“Thou wouldst be great,
Art not without ambition.”
Lady Macbeth speaks this line when she reads of the three predictions; it implies that the ambition to become king is already there in Macbeth. She is a very powerful influence on Macbeth. She encourages him on to take the opportunity to become king. The audience has an uncomfortable feeling whenever Lady Macbeth appears on stage. This is because Shakespeare tries to create a sense of evil within the character of Lady Macbeth. He does this when lady Macbeth summons spirits. This would have been seen as immensely evil in the Elizabethan age when the play was first shown. This is because the Elizabethans believed that talking to spirits was indirectly talking to the Devil. It was also against the law to communicate with spirits at the time.
“Under my battlements. Come you spirits,
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,”
Lady Macbeth is the single biggest influence that causes Macbeth to kill the king (the highest position in Scotland, chosen by God). This would have been seen as the most evil act that one could commit. It was seen as an action against God. So this would mean Lady Macbeth is encouraging Macbeth to do a satanic deed. So by committing this deed both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have been dammed for eternity.
After the killing of Duncan Macbeth and his wife react differently. Macbeth speaks in small statements.
“As I descended…
Hark who lies I’ th’ second chamber…
This is a sorry sight.”
This shows us Macbeth is panicking and anxious. He speaks of being caught or detected by someone; he also speaks of the evil that he just performed
While Lady Macbeth also talks in small sentences showing that she is also nervous, however she is pragmatic. It also shows us that she is collected and rational. She is also thinking practically about what they should do next and how they should react.
“go get some water,
And wash this filthy witness from your hand.”
The three witches are pivotal characters in the play they at some level have something to do with everything that happens in the play. Shakespeare used the three witches because it makes the audience insecure because they know that Macbeth will die at the end of the play. The witches could be blamed for everything that happens to Macbeth. Would Macbeth have killed Duncan if he hadn’t met the witches? They tell the audience right at the beginning that they have plans for him.
Macbeth’s killing of Banquo is different too that of Duncan. Macbeth doesn’t hesitate or worry about the consequences of killing his best friend and comrade. He just orders it in the spur of the moment. This takes away some of the sympathy that the audience has for Macbeth, because he was pressured into killing Duncan while he killed Banquo under his own free will. This also shows us that Macbeth’s character has evolved from the start of the play where he was wary and scared about killing Duncan. To where he is know killing his best friend without thought.
The final straw for the audience is when Macbeth kills Macduff’s family. This is such an evil act because he has killed helpless women and children.
“no rubs or bitches”
This takes all the pity and sympathy that the audience feels for Macbeth away. This is the part in the play when Macbeth is no longer ‘worthy thane’ but evil ‘butcher’.
At the start of the play Macbeth's language is sophisticated and cynical. He speaks with education yet he always feels the worst will happen. At the end of the play his language isn’t as sophisticated and it is more optimistic, this is because he feel nothing can happen to him he feels he is invincible. This shows his change in consequences. At the start of the play he was just a thane and soldier and now he is king of Scotland.
Macbeth, although evil, is the ‘hero’ of the play, and Shakespeare creates this feeling in the audience, by showing the audience that Macbeth’s still just human and like the people in the audience. He does this by the fact Macbeth gets killed at the end of the play and that Macbeth recognises his own flaws.
Macbeth killed his best friend, killed the family of an enemy, and killed the king who is chosen by God. All evil acts, but is Macbeth evil? All these acts could have been caused by the witches-it was believed possession was within the reach of witches. So Macbeth was either a very evil man or he was a pawn under the control of the women in the play.
