Macbeth's transformation from a respected leader to a despised and isolated tyrant

by gmcc123 (student)

Macbeth’s Transformation from a Respected Leader to a Despised and Isolated Tyrant

If we are to experience tragic empathy with our protagonist, it is essential to acknowledge that he is no shallow killer but a man who moves tragically from a respected leader to a despised and isolated tyrant. It is this decline which constitutes his personal transformation. Helen Gardner describes Macbeth’s transformation as a path to damnation beginning at one extreme and ending at the other: “From a brave and loyal general, to a treacherous murderer, to a hirer of assassins, to an employer of spies, to a butcher, to a coward, to a thing with no feeling for anything but itself, to a monster and a hell-hound.”

The opening plaudits of the play present Macbeth as a military hero with references to him as “brave Macbeth”, “Valour’s minion” and “Bellona’s bridegroom”. We are told of his success in war but through the descriptions of his actions on the battlefield, we learn that he is a man well accustomed to bloodshed and slaughter. We wonder should this have been a warning to us from the very beginning that he has no problem with the aspect of killing people? However, we await his personal arrival to assess his moral character. Confronted with witches and their prophecy about his future kingship, Macbeth cannot but be deeply disturbed and excited. He is impatient to hear more from the Witches about the prophecy, “Stay, you imperfect speakers.” We are now aware of Macbeth’s “”vaulting ambition” as he is curious to hear more of what the Witches have to say. This is the first step in his alteration from a state of “human kindness” to that of a “dead butcher”.

Macbeth is instantly promoted to Thane of Cawdor and he cannot help taking the Witches and their prophecies even more seriously. Temptation enters his mind, overcome with thoughts of murder and the possibility of becoming king. After the first prophecy has been fulfilled, Macbeth starts to think of committing regicide by murdering Duncan and seizing the crown. However, Lady Macbeth fears that he is too good a man to do anything wrong. He is “too full o’ the milk of human kindness”. Macbeth is a reluctant criminal and we see this with his killing of Duncan, where he hesitates beforehand, making a powerful case against what he is about to do and then approaching the deed with horror itself. We feel that he has been morally blackmailed by his wife into perpetrating the crime. Macbeth is seen as the pitiful victim in a crime he was unwilling to commit in the first place from his traumatised state after killing Duncan. His inability to return to the scene of the crime, the reference to his own hands as “hangman hands” and the traumatisation of the idea that sleep has been murdered, “Macbeth shall sleep no more”, all show his self-condemnation and self-disgust at the crime he has just committed. However, Macbeth knew that the murder was a violation of the laws of God and of man and that he could have resisted his wife’s urge, but he chose not to and so knew what he was doing from the outset and throughout. This is a further change in his character from a decorated leader to a loathed and alienated oppressor.

In Act 2 Scene 1, the start of Macbeth’s isolation is apparent when Banquo tells him that he dreamt of the Witches last night and Macbeth replied, “I think not of them”. This shows the disintegration of their friendship and Macbeth becoming solitary without him even knowing. He feels that the Witches have given him a “barren sceptre” and a “fruitless crown” as Banquo has been promised a line of kings. Macbeth sees this as a threat and vows to change fate as per the prophecies. This shows the beginning of him becoming obsessed with the prospect of being King ...

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Macbeth’s deeds become more revolting to our feelings and our moral senses as they are undertaken willingly and with a sense of ghoulish enthusiasm. His lack of trust is conveyed when he hires a third murderer to kill Banquo and this also shows his need for control. He lacks the excuse that the deed was thrust upon him by someone else and portrays the fears and insecurities of a tyrant. A new and less attractive side to Macbeth reveals him as a cunning, calculating and deceitful man who suffers a sharp moral decline. There is no evidence now of the guilt-haunted, tormented, reluctant criminal who carried out Duncan’s murder. The deterioration of the relationship between husband and wife is now apparent in the isolation of both characters when Macbeth doesn’t tell Lady Macbeth about his plans to kill Banquo. In becoming what she has moulded Macbeth to be, Lady Macbeth is no longer needed or included in his schemes. Her role has been fulfilled. Macbeth keeps all plans to himself, resulting in further isolation and this shows the degradation of his character from an admired leader to an infamous and secluded authoritarian.

The Banquet Scene shows the manifestation of Macbeth’s guilt through the appearance of Banquo’s ghost. Macbeth portrays that he trusts nobody, “Which of you have done this?”, and that he has become a tyrant who cannot depend on the loyalty of his followers. This is a decisive stage in Macbeth’s alienation from his subjects. The final movement in the scene conveys compelling visual images of Macbeth’s separation from his subjects, who leave his feast in hasty disorder. This is not the only abandonment that he suffers. We learn that Fleance has escaped, that Macduff refuses to come to Court at Macbeth’s strict command, and that the latter can depend so little on the loyalty of his followers that he must keep a paid servant in all their houses. This portrays the metamorphosis of a well renowned leader to a repugnant and isolated totalitarian.

With the murder of Lady Macduff and her children, a new sense of Macbeth’s moral decline forces itself upon us. This is Macbeth’s lowest point in the play as he commits an act of purposeless and unspeakable savagery. It is enacted in broad daylight and in full view of the audience while the sympathetic portrayal of Lady Macduff moments before she is murdered adds to the outrage which the deed provokes. It is inevitable that we should side emotionally as well as intellectually with the forces preparing for his overthrow. Macbeth kills an innocent wife and her children just to show his power and this conveys his total isolation from God and man. This shows his conversion from a praised leader to a hated and lonely ruler.

The Scottish lords look forward to the end of the reviled tyrant’s reign and restoration of natural order in the country. Scotland is in dire condition, no longer like a home to its citizens but a “grave”, where only those living in total ignorance are happy. Malcolm and Macduff’s desire to bring Macbeth’s tyrannical regime to an end signifies that he is now in total isolation and shows the impact that he had as a ruler on the country. He has been abandoned by his lords and soldiers as they want him out of the country: “Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself; / Within my sword’s length set him.” The rebellion of Macbeth’s nobles and soldiers against him tells us that he will soon be overturned on the throne and that he has totally secluded himself from the normal world. This shows his alteration from a respected leader to a scorned and solitary dictator.

Macbeth’s indifferent response to Lady Macbeth’s death is cold and callous and his lack of reaction shows us how tyrannical he has become. He says that she would have died anyway: “She should have died hereafter; /There would have been a time for such a word.” Macbeth acknowledges that time is passing and whereas many people who grow old bring with them “honour, love, obedience, troops of friends”, all earned and gathered throughout the course of a good life, he knows that none of these things will accompany him. This shows Macbeth’s regret at the realisation of what he has forsaken. An altogether appropriate image of his total isolation is portrayed through his defiant cry, “They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly; /But bear-like I must fight the course.” Macbeth now acknowledges that he has changed from a decorated leader to a loathed and alienated tyrant.

The transformation from a respected leader to a despised and isolated tyrant is complete. The pattern of Macbeth’s isolation has involved him in much more than a progressive and physical moral detachment from other human beings. He has been in exile from the world of daylight, familiar with witches and with apparitions unseen by anyone else, making discoveries about his predicament which he could never share with others who have not dared to sound the depths of evil that he has.