How does Shakespeare Present Evil in Macbeth?
How does Shakespeare Present Evil in Macbeth?
In Macbeth we see Shakespeare present evil in many ways using powerful language and imagery. From the very first scene of the play he sets up the Witches as one of the dominating evil forces. Shakespeare also depicts Lady Macbeth as a main force of evil throughout the play, when she convinces the hesitant Macbeth to kill Duncan. I will also look at how Shakespeare presents Macbeth's vindictive and tyrannical side.
From the very first scene of the play in Macbeth we see Shakespeare present the concept of evil in the form of the Witches. We then see him develop their evil goings on as a major source of evil that preys on Macbeth and his 'vaulting ambition': "Fair is foul, and foul is fair". Shakespeare, displays the witches urge to destroy whatever is good; they are a brooding presence of murderous intention and action. They foretell the prophecy that all is not what it seems and the distortion of the natural hierarchy in Scotland to come. 'Fair' will become 'foul'; we can see this clearly with Macbeth himself, when we see Shakespeare present his callous and tyrannical acts. The above quotation is a prime example of what we can see when the Witches take pleasure in destroying other peoples lives, and on this point we can see clearly that Shakespeare uses this to emphasise the evil goings on in the play.
We also see the Witches try to manipulate other people, morally affecting them, targeting their weakness, in Macbeth's case the Witches go for his ambition:
All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!
The Witches taunt Macbeth; they set his mind into action, making him think the way they want him to. The Witches seem to enjoy the disorder this brings to Macbeth and its consequences. We see this further on in the play. They say to Macbeth that he: "shalt be king hereafter". This gets Macbeth thinking and we see him looking at the prospect that he could be king. This idea taunts him and leads him to killing Duncan, which sets about the disorder to come when he is king. The Witches feed off this. We see the Witches bring evil into the play as we see Macbeth go back to see them again. He is engulfed by their evil; he wants answers to his questions.
The Witches tell him to 'beware Macduff'. Their evil has taken hold of Macbeth and now they are looking for another victim to brew their evil on. Shakespeare uses this concept to bring in evil throughout the play.
We see Shakespeare use the Witches as a dominating source of evil in the play. We see him use them to affect people's moral integrity and their perceptions of what is right. We can see the Witches' ambition to transform what is good and right into what is wrong: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair". This is illustrated ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
The Witches tell him to 'beware Macduff'. Their evil has taken hold of Macbeth and now they are looking for another victim to brew their evil on. Shakespeare uses this concept to bring in evil throughout the play.
We see Shakespeare use the Witches as a dominating source of evil in the play. We see him use them to affect people's moral integrity and their perceptions of what is right. We can see the Witches' ambition to transform what is good and right into what is wrong: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair". This is illustrated when the Witches transform Macbeth from the 'brave' and 'worthy gentleman' into the 'devilish' and 'black' tyrant we see towards the end of the play.
Although Macbeth is influenced by evil around him we also see Shakespeare show Macbeth as a source of evil himself in the play. We see him go on killing rampages and he commits the murder of Duncan, the main source of distortion in the play.
We see him develop his callous and tyrannical side. One of the major acts Macbeth commits that leads the audience to believe that Macbeth is a callous tyrant is the unprovoked and unjust murder of Lady Macduff and her son:
Not in the legions
Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned
In evil, to top Macbeth.
Macduff displays his distraught feelings towards Macbeth as he learns of the murder of his family. We see him say that nowhere in hell could there be an evil greater than Macbeth. Shakespeare draws in the audience into seeing Macbeth as an evil force in the play because of the wicked act. We are led to believe by Shakespeare that this diabolical murder of the innocent son and wife of Macduff could have only been carried out, out of callousness and tyranny. Macbeth has no fight to pick with Macduff's family but he still murders them.
We see Shakespeare present the very callous side of Macbeth in the murder of Banquo:
Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed.
Macbeth clearly wants Banquo dead and he will applaud his death. We see Macbeth acting very insensitive with his couldn't care less attitude carried out in a vicious manner.
Shakespeare shows the evil in Macbeth by the fact that more and more people are starting to leave him a start to see him as the viscous murder he is: "This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues". This quotation from Malcolm summarises what more and more people start to believe as the play progresses. All Macbeth's loyal Thanes have left him when
'Birnam forest [comes] to Dunsinane'.
As we can also see as one of the main points we can see the evil in Macbeth presented by Shakespeare is in Act 2 Scene 1 where we see the 'devilish' and 'black' Macbeth murder Duncan, then king of Scotland. Although the Murder of Duncan was not all of Macbeth's own doing the audience witness Macbeth's traitorous act of killing his own king. Shakespeare also adds evil to the play through the nightmares that Macbeth experiences with his 'heat oppressed brain'.
