Lennox’s description of storms, wind and ‘strange screams of death’ reinforces the Elizabethan concept of hierarchy, where the king, is divine, holy and infallible. If regicide is committed, then it will shake the foundations of Nature itself. The unruly weather is due to Nature manifesting itself because of this perversion of order.
When Macduff comes with news of the murder, it profoundly affects Macbeth.
Had I but died an hour before this chance,
I had liv’d a blessed time; for, from this instant,
There’s nothing serious in mortality,
All is but toys; renown and grace is dead,
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.
Macbeth believes that if he had died an hour before the murder, his life would have been blessed; as it is, he shall be tormented for all his living days thereafter. He compares the earth to a wine cellar from which the best wine has been drawn, so that it can boast only of the dregs.
Further on, we find that Macbeth is quite inept at lying and covering up, since he unnecessarily goes on about what a good man Duncan was, and how unjust and cruel the killer must be. He speaks so unconvincingly that Lady Macbeth finds herself being forced to faint to take the attention away from her spouse.
As the scene closes, and Malcolm and Donalbain are considering fleeing the country, the latter utters a perceptive and intensely relevant metaphorical truth:
There’s daggers in men’s smiles.
We then arrive at an ominously frightening prologue to Macbeth’s reign. He has committed a metaphysical crime, so Nature is topsy-turvy, and chaos reigns. Ross tells us that ‘by the clock ‘tis day, /And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp [the sun]’. For the rest of the play, Scotland will be in a state of perpetual darkness, which brings home the abominable nature of Macbeth’s deed. The roles of predator and prey have been reversed, with news of a falcon having been eaten by an owl. Horses have become carnivorous and have begun to eat each other. It is ironic that the hero who saved Scotland at the start of the play is now the one who is bringing about its destruction.
The third act opens with Banquo pondering the recent mysterious event, in particular how the witches’ prophecies all came true, yet he suspects Macbeth of receiving the crown through dishonest means. Macbeth’s once good name is in disrepute.
Macbeth’s ambition is insatiable, and therefore he wants to control time and destiny. He feels inferior to Banquo, as he tells Lady Macbeth:
There is none but he
Whose being I do fear; and under him
My genius is rebuk’d, as, it is said,
Mark Antony’s was by Caesar.
Speaking of the witches, Macbeth says, ‘Upon my head they plac’d a fruitless crown / And put a barren sceptre in my gripe’. He feels that his kingship is worthless if it is to be that Banquo’s children will inherit the crown, and not his own. His ambition keeps him yearning for more when he has already achieved his objective.
Evidence of Macbeth’s blind ambition is the notion that he believes that he cannot change the witches’ prophecies; yet, he believes that he can change those given to Banquo. He will twist the prophecy round to suit himself, and so further upset the balance. At this point, Macbeth is increasingly becoming a lonesome, solitary creature.
Perhaps we, the audience, could have removed some blame from Macbeth for Duncan’s murder, since Lady Macbeth was the driving force, and pushed her husband into committing regicide. Macbeth, however, cannot be forgiven for Banquo’s murder because it is he who initiates it, without any help from Lady Macbeth. In fact, Lady Macbeth knows nothing of her husband’s scheme. Ironically, Macbeth uses the same intimidation tactics that his wife used on him in order to convince the murderers that Banquo’s murder would be a beneficial one to them all.
At this stage, it may occur to us that we have yet to see a scene where Macbeth is happy. He has obtained the one thing that he desired the most, yet he is miserable because of it. He blames Banquo for his problems, yet he should be blaming himself. Macbeth is sick, unhappy and spiralling into the realms of evil. This is clearly evinced by his making use of low-life characters for his dirty work.
A particularly cruel move on the central character’s part is ordering that Fleance, along with his father, also be killed. Macbeth - despot, tyrant and dictator – is sending ruthless adults to kill an innocent child. What little heart there was in this man is now practically extinguished.
The second scene is there to show us how far apart Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have grown. Macbeth has an empty title; he is unpopular and unloved. Lady Macbeth, addressing her spouse, realises that ‘Nought’s had, all’s spent, /Where our desire is got without content’. They have both spent their happiness, marriage, peace of mind, sleep and friends in exchange for nothing. She continues: ‘’Tis safer to be that which we destroy /Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.’ She has declared that the devil you know is better than the one you don’t.
There has been a breakdown in communication between the pair, as Lady Macbeth asks why her husband ‘keeps alone’ so much. In his reply, is the following:
Better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;
After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well;
Treason has done its worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
Can touch him further.
He envies Duncan, his predecessor because he is in an eternal slumber. He now sees life as a succession of obstacles, something to be endured, and not enjoyed.
Ironically, he tells Lady Macbeth:
We must make our faces vizards to our hearts,
Disguising what they are.
There has been a role reversal, since this is what Lady Macbeth used to say to him. They must have hard, impenetrable looks.
