“All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor.
All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter.”
Just after hearing this, Macbeth and Banquo, his noble friend and a general in the King’s army receive a message from Ross that Macbeth has been awarded the title of “Thane of Cawdor” from the king for his bravery in repelling the rebellion. Then Macbeth is conveyed to think about the ideas of “the greatest.” The witches had also told them that Banquo would be the father to a line of kings. So they contemplate about how the rest of the prophecy will come true.
Banquo says in the 124th line (third scene in the first act),
“The instruments of darkness tells us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ‘s
In deepest consequence.”
In his mind and in his speech witches are portrayed as bad. He calls them instruments of darkness and the devil. He might believe that the witches’ prophecies are aimed at inflicting harm even before anything begins to happen. He sees beyond the witches and can see that their original intention is bad whereas Macbeth is taken in by the witches and this “blindness” is what causes his downward spiral of problems. So he is warned by his best friend, Banquo before Macbeth makes any decision that the witches are wicked and what they suggest is evil and a trap for his ill-future. If Macbeth had considered his friend’s advice seriously then perhaps the tragic events to follow could have been prevented.
Macbeth writes a letter to Lady Macbeth explaining what has happened. Lady Macbeth is portrayed early in the play as a woman with high aspiration and single purpose. She is selfless and wants the best for her husband. Lady Macbeth begins to meditate “what impedes from the golden round” (fifth scene in the first act). She desperately wants her husband to be the king (and herself to be the queen) and she calls upon the aids of the evil “spirits” to help her in her quest for the crown. Lady Macbeth obviously has a very different reaction from Macbeth when she hears about the witches’ prophecies. She seems almost more sanguinary and expresses her keenness for Macbeth to fulfil this prophecy. Although desperately wanting the prophecies to become true, she approaches Macbeth who lacks the intensity of feeling as his wife does, to commit regicide. Before speaking with Lady Macbeth, Macbeth never wanted to kill Duncan. But Lady Macbeth can manipulate her husband easily. This is shown in the line “that I may pour my spirit in thine ear” (fifth scene of first act). She handles Macbeth’s self-esteem by challenging on his bravery and manliness. Macbeth, like a child who is easily guided agrees to murder the king Duncan. Lady Macbeth knows this and acts accordingly. Lady Macbeth is the dominating partner in the relationship between herself and her husband and this is shown in the soliloquy in the fifth scene of the first act. Although he can make the final decision in whether or not to kill king Duncan, he loves Lady Macbeth and wants to fulfil her wishes. It is clear that she can convince him on to do anything as long as she pushes the right button in. for example she questions Macbeth as,
“Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act, and valour,
As thou art in desire?”
This is clearly a teasing comment on his manliness.
King Duncan is invited to Macbeth’s castle, and it is there that he will be killed as to the contrivance of Lady Macbeth. She encourages Macbeth to “look like th’ innocent flower, But be a serpent under ‘t.” In this sentence two imageries are employed by Shakespeare to convey the meaning effectively to the audience. One of it is animal imagery which represents the ferocious and cunning nature of the snake and other is a similie which beautifully compares the attitude of Macbeth with naive flower. Macbeth still has exception to their agreement but he can only wander as his wife prepare for “this night’s great business.”
Macbeth eventually kills King Duncan, a destruction of natural order; it was sometimes thought that witches had the ability to reverse the natural order of things. This introduced the theme of fate and its role in the play. It is more realistic to believe that Macbeth wad responsible for his own actions throughout the play as in the end it was he who had the final says. Macbeth becomes the dominating individual again and Lady Macbeth becomes subordinate after the regicide. The ambitious nature of Lady Macbeth drives her to persuade her husband to kill the king Duncan. Macbeth’s fierce ambition along with the witches’ prophecies leads him to kill the king. It is she, who state,
“Thou wouldst be great,
Art not without ambition.”
Macbeth says that,
“His besetting sin: I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition.”
Macbeth’s ambition is deep within him and because of this both the witches and Lady Macbeth are able to persuade him to evil easily.
The witches could foretell the future, they can add temptation, and influence Macbeth. Macbeth became impatient and tried to hurry becoming the king as quickly as he could because of the witches’ prophecies. But it is a pity that they cannot control his destiny. Macbeth creates his own misery when he is driven by his own sense of guilt. This makes him feel insecure as to the reason for his actions which in turn causes him to commit more murders. For example, he tries to kill Banquo and his son Fleance only because of the witches’ prophecy and he says “none but he…… (Banquo) I do fear.”
The witches offer great enticement, but it is in the hands of each individual’s decision to fall for the temptation or to be strong enough to resist their captivation. The three witches are only responsible for the introduction of these ideas and for further forming ideas in Macbeth’s mind, but they are not responsible for his actions throughout the play.
An essential theme in the play is that everyone is responsible for his/her own destiny. In the first scene of the fourth act Macbeth returns to the witches to find out his fate in order to setup precautions. This shoes that maybe the witches did have a great influence on his actions. When he was eventually going to die he blamed the witches for telling him half truths. But supposedly, if he put the entire blame on the witches for his ill-fate they can ask him back, “why did you try to speed up your preordain? How could you immediately jump into an empty deep well if we say that there is a treasure at the bottom?” The witches just instructed some prophecies. But it is Macbeth’s fault to activate them quickly in a wicked manner.
Lady Macbeth’s influence over Macbeth’s actions is as important as the witches’; because if she had not supported the idea of committing regicide strongly Macbeth’s noble heart would not have thought of the treachery. Lady Macbeth is influenced by the witches in the same manner as Macbeth has been influenced. She decides to commit regicide only after hearing the prophecies of the witches.
The downfall of Macbeth leading to Duncan’s murder can be seen as a man falling from the top of a tree. The witches pushed Macbeth from the top, but there were three branches to grab and save himself in his downfall. First was his best friend, Banquo and Macbeth broke the branch as soon as he grabbed it because his weight (ambition) was too much for that branch to hold. Second branch was his wife which broke and gave away to the next as soon as he reached it. Third was his own consent and it is the strongest of all, so he clung to it. But since he is heavier than the second branch, after he clasped the third branch the second branch (lighter) hit right in his right hand. So he was forced to hang with the left hand alone. However the force of gravity (the witches) was too great as his weight increased, making him to loose the grip and fall down finally.
Lady Macbeth herself was untouched by evil thoughts at the beginning but she changes her mind right at hearing the news of the witches’ prophecies; showing that she also has the evil intents deep inside her heart which can be triggered out with a small stimulus (compared to Macbeth’s). The witches in the other end, just activated Macbeth’s and his wife’s potential to do evil things by producing prophecies which seem to be made half using their common sense and half with their prediction (which was proved to be correct). Assuming that witches know the characters of all the people very well we can say that the prophecies made by them are nothing but a finely crafted prediction. The skilful exploitation of Macbeth’s “Vaulting ambition” by the witches and Lady Macbeth leads to his demise.
