Of course, the witches aren’t prophets and are definitely not interpreting the two men’s futures. They are in fact germinating those seeds of lust for power within Macbeth and therefore by putting these ideas into his head help make him believe that he can in fact become a dictator. The evil is planted and starts here.
Jacobeans believed that the entire universe had an order to it, set out by God. Anything unnatural was against this divine order. King’s were God’s representatives on earth, so any action against a king was a direct crime against God. Satan had rebelled directly against God and therefore he was responsible, through witches and evil spirits, for every attack on the Divine Order. Shakespeare had to be careful when writing this play for he didn’t want to offend the audience through the murder of a monarch on stage. It is therefore inevitable that Macbeth will die; for this is the only way Shakespeare could satisfy his audience. So before Macbeth even takes power of Scotland we know that his reign due to his tragic flaw is already doomed. In this case it is King Duncan of Scotland who has been “appointed” by God to rule the highlands. After receiving a letter from her husband that tells about his encounter with the witches, Lady Macbeth has already decided that Macbeth should kill Duncan during his stay at the castle. ‘Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be what thou art promised; yet do I fear thy nature, it is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it’, states Lady Macbeth in Act 1 Scene 5. However, she knows that Macbeth hasn’t the guts to betray his king and country. When confronted by his wife, we see Macbeth reason with himself implying that he still holds the gift of free choice. ‘We will proceed no further in this business. He hath honoured me of late, and I have brought golden opinions from all sorts of people, which would be worn now in their newest gloss, not cast aside so soon.’ Macbeth proclaims to his wife in Act 1 Scene 7. Lady Macbeth insults her husband’s manhood, which in turn kills off his conscience and his freedom of choice is extinguished.
The airborne dagger that is described in the scene before the murder of Duncan is the visual conscience of Macbeth and a symbol of his diseased mind. A director would have to decide whether to in fact show visually the dagger or not. If they were to include the dagger then I believe that we would see Macbeth as more brutal and determined than if he were to just describe what he was seeing and that it becomes more obvious that the weapon is in fact his crumbling conscience. However, if the dagger is in fact kept invisible it has bigger symbolic power to affect an audience. As he murders Duncan all sympathy and respect for Macbeth is lost and although Macbeth has at last achieved his goal of gaining all power, it is also the beginning of his decline as the Elizabethan sense of order has to be re imposed. Now that he has reached the top he has to ward off any threat and does this by killing anything or anyone that lies in his doomed path. This is related to the idea that good is rewarded and evil punished which nearly every person would have believed in during the Shakespearean era. Macduff arrives just as Macbeth and his wife are washing there hands of Duncan’s blood, however Macbeth will never again have a clean conscience because of his act of regicide. ‘Whence is that knocking? How is’t with me, when every noise appals me? What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune’s oceans wash this blood clean from my hands?’ cries Macbeth appalled by what he has accomplished in Act 2 Scene 2. The constant boom from the front gate is implying that the couple are not going to get away with the sin that they have committed and that judgement day has officially arrived.
The grooms awake; startled to find bloody daggers within their grasps and this is the excuse that Macbeth uses for murdering them. ‘O yet I do repent me of my fury, that I did kill them.’ Macbeth tells Macduff in Act 2 Scene 3 and continues, ‘for ruin’s wasteful entrance; there the murderers, steeped in the colours of their trade, their daggers unmannerly breeched with gore. Who could refrain, that had a heart to love, and in that heart courage to make’s love known.’ Although Macduff doesn’t believe that the grooms were responsible for the death of his king he doesn’t dwell around the situation or Macbeth for too long and alike Duncan’s sons he flees, in this case to England. Macbeth’s killing of these two innocent bodyguards shows how already he has changed to a merciless monster that will do anything to keep hold of power.
Banquo like Macduff suspects Macbeth of some sort of foul play but doesn’t want his new king to realize this. Banquo swears an oath to revenge Duncan. Macbeth now swamped by the riddles made by the witches decides that Banquo’s sons cannot become kings after him and therefore decides that the time is right to kill off Banquo and his son Fleance. To make Banquo believe that he is in a safe position Macbeth organises a banquet to be held in his honour. He subtly finds out that Banquo is riding the same afternoon and therefore plans his murder to take place whilst on the hunt. ‘I wish your horses swift, and sure of foot; and so I do commend you to their backs. Farewell. Let every man be master of his time till seven at night; to make society the sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself till supper-time alone. While then, God be with you!’ Macbeth tells Banquo in Act 3 Scene 1. He distances himself from the thought of how he and Banquo used to be friends together telling the ‘murderers’ that Banquo is responsible for the death of Duncan and that he fears his own life as well. Great irritation would be felt by an audience at this point for the way that the murderers are so easily manipulated by the hurtful Macbeth. This is ironic for he’s becoming vindictive and cunning like Lady Macbeth, was when persuading him to murder Duncan however he doesn’t let on to her what he plans to do with Banquo. This is because he’s realised that he doesn’t need her any longer and he can tell that she is weakening, with all the strain of Duncan’s murder on her shoulders. Just before Banquo is murdered there is a scene in which we see the couple hiding from one another, showing that the trust bond between them has broken.
