The idea that Macbeth’s ambition and desire is tied into every aspect of his life is exemplified by the fact that his wife, Lady Macbeth, is also shown in her first appearance in 1:5, to be filled with ambition upon her reading of Macbeth’s letter. This ambition is made explicit to the audience when the Lady tells us that she asks for spirits, for evil powers, to ‘unsex’ her, to remove the ‘weakness’ perceived in women, in that they lack the brutality and violence that men do, so that she may do whatever is necessary to obtain the throne from King Duncan, even if it means going against the natural order of nature. Indeed, the very word she uses, ‘unsex’, shares its ‘un-‘prefix with the word ‘unseam’, used earlier in reference to Macbeth, to show the same masculine brutality and savagery Lady Macbeth acknowledges herself as lacking. Alternatively, her asking to be ‘unsexed’ could be an attempt at declaring her desire to change her actual bodily functions, with the statement. The mere fact that a woman should possess such power over a man was unheard of in the Jacobean era, and that the man in question should be in such a high position of power would be an unthinkable notion, which creates an interesting case in terms of the plays status as a tragedy; Macbeth’s high status as the Thane of Cawdor makes him an ideal protagonist, while also serving as a means by which to grip the audience through the dominating role of his wife in the relationship; a dominating nature which is exemplified best at moments such as when she taunts him for hesitating in killing Duncan, by saying “When you durst do it, then you were a man; / And, to be more than what you were, you would / Be so much more the man.”, thus encouraging him to do what she lacks the physical strength to do herself. The fact that Macbeth would allow his wife to take control of him in such a manner demonstrates the unnatural nature of all that Macbeth is, from the setting in which the events of the play takes place (a cold, almost inhospitable landscape would be unfamiliar to a Jacobean audience), to the themes of witchcraft and ‘equivocation’ that are present throughout.
Another major external influence on Macbeth, and the first characters we are introduced to are the witches three, the ‘Weird Sisters’, a term derived from the Anglo-Saxon ‘wyrd sisters’, with ‘wyrd’ meaning destiny, but not the ‘inescapable fate’ believed in by the Ancient Greeks, which was seen as something set in stone; ‘wyrd’ was an ever changing force, influenced by one’s own actions, i.e. if one has been cruel and selfish, a punishment for this behaviour would follow. The naming ‘wyrd’ demonstrates their influences over Macbeth, and gives his eventual fate a sense of inevitability – the witches prophecies will undoubtedly lead him into corruption and eventual downfall, a concept which provides the audience for an opportunity to empathise with the doomed Macbeth, as many of them would have believed in the idea of the witches possessing nigh-inescapable powers. However, as A D Nuttall has said, the Sisters are also closely associated with domesticity, thus sidelining their importance in the minds of the audience, and making Macbeth’s mind seem the larger component in his downfall, as opposed to their influence.
The prophecies made by the witches seem to affect Macbeth in the sense that he is corrupted by them on a very personal level – Macbeth seems to mirror the witches in certain phrases he uses, and in certain mannerisms he possesses, an example of such being that in 1:1, the witches state that ‘fair is foul, and foul is fair’, a chiasmus which, at first, gives the impression of a spell being cast, but when Macbeth echoes the sentiment in 1:3, by saying he “has not seen” so “fair and foul a day”, this seems to suggest that Macbeth is already under the influence of the witches, however subtly, when we are first introduced to him. The power of the Witches over Macbeth, and his relative powerlessness is made clear very early on in the play, with Macbeth being unable to respond to them in any way when they initially ‘hail’ him, leading to his having to be brought back to attention by Banquo, who asks him ‘Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear’, a statement which creates a certain amount of dramatic irony in the sense that the Witches are not ‘starting’ anything, they are merely giving Macbeth the push he needed to act on his murderous, regicidal desires. Following this, he attempts to order the Witches to continue in their telling of his future, saying “...speak, I charge you”, yet, instead of sounding like a command given by someone in a position of authority, the ‘charge’ sounds hollow, and untrue. The idea of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both feeling ‘hollow’, or ‘empty’, is recurring throughout the play, with constant references to their innate desire to ‘fill’ themselves, with Macbeth ordering in 3:4, “Give me some wine; fill full!”, alongside “I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing” which continues the notion of emptiness, or the notion of being ‘nothing’. Indeed, by this point, Macbeth has murdered both Duncan and Banquo, acts which have possibly caused him to lose his humanity; should this be taken to be true, Macbeth does indeed, have ‘nothing’ left, as his soul, that which defines oneself, is gone. The Witches potentially power-draining influence is shown again in the way in which Macbeth changes from being a skilled military commander, to being an arrogant, finally powerless tyrant – in 5:3, Macbeth orders his soldiers not to give him any more reports until ‘Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane’, an order which is easy to see as being feckless coming from the ruler of a nation, and is indicative of Macbeth, though he has gained status, has lost power, as he has lost control over his army, over his people, and over his own desires, and has thus, instead of achieving absolute power, has achieved absolute powerlessness.
In conclusion, though Macbeth has committed many atrocities, and many horrible deeds – he has murdered God’s chosen King, and arranged the murder of his best friend, Banquo, to say he alone was solely responsible for his destruction, would be unfair, and not only that, it would take away the pity we feel for him by the end of the play, and remove the element of catharsis that we, as an audience undergo. Indeed, without the persuasion and the assurances of the witches, and the bullying and persuasion Macbeth receives on the part of Lady Macbeth, one cannot say he would be able to muster up the remorselessness needed to “o’erlap” the obstacles that prevent him from obtaining power, thus allowing us to empathise with him and his ‘fall from grace. The complexities of what drives Macbeth to commit such deeds as he has are what make him a brilliant tragic character; contrastingly, characters such as Giovanni from John Ford’s “’Tis Pity She’s A Whore” are easy to categorise – arrogant, self-centred intellectuals who push onwards with no regard for others, simply for their own personal gain, qualities which lead to their downfalls evoking little to no sympathy from the audience, especially when placed next to the multitude of reasons behind Macbeth’s descent into madness.
1487 Words
Jawwaad Hussain
Bibliography
- Macbeth – William Shakespeare (Cambridge School Shakespeare)
- Tragedy: A Student Handbook - Sean McEvoy (English & Media Centre)
- The Views about Hamlet and Other Essays - Albert Harris Tolman (Houghton, Mifflin and Co.)