Macbeth also tells her: ‘Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill /So, prithee, go with me.’ He has convinced his wife by telling her that deeds that are started by evil become stronger with more evil.
Macbeth is now in possession of a contaminated mind that has been poisoned by the witches. In what he thinks and says are references to the world of the occult and the supernatural, such as ‘scorpions’. He is obsessed with crime and evil.
Banquo’s murder does not tell us much of Macbeth, only that he has sent another murderer to make sure that the job is done. He trusts no one. Fleance’s escape creates yet another problem for the unhappy king.
Subsequently, upon hearing the news of the boy’s escape, Macbeth says:
But now I am cabin’d, cribb’d, confin’d, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears.
He feels trapped in by intruding thoughts, those that he has created himself. Macbeth is afraid of consequence, which is why he becomes distracted at the news.
The murderer tells Macbeth that Banquo is dead, with ‘twenty trenched gashes on his head’. Banquo has been hacked and torn apart brutally and extremely violently. This horrendous picture shows the violent and ruthless nature Macbeth has developed of late.
Then we witness the second time Macbeth’s imagination plays tricks on him, when he sees the ghost of Banquo sitting at the dinner table. In Shakespeare, ghosts are seen when the main character has a guilty conscience. Lady Macbeth chastises and mocks her spouse to rouse him out of his stupor, again asking him, ‘Are you a man?’
More evidence of Macbeth’s poisoned mind surfaces when he says,
If charnel-houses and our graves must send
Those that we bury back, our monuments
Shall be the maws of kites.
Shortly afterwards, Macbeth toasts Banquo thus:
I drink to the general joy of the whole table,
And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss;
Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirst,
And all to all.
He is being hypocritical and lying through his teeth, yet he still manages to keep face after Banquo’s murder, unlike during the aftermath of Duncan’s murder.
When he sees the ghost again Lady Macbeth mocks him, but he replies, ‘What man dare, I dare’, meaning that he is not afraid of physical danger, but he is afraid of the supernatural.
Macbeth is a dictator who is paranoid, insecure and apprehensive. He suspects everyone, and trusts no one. He feels as if he is constantly under threat, yet if Macbeth fears no physical danger, then occult forces intimidate Macbeth. He has sunk so low that he has a spy in every man’s house. He is losing all the humanity that he ever had inside of him.
He is also worried about Macduff, as evinced in these lines:
For mine own good
All causes shall give way: I am in blood
Stepp’d in so far, that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.
He resolves to visit the witches, and in the closing line of the scene, he utters a frighteningly ominous assertion:
We are yet but young in deed.
The former Thane of Cawdor has just begun his catalogue of horrors.
Succeeding this declaration, we behold Hecate and the witches, who are on the moor ‘To trade and traffic with Macbeth / In riddles and affairs of death’. This is yet another example of their cold and unfeeling nature – they are toying with Macbeth. However, Hecate makes an astute comment describing Macbeth’s character, saying that he ‘Loves for his own ends’. That is to say, that he does not love evil for its own sake, but only for what it can do for him. She also predicts that he shall bear:
His hopes ‘bove wisdom, grace, and fear;
And you all know, security
Is mortals’ chiefest enemy.
Macbeth has become arrogant, untouchable and over-confident, and therefore has been lulled into a false sense of security, which will eventually lead him to his death. Fate, like the witches, is capricious and whimsical.
The act’s closing scene would pass without consequence, were it not for Lennox’s closing lines to a messenger:
Advise [Macduff] to a caution to hold what distance
His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel
Fly to the court of England and unfold
His message ere he come, that a swift blessing
May soon return to this our suffering country
Under a hand accurs’d!
The ‘suffering country’ is Scotland, and it is under the cursed hand of Macbeth, whom it is felt must be disposed of. What Lennox says is representative of what many other characters think of Macbeth. Scotland has become the battleground for the fight of good versus evil. It is also a country going hungry, ruled by dictatorship and overflowing with unrest and terror.
Shakespeare has created and unfolded an irreversible, multifaceted tragedy for us to witness. It is an individual tragedy, for Macbeth has been destroyed by his own deeds. It is a marital tragedy, for the married couple has grown distant and cold towards each other. Macbeth once called his wife ‘My dearest partner of greatness’, now they hardly speak. The story of Macbeth is also a national tragedy, for, as Lennox tells us, Scotland is in a state of chaos and disarray thanks to the destruction of natural order. Finally, it is a tragedy of mankind.
At the start of the fourth act, we hear the witches’ three prophecies for Macbeth voiced by apparitions. Here we are reminded by the third apparition of Macbeth’s words in the previous act:
Stones have been known to move and trees to speak.
This example of dramatic irony is important, as later, Macbeth will fail to accept that Birnam Wood will come to Dunsinane.
