How far and in what ways do you feel that Macbeth explores the conflict between good and evil?
How far and in what ways do you feel that Macbeth explores the conflict between good and evil?
The play deals with enormous acts of evil, Macbeth is at the root of all those evils and at the end of the play, Macbeth is destroyed.
To the audience, this play appears to be the basic and rather ancient conflict between good and evil - where good always wins.
However, to explore this further, I feel it is important to define evil, as there are many different definitions.
Evil ~ 1. Bad, harmful; 'the evil one'.
The devil, believed to do material harm.
The Oxford Concise Dictionary.
There is nothing at all theatrical about the presentation of Macbeth's character. He does not confide in us or seek to establish any cosy relationship with the audience. There is nothing in Macbeth's character or conduct, which invites us to see any black humour in the play (other than the brief scene with the porter). Instead there is an astonishingly penetrating development of Macbeth's character. The focus here is directly upon what he is thinking and feeling, why he acts the way he does, and what consequences his own evil brings about upon himself. Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most compelling characters, and the play is, of all Shakespeare's great tragedies, the one, which responds most immediately to character analysis.
Macbeth's story is obviously a tragedy in the formal sense. At the start of the play he is a very successful and highly esteemed member of a social group, loaded with honours and enjoying every prospect of further commendation. He has a loving wife and a secure home in his castle at Inverness. As the play opens, we learn of his heroic actions in defence of the kingdom. We see him interact with other nobles, and their friendship and esteem are evident, as is Duncan's high regard, which expresses itself in terms of fertile growth, the beauty of natural processes, and spontaneous generosity (with promises of more to come). At the end of the play Macbeth is totally alone. He has lost all his friends, he is universally despised, his wife is dead, and all his most eager hopes have been disappointed. He is a man without a place in the social community. He has become totally isolated.
The short analysis I have given, I feel, is essential to lay before I start to think about the other characters.
The only way to really look at this essay is with a detailed character evaluation, and conclusion of the 'scale' of how evil each character is.
It is clear from the start of the play that the witches are the main source of evil.
The witches have an enormous effect on the play, not only are they evil, but this is emphasised by the strong feelings against witches and witchcraft in Elizabethan times. Convicted witches were regularly tortured and even executed. Most people believed in witches and there was little opposition against this persecution. This was not helped by the fact that the king, James 1 was also interested in this superstition, often, he interrogated the accused himself.
It is clear from the start of the play that the witches play a key role. The first scene is the witches planning to meet Macbeth.
The setting of this scene is very important; they meet on a moor in thunder and lightning. These surroundings portray an evil image; the moor is a very lonely, barren and bleak place, while thunder and lightning associate with evil. So even at the beginning of the play one of the themes is known.
The witches' language includes rhyming couplets that contradict each other and are very powerful. ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
It is clear from the start of the play that the witches play a key role. The first scene is the witches planning to meet Macbeth.
The setting of this scene is very important; they meet on a moor in thunder and lightning. These surroundings portray an evil image; the moor is a very lonely, barren and bleak place, while thunder and lightning associate with evil. So even at the beginning of the play one of the themes is known.
The witches' language includes rhyming couplets that contradict each other and are very powerful.
And their recurring frain:
"Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air"
- tells us that they want to 'overtake' good.
This quote also tells us about the witches' hatred for all things good, and their love for things that are evil. Shakespeare adds rhyme and rhythm to the witches' language to emphasise their evilness. The second part of this quote adds to their image of being witches and would have created tension among Elizabethan audiences. The image of old women with cats and the ability to fly would have shocked an audience.
The witches don't seem to be human, or in fact have individual characters - they are one mass, they appear not to have personalities as such. Shakespeare obviously felt them inconsequential enough not to give them proper aliases. Another way to think of them is as the 'Incarnation of evil'.
To keep on the theme of Evil, the next character I will look at will be that of Lady Macbeth. In many respects, however, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth can be seen as one character - and a lot of the facts and speculation there is about one will be just as relevant with the other.
At the end of the play Macbeth and his wife are described as:
"This dead butcher and his fiend-like queen."
Act 5.8.
Prior to Duncan's murder, Shakespeare makes it clear that both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have a
Self-conflicting moment in them, between good and evil and both have very similar
Soliloquies.
Macbeth's, in Act 2.4 describes his horror as he discovers Malcolm is to be made Prince of Cumberland.
The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires!
Let not light see my black and deep desires:
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
Act 2.4
This shows a major conflict that Macbeth has with his conscience, between good and evil. While his evil thoughts about killing Malcolm and Duncan and conflicted by his desire to keep his conscience clean and not let him be shown as a murderer.
This is incredibly similar to Lady Macbeth's soliloquy in Act 2.5.
Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry `Hold, hold!'
Act 2.5
This shows that Lady Macbeth still wants to go to heaven, and she believes in God - the opposite to the evil that she is thinking of. She wants to have it both ways, a successful husband and a place in heaven - but she knows that if she commits the murder of Duncan, then she can never repent.
Lady Macbeth plants the seed of murdering King Duncan in Macbeth's mind.
"Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under't."
