Macbeth
"This Dead Butcher and his fiend-like queen." With close reference to the play discuss how accurate you think this presentation of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is. Refer to the social and historical context of the play in your answer.
The nature of evil can be perceived in many ways. The Oxford dictionary states that evil is morally bad; harmful; very unpleasant. We, as human beings, perceive evil in people; people that are harmful and wicked towards others and us. All three meanings that the dictionary gives of evil fit Macbeth's personality in the play. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have a very close, complex relationship, which is what spurs them on to achieving what they set out to do. This is true until the point where Macbeth becomes more reliant on the supernatural and keeps everything from his wife. At this point, everything begins to go downhill for Macbeth, as he doesn't have the strength to carry on, his strength is in the form of his wife; she is his thrust.
In human relationships, the husband and wife get so close that they begin to become like one another. This is what is apparent between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth changes due to the pressures imposed on him by Lady Macbeth, "Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear". Lady Macbeth, however, changes not due to her husband but as her relationship with Macbeth begins to drift, as she begins to have a lesser knowledge of her surroundings and the killings in which Macbeth is involved and as the guilt inside her becomes so overwhelming, "all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." The support that Macbeth gives Lady Macbeth is different to the way in which she supports him. At the start of the play, Lady Macbeth supports Macbeth by pushing him to kill King Duncan therefore giving Macbeth the place of king. Later on in the play, Macbeth supports Lady Macbeth by keeping her from the killings. He tells her to be innocent, he doesn't want her to get involved and protects her from the knowledge because he loves her, "Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck".
At the end of the play, Malcolm says, "This Dead Butcher and his fiend-like queen". These descriptions of the two characters are very simplistic and very offending towards Lady Macbeth as he doesn't even know of her involvement in the killing of Duncan and she was not involved in any other killings. His description of Macbeth however, shows that he carried out random, indiscriminate, cold-blooded, butcher-like killings. Although this is slightly true, Macbeth's killings were not totally irrational, he killed anyone who stood in his way of power. The witches were what influenced Macbeth's killings, they influenced whom Macbeth was to kill next, they turned him into the butcher that he was. Malcolm called Lady Macbeth a "fiend-like queen" mainly because of the simple fact that she was Macbeth's wife, other than that, there are no apparent foundations on which Malcolm could have based that description of her.
At the start of the play, the Sergeant and the King hail Macbeth as being "brave", a "valiant cousin!" and a "worthy gentleman!" and as "noble". He is seen in a positive light after the battle. The battle brings him closer to the king and gives him the king's undoubted respect. Then, right away, the irony comes as Macbeth is appointed Thane of Cawdor and is told by Ross that the old Thane of Cawdor was a traitor. This is very ironic, as Macbeth also becomes a traitor later on in the play. Malcolm also talks to Macbeth about the previous Thane of Cawdor and tells him "he died as one that had been studied in his death". Duncan then says something very ironic to Macbeth, "He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust." This is the position that Macbeth is in at the moment, the king has full trust in him, and he will become a traitor. Early on in the play, Macbeth's link to evil is revealed to us as he echoes the witches' words, "So foul and fair". After meeting the king, Macbeth and Banquo encounter three women who look like men, "you should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so". He then asks the women who they are and if they can speak, "Speak, if you can: what are you?" Then right away, the first witch gives Macbeth his first prophecy, "All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!" Then the second witch gives Macbeth his third prophecy, "All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!" Then the third witch gives him his third prophecy, "All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be King hereafter." Macbeth is confused but wants to believe the witches as firstly, he is already Thane of Glamis, secondly, he has just been appointed as Thane of Cawdor, but the last prophecy confuses Macbeth, he wants to find out more, "tell me more…Speak, I charge you." He becomes very keen and excited by the witches but then they vanish and Macbeth thinks to himself that had they had stayed, he would have known more, "Would they had stay'd!" Macbeth is a loving husband and keeps nothing from his wife at the start of the play, he is very open and always accepts his wife's ideas and plans, whether good or bad. As soon as Macbeth encounters the witches, he writes a letter to his wife describing his experience and explaining exactly what the witches said and his desires. Lady Macbeth then calls on evil spirits and plans to make Macbeth evil so that he can kill the king, "Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear". At this point, Macbeth is in strong doubt about murdering King Duncan, he feels guilt