Macbeth is also presented as evil through other characters perceptions: "What 'twere to kill a father. So should Fleance". This quotation by Lennox describes Macbeth's intention to kill Banquo and Fleance. We see Macbeth start to become evil in the form of bloodthirstiness in the play: "We have scorched the snake, not killed it". This gives the audience the impression that Macbeth's torment is not overcome by killing Duncan. It has only been temporarily put aside, he is not satisfied with just killing Duncan, he wants more. We see Macbeth live up to this evil satisfaction that he yearns in his murder of Banquo.
We see Shakespeare present Macbeth as evil both directly and through other characters' perceptions. Shakespeare relays Macbeth's rampageous acts into seeing him as the callous tyrant he is. He is made to be a very strong evil force that is his undoing in the play. Having Macbeth's evil being directed through two sources emphasises his evil and as a result is able to present more evil in the play.
In Macbeth we see Shakespeare present Lady Macbeth as one of the dominating evil forces in the play. Her evil presence acts as a manipulative catalyst for all Macbeth's actions:
I would while it was smiling in my face
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.
In this quotation Lady Macbeth reveals her more cruel and manipulative side. Using this side of her, Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to kill Duncan. We see her evil act when she, a woman who delivers the final blow to the dying Duncan. She gives the impression that she can be very evil if she sets her mind to it. She says to Macbeth that she would be prepared to '[dash] the brains out' of a newborn if she had sworn to, as Macbeth has to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth wants to kick start his ambition, but Macbeth realises he has done wrong in killing Duncan: " I could not say 'Amen'," we see that Macbeth feels he has lost all communication of what is good, has lost contact with God. As we see Lady Macbeth does not have the same reservations that Macbeth does.
To present evil in the play we see Shakespeare using Lady Macbeth to guide her husband through the door of evil, then the audience sees Macbeth get tangled in the evils web, unable to escape its power. We see Lady Macbeth guiding her husband, getting him to realise his own ambition. These evil acts of Lady Macbeth lead to the death of Duncan, which we see as one of the major acts of disorder in the play. The audience, through the powerful writing of Shakespeare is led to realise her evil and darker side throughout the play, she wants to be 'un-sexed' almost desiring to be treated and considered a man. Shakespeare shows her to be one of the leading forces of evil at work in the play, because of this we see her punished more savagely, she experiences sleep walking, which in Shakespearian times showed that they were possessed by demons. We also see her experience a much earlier death, as a results of her evil deeds. We see Shakespeare use Lady Macbeth to inject evil into the play, using her sick, twisted character to manipulate Macbeth during the play, almost to fulfil her own ambition.
As well as using character and language to present evil in Macbeth, Shakespeare uses powerful imagery to project the evil displayed in the play. We see him use various ways to present this:
My hands are of your colour, but I shame
To wear a heart so white.
Shakespeare, throughout the play uses the imagery of blood to signify guilt, in the case of the above quotation, looking at the guilt of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth after the death of Duncan: "Out damned spot, out I say". Lady Macbeth is trying to remove the guilt that has built up on her shoulders throughout the play. She must wash the guilt out of her.
The image of a naked baby is used to signify innocence in the play, this emphasises the evil nature of Macbeth: "And pity like a naked new-born babe", using the image of a naked newborn as a sign of innocence, Shakespeare creates a feeling of pity in the reader towards Macduffs son. The image that Macbeth could kill a naked, innocent child leads us to think of him as more callous and tyrannical. This injects the play with more evil.
We see Shakespeare letting imagery represent the moral disorder in the play by using the weather to almost foretell the evil in the next scene or act. In the very first scene of the play Shakespeare uses the disturbance in the weather to look at the disorder that that next scene will bring:
"Thunder and lightning. Enter three WITCHES". This helps to lay the backdrop of evil. In that particular scene we see the Witches 'Fair is foul' line, which sets the course for the rest of the play.
Shakespeare makes good use of insomnia to present the evil imagery in the play, the fact that Macbeth is unable to get any sleep, he is being tormented by the evil guilt of the sins he has committed:
In the affliction of these terrible dreams
That shake us nightly.
Macbeth after the murder of Duncan is tormented by the nightmares that haunt him 'nightly'. We see Shakespeare emphasise this fact to show the evil goings on in the play to the audience.
During Macbeth we see Shakespeare present evil using powerful language and imagery. We see him present characters such as the Witches and Lady Macbeth as dominating evil forces in the play. He uses their actions and thoughts to display to the audience the intensity of evil in each character; these in turn help to present evil in the play itself. The evil in Macbeth also presented in the play by strong imagery in the form of such things as blood, the weather, insomnia and the image of innocence of a naked - new born, to all lay the backdrop of evil in the play. The language and imagery combined by Shakespeare present the evil very clearly in Macbeth.
TOM BEACH
