“And often times, to win us our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betrays
In deepest consequences.”
Macbeth’s reaction about the death of Thane of Cawdor was that if the first prediction was right could the last prediction be true”Glamis and Cawdor: the greatest is behind.” The witches use this because they already knew that Macbeth had been chosen to be Thane of Cawdor and then him believes he could be King.
In Act I Scene, III Macbeth debates with himself.
“This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill, cannot be good, if ill”
He questions whether these prophecies may be true. He speaks a lot to himself using siloguy and talking aside.
“If chance will heath me King, why chance may crown me,
Without my stir.”
In Scene IIII when Macbeth is in the palace, Duncan tells them that Malcolm is going to be the next heir to the throne, which now ruins the chance that Macbeth thought he had to be King. He reacts by saying that Malcolm is like a stone in the way that you either have to “fall down or else o’er leap” and says let the eye not see what the hand is doing.
“Which the eye fears, what it has done, to see,”
I still believe he is partly a victim be cause the witches swayed them to this way of thinking. However, he knows now that if he becomes King it cannot be by chance. Macbeth cannot resist temptations.
“The prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down or o’er leap foe in my way it lies.”
* * * * * * * * *
In the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth does not show any signs of moral doubt. She appears to be incredibly force full and domineering and does not show any sign of being submissive.
“Of direct cruelty; make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse.”
When the play is being performed the audience in the 1600’s would of believed that Lady Macbeth was a witch because of her “damned spot” and the way she wanted the light to block out her acts.
“Nor heaven peep through the blanket of dark,
To cry, “Hold, Hold””
Now in the year 2001 we would believe that it was nothing to do with evil spirits but she just had evil thought and was an evil person.
I believe that somehow Lady Macbeth was woven into the witches’ plan. The witches knew that Lady Macbeth was very domineering character and would be able to change Macbeth’s thoughts and his actions by the click of her fingers. It was almost certain that Lady Macbeth wanted to become Queen and be prestigious and higher than everyone else is so she could have more power over people. She was able to even aid the witches’ plan by encouraging Macbeth to do the deed by questioning his manliness.
“What beast was’t, then,
That make you break this enterprise with me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man”
If the witches were to have chose Lady Macbeth, I think she would question the prophecies of her being Queen because she is a woman not to be led but to lead.
* * * * * * * * * *
Soon as Macbeth killed Duncan there was a knocking at the door and his weakness showed as he had regretted what he had done “Wake Duncan with thy knocking, I wish I could’st” Macbeth shows that he is not as “brave” and Strong” as he was in the beginning of the play, because he is beginning to feel guilty in a way it shows he is human.
The next person that Macbeth killed was Banquo, the reasons being at the very beginning Banquo was with Macbeth when they met the three witches and were told the three prophecies and could be a reliability and secondly Banquo’s son Fleance could become King which would end Macbeth’s reign.
The consequences of Macbeth’s murders caused him to have a very disturbed mind. He could not sleep.
“Macbeth will sleep no more” He also begins to see things like the dagger.
“Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle towards my hand? Come let me clutch thee.”
Also at the banqueting hall in the palace he begins to see Banquo’s ghost and denies his murder.
“Thou canst not say I did it never shake thy gory locks at me.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
After he saw Banquo’s ghost, Macbeth goes back to see the witches a second time because he begins to feel anxious and maybe he is realising that he is not in control of his own life. “I am in blood stepped in so far…” and that he is being controlled by outside forces.
When he goes to see the witches, it shows very clearly that the witches are in control. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony in this scene. Macbeth is easily led and the witches use his weakness to their advantage by misleading him, so he believes he is incompletely in control. They show him three apparitions: The first apparition tells him that he should watch out for Macduff.
“Beware Macduff, Beware the Thane of Fife.”
The second apparition tells him that a man born of a woman will not kill him.
“Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of women born
Shall harm Macbeth.”
The third and final apparition tells him that he will not be harmed until Great Birnam Wood AND Dunsiame Hill meet.
“Macbeth shall never vanquished be until
Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsiane Hill
Shall come against him”
Macbeth now believes he is in control because firstly he believes there is no man on earth that is not born from a woman and that Dunsiane Hill and Birnam Wood would never be able to meet because they are miles apart.
* * * * * * * * * * *
The witches appear to take over Macbeth’s life again. They do this by showing the apparitions to him and watching him take a wrong turn. The audience likes the dramatic irony that is involved because they know that the witches are tricking Macbeth. Macduff wants to seek revenge and kill him for the hurt he has caused him by killing his kids and wife. The witches betray Macbeth by letting the apparitions come true. We are reminded of Banquo because his son Fleance is to become King when Macbeth is not.
This would satisfy the audience because Macduff calls Macbeth “hell hound” because Macbeth can see that Macbeth is going to hell for what he has done.
* * * * * * * * * *
I believe that Macbeth is a tragedy linked with evil spirits including the witches and Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth because she had a damned spot which meant she was in league with the devil.
“Out damned spot! Out I say! One; two: why,
Then ‘tis time to do’t” This makes the doctor to believe that he is guilty and going to hell.
* * * * * * * * * *
I believe that Macbeth lost control the moment he regretted killing King Duncan “Wake Duncan with thy knocking, I wish I could’st” Even before murdering Duncan Macbeth was beginning to lose control because he began to illusinate a dagger before him.
He is most definitely influenced by Lady Macbeth and the three witches because even though he had thoughts in his mind about killing Duncan he would of never of gone through with it if it wasn’t for Lady Macbeth pushing him to do it.