The many references to snakes in this scenario are referring to Lady Macbeth and how her evil has created a new self-destructive Macbeth. He tells the Murderers how men should act and from his own experiences implies that being manly is being easily persuaded. Macbeth tells the murderers referring to Banquo, ‘Now if you have a station in the file, Not I’ th’ worst rank of manhood, say’t, and I will put that business in your bosoms, whose execution takes your enemy off, grapples you to the heart and love of us, who wear our health but sickly in his life, which in his death were perfect.’ Lady Macbeth turned her husband into a monster and her treacherous talk is used in his own arguments to overcome the murderers doubts within themselves. He has also realised that by killing off any dangerous competition then he’d scare those minor rebels, building himself an ego and extinguishing any possible enemy, like Hitler did when he achieved all power over Germany. ‘Both of you know Banquo was your enemy’, and by making the murderers believe this statement in Act 3 Scene 1, Macbeth creates the scenario where they want to kill him as well.
The murderers mission doesn’t succeed, for Fleance ‘flies’ and escapes on horseback. It is interesting how Roman Polanski in his version of Macbeth shows Banquo sacrificing himself for his son’s life. This suggests that he believes in some of the witches talk, as he wants to see his son as heir to the throne but most of all it shows that he’s a caring father, heightening his presence and stature as a man of good. Macbeth’s reaction to the escape of Fleance is instant claustrophobic fear and he refers to the son of Banquo as a worm who will grow to be the snake that will one day be his downfall. Macbeth comments in Act 3 Scene 4 after hearing the murderers’ confessions, ‘There the grown serpent lies; the worm that’s fled hath nature that in time will venom breed, no teeth for th’ present. Get thee gone, tomorrow we’ll hear ourselves again.’
The ghost of Banquo is a visual demonstration of the workings of Macbeth’s corrupt mind. The ghost shows that Macbeth still has guilt within him and he regrets ever spilling Duncan’s blood. Here there is dramatic irony as both the audience and Macbeth are aware of the apparition’s presence. Depending on whether the director does in fact show a ghost on stage or film does influence an audience’s response quite dramatically. As seen in Polanski’s Macbeth, the decrepit figure of Banquo’s ghost changes in to a more threateningly violent image, which looms before Macbeth chasing him in front of his confused guests. Pity is felt for Macbeth for the grotesque zombie like Banquo is very daunting and to have such a visualised conscience as Macbeth at this point must be fairly unnerving though much deserved at the same time. An audience that would witness a play or film that wouldn’t have a ghost visually within it might be horrified at the way Macbeth would be acting. Haunted by the ghost of Banquo in Act 3 Scene 4 he cries out, ‘Avaunt, and quit my sight, let the earth hide thee! Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; though hast no speculation in those eyes which thou dost glare with!’ Macbeth has lost his conscience and is relying upon the witch’s riddles to keep him in power and that is why he returns to them later in the play.
Macbeth’s reasons for going to the witches for a second time are quite simple, he fears for his life and reign of power. He unluckily stumbled upon them on his first visit though now he’d be making a statement to the Shakespearean audience by going back to them. This in Elizabethan times would be treason and ungodly and therefore would shock the audience greatly. He has become engulfed by their ‘magic’ and like them he talks in riddles showing how confused and overwhelmed he has become. It’s insanely aggravating to see Macbeth in the state that he has entered for he’s so determined to stay at the top of the hierarchy he isn’t allowing anybody to speak out or anybody else’s ideas to be used. He realises that he’s gone so far as to never return or regain any free choice and therefore he arrives upon the heath looking for self-recognition.
The witches reveal to him three apparitions that speak in riddles, the first being an armoured head. It tells him, ‘Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth, beware Macduff; beware the Thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough.’ The second is a bloody child. It proclaims ‘Be bloody, bold and resolute; laugh to scorn the power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.’ The third apparition is a child crowned holding a tree in its palms. It dictates to ‘be lion-mettled, proud and take no care who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are. Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him.’ He chooses to interpret these three visions and riddles in the way he wants to. He decides that he is invincible and not even Macduff could harm him. Also that he is safe for a forest is never going to uproot itself and start walking. His obnoxiousness is seen throughout the play and pure ignorance stops any clear thinking.
