“ Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs
Against the use of nature? ”
Macbeth isn’t too sure of what it is that is making his hair stand on end and his firmly fixed heart thump hard against his ribcage. Macbeth knows that it could possibly be the thoughts making him scared. The main thought rushing about Macbeth’s head is that- what could he possibly do if he is determined to become King?
“Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings.
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man that function
Is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is,
But what is not.”
The fears are deeper than imaginings for Macbeth, as the witches did come to him and they did put the words into his head to persuade his thoughts. Although it’s just a contemplation murder comes to his mind, no matter how much it causes his body to shake through fear and horror deep down Macbeth is tempted. Shakespeare expresses Macbeth’s state of mind as much through the irregular grammar, as through the meaning of his words. Macbeth ends his discussion of feelings by saying to himself that nothing matters now except what is yet to come, this is Macbeth’s conscience trying to assure him that he won’t have to murder King Duncan and that it is best to leave the thoughts forgotten in his head.
The second soliloquy occurs in Act 1 Scene 7 lines 1-30. Macbeth now knows how he will become King. In this scene he is discussing to himself the good and bad points of killing his King Duncan, he is also worried of many other things. Lady Macbeth knows what Macbeth will do; she wants him to kill Duncan as she thirsts for the authority and honour of becoming the Queen, being higher and better than everybody else.
“If it were done when ‘tis done, ‘twere well
It were done quickly.”
Macbeth feels it is best to get the assassination of King Duncan done that night as Duncan is staying in Macbeth’s castle and it is unknown when again he will get another easy chance to kill him.
“With his surcease, success, that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all⎯here”
All Macbeth needs to do is give one blow to King Duncan and it will be the end of it all. He doesn’t need to worry about it taking ages and being noisy as everyone else in the castle will be drugged apart from Macbeth and Lady Macbeth who will be working together to carry out the murder.
“We still have judgement here that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which being taught, return
To plague th’inventor.”
These lines explain how Macbeth believes that the crimes we do set an example on others, which they learn and use to commit crimes against us.
“He’s here in double trust:
First as I am his kinsman and his subject,”
Macbeth believes really he should be obedient to Duncan, as he is Macbeth’s King and he’s guest, therefore he should protect King Duncan and not murder him.
“Strong both against deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself”
Macbeth thinks that if he is a good man he should be doing his best to defend his guests, but he intends to kill one and has drugged all of the other guests.
“Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office”
Although Macbeth wants to kill King Duncan he deems him as a good man who has been a great king for many people including him. Macbeth feels sorry for Duncan slightly, Duncan had much faith in Macbeth and believed him to be a loyal and obedient man towards his people and their king.
“The deep damnation of his taking-off.
And pity, like a naked newborn babe
Striding the blast”
Macbeth imagines pity, which has all the weakness of a baby yet, is able to overcome the horrid deed of the blast, this is the pity Macbeth feels for King Duncan. Although he didn’t want to be filled with pity Macbeth couldn’t help but be, his king the man he had thought for, respected and honoured was going to be killed by him.
“That tears shall drown the wind”
The metaphor describes how the sorrow will try to drown the wind meaning that Macbeth knows that many people will be shocked and upset by the death of King Duncan as he had been a noble King, a friend or relative to people, but their tears will not make a difference to the world. He died and that was it, people die eventually.
“I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself
And falls on th’other⎯”
Macbeth knows that all he has left is his excessive ambition to help him with his intentions and he compares it as being like a horse that tries to jump too high over a vault and falls onto the other side. Macbeth knows that he can murder King Duncan but he is unsure of what will happen afterwards.
William Shakespeare portrays many of Macbeth’s weakness in this soliloquy, how he cannot make up his mind whether or not he is for killing King Duncan or against.. Macbeth had gone from a brave, strong man to a man who was driven by his lust for the ‘golden round’
The third soliloquy is Act 2 Scene 1. Banquo and his son are going to bed when they meet Macbeth who is getting ready for his grim task. Macbeth denies having thought about the witches to Banquo though we know he has as he is going to murder the King that night. When Macbeth is eventually left to be alone, he speaks out his feelings.
“Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still”
Macbeth hallucinates; he sees a dagger hover in front of him leading him to the king’s room. Shakespeare uses this to make the scene tense, Macbeth keeps asking himself questions as he unsure of what he sees, he doesn’t know whether or not he is awake as nothing seems real. He is trying to get on and murder the King but he is hallucinating images of a dagger, the thought of murder is controlling him.
“A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?”
He realises he is hallucinating though he is unsure, he believes it is happening because he is disturbed and overheated. Macbeth presumes that these thoughts of murder are causing him to hallucinate visions of a dagger.
“Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going,
And such an instrument I was to use.”
Macbeth believes the dagger is there to guide him and beckon him to murder King Duncan. Shakespeare expresses Macbeth’s inner feelings in this scene of him being upset and agitated with everything. Many thoughts are running through his head and these thoughts are trying to take over him.
“Mine eyes are made the fools o’th’ other senses,
Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There’s no such thing:
It is the bloody business which informs”
Macbeth is getting annoyed, the sight of the dagger is intimidating him. He believes his eyes are either deceived or they are better than all the other senses. Macbeth sees on the blade splashes of blood which weren’t there before, ‘there’s no such thing’ he encourages himself, sounding like a child who is trying to persuade themselves not to believe in something they’re scared of. Shakespeare makes Macbeth say to himself ‘It is the bloody business which informs’ as a reminder in the play of the fear of the dagger, the dagger wants to tell Macbeth of how difficult it can all be. But there is also a fear of what he could end up doing with it. Shakespeare uses these words in the play to bring fear amongst the audience plus there is also the fact that Macbeth may seem as if he is driving himself mad with all these thoughts.
Macbeth prays that his evil goes unnoticed hidden from the eyes of heaven-
“Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives;
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives”
Macbeth prays that it all goes unnoticed and that his words will help cool down his grim deed. Shakespeare shows the desperateness of Macbeth to be King but also his hope not to lose his soul, he pleads that all memories of the murder will be left forgotten.
The bell rings, It is Macbeth’s queue to proceed and kill King Duncan as the coast is clear. Macbeth says to himself-
“I go, and it is done. The bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell. ”
Macbeth knows that it is now or never, he does not want to lose his chance of becoming a King. The bell encourages him to advance, he also knows that Lady Macbeth has organised it all so the scene is clear for him, how can Macbeth disappoint her when she has tried so hard?
The fourth Soliloquy Act 3 Scene 1. In this scene Banquo becomes suspicious of Macbeth, whilst Macbeth arranges for Banquo and his son Fleance to be murdered as they are threats to his throne. We find out just how much Macbeth is willing to betray people so he can stay safe.
Macbeth’s soliloquy shows him still distressed, upset, agitated and unsure of what to do next. Macbeth wanted to be king, but he has gained no good from it. He can no longer sleep for weariness and fear.
“To be thus is nothing,
But to be safely thus”
The position of being king has many secret threats. Macbeth has learnt that he is isolated and open to attack just like King Duncan was by him.
Macbeth is annoyed, as he had killed King Duncan to find out that when Macbeth dies Banquo’s children will inherit the throne according to the witches. He has filled himself with black thoughts just so Banquo’s children will succeed. This is why Macbeth intends to kill Banquo and his son, as they are an irritating threat to his throne. Macbeth knows what he wants to do next; he wants to kill Banquo. He discusses to himself the reasons-
“Reigns that would be fear’d. ‘Tis much he dares,
And to that dauntless temper of his mind,”
Macbeth thinks of how Banquo has an overpowering nobility and a courageous spirit. within his character which he should be worried of
“My genius is rebuk’d, as it is said
Mark Antony’s was by Caesar”
Macbeth compares himself to Mark Antony who was told by a soothsayer that his guiding spirit was not powerful enough to oppose that of Octavius Caesar.
“Upon my head they plac’d a fruitless crown
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe”
Macbeth has gone through murdering his king for the crown, when all he has gained will be lost. He has a crown and sceptre of which he cannot pass down to his descendants- He has “a fruitless crown”.
“For them the gracious Duncan have I murder’d ,
Put rancours in the vessel of my peace
Only for them, and mine eternal jewel
Given to the common enemy of man
To make them kings, the seeds of Banquo kings”
Macbeth has killed a good king, poisoned himself with his own bitter ill-feelings all for Banquo’s children and his immortal soul to be handed over to the devil. Banquo’s children made into kings. It all angers Macbeth deeply, as he went through killing Duncan, which was difficult for him only to have all his efforts, lost.
