In the dark, starless night upon which no moon shines, Macbeth creates in the hallucination of a dagger, it's blade covered with "Gouts of blood". His Conscience tries to warn him of what he himself describes as "Bloody Business". They are using the cover of darkness as a mask. This is not really who they are, Macbeth has been coerced into this atrocity and even the ambitious Lady Macbeth has to call on "Spirits that tend on mortal Thoughts" to "Fill me from the Tow, top full, Of direct cruelty" and to drink to give herself courage.
And owl screech from the silence of nights scares the audience, described by Lady Macbeth as " the fatal bellman" silent deadly, as is Macbeth.
We pity Lady Macbeth more as she shows more of her less violent nature by saying "I am afraid they have awak'd" though this could be the onset of paranoia which plagues her before her death. She also comments that she thought "he resembled my father as he slept" and this prevented her from doing the deed herself. She is not as cold as we first thought, imposing yet more pity.
Pity for Macbeth is felt for his remorse "This is a sorry sight". But we have no view of Duncan's murder as his death is not portrayed on stage, but the image of the daggers dipping with blood and the smeared clothes and faces of the actors should sufficiently stimulate the audience's imagination to create a scene in their mind's eye much more horrific and gory than could ever be illustrated on stage.
hakespeare makes us feel horror, not only at the nightmarish picture we dream up in out own heads but starts us really thinking about how Macbeth might have done it and also of how we might have. It also makes us think and examine our own darker side as we conjure up our own detailed and lurid sequence of events and ask ourselves whether we would be capable ourselves of such an act or would be able to block out that side of our personality and nature.
But as Lady Macbeth says "These Deeds must not be thought After these ways: so, it will make us Mad". And it does, plunging the noble and honourable Macbeth into a downward spiral to insanity. Macbeth wishes he had not done the deed, but it is too late, "Wake Duncan with thy knocking: I would though couldst".
Could you have done it? Is a question the audience thinks. Macbeth went over to "The dark side" yet worse was to come. Banquo was Macbeth's friend. What was it that caused him to murder him? And again the audience is put in the position where we ask ourselves, "What would I have done?". I would not expect my friend to turn and switch on me like that. We feel pity for the ignorant Banquo and horror at Macbeth’s actions.
Macbeth's paranoia over took him. He planned Banquo's murder as he talked to him, methodically enquiring to his movements that evening. After wishing his friend a final "Farewell" he proceeds, to the horror of the audience to instruct the murders to execute Banquo’s son Fleance as well.
Macbeth's "Fears in Banquo stick deep". He had been told by the three witches that Banquo's descendants would become king, and although the first three prophesies had come true, he believed he could prevent this one. He was unwilling to trust fate. We feel a little pity for him because like all of us he fears what is beyond his control and worries tremendously about it. Though fate had been fair to him in his inheritance of his second thaneship he wanted to make sure for himself his future. He feels insecure and this makes us feel a little sorry for him.
The tension again rises and we fear for little Fleance, innocent, guilty of nothing but living. We also have the added mystery of the third murderer who arrives to aid the assassination. The possibility that this third murderer could be Macbeth increases the horror, as does the prospect that it could be he who strikes the fatal blow.
Again the event itself is in the night, the darkness hides the criminal's actions. Even today films and stories use the cover of darkness to inspire horror and fear, just as Shakespeare did in his day, though the staging would have been different with out electric stage lighting.
Macbeth surely knows this is wrong, Banquo is a good man and a father, but Macbeth was now prepared to do anything, however horrid it may be. And now he has begun what he can not stop, he had not yet reached the end of his dishonourable affairs and explains with this horribly gory metaphor "We have scorched the snake, not killed it" and " I am in Blood Steepp'd in so far that I should wade no more Returning were as tedious as go o'er".
The wording of this second murder scene is packed with nervousness and tenses the audience for action. The short, sharp sentences build builds up our fears and anxiety. The audience is now exposed to a scene of horror and an event that any parent fears, the endangerment of their child's life!
Our feelings of pity for Banquo stems first from him standing face to face with his assailants and trying to converse about the weather "It will rayne tonight", and it then reaches its zenith with his last words "Fly good Fleance, fly Fly fly". Amidst this "treachery" the honourable and devout Banquo keeps his head and only thinks of his son. For this we feel great pity.
The reason for this character’s religiously kept morals and upstanding righteousness is that at the time of the play's writing Shakespeare used Raphael Holinshed's "Chronicles of England Scotland and Ireland" (1587) for basing the play's historical background. Holinshed had created an elaborate family tree tracing James I's ancestry to Banquo (hence the long lines of monarchs seen by Macbeth when he met the Witches for the second time). James was the ninth Stewart Monarch and by portraying Banquo as an honourable man who was the first to suspect Macbeth's evil intentions he honours James I, his name, family and parentage. This was Shakespeare flattering the King.
We now know however that Banquo was entirely a creation of fiction, an invention as the source of the Stuart Monarchy. Macbeth diplomatically ignores Holinshed’s description of Banquo as a conspirator in Duncan's death in a strategic move which keeps Shakespeare’s head attached to his body. Shakespeare is a playwright and not a historian after all and has adapted the story and moulded the characters to suit his own needs. He inserted Lady Macbeth, omits the fact that Duncan was not actually a popular King and excludes the ten peaceful and prosperous years of Macbeth’s 17 year rule.
Another influencing aspect of King James's personality on the play was his interest in witchcraft. This adds fear to the play as superstition was extremely widespread in the 17th century and is still popular to this day. In 1605 James I had visited Oxford and was greeted by three witches who hailed him as a descendent of Banquo. This was probably the inspiration for the “weyard Sisters” and their greeting in Act One Scene Three.
Shakespeare also flattered the King by mirroring James’ geneous giving of English titles to his Scottish supporters, with Malcolmof course the first monarch to unite both England and ’s handing out of English Titles to his thanes.. James I was Scotland, he had already been James VI of Scotland thus explaining the setting for Macbeth.
Banquo's ghost which appears in the banquet scene of Act Three Scene Four pushes Macbeth over the edge. He has been tiptoeing along too long and this is the final straw. Another view is that Macbeth has already fallen off his tightrope and the ghost is just a creation of his unhinged mind. He could just be imagining this apparition , a projection of his conscience that can no longer cope with its owner's horrific tendencies, similar to the vision of the dagger before the murder of Duncan.
The description of the ghost as "horrible shadow" and "Thy Bones are Marrowless, thy blood is cold" sends a shiver down the audience’s spine. The sight makes Macbeth, a battle hardened soldier tremble in fear so should have an equally powerful effect on the audience.
The last murder I will investigate is that of Lady Macduff and her son. This horrific act of murdering an innocent mother and child is even more horrendous because this gruesome act serves no purpose. Macbeth wanted revenge on Macduff who he saw as a traitor, though Macduff actually had the good of his country at heart, it was the tyrannical Macbeth whom he betrayed, not his country. Macbeth extended his anger to his family “give to th’ edge o’ th’ Sword His Wife, his Babes”. Macduff later avenges his loss, ending Macbeth's hubris by killing him in the play's catharsis.
In this callous killing Macbeth reaches the apex of his cruelty. "Cruel are the Times" comments Rosse. Fear is created by the unexpected entry of the anonymous messenger who warns Lady Macduff “Be not found here” after she has just pointed out she has been left unprotected. We pity her ignorance “Whether should I fly?” and her helpless child.
We are not shown the murder of Lady Macduff but we are shown the appalling murder of her son who pitifully attempts to stand up for his mother. We are left once again to imagine another grisly slaying with our own macabre mental pictures fuelled by her parting screams of "Murthr!"