However, In Act 1 Scene 7, the audience feels sympathy for Macbeth because he is depicted as weak and ultimately is destroyed by the influence of his ambitious and scheming wife, Lady Macbeth. She knows the only way she can gain power and have the glory of being Queen is through her husband becoming King. She wants to be part of Macbeth’s own success. Lady Macbeth cannot physically bring herself to murder King Duncan herself because the sleeping King reminds her of her own father. She employs cunning tactics to control Macbeth, such as using emotional blackmail by calling him a coward and saying that he is not a real man.
“And live a coward in thine own esteem”
“When you durst do it, then you were a man.”
Lady Macbeth also reminds him that the murder was his idea. While taunting him, she expresses her feelings and she tells her husband that he does not love her. She explains that he cannot love her if he does not keep his promises. She tries to shock him into murdering Duncan by conjuring up images of horror, such as saying she would rather kill her baby then go against a promise. (Act 1 Scene7 Lines 54-59) She also expresses that she would give up anything for him. The final step in convincing her husband to murder King Duncan was to assure him that they would be successful and not be caught. Lady Macbeth would not contemplate failure.
“But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we’ll not fail.”
Macbeth is naive and foolish enough to do what Lady Macbeth tells him. We empathize with Macbeth because he is not fully aware of his wife’s plan and the consequences.
We can sympathize with Macbeth because supernatural forces in the form of the witches are thought to have led him into bloodshed. Macbeth finds himself being tempted by the witches’ predictions because they echo his own thoughts. He trusts the witches but by the time he realises his mistake, it is too late. The witches made him believe his greatest prize was near, and they were especially evil by tormenting Macbeth with riddles.
“He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
His hopes ‘bove wisdom, grace and fear.
And you all know security
Is mortals’ chiefest enemy.” (A3.S5.L30-3)
We pity him because the witches play on his anticipation for salvation, and ridicule him for his flaws. The audience is able to pity Macbeth because although he was led to murder and deceit by his wife and the witches, he has no one to hold responsible for the actions he carried out but himself. The audience may be stimulated by Macbeth’s self-awareness, restlessness and disturbed spirit, and they consequently feel sorry for him during the downward spiralling of events.
In Act 2, Scene 2, Macbeth finds himself feeling guilty. He knows he has done wrong and has a very guilty conscience. He is so horrified that he murdered King Duncan that he is unable to look at his hands, because the blood he sees reminds him of the terrible crime he has committed.
“I am afraid to think what I have done;
Look on’t again, I dare not.”
By Act 3, Macbeth is seen as a tyrant and no longer are good words said about him, but possibly the opposite. Macduff claims that:
“Not in the legions
Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned
In evils to top Macbeth” (A4.S3.L55-7)
Malcom declares:
“I grant him bloody,
Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,
Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin
That has a name.” (A4.S3.L57-60)
Macbeth is a tragic hero – the tragedy is that Macbeth could have been a great man, we are certainly introduced to a man of good strong character with fine qualities, but he gave in to his ambition. The audience witnesses his downfall and feel sorry for him.
