“Only for them, and mine eternal jewel given to the common enemy of man, to make them kings, the seeds of Banquo kings.”
Here Macbeth realises that if something is not done then Banquo’s sons will become kings. Macbeth cannot have this, he is already worried that his soul will go to hell for what he has done. His fear becomes evident in this scene as well, “But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo stick deep…”
Macbeth then has Banquo killed but his son Fleance escapes in the attack.
Next Macduff refuses to accept Macbeth as king and flees to England to join Malcolm. The witches also tell him to beware of Macduff which angers him and this drives him to kill Macduff’s family. More fear of losing the impending battle with England makes Macbeth start doing anything that will give him an edge in the final battle. Macbeth’s fear starts to consume him and he can no longer sleep and is ravaged by guilt over what he has done.
At the start Lady Macbeth was the one pushing Macbeth to kill Duncan but as the play goes on she becomes weaker as Macbeth becomes stronger. Her role in the play becomes smaller and smaller as she ends up being driven mad by the guilt and she ends up taking her own life thinking that the torment will end when she is dead. This taking of her life demonstrates her fear and in the end what fear can do to a person.
The witches’ prophecies are a main source of fear for Macbeth. With each new vision Macbeth falls deeper and deeper into an evil spiral from the witches’ first prediction that Macbeth will become king which made him kill Duncan. When Macbeth went back to the witches he gained some more knowledge, “Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth: beware Macduff, beware the Thane of Fife.”
Now that Macbeth has heard this he believes he must kill Macduff but he learns that Macduff has fled to England and decides to kill his family instead. Next in the cave Macbeth is told by the witches that he cannot be killed by any man born of woman which gives him confidence that whatever the English do he cannot be defeated. He is also told that he will not be defeated until the trees of Birnam Wood move towards his castle. He has put all his faith in these prophecies; what the witches say must be true because of the first prediction.
In conclusion we can see what fear can do to a person, it made Macbeth mad for power which he ended up getting. But after the first of his crimes it became easier for him; he’d just order it and not think twice. All through the play his fear of being caught and of the witches prophecies drives him to do evil deeds. Fear had become the main motivating factor of the play.
