“Fair is foul and foul is fair”
This shows that Shakespeare wants the audience to perceive the witches as evil as they believe that Bad things are good and good things are bad. Despite this Macbeth cannot see through this and the witches plant the idea of being King into Macbeth’s thoughts, which encourages Macbeth to consider his future. In the following soliloquy, Macbeth shows the audience his initial plan to murder Duncan, so that he shall have power to the throne, this will happen as previously Macbeth had defeated the recently named heir to the throne, Malcolm, the King’s son and also prevented Banquo’s son from gaining access to the throne.
“My thought, whose murther is yet but fantastical.”
Macbeth writes a letter to Lady Macbeth explaining the witches’ prophecy. He also questions her about his plans concerning the murder of Duncan; this is how he removes some of the responsibility of the planning of the murder from himself, by accepting her guidance.
It is clear to the audience that from the moment Lady Macbeth receives Macbeth’s letter she is planning the murder. To be a man in Elizabethan times meant you were to have a strong personality and be able to fight and kill with no remorse. This is a recurrent theme in the play as Macbeth’s masculinity is undermined on several occasions by Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth realises from this that she must be able to persuade him into the murder, so she calls upon the spirits and asks,
“Come, you spirits
That tend on moral thoughts, unsex me here
And fill me from the crown to the toe topfull
Of direst cruelty.”
The supernatural will aid her in the hardening of her heart and make it possible for her to carry out her malicious plans, of which she will persuade Macbeth to
“Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it.”
And this will enable him to commit the murder. As he does not wish to be a coward and ruin his honour as “brave Macbeth”. Lady Macbeth believes that Macbeth’s downfall is his vaulting ambition
“Thou wouldst be great, art not without ambition.”
Macbeth’s ambition is ever present and mentioned by Macbeth himself,
“His besetting sin: I have no spur, to prick the sides of my
Intent, but only vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself.”
At the very start of the play the audience discovers that Macbeth is a brave warrior
“For brave Macbeth- well he deserves that name.”
I believe that Macbeth’s ambition could have been stirred up as he is the King’s cousin and he did not just want to be seen as a Thane or just a brave warrior he wished to be seen as a greater asset to his country. It is clear to the audience that Lady Macbeth is intent to help Macbeth achieve his ambition we learn this after she reads her letter, in the soliloquy she revels this by saying,
“The illness should attend it.”
Macbeth’s ambition also pushes him towards the murder of Duncan in many other ways. Macbeth clearly feels that killing Duncan is an option as he uses soliloquy’s often in order to show his true feelings to the audience,
“Present fears… My thought, who murder is…”
Macbeth at this moment shows the audience how he has considered killing Duncan as an option, you can tell that it is his own ambition that has driven this thought as Lady Macbeth is not present at this time to pressurise him so in this soliloquy Macbeth is able to speak freely his own thoughts. Macbeth is also very two faced at this point as he can easily socialise with the King and show no remorse to his thoughts, this shows how cold-hearted he has become. Macbeth’s cold-heartedness becomes ever present when he plans the murder of his friend Banquo,
“With barefaced power sweep him from my sight.”
I believe this shows how his ambition has now finally blocked Macbeth of all moral thoughts, as he is now able to organise the murder of a close friend as he may get in the way of his goal/ ambition to be King, I believe this shows that ambition is one of the final factors of his final descent into evil.
From this point Macbeth’s mind becomes full of evil images,
“Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand?”
This shows an evil image which Macbeth sees, in this part of the play Macbeth sees an image of a dagger hovering in the air as if to draw him in and persuade him to kill Duncan. Macbeth sees these images as his mind is becoming unsound due to the fear and insecurity he endures, the reason I think he sees these images is because of his association with the three witches, thus associating with the supernatural which has left his mind scared. Macbeth gradually falls apart as the play continues; this is brought to the audience’s attention through the use of dramatic devices, most of all the soliloquy.
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No: this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.”
This soliloquy shows the audience how paranoid and scared Macbeth is feeling inside, although he does not wish to show this in front of Lady Macbeth. At this point the audience become increasingly aware of Macbeth’s increasing insecurity and obsession with fear. But Macbeth’s fear and insecurity does also lead more to his descent into evil as it leads to more deaths, Macbeth fear of Macduff being a threat to his position as king and also his fear that Banquo’s descendants will become King greater drives him into his descent into evil as his fear of these things cause him to kill again and again.
In conclusion it is clear that there are many possible reasons why Macbeth may have behaved like he did, committing murders and following his descent into evil but, the killing of Duncan starts an unstoppable chain of events in the play that ends with the murder of Macbeth and the suicide of Lady Macbeth. Macbeth chooses to murder Duncan. Macbeth, in the beginning had all the qualities of an honourable gentleman who could become anything. This is all shattered when his ambition overrides his sense of morality. Although Macbeth is warned as to the validity of the witches prophesies, he is tempted and refuses to listen to reasons from Banquo. When the second set of prophesies Macbeth receives begin to show their faults Macbeth blames the witches for deceiving him with half truths. While the witches are not totally responsible for the actions of Macbeth, they are responsible for introducing the ideas to Macbeth which in turn fired up Macbeth’s ambition and led to a disastrous and unnecessary chain of events.