As the audience we see that there is a change to how Macbeth sees murder and how it demonstrates Macbeth’s decline. When Macbeth was to kill King Duncan he became fitful and erratic. He began to hallucinate and Shakespeare’s theme of appearance and reality was demonstrated when he began to see a dagger, “is this a dagger which I see before?” the audience saw that Macbeth, on the verge of murder was not then in a well state of mind, but when the Murderers enter in act three scene four he is positively euphoric and shows no remorse to hear that his plan for the murder of his best friend has come through and his throne is secure. In his ease he even makes a joke claiming that Banquo’s blood is “better thee without than he within” and like a tragic hero Macbeth has made himself another innocent victim to his actions. In act two Macbeth was repentant about what he had done to the king “to know my deed twere best not know myself”. And here an obvious comparison between Macbeth arises, Shakespeare allows the audience to question whether Banquo would have made a better king than Macbeth. Banquo had no fatal flaw and was loyal his country and friend, even with his suspicion of Macbeth he did nothing against him, “and I fear Thou played'st most foully for’t”. He was also always calm, wise and control, this was apparent when he took charge after finding that Duncan had been murdered “in the great hand of god I stand““ To a Jacobean audience the king should be loyal to his country and put it first before his own greed by contrast, Macbeth brings only chaos to Scotland and deaths to innocent people, A Jacobean audience would see an evident decline in Macbeth from the moment Macbeth meets the murderers. Shakespeare shows the audience in this scene that Macbeth is no longer the “worthy thane” who was remorseful and ashamed of his murders but a greedy man who has become blinded by his ambition and is too acquisitive.
Although he has murdered his own best friend this is not enough for Macbeth, when he hears that Fleance has escaped Macbeth becomes angry and feels suffocated, Shakespeare shows this using metaphors . The audience sees this clearly in Roman Polanksy’s film version of the play. When he hears that Fleance has escaped from the murderers Macbeth describes himself as being “cabined, cribbed, and confined” as well as Shakespeare using alliteration to articulate his shock and change in emotion this repetition of the “c‘s“ could also possibly show his inner guilt.. In the film version, the camera is shot up close to Macbeth’s face and shows the audience Macbeth’s feeling of claustrophobia. This could imply to the audience that the shock of having his throne and status at threat would be the cause of his decline and this was not what Macbeth would stand for, as the audience I felt that Macbeth had a clear hate for Fleance, Shakespeare did this by using metaphors to describe Banquo and his son “there the grown serpent lies, the worm that’s fled” I felt this may have been significant to a Jacobean audience because Macbeth being king would be at the top of The Great Chain Of Being, which (would have been very significant in Shakespeare’s time), and Macbeth describing Fleance as the worm would have made him just below the birds but only one platform higher than the plants. Here Shakespeare was showing that Macbeth had a strong dislike towards Fleance for being in the witches prophecy and threatening his place as king, Macbeth has declined so much that he has become petty and destructive.
Shakespeare uses his technique of tragic irony to show the extent to which Macbeth is declining. when Macbeth expresses the insincere wish that “ the graced person of our banquo [be] present” the irony was that the ghost had entered but only the audience would see it, Macbeth
When Banquo’s ghost enters the scene, he is unseen by Macbeth but when Lennox offers him a seat Macbeth sees Banquo ghost and instead of trying to gain himself security he becomes aggressive and unrestrained and shows his apprehension by demanding to know “which of you have done this?” but he then becomes so bewildered by seeing Banquo ghost he answers his own question , “Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake Thy gory locks at me” Shakespeare here does not put this into an aside showing that he has made Macbeth say this aloud so that the audience can see that he has lost his self control and the security that he once had before. Again Macbeth’s theme of appearance and reality arise and it is left to the audience to believe the ghost is actually Macbeth’s conscience or is Banquo’s ghost haunting him. (Depending how the scene is performed we as the audience have to except suspension of disbelief, if we do not believe in ghosts). Before Macbeth was able to control his thoughts and actions the lords and other characters in the play thought him inconspicuous to any connected to the death of King Duncan. But after the Banquet the lords know that it is clear that Macbeth is involved in the murders as a lord says, “Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives” this could infer that Macbeth’s “bloody” guilt was the reason for his recklessness at the banquet. This tragic ending would only be expected of someone who had killed a king to a Jacobean audience again using the chain of being we can see Macbeth’s downfall in this scene. In act two scene four and old man talks of how nature has been turned on its head, Shakespeare again uses metaphors to show the result of murder. “By th' clock 'tis day, And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp” the idea that darkness is over taking the light could be a symbol for evil and this evil could be Macbeth and the light- the rightful king of Scotland. While Macbeth is still king it will remain dark, Shakespeare causing Macbeth to lose his self-control led to the lords knowing that Macbeth is a murderer as a result the audience can only await his tragic ending.
