Macbeth’s ambition of staying king now begins to spur him forward to further horrifying deeds, as he stops being concerned about his actions and even challenges fate and fortune.
Each murder reduces him as a brave, decent warrior until he is seen as the evil king. At the end Macbeth is said by Malcolm and Macduff to be a ‘tyrant’ and a ‘devil’. Which tells us that they think he has become an evil king as well.
Due to the witches prophecies, Macbeth “Forgets the taste of fears” which tells us that Macbeth has overcome fear, which made him believe he could be ruthless, and murderous.
I believe that the Malcolm’s statement about Macbeth being a butcher is not entirely truthful. Because at the beginning of the play Macbeth was seen as a warrior hero, whose bravery on the battle field won him the great honour of the king telling him that he was a “Valiant cousin” and a “worthy gentleman”.
Through Macbeth’s soliloquies we can see that he is only human and he has doubts about plotting the murder of the king. Macbeth holds “deep and dark desires”. On the night Macbeth planned to kill Duncan, he begins to speak his non-guilty conscience as he says, “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent”. And it was only due to the encouragement from Lady Macbeth, did Macbeth find the courage to commit the actual murder suggesting that Macbeth is not totally evil.
At the peak time of Macbeths reign on Scotland, he was still worried about the late prophecies of the witches, and he acted upon these prophecies in killing everyone who got in his way because of his guilty conscience.
Macbeth is persistently alarmed by supernatural events, the ghost of Banquo. Is this Macbeths conscience creeping up on him? I believe so and also I believe that a “butcher” would not have a conscience at all, if they wanted to carry a murder out.
Macbeth reflects back on what he has done when he says, “Of all men, I have avoided thee but get thee back my soul is too much charged with blood of thine already” Macbeth does not want to carry on being a murderer and he has gone too far, is this the actions of a true butcher? It is as though Macbeth’s normal conscience has been retained and that he does not want to carry on the way he is. This shows that he is not completely evil.
Although Malcolm describes Macbeth as a butcher, I think Macbeth was not purely a butcher. Macbeth was lost in his mind and the witch’s prophecies, as well as his own personal ambition. Macbeth’s boldness and impression of personal invincibility (as prophesised by the witches) mark him out as a deadly and powerful man.
Lady Macbeth is often described as a very dominating wife, who pushes her husband (Macbeth) over the edge and into his downfall. In the text, there is a lot of evidence that Lady Macbeth is a “fiend” and that she lacks a human heart.
She calls upon the “spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,” As if to deprive her from being a female. This is because she is very powerful and wishes to become a man to convey all of her power, as women were deprived from being powerful in those days.
It also shows that when she was trying to persuade Macbeth to commit the murder of king Duncan that she would of “plucked the nipple from his (her baby’s) boneless gums and dashed the brain out” This shows that she has not got much feminine personality, as she even contemplates killing her own child.
Lady Macbeth is portrayed as being one of the main reasons for Macbeth’s downfall. Had she not encouraged Macbeth to kill the king, for her ambition to be queen, maybe Macbeth would not of met his downfall. She encourages Macbeth to kill Duncan by accusing Macbeth of being a coward and saying “screw your courage to the sticking place” This again shows her none feminine side, by suggesting that she is less coward than the brave soldier, Macbeth.
Evidence suggests that Lady Macbeth is a good actress. This is because she was able to act as the perfect hostess when the king came to their castle. And also when she faints immediately after the murder of Duncan. This is very important because it asks the question about whether or not it is a high class act, or her feminine instinct finally showing.
Lady Macbeth and Macbeth differ in the ways they retain their guilt. Macbeth does not admit his guilt. Where as Lady Macbeth does, and this is what turns her mad. She was crushed by the guilt of taking part in the murder of Duncan, and therefore made herself suffer for it by eventually committing suicide, and becoming a mere shadow of her former self.
Lady Macbeth was not purely evil though because if she had really desperately wanted to become queen, she would of found the courage to kill king Duncan. But instead she makes up a petty excuse “Had he not looked like my father, as he slept, I had done’t”. Also Lady Macbeth could not be as evil and “fiend like” as Malcolm made out, because she only started to have thoughts about becoming the queen, after Macbeth had sent her the letter. I think that all Lady Macbeth did was help Macbeth carry out his own dreams, in order to gain something for herself. This is not absolutely evil, but it can be interpreted so. Also Lady Macbeth finally goes mad because of the guilt, this is not the action of a “fiend”.
The remarks that Malcolm made may have truth in them, but not entire truth. I think that they did not mean to become totally evil when they started, and they did not wish to kill as many people as they did, but they still could of stopped it.
