‘Come, you spirits that tend on Moral thoughts,
Unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe,
Top full of direct cruelty.’ (I.V.38-41)
Later in the play when Macbeth does become King, she is satisfied and he isn’ t. This really shows that L. Macbeth is not all evil, and she is doing it for the benefit of her husband.
As we went on with the play we saw the first changes, after the three witches told Macbeth that he would become King. At first Macbeth did not think much of the prophecies, he thought he would leave it in the hands of fate,
‘If chance will have me King,
Why chance will crown me without my stir’
On the other hand Macbeth’ s thoughts become evil as soon as King Duncan named his son as the successor to the Throne. He immediately focuses on murdering King Duncan to increase his own status
‘The prince of Cumberland: that is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o’ erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars hide your fires,
Let not light see my black and deep desires.’
This speech shows that Macbeth’ s ambitions are taking control of his mind. One minute he wants to kill the next he does not.
In spite of this fact, the play is vague as to whether or not Macbeth intended on killing Duncan before he met the witches:
‘This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in truth? I am Thane of Cawdor’.
This passage is part of the future; he is not sure what to do next. Although the witch’s first prediction came true, he is unsure on whether to act upon the predictions or not. While Macbeth was hiding his dark desires, Macbeth was hesitant before, after and during the Murder of King Duncan. He was so confused that he endured a sudden spasm that allowed him to say
‘I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent’
This is showing that Macbeth is unsure about killing Duncan, it was only the speech of Lady Macbeth that gave him the courage to commit the regicide.
His perception of his life was changing due to the witches. They did not actually use true powers; they used powers of suggestion. In what the witches said everything came true and they did not lie.
While Macbeth wants to become King, he does not want to kill Duncan. He believes he is a Kinsman and host to Duncan, and should therefore protect him not kill him.
‘First, as I am his Kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should shut against his murderer shut the door’.
From Act I Scene 7, we learn that Macbeth is not much of a Butcher. Lady Macbeth solely accuses him of being a coward
‘Which thou esteem’ st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine esteem’,
She is mocking him. She is acting as if Macbeth has broken a promise, a promise that was never made in the first place. It is also evident that Macbeth is being forced to commit the act, because if he doesn’ t his marriage would be in trouble. Their marriage will be in trouble because she will not find him manly enough. From this we know L. Macbeth is fiend like we know these are false accusations because Macbeth is a glorious fighter on the battlefield. Macbeth is showing that he will be noble in what he does (still unsure).
Prithee, peace.
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.
Macbeth is not willing to do it.
In Act 2 Scene 1, Macbeth tested Banquo loyalty to the King. Banquo responded well and showed that he was not been corrupted by what the witches had said earlier on. Macbeth is starting to agree with the Murder, he is making sure everything is in place.
In Act 2 Scene 2, Lady Macbeth is on stage, while Macbeth is committing murder. We see that L. Macbeth is nervous, jumpy and drunk. Lady Macbeth was more than willing to commit the murder; it would have been a drastic sight to see a woman do it. All of this showing she is fiend like.
After the Murder of Duncan Macbeth is full of regret, fear, remorse, she is the one who has to take control of things. Macbeth immediately realises that he has done wrong, he even can’ t say Amen. This is symbolising that he feels the sin he has done is not forgivable. Macbeth even believes he has murdered innocent sleep. Sleep which is a healing property. Otherwise you become stressed out.
‘Macbeth does murder sleep’, the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care.’
Lady Macbeth is scornful; she can not understand why he is so terrified. She is dismissive, a fiend like quality.
In Act 3 Scene 3 important things start to happen. Macbeth is starting to compose himself, although not much time has passed. Macbeth leads Macduff to the chamber, in this we don’ t get many expressions from Macbeth. Although Macbeth is starting to appear as the leading role between L. Macbeth and himself. Macbeth’ s proved this by making an elegant speech. In this speech he showed us that he is capable of deceiving, maybe he might be a butcher. Even more butcher like Macbeth slaughters the guards unnecessarily; he did it without emotions. He said his heart took over his head. With Macbeth’ s speech going over the top. L. Macbeth pretends to faint proving that she is still marginally in control.
In Act 3 Scene 2, we start to see a major change in the relationship. Macbeth is starting to think about himself. He plans the murders, and is coming more independent by the minute. This is all coming back to Act I Scene 7 where L. Macbeth says Macbeth is coward. Now he feels he has to prove something. Lady Macbeth at this point still thinks Macbeth is brooding over the killing of Duncan. In his speech in this scene it shows that Macbeth is turning to the dark side. The speech is dark and dangerous.
In Act 3 Scene 3, Banquo and Fleance are viciously murdered with the orders of Macbeth. Banquo was Macbeth’ s best friend. He only killed Banquo for two different reasons. One of them being the witch’s prophecies, which predicted Banquo, will produce Kings or they will produce Kings.
‘Thou shalt get Kings, though thou be none.
Secondly, Macbeth is afraid Banquo knows more than what he is giving off. Banquo has suspicions. Although Macbeth does not commit the murder, he is still a butcher. He killed a friend, a friend whom he confided secrets within. Unlike the murdering of Duncan where he was not a butcher. Macbeth acted ruthlessly and selfishly before and after he ordered the death of Banquo and Fleance.
The slaughtering of Macduff’ s family was brutal. The sweetness of his child did not help the plea for saying Macbeth is not a Butcher. Even his closest one didn’ t think he would have stooped that low. She was angry with him, showing that she thinks things have gone too far out of hand. From this, we see that L. Macbeth is not so fiend like while Macbeth is.