even before killing the king as he is so close to him, "He's here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject…not bear the knife myself…so clear in his great office". Macbeth admits that he does have a strong ambition to be king but that he has no spur, "I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps itself and falls on the other." Macbeth does go through constant changes in his state of mind. At first, he totally rejects killing the king, then he thinks about it, he rejects it again, "We will proceed no further in this business", and then finally, he changes his mind for the last time and agrees to kill the king, "I am settled, and bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat." The main reason why Macbeth decides to go ahead with killing King Duncan is because Lady Macbeth challenges his masculinity, "live a coward…when you durst do it, then you were a man". Before killing the king, Macbeth hallucinates and sees a floating dagger ahead of him, he becomes detached from his own actions and makes himself believe that he is not responsible, "I have thee not, and yet I see thee still". Although he tries to detach himself, he is still the one about to commit a brutal murder. The murdering of King Duncan could be seen as cold-blooded and bloodthirsty or as just a challenge made to him by his wife, the killings made afterwards which had nothing to do with Lady Macbeth however, were choices made by Macbeth, he didn't have to carry them out. He becomes emotionally unstable, "heat-oppressed brain". He even begins to see blood on the dagger, "I see thee still; and on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, which was not so before". Then, paranoia steps in and he becomes afraid that the sound of his feet may give him away, "Thou sure and firm-set earth, hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear thy very stones prate of my whereabout." This is an early indication of Macbeth's madness and, like Lady Macbeth, overwhelming guilt. After the killing, Macbeth feels strong regret and magnificent fear, "This is a sorry sight…I am afraid to think what I have done…every noise appals me…my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red." He doesn't even what to know himself anymore, "To know my deed 'twere best not know myself." This is the good side of Macbeth; he does feel remorse and guilt and can therefore be seen as very human. So far in the play, Macbeth is not a cold-blooded killer or a butcher. Later in the play, Macbeth takes his masculinity too far, "Let's briefly put on manly readiness". He decides to kill Banquo as he may stand in his way of power, this is the point at which Macbeth becomes a cold-blooded killer and tries to remove anyone who may intrude his power. Macbeth's obsession begins to grow and all he can think about is the power that others possess, "Banquo's issue have I fil'd my mind". He then orders the death of Fleance aswell as Banquo but gives no reason except that if the father dies then so should the son, "Fleance his son, that keeps him company, whose absence is no less material to me than is his father's, must embrace the fate". This shows that he is even more bloodthirsty as he does not have any real reason for Fleance's death. Macbeth then later tells Lady Macbeth that they have unfinished business, "We have scorch'd the snake, not kill'd it". Then the human side of Macbeth is shown again when he says he can't sleep properly as he is haunted by what he's done and that his mind is overtaken by evil after the killing of the king, "In the affliction of these terrible dreams that shake us nightly…o full of scorpions is my mind". Macbeth now becomes like Lady Macbeth and calls on the darkness as he wants the good to go, "Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, whiles night's black agents to their preys…things bad begun". Later in the play comes the banquet scene where Macbeth's madness is revealed to others. When the murderer comes into the hall, Macbeth goes over to him and is shocked, "There's blood upon thy face". Then when the murderer tells Macbeth that Fleance has escaped, Macbeth becomes angry and overrun by paranoia once again, "Then comes my fit again…now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in saucy doubts and fears." Soon after, Banquo appears as a ghost and sits in Macbeth's seat, as Macbeth goes to sit at the table he says "The table's full." Everybody thinks he's mad and Lennox points out his seat for him. He then accuses the guests, "Which of you have done this?" He then shouts at the ghost saying, "Thou canst not say I did it: never shake thy gory locks at me." At this point Lady Macbeth steps in and defends Macbeth, saying that he is always like this, the temporary insanity will pass and that they should eat and ignore him, "The fit is momentary; upon a thought he will again be well…Feed, and regard him not." To make him stop making faces and acting strangely, Lady Macbeth challenges his masculinity and tries to make him feel ashamed, "Are you a man...Shame itself! Why do you make such faces?" Then, further on in the scene, the ghost of Banquo confronts Macbeth once again. This time Macbeth tells the ghost to approach him in any other form but a ghost as Macbeth knows he can deal with something real, but he cannot deal with something unreal, "Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, the arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger; take any shape but that". Once again, Lady Macbeth helps her husband but stopping him from revealing anything more to the guests, "Question enrages him…Stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once".