“Rather than so, come Fate into the list,
And champion me to th’utterance.”
Macbeth is calling out to fate to come and challenge him, if fate would come and challenge him into a possibly fatal duel. Macbeth says this as he knows that after him the throne will be passed on to someone who is not a descendant of him. He wants to duel with fate, as if he is killed in combat at least it was his fate to die.
These lines show that although Macbeth knows and will kill Banquo he is also unsure of his fate. He believes that if he can challenge fate he can then have a further idea of what will happen in his life: whether or not he will die then, or later at another point.
In the fifth soliloquy of Act 5 Scene 3 lines 20-28 we learn that Macbeth is becoming more and more agitated. Macbeth is told in this scene that armies are approaching and of his wife’s condition of nightmarish sleepwalking. At the end of the scene Macbeth heads of to battle. The soliloquy follows a message from a servant of the size of the army.
“Seyton!- I am sick at heart,
When I behold -Seyton, I say!-this push
Will cheer me ever or disseat me now.
I have liv‘d long enough. My way of life
Is fall‘n into the sere, the yellow leaf”
Macbeth calls for a messenger he believes that this attack will either comfort him or de-throne him. He believes he has lived long enough and it is his time to fall. Shakespeare uses a simile to describe through Macbeth’s words that he will fall like a dying leaf onto the withered floor.
“As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but in their stead,
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.”
Macbeth knows that the people around him respect him only because they have to. He has noticed how they do not come to him instantly whenever he calls for them and that all he has left is their honour of words. He explains how deep inside the people curse and insult him, but their hearts would never allow them to speak their feelings out aloud, no matter how much they want to, as Macbeth is their King. At this point in the play Macbeth is being complacent, he knows that there is a large army of enemies growing closer but he refuses to believe he is at risk. The witches told him he only had to fear a man born not from a woman, and Macbeth knows that this is impossible.
In Act 5 scene 5 lines 9-26 Macbeth is in his castle whilst the battle with the enemy army is at its height. In this scene Macbeth hears that Lady Macbeth had died and that Birnam Wood is coming towards Dunsinane. The lines I am studying, begins from the point in which a woman cry is heard, the cry belongs to Lady Macbeth.
“I have almost forgot the taste of fears;
The time has been, my sense would have cool’d
To hear a night-shriek and my fell of hair (...)”
Macbeth has lost many things by murdering Duncan; he has lost his fear, his troops of friends, respect from others, slayed sleep and his wife of whom he shared the grim task with. Macbeth’s reaction to the shriek is- a normal person would jolt and get a shiver down their spine at the sound of a scream at night, but not I for my senses have frozen. Macbeth no longer has fear for anything, as he believes he knows almost all there is to know. He believes he is safe from all harms as the witches had said that his only threats were from a man born not from a woman and that his time would come when Birnam wood moves up the hill to Dunsinane.
“I have supp’d full with horrors;
Direness familiar to my slaughterous thoughts
Cannot once start me. Wherefore was that cry”
Macbeth speaks out that he knows horror, horror familiar to those brutal thoughts he had before the murder of King Duncan. Though these thoughts can no longer startle him as he had been there before and he knows these horrors. Macbeth is beginning to get feelings of deja-vous from the night in which he killed Duncan, he is curious to find out where the cry had came from.
Macbeth is told that the cry belonged to Lady Macbeth and that she is dead.
“She would have died hereafter;
There would have been time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day”
Macbeth doesn’t seem shocked by the dark news. He believed that it would have happened sooner or later. “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” Shakespeare uses assonance vowels to exaggerate Macbeth’s words, he wanted to set the mood dull.
Each day comes and goes at an unimportant pace as we all know we will eventually die, these are Macbeth’s opinions on Lady Macbeth’s death.
“Out, out, brief candle,
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more”
Macbeth thinks about Lady Macbeth’s life, out went the briefly burning symbolic candle of Life. He compares life to a walking shadow: how life can go as quickly as it had came to you, and how a bad actor can constantly parade upon the stage, be seen almost everywhere and then suddenly be forgotten when there career or life ends.
