Both our main characters develop in similar and different ways. Macbeth has constant doubts about the murder, then immediately feels shameful after he commits it. Both he and his wife struggle to talk without dropping small suspicious clues, but lady Macbeth mainly manages to keep them out of suspicion. Macbeth’s sense of guilt leads to panic, as he is forced to be deceptive to cover up his crime. There is hesitation in his speech, and guilty remorse is revealed through his actions. Although he was pushed by his wife to kill Duncan, he wasn’t inspired by anyone to kill the guards. He is forced to take action to control the situation, and feels he has to keep killing because there is no going back. He is starting to experience with the consequences, like the “poison chalice”.
Up until now, Lady Macbeth has been the prime mover, but is now beginning to crumble and is no longer the strong person that she was. She does show some human sensitivity in her, even if she is evil. She has a genuine wifely devotion and loyalty to her husband. Also, she knows that she can’t go very far in the world of that era because she is a woman, so she is getting close to somewhere high through Macbeth. Lady Macbeth may be sad and evil partly due to losing her child, compared to Lady Macduff, who has children and seems to be a nicer, calmer person.
In this play, we can see the theme of “appearance vs. reality”, as the Macbeth couple are forced to conceal the guilty reality of their crime by putting on innocent appearances. It was Lady Macbeth who quoted the image of appearing “like the innocent flower”, but being “the serpent under it”, by which she meant to be brutal but act innocent. There are images with references to “heaven” and “hell”, such as when the drunken porter appears to be talking nonsense, but his words actually make some sense. Some of his quotes include “if a man were a porter of hell-gate” and “who’s there in the name of Beelzebub?”, which seems to link in with the evil deed that Macbeth has just committed. Macbeth’s act of killing the king is called regicide, which leads to “confused” events. To kill a king was seen as damnable because it was removing God’s representative on earth. Macbeth’s image of the “fountain” being stopped (by him, which he doesn’t make obvious) shows an interference with the Divine Right of Kings, a belief that royalty is passed down in the family. As with most tragedies, “betrayal” is very prominent in this play. He betrays his guest and king Duncan by killing him instead of protecting him. We see the use of iambic pentameter, and this is when a line follows a certain rhythmic pattern, such as “confusion now hath made his masterpiece”.
We can see a tragic structure in the play of “Macbeth”. Firstly, as with most tragedies, he falls from an elevated position to a tragic demise. At the beginning of the play he is a war hero, but after some bad influences and wrong choices, becomes disgraced, isolated, and finally killed. Macbeth’s fall is seen in this scene when he kills innocent people to cover up his first murder; he declines into insanity and loses control of the situation. He has an internal conflict between the benign and malign sides to his characters. His benign side is telling him not to do the murder, then after it happens he thinks “if I could turn back time”, wishing he had not done it after all. Then there is his malign ambition to be king and become powerful no matter what, and to listen to the bad advice of Lady Macbeth and the witches. There is the prominent theme of “betrayal”, which Arthur Miller of “A View from the Bridge” said is the key to many tragedies. Macbeth betrays many people such as Duncan, by not protecting him as his host, Banquo, by also killing him, Macduff, by giving orders for his family to be killed, God, by removing his designated representative on earth, Scotland, by leaving it in a political vacuum, and even himself, for sinking so low. He lies a lot to conceal his guilt and murder. There is an overwhelming sense of wasted potential. Many characters such as Duncan, Banquo, and even Macbeth himself should all have lived peaceful, happy, contented lives, but Macbeth spoils it for all of them. There is also the chance that Macbeth could have become king honourably without the need to kill. Also, Malcolm could have become king earlier without the chaos which leaves Scotland unsettled, and the political vacuum. In this scene we see Macbeth become an independent murderer without influence from anyone. He is visibly a deceitful liar, and there are many beginnings of chaos.
The events of our key scene (Act 2, Scene 3) leave us questioning what will happen next and wanting to know more. This is how Shakespeare evokes suspense in the play of Macbeth. After Macbeth commits the terrible murder, we are left wondering what will happen to the state of Macbeth’s mind, as we later find out that his increasing insanity finally finishes him off. We wonder if the Macbeth couple will ever be found out of their wicked conspiracy. Although they do not get caught by country officials, they see the suspicions from Banquo and Macduff. We could even say that the Macbeths punish themselves in a way, by having to face the guilt-ridden consequences of their actions. From the beginning, Lady Macbeth has been the more prominent partner in the relationship, but her mental decline seems to affect her quicker than Macbeth, even to the point that she dies and he does not seem to care much. Going back to the murder’s aftermath, there is the question of who will be the new king, and what will happen to Scotland from this point. We, as the audience, are waiting to find out what happens next, and see that some of our questions are answered, and some are not, (like, what exactly happened to Lady Macbeth’s child that she had vaguely mentioned?).
