Firstly, I will like to mention the circumstance and historical believe, which influenced the theme of the play and should bare, to some extent, part of the blame, as the three witches who helped to germinate Macbeth’s ambitions. However, this does not in any way cancel out the genuine happening, which may have been-Macbeth killing King Duncan, regardless of the three witches prophesy.
King James I would’ve been delighted to see this play because it branded ‘witches’ as being real and also displayed the downfall of a man who killed a king. The play leads
us through a series of incidents that take place, also telling us what or who cause these events. Right through the play, we see the continuing change in personalities of two main characters; Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Not forgetting the ever influential witches.
Lady Macbeth is nothing like the stereotypical woman of Shakespearian times. She is smart, scheming, winning, and very influential over Macbeth’s actions. We see that she manipulates her husband whereas normal women could not. Lady Macduff is quite the opposite of Lady Macbeth. She is a loving and caring, home-making woman. We think that Lady Macduff has more of an affectionate heart because she is a mother.
Lady Macbeth makes a dramatic entrance to the play with her soliloquy. Lines 38-45 bring out her deep thoughts:
Come, you spirits
That trend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here
And fill me from the crown to the toe top full
Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood,
Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse
That no compunctions visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose nor keep peace between
Th’ effect and it.
As the audience have been introduced to an unknown character, this opening of lines makes it obvious that this character has an important part in the play. The audience get a picture of her role in the murder of the King. Her personality is seen to be of demanding women who want their way, and uses her naïve husband to get it.
Her role in Duncan’s death is that she is the main pressure on Macbeth. She was the one who was behind it, the one who encouraged him to carry out this act of injustice. We see many of her ways to get to Macbeth; she uses her strong mentality against his weak state of mind, as well as putting him in a position where he faces with the only choice of making his wife happy no matter what. After the killing has taken place, Lady Macbeth helps Macbeth in making sure that it was done properly, and that no one would suspect him. She helps him wash his hands, as he was too shocked to do so himself.
The witches had a big part in Macbeth’s downfall because the three witches in the play acted as a catalyst in terms of speeding the process of the whole scheme. Although, the idea of being the King may have been in Macbeth’s subconscious, the witches helped Macbeth in doing so.
“Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell”.
This line clearly underlines that the deed is about to be done. Without a doubt, Macbeth will kill the king Duncan.
The final mystical element is the banquet scene. In this scene Macbeth wakes up to the reality and realises the evil he has done. First, he is responsible for the death of
King Duncan. Now he has hired murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance, so that the witches’ prophecies cannot be fulfilled.
The scene opens like any other grand dinner party. Macbeth bids everyone a “hearty welcome” and says he will “play the humble host”. When informed by the murderers that Fleance has ‘escaped’, Macbeth hints that his mind is becoming unhinged:
“There comes my fit again”
When Macbeth hears the news that Fleance has escaped he says that he feels,
“Cabin’d, cribbed, confined.”
Macbeth tries to forget the news, which has mystified him, turns his attention to the guests:
“Now good digestion wait on appetite, and health on both!”
Macbeth at this stage, began to hallucinate, almost as it prompted by this, Banquo’s ghost takes his place at the table. Well puzzled and shocked. Macbeth at first puts the blame on the guests, asking,
“Which one of you done this?”
He addresses the ghost directly. Lady Macbeth tries to divert criticism, as she did previously after King Duncan’s murder and implies that Macbeth is having a fit.
“The fit is momentary…feeds regard him not.”
Macbeth returns to his predicament, which haunts him throughout the play. Though, he is brave on the battlefield, he finds it the murder unnatural and struggles to cope with the consequences:
“Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that, which might appal the devil.”
To ease Macbeth from his infuriating thoughts Lady Macbeth reminds him of the vision how he killed King Duncan, in his bedchamber and that was the end of it. This is no comfort to Macbeth’s mind and insists there is a ghost. This indicates the mental status of Macbeth’s unbalanced mind. Killing and burying his victim will not put an end to his problems. He’s hallucinating mind imagines the grave churning out the body back into the world. Macbeth confesses in his mind of guilt and feels that justice should be and will be done, dead will return to get his revenge.