Macbeth understands that when people die they eventually are forgotten he knows this will happen to him.
“It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury”
Macbeth decides to be stubborn he will not be forgotten and nor will Lady Macbeth. He believes that its just a tale, and that it had came to his head only because he is starting to feel bad, he knows that he seriously made a mistake by killing King Duncan and if he could right a wrong I believe he would go back and ignore the witches prophecies. Macbeth isn’t upset by Lady Macbeth’s death, as their relationship had been drifting apart since the murder and that she wasn’t the one to lose her immortal soul. Macbeth calls himself an idiot who is just angry about everything around him.
In the seventh soliloquy Act 5 scene 7 lines 1-4 inside or before the Dunsinane castle stands Macbeth. Macbeth shows us in this soliloquy that he is feeling isolated and trapped, the army of enemies are growing nearer and nearer whilst Macbeth begins to worry
“They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly,
But bear-like I must fight the course.”
Macbeth is trapped, he is stuck in his castle on top of the hill circled by his enemies. Macbeth is feeling depressed he knows that he will be killed, all he feels he can do is stay and be like a bear used in bear-baiting. Shakespeare expresses through Macbeth’s thoughts in the soliloquy how he compares his feelings to the torturous murder of bears used in bear baiting. The bears are chained to a post, dogs are released to find the bear and kill it, just like Macbeth saying how he feels as if he is tied to a stake waiting for his enemies to come and kill him.
“What’s he that was not born of a woman?
Such a one am I to fear, or none.”
Macbeth wonders if the witches’ words were just a lark, that the only thing that can harm him is a man born not from a woman. He thinks- I do not know of things born not from a woman? What is he? Who is he? Macbeth is unsure about what to fear, or is there nothing to fear? Shakespeare portrays Macbeth in this soliloquy of being unsure and confused as usual but also slightly mad, he is racking through his brain on what is going to happen. Macbeth probably is a nervous wreck by this point as everything is falling apart around him and he hasn’t a clue what to do.
In the final soliloquy Act 5 scene 8 lines 1-3 we find out how much Macbeth has changed since the witches’ first visit, many things have happened since on top of many changes.
“Why should I play the Roman fool and die
On mine own sword? While I see lives, the gashes
Do better upon them.”
Macbeth questions himself, “Why should I play the Roman fool and die on my own sword?” He disbelieves in committing suicide to gain honour rather than surrender to his enemy, especially with his own sword the sword of which held one of his strongest characteristics from the past-bravery. Macbeth is feeling anguished due to all the emotions running high due to his knowledge of death drawing nearer. Macbeth believes that all the other people deserve death more than he does, He believes it well do better upon them for they have a soul. Macbeth is showing how selfish and obstinate he can be. Macbeth’s personality has changed quite a lot since the start of the play, he has became egocentric, obsessed with keeping hold of the throne and overall controlled, he has been controlled by his greed for power and honour.
Malcom’s men Macduff and his soldiers enter Dunsinane castle. Macduff was delivered prematurely at birth from Caesarean section which makes him a man born not from a woman. When Macbeth finds out that Macduff was delivered by Caesarean he describes his feelings to Macduff-
“For it hath cow’d my better part of man”
Macduff’s words had disheartened Macbeth’s courage. Macduff calls Macbeth a coward, which is an attack on Macbeth’s bravery so Macbeth says out to Macduff
“Yet I will try the last. Before my body,
I throw my warlike shield.”
Macbeth gives in to the taunts of Macduff and says to him that he will make a final attempt and fight with Macduff. Macbeth is slayed and his body is taken away.
The play ends with a celebration in which Malcom is proclaimed as the new king of Scotland. People at the celebration discuss of how Macbeth got what he deserved, he paid his debt. The cursed head of Macbeth is brought in to the room by Macduff and everybody calls out to Malcom
“Hail, King Of Scotland”
I believe Shakespeare had a meaning behind this play, that the pure greed and lust for something can control a person’s world and tear it apart. In each soliloquy throughout the play Macbeth Shakespeare has shown how unsure Macbeth has been about his thoughts, desires and his actions. I believe in the end Macbeth got what he deserved as he had killed an innocent person which was unwise, and because of this he ignorantly tore his life up into pieces
