In return the Sergeant talks to the king in scene 2 lines 22-23, when he says, ‘Till he unseamed him from the navel to the chaps
And fixed his head upon battlements.’. Macbeth shows that when he is determined to defeat someone, he is violent and ruthless. The audience are now thinking he is very extreme and he would do anything to get what he wants.
The king finally finished the conversation in scene 2 lines 64-65 by saying, ‘ Go pronounce his present death
And with his former title Macbeth’. King Duncan is so pleased with Macbeth’s loyalty that he promotes Macbeth to the trusted position of thane of Cawdor. Macbeth is loyal and has the king’s trust.
The evil witches are back and they now start to brain wash Macbeth with ideas that never even entered his mind. In scene 3 lines 48 they say, ‘All hail Macbeth, that shall be king hereafter’. The witches plant the idea in Macbeth’s mind that he will be the king one day. Until this point he has shown complete loyalty to king Duncan. He is at an undecided stage right now keeping the audience guessing.
Macbeth wants to hear more from them and starts being very inquisitive. In scene 3 line 48 He shouted out to the witches, ‘Stay, you imperfect speakers. Tell me more.’. Macbeth wants to hear more from the witches; this shows he is ambitious and likes the sound of being king. This shows how gullible and easily drawn into anything Macbeth is.
Banquo a good friend of Macbeth warns him in scene 3 lines 121-123, ‘ but ‘tis strange,
And often times, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,’. Banquo realises that the witches are evil and suspects that Macbeth might be taken in by them. He tries to warn Macbeth.
Soon after that Macbeth starts to show signs of evilness, which is a bad thing. For instance in scene 4 lines 42-43 Macbeth says, ‘If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me.
With out my stir’ Macbeth speculates that if he destined to become king. Then maybe it will happen regardless. So he might do something to make him king quicker.
The audience is getting more and more of a picture of Macbeth as he shows more and more signs of evilness. We start to think he wasn’t as noble and as good as we heard about him from the beginning of the act. In scene 4 lines 48-50 he says, ‘The Prince of Cumberland : that is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap,
For in my way it lies’. Macbeth realises that Malcolm (the kings son) is an obstacle to becoming king. He shows that he is prepared to be ruthless in dealing with Malcolm.
Now we come to Lady Macbeth. We see she was mad because as soon as she heard the news of Macbeth becoming Thane Cawdor she starts to plot. As we heard in scene 5 lines 14-15, ‘ yet do I fear thy nature,
It is too full o’th’milk of human kindness’. Straight away she assumes Macbeth has to become king, which means the death of king Duncan would have to be soon. Lady Macbeth is afraid that her husband is too soft hearted to do what he has to do to become king. So she shows signs of Macbeth being a wimp and not going to jump at the opportunity.
At this point we start to see through Macbeth and notice he has got a conscious, so maybe he’s just all mouth. Hears what he said in scene 7 lines 15-16, ‘Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself.’ Macbeth shows guiltiness about the plan to kill Duncan. He feels he should be protecting Duncan instead of attacking him.
We now see a different side to Macbeth, that he was never bad because of what he said in scene 7 lines 31-32, ‘ I am settled and bend up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat’ Macbeth’s conscience-stricken about the murder plan. He feels in Duncan’s debt because of the way Duncan has treated him recently. Changing the audiences’ view of him yet again to being a good person.
Then his personality just takes a drop, he goes back to being evil and bad, this happens in scene 7 lines 80-81 when Macbeth says, ‘I am settled and bend up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat’ Macbeth finally decides to go through with the ruthless plan. He is totally committed to the murder of Duncan. Now he has gone back to his evil raw self! Leaving the audience with no sympathy.
He even shows dishonesty in scene 7 lines 82 where he says, ‘False face must hide what the false heart doth know’ Macbeth is prepared to be dishonest and deceitful in order to carry his plans. The audience’s final perception of Macbeth was he is totally evil and completely crazy!
Conclusion
Here is a table of the Audience’s Perceptions of Macbeth, through out the whole of Act 1!
As you can see in the graph, the audience’s perceptions of Macbeth go up and down through the act. At the beginning of the act we thought Macbeth was a good noble man, but that soon changed. Then we thought good and bad of him because his Behaviour was up and down, from good to bad, noble to deceitful, he went through many different stages. To the end of act one, his true colours finally showed and we saw how evil and crazy for power he was and that’s why he killed the king. Our final perceptions of Macbeth in act 1,was that his hunger for the reign was so powerful and obsessive. Which eventually turned him into an evil madman, that sums it up to show how, from having morals and scruples as well as sincerity, his greed for the throne changed him to become cunning, deceitful, and a heartless Macbeth. Leaving the audience with mixed feelings.