Macbeth as a whole character is showing Butcher like qualities. His ambitions of staying King is going to a whole new level, he is spurring himself towards further horrible deeds. He is starting to disregard fate and fortune. What Macbeth appreciates is that if he stops halfway he would not have achieved anything. Therefore, he needs to complete the job if he is going to make the gains he first set out to get.
In the Banqueting scene, we see the reaction of Macbeth when he is told that Fleance has escaped. He was very distraught, he believed if Fleance was killed, he was invincible. After this Macbeth started to hallucinate, he was acting like he did when he killed Duncan. He was losing control again. When Macbeth started this L. Macbeth started to dominate again. From this we see that Macbeth is losing the plot for the second time, what we need to conclude is that do Butchers lose the plot so easily. My suggestion is that from hear we gather that he isn’ t a butcher.
We realise that L. Macbeth is happy when Macbeth is happy, showing that she is very insecure. When this happens Lady Macbeth starts to mock Macbeth, she kicks him when he is down. She starts questioning him about masculinity and starts to be very nasty to him. All of these things showing fiend like qualities.
In Act 4 Scene 1 we see that Macbeth is seeking out evil. Unlike before nothing was planned it was just a coincidence. He did not ask for it. Now he is persisting to find them, because everything they said came true.
As the audience when Macbeth enters the stage he is seen as something wicked by the witches, he is not seen as innocent anymore. The second witch says
‘By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes;
Open knocks whoever knocks.
From the play, we discover Macbeth is a tyrannical King. He has destroyed Scotland to an extent. Scotland is portrayed as a wounded animal. People are dying everyday under Macbeth. The whole country is grieving.
‘New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows
Strike heaven on the face that it resounds
As it felt with Scotland and yelled out
Like syllable of dolour.
Towards the end of the play, we sense that Macbeth feels life is not worth living. Macbeth knows that he is going to be overthrown, but Macbeth a fighter was not going to die without trouble. As Macbeth hopes prepares to defend the castle, he is still hoping that the witches prophecies come true. When Macbeth fights Macduff, he does not want to kill him because he has already killed his family members. He said:
‘My soul is too much charged with blood of thine already’.
Macbeth believing what the witches said earlier in the play about anyone who is women born couldn’t harm him backfired. This was because he then discovered Macduff was caesarean born, he felt tricked and knew he was going to lose the battle. He continued to fight in vein. This fearless fighting is similar to what happened earlier in the play (not afraid of death). With the audacity of Macbeth’ s fighting towards the end. We as the audience see that Macbeth is hardly a butcher, he is a man who had a flaw in his character. His ambition.
In the play, we saw Lady Macbeth losing command in the last scene of Act 3. This is where she began to sleepwalk; tormented from the murder she helped take part in earlier in the play. The last time she was in command was at the start of Act 3, where she helped Macbeth out of a situation where he was appearing to see hallucinations. We as the audience saw the two sides of her. At the beginning, she acted vilely. She was manipulating evil and even fiend like. We as the audience may say it was justifiable because she was helping her husband take in what she believed he deserved. From Malcolm’s point of view, she was fiend like. Towards the ending, it was rather the opposite. She was feeling guilt and remorse that lead to suicide. We as the audience felt sincerely for Lady Macbeth at the end. I Lady Macbeth was fiend like the murders would not have effected her.
Late in the play, Lady Macbeth starts to sleep walk, showing certain distress and worries. We see that she is feeling guilty and remorse for the things she done earlier. All of the things she mocked Macbeth about have come back to haunt her. In fact, there has been a reverse in the characters. Earlier on in the play, Macbeth showed signs of both guilt and remorse. Lady Macbeth mocked Macbeth for what he was feeling. Now there has been a reverse in characters, we do not see Macbeth mocking Lady Macbeth on what she is going through. From this, we can conclude that if the characters of both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth were said to be butcher and fiend like. Lady Macbeth comes more fiend like than what Macbeth comes across as a Butcher.
From the start of the play, Macbeth was not a butcher at all. After Murdering Duncan, Macbeth was disturbed and terrified. After he forgot to place the daggers near the guards. Macbeth dare not go back to the scene
‘I’ll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done;
Look on’t again I dare not.
Macbeth also wished of wash his hands of Duncan’ s blood, but he believes all of the water in the world would not remove the blood.
‘Will all great Neptune’ s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand’
From this, we can see that Macbeth is very frightened, he immediately regrets killing Duncan.
On the other hand Lady Macbeth is cool, calm, and collective. She rationally replies, and goes to the scene and smears the blood all over the guards. This is horrifying; At this point Lady Macbeth was fiend.
The last speech in Act 4 Scene 1 is the most brutal speech. He said;
The castle of Macduff I will surprise;
Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o’th’sword
His wife, his babies, and all unfortunate souls.
Macbeth totally loses his innocence in this brutal speech. In the first murder, he was perhaps not to blame, but this was just vicious. They both have good reasons for doing what they did. From Malcolm’s view, it may be understandable, because he only hears half the side of the story. We as the audience hear their private thoughts. Macbeth becomes a Butcher as the play goes on, while Lady Macbeth was a fiend at the start of the play, but towards the end that was reversed. From Lady Macbeth’ s defence she does do the things, she did for the sake of her husband, while Macbeth was following his ambitions. From this, we hear that both of their characters are far too complex to call them a butcher and a fiend.
