Macbeth first meets the witches in act 1 scene 3; in this scene the witches tell Macbeth he will become thane of Cawdor then the king. 2nd Witch: “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!” 3rd Witch “All hail, Macbeth! That shalt be king, hereafter.” At once Macbeth wants to know more, “stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:” Instead of challenging, questioning these predictions Macbeth embraces them. Why? Is it because of Macbeth’s lust for ambition? Is it because of 17th century beliefs that witches do exist? If Macbeth wasn’t so ambitious and intrigued by the prospect of being crowned Thane of Cawdor and then the king maybe instead of asking “but how of Cawdor?” he might have dismissed there predictions to be nothing but outrageous statements made by insane women. If this would have happened then it still wouldn’t have changed the path which lay ahead of Macbeth. Him being crowned Thane of Cawdor was inevitable which ever way you look at it, yet if Macbeth was a bit more skeptical then maybe he might have seen it as pure coincidence, but he didn’t. Consequently he became further entwined in a web of death and deceit by accepting the witches’ predictions for the solemn truth and believing that there prediction of Macbeth becoming king was a question of `if` but of `when`.
It is hard to say what `driving force` underlies the events of the story, and it is equally hard to know what emotions or convictions drove the characters to do what they did. Parts of the text give us detail and insight as to the relation and power balance in the marriage of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth; this can be interpreted and used to try to work out who actually made the major decisions concerning murder. From the very beginning Lady Macbeth is presented as ambitious and driving. “That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Th´effect and it…”
When she says this she means that nothing will prevent her from fulfilling her aim, and that pity will have no effect on her. This purpose does seem to stand strong for the first few scenes, in which the most important crimes are committed, but as she and Macbeth grow apart, and her involvement in the play lessens, so does her resolve. When she first greets her husband, on his return, it is clear how proud she is of his newly gained titles. It is also clear how eager he is to gain her praise, after the conversation with the weird sisters he immediately thinks to write home and tell her. This is very unusual for the time in which the play was set; there would usually be more dominance from the husband, whereas Macbeth and Lady Macbeth seem to be equally powerful in the relationship, perhaps even Lady Macbeth has more of the power over decisions. She says “Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear.” on reading his letter, she wishes to fill him with her ideas, ambitions and boldness. After only a few scenes it becomes apparent that it is Lady Macbeth who makes the decisions for them both. She is a very determined person; she also seems very unfeminine and sometimes even evil. She is also highly ambitious. However, although at first she appears completely heartless, saying she would have “dashed the brains out“of a child of hers in order to become queen, she rarely actually commits an important crime. Her first sign of weakness is that she would not actually kill Duncan herself, saying that,” Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done’t.”
In the first few scenes she seems to be as evil as she proclaims she is, but as the play develops, so her conscience catches up with her and she becomes mentally ill. She shares the symptoms of sleeplessness and hallucinations with Macbeth that hark back to when he heard the voice call “Sleep no more!“ immediately after Duncan’s murder. This seems to be a curse, as does the vision of bloody hands. If indeed it is an actual curse then this would mean some greater force is involved in the story, but it could alternatively be nothing but their consciences and feelings of guilt and remorse.
Lady Macbeth had many reasons for wanting her husband to kill the king; mostly she was driven by ambition. She lusted after a royal title and power. “The golden round” is the euphemism she uses for the crown, to her this symbolises both wealth and power. The power was perhaps the most important thing to her, control seems to be a major factor in the marriage and her main reason for the murder. Alternatively she could be driven by the pride she felt in her husband´s success when he won the first titles. Or she could be driven by greed. She could long for a higher social status, or there could be other, larger factors in the murder…
When she pleas that fate should remove her womanliness and talks of killing babies it is becoming clear that she is becoming infatuated with the idea of power and titles. She does not seem merely preoccupied by power she is completely obsessed with control and dominance…at whatever cost. Even if it means losing that part of her which is human, her soul perhaps, she wants to be queen. This does not seem to me like the result of greed, she appears to be either truly evil, or mentally unstable, or both. I think it is very likely that her manipulative nature was played upon by fate, a recurring theme in the play. Maybe the witches control her mind. The witches are the personification of a twisted and evil force. Maybe the devil speaks through them, or maybe they themselves can manipulate fate by building on the vices of people around them. I think it is more likely that they have control over Lady Macbeth, either through her mind, or external factors, than that they left detail concerning the execution of the murder to chance.