The three prophecies again draw Macbeth into a false sense of security. He is now afraid of no man, not even Macduff, and regards the third prophecy as ludicrous. He is confident in his belief that the first and last prophecies will not come true. After the witches’ departure, Macbeth becomes extraordinarily cruel, single-minded, dismissive and verbally aggressive.
Macbeth then resolves in a cold, premeditated, calculating manner to murder Macduff’s wife, babes and anyone else who crosses his path. His nature is now deprived of ‘the milk of human kindness’; he is a complete and utter sinner.
Following this, we witness the assassinations of Lady Macduff and her son, made memorable due to the timeless innocence of Macduff’s son. We are first shown a peaceful domestic scene, whose calm and tranquillity will soon be violated. This is followed by a scene which tells us what is thought of Macbeth by many people in the country, and how the kingdom is faring in the face of recent events. In Scotland:
Each new morn
New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows
Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds
As if it felt with Scotland, and yell’d out
Like syllable of dolour.
And:
I thinks our country sinks beneath the yoke;
It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash
Is added to her wounds.
The ominous and gruesome adjectives used to describe Scotland are intended to put across the message that Macbeth’s reign of terror is such that his kingdom can be likened to the realms of hell. Macbeth is described as; ‘This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues, /Was once thought honest’. Malcolm further remarks:
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
He is referring to the infamous Lucifer. Although he, the ‘brightest’ angel, fell from God’s grace, not all angels are as Lucifer was, and there are some angels who ‘are bright still’. Macbeth can be described as a fallen angel, who was once the brightest angel there was, but followed in Lucifer’s footsteps and fell from grace.
Macbeth is also referred to as ‘black Macbeth’, whilst Macduff is pronounced a ‘Child of integrity’.
Later in the scene, Shakespeare uses disease imagery via the Doctor’s analysis. King Edward is the antidote. He uses his power to heal, bless and cure through holy prayers, showing that he is the exact opposite of the tragedy’s pivotal character. A confrontation between the two would be one between good and evil.
Ross further describes the state that Scotland is in, and he paints a harrowing picture thus:
Alas! poor country;
Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot
Be call’d our mother, but our grave; where nothing.
But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile;
Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rent the air
Are made, not mark’d; where violent sorrow seems
A modern ecstasy; the dead man’s knell
Is there scarce ask’d for who; and good men’s lives
Expire before the flowers in their caps
Dying or ere they sicken.
Scotland is an ill and diseased country, and the only cure is the death of its king, Macbeth.
Ross’ purpose there is to inform Macduff of the slaughter of his wife and son by Macbeth. He is enraged, and calls King Macbeth ‘this fiend of Scotland’. Malcolm further claims that the forces of good are arming themselves to aid him, just as Lady Macbeth called upon the ministers of evil to help her with Duncan’s murder.
The final act opens with the news that Lady Macbeth is mentally and physically ill. As we have seen before, insomnia is a manifestation of guilt, and so is sleepwalking. Lady Macbeth is re-enacting the murder, which has become a recurring living nightmare. She has self-destroyed – she is a ghost of her former self. We learn that she needs light by her continually. She needs it metaphorically as well as physically, since her soul is in darkness. The Doctor correctly traces her problems back to what must have been an ‘unnatural deed’.
Scene 2 sees a discussion of their foe, Macbeth, by members of Macduff’s army. Caithness tells us that ‘Some say he’s mad; others, that lesser hate him /Do call it valiant fury.’ Angus then rightly points out that:
Those he commands move only in command
Nothing in love; now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.
Macbeth’s army obey him through duty, and not through love. He has not been able to match the role of king, and is now under colossal pressure. Macbeth, as a king, metaphorically survives on borrowed clothing.
We then witness that Macbeth is unpredictable, dangerous – and crumbling. His nerves are badly frayed and he is in a foul temper. He calls Seyton; meanwhile, he comes to the realisation that he is alone in the following soliloquy:
When I behold – Seyton, I say! – This push
Will cheer me ever or disseat me now.
I have liv’d long enough: my way of life
Is fall’n into the sere, the yellow leaf;
And that which should accompany old age,
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but, in their stead,
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.
Macbeth cannot look forward to all the qualities accompanying old age, since he now has no peace of mind, no friends, no respect or honour. He knows and believes he has lost all that which makes life worth living; and instead of counting his blessings, Macbeth is counting his losses. He is under great pressure, and finds himself to be in a confused and disorientated state of mind. Yet, he remains a ruthless despot, telling Seyton to ‘Hang those that talk of fear.’
The primary character has now fallen completely from grace. It seems as though his moral values, if any, were lost a long time ago, and now he has lost his compassion. Shut off from the world, he has sunk into his own world of hate, cruelty and empty feelings. Our tragic hero has reached what may possibly be his lowest point.