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At the end of the scene Macbeth knows that he is in danger but instead of submitting himself he carries on he has declined to a degree that his only option is destruction . This could imply that Macbeth feels as if he is so far in that he can not get out thus leading on further into the scene where he tells his wife that he is “in blood stepped in so far that, should I wade no more returning were as tedious as go’er” Macbeth feels as if there is no way out from what he has done and can now only go forward because backwards would mean him losing his place as king and like a tragic hero death.“We are yet but young in deed” this could connote that instead of giving up his throne Shakespeare makes Macbeth even more of a tyrant by hinting that he may have to kill some more innocent people Macbeth has now become completely unreasonable and believes it justifiable to kill anyone in his way, instead of playing his role as king and keeping his country in order he is instead interested in murdering those who get in his way. As a result of his decline Macbeth has become sceptical and suspicious of almost everyone including Mac duff, “There's not a one of them but in his house I keep a servant fee'd” Macbeth now suspects so many people that he has paid servants to spy for him in every lords house, the audience see that Macbeth has become quite a broken man unlike at the beginning of the play where before he had committed murder he was trusting of his friends and country, “the service and loyalty I owe you” but since his murder his mind is corrupted. Shakespeare again uses Macbeth’s ambition to show how it has caused him to decline to the point that he inanely decides to kill more.
At the end of the scene we see that Macbeth has fallen so far down hill that he goes back to the wayward sisters. With his “darling partner of greatness” not abiding with what he sees he decides to turn to the witches. Shakespeare perhaps did this because at the time the play was written there was a lot of “Witch-Mania” in England. And witches were only known for bad. Shakespeare who wrote the play in favour of James the first (who was also the patron to his theatre company) had a thorough disliking of witches and wrote a book on them called “Daemonologie” A Jacobean audience would know that going to the witches would only mean more trouble for Macbeth because they could not be trusted. Whereas with a modern audience with growing secularisation it does not know that there will definitely be more trouble for Macbeth as witchcraft is not completely taboo in this society. Therefore to a Jacobean audience who the play is aimed towards Macbeth is doing a very terrible thing by relying on witches.
Throughout the play we see that Shakespeare has built Macbeth into an absolute tragic hero and at the end he reaches a catharsis where he realises his wrongs and is almost cleansed by it, “I'm already guilty of killing your whole family“. this exemplifies that Macbeth can admit to what he has done and sees that he has wronged when he says that he is guilty of it. Shakespeare also reminds the audience of the Macbeth we saw at first who cared for his country “take the water of my land, find her disease and purge it to a sound and pristine health” this demonstrates to the audience that he cares for the country or that he just wants it to fight for him. But now as the audience we see he warlike courage that we only heard of from other characters, instead of cowardly killing people in their sleep or getting murderers to do it for him he has now put on his amour and decided to go face to face in battle.
Throughout act three scene four we see that a lot of Macbeth’s actions are a result to him declining and that the reason for his decline is that of ambition. Shakespeare uses duality with Macbeth where we see his good side and bad side and how good does not always overcome the evil. Throughout the scene Shakespeare uses many symbols such as blood symbolising Macbeth’s guilt and darkness symbolising evil and light good. From the scene we can see that Macbeth went from trying to appear as a good leader to becoming instable, reckless and melodramatic.