions, “Your face my thane, is a book where men may read strange matters.” Alternatively, it may be because he is surprised by the sudden determination of his wife, urging him to murder Duncan. Whatever the reason none can say different to his temporising reply to his wife, “We will speak further.” He wishes to avoid an immediate decision, while she is all in for action. In this scene we see Macbeth calm down after the end of Scene 4 into a more calmer and thoughtful man, who appear to be naïvely shocked or at least unprepared and avoids making any immediate rash decisions until he has thought through the whole affair in Scene 7. Lady Macbeth also reminds Macbeth to put on a false face for the guests.
In Scene 6, we see the arrival of king Duncan, and the compliments of Lady Macbeth, indeed even the castle has put on a false face as the, “coarse raven” is replaced by, “the temple haunting martlet”, however this scene does not give us any more insight into Macbeth's changing character. Even though it does not tell us a lot about it, one thing is for sure though; Macbeth is not there for the formal greeting. This can have several meanings, either Macbeth is involved in some certain activity which needs his attention, e.g. the preparation for the visit or it can be taken as the first step towards becoming a traitor.
In Scene 7, we see that Macbeth has withdrawn from the banquet that he is giving for Duncan and in contrast to the sociable activities of the banquet; Macbeth is again isolated in guilty reflections, as he had been from the cheerful conversation of his colleagues in Scene 3. His soliloquy reveals the nature of his mental conflict with remarkable subtlety. He tells himself that he is concerned with only with the practical question of whether or not he can get away with the murder, and he explicitly dismiss its moral aspects. If the act of killing King Duncan, by giving him supreme power would prevent any repercussions on himself in this life, then he would ignore the possibility of divine retribution after death, “in the life to come,” but the inadequacy of this tough-minded attitude is exposed by the very imagery with which it expresses it. His description of this world, temporal life as a, “bank and shoal of time,” emphasis its impermanence, it is no more stable or reliable than a sandbank in the sea of eternity-“the life to come”-that will be submerged or washed away by that sea. The image implies what Macbeth knows to be true, that it is eternal spiritual values that matter, not transitory earthly success, and however hard he tries to repress this deeper insight it expresses itself involuntarily through the images springing from his imagination. The conflict between the implications of this image and his explicit reasoning is a vivid realisation of the division within him that results from his attempt to assume a false role.
Through the rest of the soliloquy, this spiritual insight becomes more explicit and the imagery expressing it more insistent. Macbeth is fully aware of his threefold obligation to Duncan, as subject, kinsman, and host; “First, I am his kinsman and his subject…then, as his host.” In addition, Duncan’s virtues-he has been, “So clear in his great office”, a clarity that contrasts both with Macbeth’s secret plotting and with the confusion of his mind and attempts to cloud his own moral awareness. Again, he pretends to be considering the immorality of the murder only as a reason for supposing that it will be avenged: by killing Duncan, he will merely be showing others how to kill him, “Bloody instructions, which being taught, return to plague th’inventor.” There will be such universal distress at the treacherous murder of so virtuous a king,
And pity, like a newborn babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin hors’d,
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye. (21-24)
Macbeth’s imagination has dramatised for him the spiritual horror that he is contemplating: by line 25, in fact, his practical argument has been left behind and his conclusion is in the practical vein in which he began. His ambition will make him overreach and cause his downfall, “only vaulting ambition,” indicates that he recognizes the insignificance of worldly ambition compared to the spiritual forces unleashed in his imagination. He confronts his wife and although he does not uses the reason that he himself has won himself over, he instead justifies his decision not to murder Duncan on the practical grounds that they should make the most of the honours he has recently gained. Macbeth again has another complete change of mind from the man who had, “Deep and dark desires,” to now, a man who has rationally thought everything through and has decided that there is a complete imbalance in the argument and he has applied logic, to swing his attitude towards the subject back into the loyal Thane zone.
Lady Macbeth attacks at once; she uses various means to make him change his mind, including a challenge to his love,
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour,
As thou art in desire? (39-41)
Nevertheless she focuses on his most sensitive point, his courage-the quality that had won him the, “Golden opinions,” that he has just advanced, as a reason for not proceeding with the murder. She picks up the metaphor of clothing, “Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, not cast aside so soon.” And flings it back derisively, “Was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself?” and then answers this directly by accusing him of wanting to enjoy a reputation for courage while knowing that he is really a coward,
Wouldst thou have that which thou esteem’st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem, (42-43)
He is sufficiently stung by her accusation to state the central moral issue, “I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none.” Lady Macbeth then places, her husband in a false position by asserting it was he who first suggested the murder and was determined to contrive an opportunity for it. In addition, Lady Macbeth even says that she would,
While it is smiling in my face,
Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums
And dash’d the brains out, (56-59)
Of her own child, because if she had made a promise she would be sure to keep it even if it includes the murdering of her own child, rather than break such a promise as Macbeth has done. We see now how Lady Macbeth's cold-hearted side has come into plain view; in fact, it is Lady Macbeth’s own ambition to become the queen rather than her thoughts for her husband that has prompted her to be so evil in her argument.
Macbeth can only respond, to the onslaught of abuse, almost sheepishly, “If we should fail?” and his wife promptly changes tactics and outlines a plan of action to show how easy it will be. Reassuring him as she had at the end of Scene 5 by taking over the management of the murder. In fact, she has presented Macbeth with a ready course of action that it is easier to follow her than to oppose her will. Macbeth is enlarging with apparent enthusiasm on her plan. It is he, who suggests marking Duncan’s attendants with blood and using their daggers,
Will it not be reciev’d,
When we have mark’d with blood those sleepy two
Of his own chamber, and us’d their very daggers,
That they have done’t? (74-77)
Indeed, by the end of the scene, a whole transformation has taken place; whereby Macbeth now feels the tension in his need to, “Bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat.” Lady Macbeth has reversed Macbeth’s resolve, but what is more worrying, is that, Macbeth in that moment made the decision contrary to his carefully set out debate, meaning that he does not stop and think out what to do. Lady Macbeth has managed to change Macbeth’s conviction by the sheer weight of her persuasive arguments and the seeming simplicity of her murderous plans, and indeed, you could say that he is so subjugated by his wife’s scorn and so persuaded by her encouragement that he is willing to murder the sovereign king. However, when we see that when Macbeth is alone and has time to think things through, he is a person with a deep conscience as well as a desire to succeed. However, it is when his wife spurs him on, he becomes much more charged with ambition and it is he who often overlooks conscience for worldly desires.
Therefore, we see, the development of Macbeth’s character and his ideas, from a war hero, widely regarded as the saviour of Scotland, to his dreams of power and ecstatic stupor, on being told he will be king. We then see a enraged, and deeply betrayed man as he plans for the murder of Duncan, but we then see a much more calmer approach to the subject, before deciding for himself that it is best to leave the act undone and to resign it to its natural path. We also see his weakness in determining for himself as we see Lady Macbeth’s argument crushes Macbeth’s carefully laid plan, before again his swing back to hatred and bracing for the murder of the sovereign king. His outlook and ideas change widely and there is some very big mood swings, e.g. from Scene 4 to Scene 5 and Scene 7. He changes according to circumstances but his proactive nature sets off a chain of events eventually leading to his own downfall.