Consequently, Macbeth receives the news of Lady Macbeth’s suicide. His reception of the information is cold, dispassionate and emotionally void. His soliloquy also presents us with his moment of realisation:
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
Macbeth sees life as a continuum – repetitive, boring and futile. He has lost his zest for life, and has no illusions.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
The ‘brief candle’ that Macbeth is referring to is, of course, life itself. He has realised that man’s finite existence is nothing compared to the infinity of time.
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more;
Macbeth is asking himself why we all struggle to become rich, famous and popular, when eventually we will die, destroying all our efforts in one fell swoop. By saying that life is a ‘walking shadow’, he believes that life is insubstantial.
It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
For Macbeth, life is monotonous. He has lost all faith, and is insensitive and numb. His negative frame of mind and pessimistic outlook are surrounded by destruction; his words reflect that he is lonely, heartbroken and bitter.
From what he has said, we realise that Macbeth has finally learnt a lesson in modesty, and is almost cured of his pride and his vaulting ambition. He also sees the evil malice of the witches, since later in the scene we hear from the messenger that Birnam Wood is moving towards Dunsinane, eerily echoing the third prophecy. The witches, being deceptive creatures, had used the words with a second meaning unknown to Macbeth.
In the dying minutes of the play, Macbeth realises that the witches have misled him, by speaking to him with double meaning. He is finally enlightened. This is because he faces Macduff in a duel, and believes the second prophecy: ‘No man of woman born shall harm Macbeth’. Nevertheless, since Macduff was ‘untimely ripp’d’ from his mother’s womb, this does not apply to him. As soon as Macbeth is informed of this, he remembers the first prophecy, he graciously concedes what will be eventual defeat. At this point, we feel for Macbeth, despite the errors and atrocities he has committed.
In Christianity, repentance equals redemption. No matter how many sins you commit in your life, if you repent, you shall obtain salvation. In almost all tragedies after the introduction of Christianity, even the cruellest villains have begged forgiveness in the end. The first Thane of Cawdor, after his death, we are told;
Very frankly he confessed his treasons
Implor’d your highness’ pardon, and set forth
A deep repentance.
Macbeth did not display the same show of remorse as his predecessor, yet it could be said that he died bravely because of his conceded defeat. As the first Thane of Cawdor died a noble death, despite his traitorous life, so does Macbeth die nobly because of the admission that he has done wrong.
With Malcolm as the new king, order has been restored in Scotland, and it is right and fitting that the new king should deliver the closing speech of the tragedy. Even though Macbeth has died virtuously, he is understandably still described as a ‘butcher’:
We shall not spend a large expense of time
Before we reckon with your several loves,
And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen,
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland
In such an honour nam’d. What’s more to do,
Which would be planted newly with the time –
As calling home our exil’d friends abroad
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny;
Producing forth the cruel ministers
Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,
Who, as ‘tis thought, by self and violent hands
Took off her life – this, and what needful else
That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace,
We will perform in measure, time, and place.
So, thanks to all at once, and to each one,
Whom we invite to see us crown’d at Scone.
If we look at the content of this speech from a naïve perspective, we may think that the play has, if not a happy ending, at least, an optimistic one. On closer inspection, however, the address contains a very worrying note. Malcolm’s decision to promote a number of young, ambitious thanes and kinsmen could again give rise to the tragic events that we have just witnessed. One of the promoted noblemen may be the next scourge of the people.
The ending of the play leaves us with a very anxious concern regarding the very vulnerable nature of order and civilisation. As we have seen, just one overly ambitious individual can bring about instability, chaos and destruction.
‘Macbeth’ serves as a powerful warning to its audience. It shows what ambition can do to us and others, and how destructive single-mindedness can be. There are people like Macbeth in society. They can bring us to our knees and destroy the surprisingly fragile roots of order and civilisation. There have been many examples of “Macbeths” in years gone by, and in the twentieth century we have had a fair share of fanatically ambitious individuals. Examples of these include Hitler, General Franco, Stalin and perhaps Saddam Hussein. The next century will, unfortunately, yield many more of these excessively determined human beings. The inescapable truth in this tragedy is that anyone of us could become the next Macbeth if we let our instincts rule over our heads.
Assignment two
My dearest partner of greatness’ is a quotation from a letter written by Macbeth to his wife. In this and the remainder of the letter, in which he shares the prophecy of the witches that he shall be king with Lady Macbeth, William Shakespeare show the closeness of the thane and his wife at the start of the play. Yet as the play develops and Macbeth’s power increases, thanks to Lady Macbeth’s ambition and strength, their roles appear to be reversed and their relationship deteriorates. While Macbeth the tyrant brutally rules Scotland without his wife’s aid, she gradually loses control over not only her husband’s actions, but also her own life, possibly as a direct result of the breakdown in communication with Macbeth. Without him confiding in her, she lacks completion and without her ambition for him she has no reason to be strong. She dies an undignified death while Macbeth, also lacking completion without his wife, loses his throne and life in battle. I believe that Shakespeare’s portrayal of the relationship shows that the tragic ending to the play for both of the Macbeths is at least partly due to their relationship breakdown.