The language Shakespeare uses here is significant, the flower is associated with beauty and goodness while the snake is associated with evil. The association with a snake would have been especially strong because in the bible the serpent is seen as an evil being. These comparisons to bible characters would also have shocked Elizabethan audiences, as they believed in heaven and hell.
Macbeth is in the middle between good and evil. He is evil because as soon as he hears the prophecies, he thinks of killing Duncan - which is an evil thought. But he is also good because the thoughts of killing Duncan makes him feel sick.
The same is true with Lady Macbeth. She knows good is in her, but she tries to stop the good in Act 2.5 ll. 38-52.
Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts! unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top full
Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it!
Act 2.5 ll. 38-52.
She has an amazing sense of will, because she can tap into one side of her character - and leave the other side almost oblivious to her evil thoughts.
This works well until the sleep walking scene. Shakespeare worked out a hundred years before Freud that repressed anxiety was usually made known during sleep patterns. Lady Macbeth tried to suppress her good side - but after Duncan's murder, she is corrupt and the thoughts of murder destroy her - so in the end she has no escape but suicide.
However, Macbeth has a much stronger disposition. In fact even after Duncan's murder, he shows signs of being good. For example, in Act 3.1, where Macbeth is talking about Banquo being king, and he says;
"For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind;
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 seed of Banquo kings!
Act 3.1
This shows that Macbeth is aware of good and evil, and he knows he has done evil, and will not be pardoned for it. He continues to murder, which can prove that he is a moral man because he thinks that he has already killed one man, therefore he is already damned - so he might as well continue to kill!
I have now covered all the evil people in the play - because, however many the other characters may have done a wrongful deed - they are not evil, just not pure.
The first really good person, who is almost pure, is Macduff.
Macduff cares about everyone in the country.
Even though he will never be king, he still kills Macbeth because Macbeth was a tyrant. Macduff has good morals. In fact, Malcolm tests Macduff's morals, and discovers that Macduff is not selfish and not afraid of people who have a higher status than he is. Macduff almost rejects Malcolm, because Malcolm is not morally right, as Macduff is.
Macduff's reaction to finding King Duncan's body was one of complete and utter shock. He
Thinks of the legal king as sacred, and appointed by God.
Macduff therefore thinks it essential to get rid of Macbeth's capacity to do more evil.
The only other morally pure characters in the play are those of the children. Fleance
(Banquo's son) and Macduff's son are the innocent victims in Macbeth's murders.
The other morally good character is only in the play for two scenes, and she is Macduff's wife -
Lady Macduff. She, to me, is portrayed as the mother figure. She strikes up an image of any mother
using her natural instinct and protecting her children. However, she then become the victim - after
Watching her son die, she is then murdered, feeling worthless and as though her one duty in life, to
protect her children, she has failed at.
A major character in the play is Banquo. He is not as pure as Macduff, but he isn't evil either - he is in the middle of the two.
It is thought that Shakespeare has portrayed Banquo to be an ancestor of James II - if so, then it is almost certain that Shakespeare intended the character to be good.
Banquo has nothing legally to be guilty of, therefore he is good on the surface. However, he suspects Macbeth of planning something evil, in Act 2.1 and doesn't tell anyone, which suggests that he has some form of evil in him, on some level.
When Macbeth is with Banquo, Macbeth has a lot of soliloquies, but Banquo doesn't have one. This is because we cannot see into Banquo's mind, as we can Macbeth's, this suggests that Banquo is very enigmatic. Shakespeare purposely doesn't show us Banquo's mind - although the reason for that is unclear.
In Act 1.7 Banquo talks about how dark it is and how it feels like night. In lines 6 - 9 Banquo tells Fleance that he is tired, but he doesn't want to go to sleep because bad thoughts rise up in him.
"A heavy summons lies like lead upon me
And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers,
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature
Gives way to in repose."
Act 1.7 ll. 6-9.
I think it is possible that Banquo is afraid of what Macbeth will do if he goes to sleep.
This is backed up at ll.20 in the same scene when Macbeth meets Banquo in the hall, and almost straight away Banquo brings up the subject of the witches.
Macbeth then tells him, in basic terms, we will speak later, and if you stay on my side, you will get something in return!
Banquo doesn't rubbish Macbeth's suggestion in so many words. While he should have said something along the lines of 'we won't talk about the witches, because we already have a king'. He says 'I'll listen to you, but only if I don't lose any honour over it'. This is Banquo's way of keeping his options open. He is not making a moral choice, but sitting in the middle, waiting to see which is the best deal for him!
After Duncan's murder, Banquo acts upset at first, but then says very little. He is taking in the situation. When Lady Macbeth faints, to take some of the heat off Macbeth - it is Banquo who draws attention to her. And it is him who suggests that they all get dressed and meet a little while later - again, to take the heat off Macbeth, at the moment when Macbeth is being almost interrogated by Malcolm.
In Act 3.1 Banquo basically accuses Macbeth of killing Duncan. Saying;
"Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all
As the weird women promised; and I fear
Thou playedst most foully for't."
Act 3.1 ll. 1-3.
However, Banquo letting Macbeth know that he knew what was going on, was by no means his way of saying, 'you're time is up'.