The witches may not be real at all, they too could be a hallucination, just figments of Macbeth’s imagination. They reflect what his thoughts are, and make him realise what is likely to happen, or what he wants to happen when they appear. The only flaw in this argument is that Banquo too can see the witches so they are definitely manifesting themselves as a physical presence. At first the witches seem to be on Macbeth’s side, they want to help him gain power, but when he does as they say and becomes so far entangled that he has no way out they turn against him and predict not success, but his downfall.
Maybe the murder was not due to any plan or force, other than a combination of chance and circumstance “fate and metaphysical aid”. Many stories and plays rely upon good or bad fortune to help the plot unfold. Usually, however Shakespeare’s plays are more sophisticated and there can usually be found a reason for an event.
They seem hold some possessive qualities, as Macbeth echoes the witches’ words, ‘So foul and fair a day I have not seen’. As the witches reveal their prophecies to Macbeth, telling him of future royalties, ‘hail to thee, thane of Cawdor’, ‘that shalt be king hereafter’, Macbeth’s mind is set going. After being told by a nobleman, Ross, that he has being given the title of Thane of Cawdor, due to the execution of the previous thane, he is surprised, ‘What! Can the devil speak true?’ but at the same time, he starts to think of his second prophecy, ‘Glamis and Thane of Cawdor The greatest is behind.’ Even so, Macbeth has an obstacle to overcome, as Malcolm is to be the heir to Duncan. Macbeth sees this as a threat, ‘The prince of Cumberland! That is a step, On which I must fall down, or else o’er-leap.’
Even at this early stage, the though of the murder of king Duncan sets in, ‘My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, \ shakes so my single state of man’, but he is clearly traumatized by the thought. It seems that the witches chose Macbeth instead of Banquo, because Macbeth seems easily influenced, whilst Banquo is more settled, as we see here, when he talks of Macbeth, ‘Look how our partner’s rapt’. We can see here the foundation of all of Macbeth's desires. As of yet, he is weary of his newfound prophecies, but is already thinking how he can help them grow. There is a probability that Macbeth's thoughts are being controlled, but that can be argued.
After Lady Macbeth receives word of the prophecies, she seems to go into a state of madness, and she calls on the devils and supernatural to, ‘unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full, Of direst cruelty, and to relieve her of any remorse that women possess. This unsexing bears a strange correspondence with the witches’ own ambiguous sexuality, which adds to the paranormal aura of the play. She feels that Macbeth is too merciful and inadequate to seize the throne from the king and fulfill both of their dreams. After all that we know about Macbeth, it seems that even Macbeth’s bravery is easily over shadowed by his wife’s ambitious aspirations and bloodthirsty nature. She is now able to graft Macbeth’s character into a person who has the guts to endure what’s to be carried out, which would go against every fibre in Macbeth's body. Even so, Lady Macbeth has something on her side: Macbeth's ambition.
Although Macbeth is thinking along the same lines as Lady Macbeth, he lacks the ruthlessness that Lady Macbeth possesses, and she uses her cunning to convince him to take the steps that are needed. Because Macbeth had shown some courage previously, when talking to Lady Macbeth, she brings that back, and challenges Macbeth, asking him weather that was just in a state of drunkenness, ‘Was the hope drunk, Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since? , And wakes it now, to look so green and pale, At what it did so freely?’ This pressure from his wife, to do the deed and prove himself manly, leads him to strengthen his will, and also shows how easily influenced he is ‘I am settled, and bend up, Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.’
In conclusion, Lady Macbeth was a tool of fate. There is a possibility that the supernatural powers harnessed by the witches could have been use to control Macbeth, and force him to carry out the evil acts that he fulfilled, although we are not informed of any such goings on, and so cannot be sure of it. The witches manipulated her, or their controller did so, to in turn exercise her influence over Macbeth and play out a series predetermined events. Maybe there isn’t meant to be a reason in this play, but there is a moral, a mystery, and a great underlying evil. Nobody knows what Shakespeare wanted this evil to represent, perhaps he did not know himself; or perhaps it represents the vulnerability of all humans to fate, or chance; perhaps it pessimistically represents a basic evil in humans; or perhaps he wrote it to enthrall his audiences and leave them wondering…