It is immediately clear in Act One Scene Five, the first scene in which the audience see Lady Macbeth, that she and Macbeth are close. In the letter Macbeth calls his wife ‘my dearest partner of greatness’ which is used by Shakespeare to show how they share Macbeth’s successes. He also says ‘…what greatness is promised thee.’ Shakespeare’s use of the word ‘thee’ shows that if he is to become king, she too will be powerful. Macbeth’s letter also tells everything about his meeting with the witches, showing how he keeps nothing secret from her, which is a direct contrast with later in the play when he tells her nothing about his actions.
In Act One Scene Five Shakespeare also shows clearly the strength of Lady Macbeth’s character and her determination. As soon as she receives the news from Macbeth’s letter that he has been hailed as king-to-be, she says, ‘Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be / What thou art promis’d.’ There is no doubt in her mind - Macbeth will be king. When she hears that Duncan, the current king, is to come to their palace that evening her only thought is to kill him. She says, ‘The raven…croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements.’ This compares to Macbeth who, in Act One Scene Three, says’ ‘My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical’ Lady Macbeth believes that he is ‘too full of the milk of human kindness’ to commit the murder and become king. She says that he is, ‘not without ambition, but without / The illness should attend it;’ in which Shakespeare shows this contrast between herself and Macbeth and her belief that he is weak and not evil enough to make the most of his ambition. A strong link is made by Shakespeare between Lady Macbeth and the witches who prophesy to Macbeth. She says,
'Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts! unsex me here And fill me from the crown to the toe top full Of direst cruelty;'
This sounds like she is casting a spell and her language is black and witch-like as she calls on the spirits. Also what she is demanding - having her femininity and conscience removed - is completely unnatural and this is how the witches are seen by the audience. Shakespeare makes this link to show the audience how Lady Macbeth may mesmerise her husband and make the audience realise her blackness and evil. This adds emphasis to the change in her character later in the play when she feels guilty for and cannot handle all the evil that has been committed. He has her alone on stage in this scene receiving a letter rather than in conversation with Macbeth so that the audience can see her character as it really is without any constraints such as her expected role as a woman or the necessity to manipulate Macbeth.
The dominance of Lady Macbeth over Macbeth is shown in the same scene after the entry of Macbeth and in Act One Scene Seven. When Macbeth enters and the pair are seen together for the first time, they have the following conversation:
M: Duncan comes here to-night. LM: And when goes hence? M: To-morrow as he purposes. LM: O! never Shall sun that morrow see.
Lady Macbeth's 'And when goes hence?' can be interpreted in many ways, but it is most likely that Shakespeare has her trying to discover Macbeth's feelings and whether he is plotting to kill Duncan without actually asking him. Once Macbeth has given her the answer she does not want she makes it quite clear to him what she intends to do. Instead of saying, 'The sun may never see that morrow' she states it as a fact that Duncan will not survive the night, which makes it very difficult for Macbeth to disagree with her. She then says, 'look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't.' which is an example of the recurring theme of the difference between appearance and reality. Again she makes it difficult for him to disagree by telling him to do something rather than suggesting it or asking. She is acting to move events forward as quickly as possible and now she has made up her mind she will not let anything get in the way of her ambition. She says, 'you shall put / This night's great business into my dispatch;' and when Macbeth tries to suggest that he does not want to go ahead with the scheme and says, 'We will speak further,' she ignores him and says 'leave all the rest to me.' In this scene Shakespeare makes it quite clear that she is in control of her husband and the situation and shows more of the strength of her character.
In Act One Scene Seven, once Macbeth has decided in his lengthy soliloquy not to kill Duncan, he tries to be assertive in communicating this to Lady Macbeth and says, ‘We will proceed no further in this business.’ However she scorns him, suggests he is a coward and undermines his manliness. She says,
‘Woulds’t thou have that … (you) live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would”?’ and, ‘When you durst do it, then you were a man; And, to be more than you were, you would Be so much more the man.’
This twists what he previously said - ‘I dare do all that may become a man’ - and shows that to her being a man is very important. Another man’s view of what makes a man is very different from her view. Macbeth is hailed by Duncan as 'Worthy Macbeth' and is obviously seen to have manly qualities such as bravery, but this does not satisfy Lady Macbeth whose vision of manliness involves putting ambition first and doing everything possible to make ambition reality. As a woman in this society she is expected to be gentle and fade into the background behind her husband and so any power she can have must be through Macbeth and the knowledge of this is what drives her to her dominance over him in private. Macbeth knows what her view of a man is and that he has to satisfy it and so Lady Macbeth manages to manipulate him by suggesting that he is not a man in her eyes.