Macbeth is persuaded to rejoin his guests. Macbeth wavers between normality and insanity in this scene. In one moment he plays the host as if nothing has happened and the next apparitions dismay him, as the ghost of Duncan plays tricks on his mind. As Macbeth struggles to face his fixated fear and tries to convince himself by saying that he can face any normal danger with his bravely:
“My firm nerves shall never tremble”.
To Macbeth the ghost is so obvious present he insist his wife must see it too so he can share his distress. It is at this point that Lady Macbeth tries to stop the situation to get any further and call it a day, putting aside formalities. The break up of the party is a kind of visual image of Macbeth’s mental break down. On the guests’ departure, he ponders on his private fears further. Macbeth is forced to believe in the supernatural world of witches.
His desperate visit the witches again to confirm his worst fears. He can sense and feel his murderer’s intentions. Banquo’s apparitions have convinced him. He is acting on his own storyline and clearly sees his fate, he must now continue on his evil course, though he sees it as an inevitable and tedious one. Lady Macbeth, however, thinks there is hope if only he could sleep. Macbeth disagrees. His way ahead is more killing; it is only the beginning of the killing.
In conclusion, I would summarise the essay and say that the supernatural elements in this play, play a vital role and have an effect on Macbeth because, in the first meeting Macbeth is guided to follow his own ambition and kill the King. Furthermore, Banquo’s ghost led Macbeths visit the three witches again, though it was destined for the second meeting, so the witches told Macbeth his future, which made him want to take action. As though, the path was already laid out, according the witches wishes. It almost seems like the witches were playing a cruel game with human lives.
Moreover, I think that the witches are responsible for the events that took place in the play, because they told Macbeth the prophecies at the beginning, which, later made Macbeth followed it act appropriately.
The witches are powerful enough to control the environment and can control the happening and hint the future;
“Sleep shall neither night nor day, hang upon his penthouse lid”.
Macbeth and Banquo in a way acted as though the withes had some supernatural power over them. Macbeth says,
“So foul and fair a day I have not seen”
And Banquo feels they possess power of prophecy:
“If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not”
The witches plant the seeds of Macbeth’s future rise to power and Banquo’s ability to create kings, but not become one, leaving Macbeth and Banquo to discuss the meaning of there words. When they receive the news from Ross and Angus, Macbeth then creates his own self-fulfilling prophecy to and acts accordingly. Now, murder in mind, yet disturbed by the thought of becoming murderers.
The opening scene of the second meeting between Macbeth and the witch’s puts emphasis on, creating of a spell, which in a way also creates an atmosphere for the audience to feel that some other bad happening, is on the way.
When Macbeth visits the witches they give him three apparitions.The first one is “Beware Macduff’’. The second apparition Macbeth gets is that he will not die by: “the power of man, for none of women born’’, and finally the last apparition Macbeth gets are to be brave and laugh at manhood. Macbeth is also told that no one can beat him until woods move up hill.
Although, much is not indicated about Macbeth’s character until Act 1 Scene 3 there are a lot of indications on what his character is like. In the first scene of the play we hear the witches planning to meet Macbeth when the fighting has finished. In the next scene of the play we hear from the sergeant how bravely Macbeth has fought against Macdonwald and his band of rebels; and then against the Norwegian and the Scottish traitor the ‘Thane of Cawdor’. The sergeant describe Macbeth as being ‘brave Macbeth’ and loyal. Duncan calls Macbeth his ‘valiant cousin’. Duncan orders Ross to pronounce the death of the ‘Thane of Cawdor’ and then give his position to Macbeth. Another supernatural element in this play is the dagger. I personally think that the dagger plays a big part in the play because it leads to Macbeth in committing murder.
The relationship between Macbeth and Banquo appears to be of friendship, which is ironic as later in the play we find that he kills him.
I am able to see a big contrast between the two of them. Banquo is described as an honourable man, where as Macbeth is described as a deceiver. Banquo conscientiously fights evil thoughts saying, ‘restrain in me’. He uses kind and open words in his report of Duncan. ‘Keep my bosom franchised and alliance clear’.
At the end the scene finishes with Macbeth is on his way to kill King Duncan but then hallucinates a dagger. He questions himself saying, ‘is this a dagger which I see before me’? Macbeth is left to be haunted by his evil nature.
