Odd things happen after King Duncan’s death. An old man (Act II Scene IV) describes many of these things. He says he sees strange things on that night
OLD MAN:
‘Withing the volume of which time I have seen
Hours dreadful, and things strange; but this sore night
Hath trifled former knowings.’
ROSS:
‘Ha, good father,
Thou storey skies, stars moving addly with man’s act’
Ross’s speech means that God has seen Macbeth’s act and will do something about it.
The old man gives an example of what happened between two birds
OLD MAN:
‘A falcon towering in her pride of place
Was by a mousing owl hawked and killed’
He is saying that how can an owl kill a falcon when falcons are stronger than owls. He describes this as ‘Tis unnatural.’
Ross gives another example, this time about Duncan’s horses
‘Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,
Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,
Contending ‘gainst obedience, as they would make
War with mankind.
This tells us that Duncan’s horses were beautiful and quick creatures but after the kings death, they are the opposite to quick and beautiful. They have turned wild and disobedient. They have turned the opposite of which they were before, fighting against obedience. They break out of their stalls and the conclusion is mankind has done evil.
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are affected by the murder of Duncan. In the beginning of Act 3 Scene 2, Macbeth is very confident in the beginning but Lady Macbeth doesn’t think that he is. She is scared of leaving him alone because he could jeopardise their plans. Macbeth’s language shows guilt
‘Thou canst not say I did it; never shake
Thy gory locks at me’
He speaks a lot about how he will murder without saying the actual word ‘murder.’
‘If it were done, when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well
It were done quickly’.
Macbeth talks about Duncan sleeping peacefully in his grave, nobody can touch him now because he’s gone
‘Duncan is in his grave,
After life’s fistful fever he sleeps well,
Treason had done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further’
Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to be strong, loyal to show he can be a great king when they dine with their guests
‘Be bright and jovial among you guests tonight.’
He does this in the beginning but as soon as he sees Banquo’s ghost, he loses his pride and innocence
‘We have scorched the snake not killed it’
‘O full of scorpions in my mind’
Macbeth loses control of himself. He says that they are half way through their plans. His mind is full of fear; fear that he might get caught and their plans will fail.
The role of the witches isn’t important here. Macbeth is doing this now on him own (exception that is his wife made him kill Duncan). The witches made him kill Duncan but they didn’t force Macbeth to kill Banquo (his own dear friend) and his sons. They warned him about Macduff though.
In Act 1 Scene 7, before Duncan’s death, Macbeth destroys the music, banquet by planning Duncan’s death. In Act 3, Scene 4, the banquet is presented with full ceremony because it is the hour of triumph for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. For the other banquet, it was an hour for the Duncan’s murder. He wanted it done quickly, ‘It were done quickly’
In the beginning of Act 3, scene 4, Macbeth is confident and pleased
‘You know your own degrees, sit down. At first
And last the hearty welcome’
This gives us a clue that Macbeth is speaking in a nice proud fluent voice. He tells the lords that they don’t need to stand up for him. He tells them that they have given a kind welcome.
He needs to be confident in order for his guests to think he can be a great king. As soon as he hears the news that Banquo’s dead but Fleance is still alive, Macbeth starts to lose control of his pride
‘Then comes my fit again. I had else been perfect.
Whole as a marble, founded as the rock,
As broad and general as the casing air;
But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo’s safe’
Macbeth says he has been confident, perfect, etc but now after hearing the news, all that pride, etc has been replaced by the opposite. He is small and has shrunk to a low level. He has now got doubts and worries in his head and they will affect his talk with his guests. He tries to control himself by saying Banquo is safe now in his grave. Nothing can touch him now. He sleeps peacefully.
Lady Macbeth always sweeps into action and controls Macbeth.
‘What quite unmanned in folly?’
When Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost sitting in his chair he freaks out. Lady Macbeth springs back into action. She tries and controls Macbeth and tells the lords he is fine. ‘Are you a man?’ she asks him.
Lady Macbeth asks them to leave kindly. The evening didn’t go well for them. ‘A kind good night to all.’ Macbeth acted cowardly towards the lords, seeing a vision of Banquo’s ghost that they couldn’t see. Lady Macbeth is strong and controls Macbeth. Banquo’s ghost should be presented only by the eyes of Macbeth and not by anyone else. Macbeth is imagining it and he can’t control his fears. Banquo’s ghost should be just sitting in Macbeth’s chair staring at Macbeth. Macbeth’s seat is quite high in social order and this is wear Banquo should sit.
In those days, people were scared and believed in witchcraft. An act was developed that anyone found guilty of practicing witchcraft of any kind should be executed. This was made law in 1604. This act was intended to protect the monarch from the spells of witchcraft. It has been estimated that some eight thousand witches were burned in Scotland in the forty years before James came to the throne of England.
‘Macbeth’ was written in 1606-7. ‘Macbeth’ interested King James who became king of Scotland in 1603, 3 years before Shakespeare wrote the play. Events from early Scottish History have influenced Shakespeare to write this play. The Gunpowder plot was a plot for blowing up King James I and the parliament on November 5th 1605, just a year before ‘Macbeth as written. The chief investigator of the plot was Robert Catesby, a Roman Catholic who was angered by James’s failure to keep his promise made before he ascended the throne, to grant more toleration to the English Catholics. This was a year before Shakespeare wrote Macbeth. The Spanish Armada was another historical event, an attempt for the Spanish to take over Britain. It happened in 1588, just 18 years before ‘Macbeth was written.
There must be a link from these historical events to the play by the plot to kill the king. Shakespeare had to give an ending where the murderer was caught and killed. If he let the murderer get away with it in his play, there was a chance Shakespeare would get beheaded because James wouldn’t like that. The Gunpowder plot was unsuccessful and Guy Fawkes was caught and was killed. This is similar to Macbeth getting killed by Macduff except his plan to kill the king and Banquo worked but not perfectly.