These actions of Lady Macbeth’s can be seen to suggest that even though she and her husband are close, she does not actually care for him as much as Macbeth thinks. She knows that she is unable to have any power without him as she is a woman and so she must put all her energy into obtaining power and glory for Macbeth so she can share it. She knows how to taunt Macbeth and spur him on and so knows that she can use this to get him to do exactly what she wants. Without him she is nothing, yet without her he is without any evil or determination and would not be spurred on to killing Duncan and becoming king. Shakespeare has portrayed the two of them to be totally dependent upon one another and to complement each other perfectly.
After the murder of Duncan has been committed, it is Lady Macbeth who tries to convince the remorseful and ashamed Macbeth that 'what's done cannot be undone' and that there is no need to feel guilt. She says,
‘These deeds must not be thought After these ways; so it will make us mad.’
This attitude is shown by Shakespeare to provide a direct contrast to later in the play when Macbeth is the one who does not dwell on past events and Lady Macbeth cannot remove them from her mind and goes mad, which is ironic given that she has just warned Macbeth about that. She is uneasy and tense and is worried when Macbeth says that he thinks he has heard voices but she hides this concern and takes control of the situation, trying once again to spur Macbeth on and taunt him with suggestions that he is weak and unmanly. She says, ‘You do unbend your noble strength to think / So brainsickly of things’ and calls him ‘infirm of purpose’. It is vital that one of them remains in control and even though she is anxious herself, it is Lady Macbeth. She is the collected one of the pair and the one able to conceal her feelings and keep her calm.
Another situation where Lady Macbeth vitally keeps in control is during Act Three Scene Four. When Macbeth is feeling guilt for Banquo's murder and seeing his ghost, appearing to be mad to the thanes, he says ‘Avaunt! And quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee!’ to the ghost which they cannot see and speaks of blood, the devil and wild animals. Lady Macbeth immediately controls the situation and says,
‘My lord is often thus, And hath been since his youth; … the fit is momentary.’
She also asks Macbeth, ‘Are you a man?’ in an attempt to manipulate him and provokes his sense of duty asking him to regain his composure and eventually asks the thanes to leave. In this scene she does not even know why Macbeth is acting how he is, but is loyal to him and lessens the embarrassment for him before his lords by remaining in control at all times. It appears at this stage that she is still the stronger of the two characters. Again, Shakespeare shows this as a direct contrast to later in the play and helps to show the change in character and the events turning full circle which is a vital aspect of the play and is instrumental to their relationship.
The first turning point of the relationship comes in Act Two Scene Two when Lady Macbeth asks Macbeth to do the deed of killing Duncan. She says, ‘Had he not resembled / my father as he slept, I had done’t.’. This is the first indication Shakespeare gives that Lady Macbeth has a conscience and is not pure evil. In the following scene when the murder of the king is discovered by the thanes, Macbeth manages to hide his feelings about the murder and becomes an actor playing the role of somebody who knows nothing about what could have happened. He becomes adept at this and seems even to be beginning to convince himself. When he first hears of the death from Macduff, he says, ‘What is’t you say? The life?’ He appears to have hardened since the previous night as he is now able to enter the chamber where he committed the murder. He speaks melodramatically about his horror at the death, saying,
‘Had I but died an hour before this chance I’d have lived a blessed time; for, from this instant, There is nothing serious in mortality.’
He sounds very sincere and what he says is certainly believable to the thanes. However this is dramatic irony because the audience know what the thanes do not - that it was actually Macbeth who killed Duncan.
While Macbeth is talking so much, Lady Macbeth is almost silent. It is possible that she is trying to assume the expected role as the lady of the house and therefore tries to be ladylike and gentle, but it could also be interpreted that Shakespeare is showing her to be uneasy about the murder and the beginning of a reversal of the roles of herself and Macbeth as he takes over. Certainly a change in the character of Macbeth can be observed as he says,
'O! yet I do repent them of my fury That I did kill them.'
After hardly being able to kill Duncan, he is now able to kill two innocent men very quickly without speaking to anyone else about it. He asserts himself much more and this probably stems from the murder of Duncan which he, rather than his wife, committed. Shakespeare includes this action to give another hint of the violence that is to come in Macbeth’s character and to show the beginning of his character-change. The first hint of his violence is at the very beginning of the play when we are told that Macbeth ‘unseamed (a traitor) from the nave to the chops’ in battle. However there is a difference between the earlier violence for king and country and later violence for his own purposes and in Act Two Scene Three scene Shakespeare gives us the first indication that he may use his violence for himself.
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‘To be thus is nothing; But to be safely thus. … For Banquo’s issue have I fil’d my mind; For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered;’
and decides without deliberation to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. He also makes this decision without making any suggestion of it to Lady Macbeth. Shakespeare is showing that they are no longer as close as they used to be as he does not tell her about everything. She is no longer his ‘dearest partner of greatness’ but he can be seen to be power-hungry and, not satisfied with what he already has, seeks further power for himself.
