In Which Way is Macbeth a Play About Good and Evil?
In Which Way is Macbeth a Play About Good and Evil?
Macbeth is a play that contains numerous references to unnaturalness, to light and darkness, to blood and to many other like images. Also through the play is the idea of "Fair is foul, foul is fair." Basically, this means that appearances can be deceiving. What appears to be good can be bad, and this is seen in such things as the vindictiveness of Lady Macbeth and in the predictions of the witches. Together all these images and different themes add to the atmosphere of good, but mostly growing evil throughout Shakespeare's "Macbeth".
The blood throughout the play symbolizes guilt, and is often associated with hands. Bloody hands are symbolic specifically to guilt relating to killing or murder, especially violent and brutal death. The images of blood remind the reader that "Macbeth" is a bloody play full of murder, and therefore evil. Blood is portrayed very often and with different meanings, but in the end, it all comes down to good and evil. As lady Macbeth plans to kill Duncan, she calls upon the spirits of murder to,
"Make thick my blood;
Stop up the access passage to remorse."
:5:43-44
Thin blood was considered to be good and wholesome, and it was thought that poison made blood thick. Lady Macbeth wants to poison her own soul so that she can kill without remorse. Moments after Killing Duncan, Macbeth looks at his bloody hands and says, "This is a sorry sight" (2:2:18). Lady Macbeth thinks that is a foolish thing to say and that Macbeth is a coward. As she goes to finish the job that she feels Macbeth should do, he just stands and stares at his hands.
"Will all great Neptune's oceans wash this blood
Clean from my hand?"
2:2:63-64
Macbeth is saying that if he was to wash his hands in the huge oceans that were thought to be on Neptune, he had enough blood (therefore guilt) to turn the whole planet red. In contrast, Lady Macbeth thinks that his obsession with blood shows that he is a coward. She dips her hands into the King's blood and smears his guards with it. She then goes back to Macbeth and tells him that,
"My hands are of your colour; but I shame
To wear a heart so white"
(2:2:61-62)
She means that now her hands are bloody, like his, but she would be ashamed to have a "white" (bloodless and cowardly) heart like his. She then leads him away to wash their hands, and she seems sure that, "A little water clears us of this dead" (2:2:64). Later on in the play though, we see her go mad, as she cannot get rid of the blood no matter how much she tries.
Although blood symbolizes guilt, ...
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"My hands are of your colour; but I shame
To wear a heart so white"
(2:2:61-62)
She means that now her hands are bloody, like his, but she would be ashamed to have a "white" (bloodless and cowardly) heart like his. She then leads him away to wash their hands, and she seems sure that, "A little water clears us of this dead" (2:2:64). Later on in the play though, we see her go mad, as she cannot get rid of the blood no matter how much she tries.
Although blood symbolizes guilt, it also symbolizes victory.
"What bloody man is that?"
(1:2:1)
In these, the opening lines of the second scene, King Duncan asks about the Captain. The Captain tells the story of Macbeth's heroic victories over Macdonald and the King of Norway. The Captain telling the story is in itself heroic, because his loss of blood has made him weak, but still he thinks Macbeth is so brave and good, that it is worth telling Duncan, even in his current condition. Therefore his blood and heroism seem to enhance the picture of Macbeth as a hero.
Another image used in the play to symbolize good and evil is light and darkness. The whole play is set in darkness, the only light being at the end of the play when Malcolm rightfully inherits the crown after slaying Macbeth. Darkness envelopes all the evil in the play as the deeds done are so horrifying, that darkness, or temporary blindness is necessary for it to be carried out. Macbeth cries,
"Stars hide your fires;
Let not the light see my black and deep desires"
(1:4:50-51)
He feels that his desires to kill both the King and Malcolm are so terrible, that he can't stand to have the stars shine on them, he doesn't even want to look at them himself. At the end of the soliloquy where lady Macbeth is talkin to herself, she calls upon the night to hide her deed from herself and heaven,
"Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry "Hold, hold!""
(1:5:50-54)
The witches add an element of supernatural and prophecy to the play. They also represent all that is unnatural in the play, so also everything that is evil. They are also, arguably the cause of all evil in the play. If they had not told Macbeth about his future of becoming king, he would never of thought of murdering Duncan. The witches show us what unnatural looks like, in a sense, they give the word 'evil' a face and a name. The witches are capable of very evil things, they have great powers,
"But in a sieve I'll thither sail,
and like a rat without a tail..'
(1:3:7-8)
The witches have the power to sail in sieves and turn into animals, the only disadvantage being that whatever animal they turn into, it has a defect. Lady Macbeth is considered evil when she says that she wants to change her natural, womanly milk, into unnatural poison.
"Come to my woman's breasts
And take my milk for gall."
(1:5:45-46)
Also unnatural is the theme of infertility. Macbeth is infertile, so once again he is seen as evil.
"Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe."
(3:1:62-63)
False seeming, things that aren't what they appear, runs throughout the play as well. This is most obviously shown when Duncan talks of the Traitor, Thane of Cawdor. He says that looks can be deceiving.
"There's no art
To find the minds construction in the face."
(1:4:11-12)
In "Macbeth", we mostly notice this with Lady Macbeth, and other characters opinions of her. When King Duncan's bloody body is found they all think that she is too innocent and too much of a lady to witness such a horrible sight, when really she was the cause of it. She also says to Macbeth,
"Look like th'innocent flower,
But be the serpent under't."
(1:6:63-64)
False seeming also is present with the characters first thoughts of Macbeth.
"We love him highly
And shall continue our graces towards him."
(1:6:30-31)
There are also direct references to Macbeth and his evilness.
"Not in the legions
Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned
In evils to top Macbeth."
(4:3:55-57)
He is also described as "Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, sudden, malicious." And as "Devilish Macbeth".
Not once in the entire play is Lady Macbeth seen to be evil by the other characters. They all believe her to be a gentlewoman, when really the audience knows a very different side to her. I believe that along with the witches she is the cause of all evil in the play. She is like a devil on Macbeth's shoulder. To achieve her ambitions she gets rid of all goodness inside of her, which she feels will just get in her way.
Even though there are many reasons to prove Macbeth was evil. I believe he was just like one of the other victims in the play. His fatal flaw was his ambition, which he caught, so to speak, from Lady Macbeth. She was a huge influence and directly affected his behaviour. Macbeth is not truly evil as it is the circumstances and intervention of the witches that awakens his evil side. The ambition he had and his struggle for power, along with the encouragement he got from Lady Macbeth prompts his evil side to take control, so really it is his actions that are evil, and not him. Also if he was truly evil, he would enjoy killing people and he would not feel guilt, or be haunted by the blood and death of what he had done.
Lady Macduff represents all the good people slaughtered by Macbeth. She has a loving family and cares for every member of her household. She is distressed at her husbands departure and refuses to believe that he is a traitor, despite what others may say. She is concerned only that he is safe when the murderers arrive at her house. She is a direct contrast to Lady Macbeth. She is everything Lady Macbeth isn't.
The basic theme of the play, according to G.R. Elliot is that a "wicked intention must in the end produce wicked action unless it is not merely revoked by the protagonist's better feelings, but entirely eradicated by his inmost will, aided by Divine grace." This is seen most clearly in Act V, Scene 1, where the Doctor says, "More needs she the divine than the physician."
You could say that in everyway Macbeth is a play about good and evil. In every word, in every scene, in every act, there is something that can be directly or indirectly linked to any of the images relating to evil. However, no matter how much evil there is or how much blood is shed, good always triumphs. (Well in the imagination that is!)
"Nought's had, all's spent
Where our desire is got without content."
