"Fair is foul and foul is fair”
Shakespeare uses this to finish of the scene and to leave the audience confused and make them think about what is happening in the play.
In the 16th century the supernatural was a primitive way of explaining evil, the witches brained washed Macbeth and this is what the audience would have thought the witches were trying to do and when later in the play he goes back to the witches the audience would have been astonished and possible begun to despise Macbeth.
At this point in the play I begin to loose my admiration for Macbeth as it becomes apparent that he is driven by greed.
In Macbeth’s time witchcraft was very serious, the three witches on the heath had a very strong and dramatic influence on Macbeth’s actions, taking this into consideration I found it possible to understand why Macbeth behaves as he did, it could be seen as admirable that he carried out the prophecies.
Macbeth starts to doubt his actions and returns to the heath to see the three witches. Macbeth challenges the witches: -
“How now, you secret, black and midnight hags! What isn’t you do?”
This I thought was a brave thing to do, and I have to admire him for this, he believes again what the witches say, convinced that his life is safe, and that no man could kill him as the second witch quoted: -
“The power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth”.
Macbeth achieves his dream of becoming a king but at the expense of his dear friend Banquo and the sanity and eventual death of his beloved wife lady Macbeth.
When Macbeth and Banquo (Macbeth’s best friend) meet the witches, Macbeth doesn’t seem so sure about the witches and doesn’t seem to trust them. When the first of the 3 prophecies came true there was no stopping Macbeth he wrote the letter to lady Macbeth and lady Macbeth was very pleased she came up with an idea that at first Macbeth didn’t agree with but eventually went ahead and did.
In the 1600s it was commonly known that men held the dominant soles compared to women, this particular area Shakespeare highlighted to convince me that his wife dominated Macbeth and that some of the things he did were done because he was possible scared of lady Macbeth.
I think that Macbeth commits the murder because he wants to be king so much and he thinks he’s going to be king anyway because the witches have told him that he is, so killing Duncan would make him become a king much quicker.
At this point in the play the only admiration I had for Macbeth was his conscience at the thought of killing the king – and at one point it seemed as if his conscience was going to win, but lady Macbeth manages to convince him otherwise and he is over powered by greed and he commits the ultimate sin and kills the king. It is debateable if this was a heroic act or not, my opinion is that it was the actions of a weak manipulated man and I felt no admiration for him at this stage.
The witches and lady Macbeth influence Macbeth, the witches make him like a zombie and he will do anything to complete his destiny, and that is exactly what Macbeth keeps doing when he murders his best friend Banquo, after each murder he feels guilty afterwards. Lady Macbeth feels so guilty after the murder of king Duncan she goes mad, she imagines she has Duncan’s blood permanently on her hands and this is what drives her to commit suicide.
I do have to admit that I admired Macbeth for his calculated planning of the following events, how he faced Macduff even though he knew he was going to die, he admits to killing the servants – cleverly to make himself look innocent with the remark: -
“O’ yet I do repent me of my fury that I kill them”
, and also the plotting of the events that finally secures him to the throne.
I have to admire Macbeth for fighting for what he believed in right up to the bitter end, Shakespeare is very clever and how he lets the play develop so as it becomes apparent that the prophecies that the witches predicted actually do happen, but not in the way that was led to believe. Macbeth is tortured with his own conscience for what he has done, I admire Macbeth for fighting right up to the end, when he realizes that Macduff was not born but as Macduff states: -
“From his mothers womb untimely ripped”
, Macbeth refuses to kiss the ground at Macduff’s feet knowing he is going to die, this I feel were the actions of a brave man and I admire him for his courage to fight till the end with his last challenging words: -
“I throw my warlike shield, lag on Macduff, and dammed be him that first Aries, hold enough!!!”
The words I consider of a brave admirable man.
In conclusion Shakespeare manipulates our views of Macbeth because he uses the witches, and Lady Macbeth to influence our views of Macbeth's character. They provoke him and help to create more ambition.
At the end of the play we admire Macbeth for his Braveness. He says: -
“My name is Macbeth”
I admire Macbeth for saying this because he is trying to convince himself who he is, he knows that he has done wrong, and he is maybe regretting what he has done, and wants to live up to his name. I thought Shakespeare wrote a very influencing play, he changes our views of Macbeth throughout the play, I liked the play and I like the way Shakespeare writes this play.