The breakdown in communication between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is illustrated in Act Three Scene Two where Lady Macbeth has to ask permission to speak to her own husband. She says to a servant, ‘Say to the king, I would attend his leisure / For a few words.’ This formality is probably partly due to Macbeth’s elevation to kingship, but this and the impersonal use of ‘the king’ rather than ‘my husband’ or his name suggest a drift between the two characters.
During their conversation Shakespeare makes it clear that much has changed in their relationship. In her four-line soliloquy prior to Macbeth’s entry, Lady Macbeth says, ‘Nought’s had, all’s spent, / Where our desire is got without content.’ She is clearly not content with her present situation. However she does not communicate this discontent to Macbeth. In previous scenes they have told one another exactly what they are feeling, but here she covers up her true emotions and gives the impression that she is happy. She says, ‘Be bright and jovial among your guests tonight:’ and tries to be cheerful herself. Macbeth is seeing himself to be superior to her. He says, ‘Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,’ which is an example of the patronising language he is beginning to use. Macbeth speaks far more than Lady Macbeth in this conversation and is certainly becoming more dominant which shows a role-reversal from previous scenes where she has dominated him. Macbeth begins to use imagery of witchcraft, darkness and evil, such as ‘Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, / Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.’ This imagery was once used by Lady Macbeth (for example in Act One Scene Five: 'Come thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,'). This link is made by Shakespeare to help to show the role reversal.
Throughout the scene, Macbeth does not disclose that he has commissioned the murder of Banquo, which is another clear example given by Shakespeare of the lack of communication in their relationship. It also shows that Macbeth does not believe he needs the help of his wife any more or does not trust her, and from this scene onwards, they are two separate characters working independently of one another rather than a couple and a team. Macbeth decides in Act Three Scene Four that he it is not worth turn back now and so he will do anything to further his own cause. He says,
‘I am in blood Stepp’d in so far, that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as going o’er.’
This furthering of his own cause - the brutal reign, consultation of the witches and murder of Macduff’s family - is carried out by Macbeth alone without his wife’s aid.
The next time Lady Macbeth is seen after this scene is in Act Five Scene One. Shakespeare keeps her off-stage for so long to show how Macbeth's tyrannous actions have taken place without her consultation and the effect that this has had on her. It emphasises to the audience the change in her character as there is a direct contrast between her behaviour in Act Three Scene Four and in Act Five Scene One. If the change was shown gradually with her seen by the audience more often it would have less of an effect. In the earlier scene she is in control while Macbeth appears to be mad as he hallucinates, feels tremendous guilt after Banquo’s murder and uses death and blood imagery. In this later scene, Lady Macbeth has lost all of her control and this is immediately shown by the breakdown of her sentence structure. She is speaking in prose rather than verse and the sentences and ideas do not appear to be linked. For example she says, ‘ Out, damned spot! out I say! One; two; why then ‘tis time to do’t. Hell is murky! Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier and afeard?’ She seems to be hallucinating and is obsessed with blood and washing her hands (of guilt). It appears that she feels guilty for all of the murders that have taken place even though it was Macbeth and not her who committed them. This is a role reversal from Act Three Scene Four and it is ironic that now she, who always wanted to harden herself and remove all feeling, now cannot emotionally cope with the murders. Her doctor says, ‘More she needs the divine than the physician,’ which is used by Shakespeare to suggest that her illness is mental and not physical.
This madness and mental illness can be seen to be a direct result of the breakdown in communication with Macbeth. Without Macbeth she can have no power and her ambition for him made her the strong woman she was. Gaining power for Macbeth was the meaning of her life and what she dedicated her whole life to. Now she and Macbeth are distant, she is powerless, has no reason to be strong and has lost the meaning of her life, which has led to her breaking down.
Macbeth appears not to be concerned about his wife’s illness. He asks the doctor, ‘How does your patient doctor?’ which is very impersonal and a huge contrast from the closeness at the start of the play. When the doctor tells him that she is mentally troubled, he says, ‘Cure her of that,’ expecting to get what he demands. He shows no worry that his wife is ill and does not go to see her. This shows quite how far apart they have drifted and how unimportant he now considers their relationship to be. In Act Five Scene Five he is told of her death and his reaction is, ‘She should have died hereafter; / There would have been time for such a word.’ He is so engaged in his own business of the threat to his throne that he does not have time to mourn the death of his own wife who was once his ‘dearest partner of greatness.’
However he is prompted by her death to reflect sadly on life in his ‘To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow’ speech. He says, ‘All our yesterdays have lighted fools / The way to dusty death,’ suggesting that the past is simply a path towards death and has no meaning. This reaction to his wife’s death can be interpreted as him showing that he cares because it does prompt this reflection, but I believe that it simply shows how self-absorbed he has become and how unimportant he thinks she is to him because he thinks only of his life and life in general and never once of hers.