It is revealed to Macbeth that Banquo’s kin will still inherit the throne through the show of eight kings, the last with a glass in his hand and Banquo following. Each one builds on Macbeth’s despair and the language and structure of this passage displays Macbeth’s feelings. In shock he cries out in despair in Act 4 Scene 1, ‘Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo. Down! Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs; and thy hair, thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first. A third is like the former. Filthy hags, why do you show me this? A fourth? Start, eyes! What will the line stretch out to th’ crack of doom? Another yet? A seventh? I’ll see no more. And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass, which shows me many more; and some I see that twofold balls and treble sceptres carry: Horrible sight! Now I see ‘tis true, for the blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me, and points at them for his. What, is this so?’ He doesn’t want to see the eighth figure due to the internal conflict going on within him though he does and Banquo is there holding a mirror implying that there’s no way that Macbeth will be able to remain on the throne of Scotland for much longer.
In his own production of Macbeth, Polanski presents the second visit to the witches in a very spooky way. The witches have gathered together in a cave and are waiting for the arrival of Macbeth. They are naked and chant together in a multitude for the apparitions to appear. All three visions are graphic in their content and the future of Banquo’s kin is revealed to him. It is done in such a way that he sees a mirror within a mirror and so on, each of these showing one of Banquo’s descendants until we come to Banquo himself who is menacingly grinning at Macbeth. The king is then shown out of the cave in a state of shock, leaving to prepare for his last stand.
Leading up to the last battle Macbeth has got to the point where he believes he is invincible though is on the verge of self destruction for nothing matters to him any longer. Macbeth dictates in Act 5 Scene 3, ‘ I’ll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hacked. Give me my armour.’ He isn’t even scared of dying and decrees that life is a performance and that others only judge us from the way we act. He murdered his way to the top and defended his position to the last, aiming to withhold the power he unjustly took. We see him as a wasted life that has been corrupted by his tragic flaw, the lust for power. Slowly he’s spiralled downwards from the top and all that is left for him to do is die. His speeches at this point tell of self-disgust and misery, ‘Here let them lie till famine and the ague eat them up. Were they forced with those that should be ours, we might have met them direful, beard to beard, and beat them backward home’ and Seyton is the man who reveals Lady Macbeth’s death to him. This name Seyton is related to Satan in the way that the only person that still holds trust in Macbeth is the devil himself in all his evil. However, nothing scares Macbeth for he has created the evil that he is now drowning within. Macbeth is accustomed to fear brought on by guilt and not even the scream of his falling wife horrifies him. When she is reported to have committed suicide he shakes the fact off as though he doesn’t care and proclaims that she timed it badly. Macbeth implies in Act 5 Scene 5. ‘She should have died hereafter; there would have been a time for such a word.’ However it does remind him of his own mortality and that he will also die one day.
The play contains many references to animals and this is ironic because the way Macbeth’s life is working out is very creature like in the way he’s lost all sensitivity and is immune to other people’s pain. In Act 3 Scene 2 Macbeth complains to his wife, ‘O full of scorpions is my mind,’ and this describes the way that now he’s lost his conscience everything he thinks about is full of hurt like a scorpion. Macbeth’s servants and lords are deserting him and just to enforce the lack of control he has, their positions are randomly given out to other lesser men. He is sitting alone at the end of his hall tormenting within his brain; what went wrong? In Polanski’s version his servants are seen to be scared of him and when one of them hands in their resignation he throws the letter into the fire cursing them with riddles of his own.
The prophecies soon become true. Birnam wood comes to Dunsinane in the form of camouflage for the advancing English army led by Malcolm and Macduff. Macbeth has nothing left to fear and therefore he decides to go out battling, prepared to die with grace whilst fighting for his country as he did at the start of the play. Against all the odds and with his life hanging from a thread we can still see from his actions that at least he has the right idea of fighting for king and country. All of Macbeth’s army surrender to the English. Macbeth slays young Siward stating that he couldn’t have been of woman born showing that he still holds great trust in the evil words of the witches. He interprets the ‘born of a woman’ as born by another creature and therefore when the valiant Macduff reveals to him that he was born by a caesarean he suddenly understands that the man in front of him will be the man to vanquish him. Roman Polanski puts this across brilliantly when Macbeth holds a sword at Macduff’s throat after throwing him to the floor. They’re so similar in stature and name that the hatred between them comes almost naturally. At this point in Polanski’s film Macbeth releases Macduff stating that he has already spilled too much of the Macduff blood after murdering his family. Macduff then takes full retribution slaughtering Macbeth as in the play. There is a slight forgiveness felt at this point for Macbeth for he doesn’t kill Macduff, even after the witches ‘prophecies’, showing that he dies an honourable and mildly sympathetic death and is rid of the evil conscience he once had.
The goriness of Polanski’s film helps express the brutality of Scotland during the Macbeth reign and there is an interesting scene at the end which proves that the circle of evil is still at work when Duncan’s younger son, Donalbain is drawn towards the witches cavern upon the heath to be engrossed by so called visions and prophecies that will bring doom and destruction to the new Scotland. Of course we don’t know whether his tragic flaw alike Macbeth’s is the lust for power; something that brought Macbeth plummeting down to death after committing the greatest sin a person could in those days-regicide.