This reaction and indeed the whole relationship can be compared to the relationship between Macduff and Lady Macduff and his reaction to his family’s murder. When Macduff has left Scotland to go to England and puts his country first, his wife is horrified. She says, ‘His flight was madness,’ and, ‘He wants the natural touch.’ This is a direct contrast to Lady Macbeth who said that Macbeth is ‘too full of the milk of human kindness’. In the following scene, when Macduff is told by Ross about the death of his wife and children his reaction is: ‘All my pretty ones? Did you say all?’ He immediately feels guilty for this as he feels it is a direct result of him leaving them and scorns himself, saying, ‘Sinful Macduff!’ Although he is engaged in an attempt to overthrow the king he mourns his family, unlike Macbeth, and feels that it is all his fault. Shakespeare includes these scenes with the Macduffs to show how unnatural and unfeeling Macbeth’s reaction to Lady Macbeth’s death is as it is a complete contrast to Macduff's which seems to the audience to be a far more natural and expected way to react to the death of a loved one. The Macduff scenes also emphasise how the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth has changed and now lacks emotion as it is contrasted with a ‘normal’ relationship with love, concern and family values.
The death of Lady Macbeth appears only to be a single event in a downward spiral for Macbeth and does not change Macbeth’s character for more than one speech. However I believe that it has far more importance than this and that it is a vital part of the spiral and makes his downfall and death inevitable. Lady Macbeth’s madness shows how incomplete she is without him by her side and I think that he is also incomplete without her. In the beginning of the play Shakespeare shows how well they work together, how they complement each other’s characters and how much he needs her. Although he believes he can work alone, once she is dead it is inevitable that surely he must die too. Much of the play shows events turning full-circle and so because she fell from being a strong character and he now appears to be the strong one, he too must be expected to fall. I believe that the breakdown in communication and distance between the Macbeths is a significant cause of the tragic ending to the play as each of them is one of a pair and when the pair is broken neither of them can function properly or cope alone.
The role of Lady Macbeth in the drama is debatable. It can be seen that, given that she originally encouraged Macbeth to follow his ambition and she was the one who masterminded the murder of Duncan, she is responsible for the chaos in the play and its tragic ending. However I do not believe that this is the case. Although Lady Macbeth persuaded Macbeth to kill Duncan on the evening he came to Inverness, the ambition to become king was inside him. Once the witches prophesy that he will be king, the thought of it begins to take over his mind, especially once he becomes Thane of Cawdor, as they also prophesied. In Act One Scene Three he says, ‘Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor: / The greatest is behind.’ He then has a lengthy aside in which he thinks of the idea of murdering Duncan, saying, ‘My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical…’ When Malcolm is declared heir to the throne, his immediate thought is, ‘that is a step / On which I must fall down or else o’er-leap’ and he then says, ‘Let light not see my black and deep desires.’ This shows his desire to be king and ideas of killing the king. Lady Macbeth is therefore not the only one thinking of the murder and I believe that eventually Macbeth would have been overcome by his ambition and killed Duncan if Lady Macbeth had not persuaded him to do it that evening. She is simply a catalyst to his ambition which, once it is triggered into action, causes the chaos of the play without the necessity for further encouragement.
This is not Lady Macbeth’s only role, as the control she manages to keep in vital situations such as when Macbeth is feeling guilty after Duncan’s murder and the banquet scene when Macbeth is completely out of control and is hallucinating before his thanes, is very important to the play and to Macbeth. If she had not kept the control in the former of these two situations, Macbeth may never have been able to shake off the guilt that he felt which would have meant that ambition or no ambition he would not have committed another murder or continued in his ruthless power quest which could have led to a quite different ending. In the latter situation she saves Macbeth from great embarrassment, humiliation and possibly the discovery of the truth by his thanes by keeping her control and providing an explanation and when they try to question him, she says, ‘I pray you speak not / …Question enrages him.’
I also believe that in the back of Macbeth's mind he knows that if he makes a mistake or loses his control during his tyrannous reign, such as in the banquet scene, her control will be there to back him up and save the situation, so perhaps if she had not been there Macbeth would not have reigned in the same manner. Once she is dead he does not have this to fall back on, but it is too late to retract his actions and he has gone so far that he has tunnel vision towards absolute power and he can only continue.
In conclusion, I believe that although Lady Macbeth catalysed the actions of Macbeth to kill Duncan and become king, they would have happened without her even if far more slowly. However she is a very important part of Macbeth’s actions that followed, even though she is not consulted about them because it is she who persuades him to believe that what is done is done and it is the control and strength Macbeth knows she has that he can fall back on as he brutally follows his own ambition. Whatever the distance between them, she is a part of him and so when she dies, something is missing from his life even though he does not realise it as he has become so obsessed with his own quest for power. Therefore the tragic ending is the only one possible when the relationship breaks down and consequently Lady Macbeth dies.
