The second outside influence is the persuasion of his wife, Lady Macbeth. She appears to know her husband well and thus knows that while his ambition is large, his will is ‘weak’, ‘too full of the milk of human kindness’. This weakness of mind is another fault of Macbeth’s and in addition to his greed and uncertain thoughts; we find he is easily manipulated. She knows that she will have to urge her husband on to becoming king. She will give up all her gentle, tender qualities as a woman, so she can become a sexless, pitiless fiend. She uses violent and angry imagery and calls upon evil spirits to help her, ‘come you spirits’. Again these mirror the words of the witches, and the audience feels sympathetic towards Macbeth, who is so obviously under the influence of the apparently wicked woman. All anger that we feel against Macbeth seems to be transferred to her away from her husband. She takes control of the situation whilst Macbeth is still shown to be unsure. When he finally attempts to stop her going ahead his weak willed nature causes him to be easily bullied into submitance by his wife. She challenges his manliness by saying ‘you would be so much more a man’. She does not hesitate to fill his head with violent images as shown when she envisions horrible images of infanticide; ‘have plucked my nipple from its boneless gums and dashed the brains out’. She attempts to pacify him and he makes no effort to fight her will, ‘but screw your courage to the sticking point and we’ll not fail’. He is easily persuaded that that the deed will be easy and, it seems that after this is a turning point where his ambition takes him over and he acts of his own accord. In this scene therefore the audience does feel sympathetic to an extent towards Macbeth, while he appears to be relentlessly harangued.
Indeed despite his flaws and plot to murder the king the audience does sympathise with Macbeth. The first points of sympathy come when he is shown to have the witches working against him as they are plotting in the first scene. They talk in riddles and equivocations he does not understand and thus interrupts their prophecies in the wrong way, ‘who shalt be king hereafter’. The audience knows the intentions of the witches and this is an example of dramatic irony where the audience is able to sympathise with Macbeth. This can be found again where Macbeth does not know the feelings of those who are suspicious of him after the murder of the king. Throughout we can be connected to Macbeth’s inner thoughts by his soliloquies. We are aware of his state of mind and his reactions to the prophecies and this allows us to create a relationship with him and also allows us to see that he is emotionally troubled as shown by the quote ‘o full of scorpions in my mind’. He knows his flaws exist as stated to him by Lady Macbeth who seems to know her husband’s conscience; ‘thou wouldst be great art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it’, and also, ‘I shall pour my spirits in thine ear’. These metaphors of the ambition being Macbeth’s illness speak a truth and it becomes apparent that throughout the play Macbeth almost becomes ill with evil involuntarily and thus the audience may sympathise with him. He is also aware of his duty to Duncan as his king; ‘he’s here in trust/ first. I am his kinsman and his subject,’ and he is able to appreciate Duncan’s good qualities, a virtue of Macbeth indicating that he has a consciences. It appears before Macbeth actually commits the murder, that he is clearly worried about the moral and religious implications of the deed that will eventually lead to, in a sense, his damnation. At the time, the audience were very religious and superstitious and thus would feel sympathetic towards Macbeth who faces such a fate as he describes quite graphically in his speech; ‘we’d jump the life to come’. He has a vision of heavenly powers and sees pity personified as a ‘new born babe’. As the speech builds to a mighty climax we can see that Macbeth is clearly terrified by his fate. Equally he is relaying, in a sense his reasoning for not committing the deed showing that he is in desperate need to explain himself he says ‘that tears shall drown the wind which implies the chaos which will follow the death. The soliloquy ends as he draws back to his only motive, ‘but only vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself’.
His second soliloquy comes when he is on the verge of committing the murder, having been totally persuaded by Lady Macbeth. We are shown the state of his troubled mind when he begins to hallucinate of a bloody dagger; ‘is this a dagger I see before me?’ He is haunted by the deed and this shows the murder is totally forefront of his mind. ‘Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as sight?’ shows his feeling not only of panic, but also oppression by the mere prospect of the deed. Again the audience would feel sympathetic towards him. He questions his sanity ‘mine eyes are made fools o’th’other senses’ whilst equally being haunted by the vicious reality of what he knows is going to do. He also talks, importantly of the power, which the witches have over him as discussed previously ‘wicked dreams abuse the curtained sleep’.
The audience feels sympathetic towards Macbeth after he has actually committed the deed. Shakespeare uses metaphors for eternal damnation and very strong imagery concerning his guilt. Macbeth is racked with guilt and feels very confused. He describes his inability to say ‘amen’ when they said ‘god bless us’. He also hears a voice, ‘I thought I heard a voice cry, sleep no more: Macbeth doth murder sleep.’ At the time this would have drawn a great deal of sympathy, being signs of eternal damnation. Being unable to sleep was a sign of the devil inside someone, which would remind the audience of the witch’s comments when they first met with Macbeth. When talking of a captain the witch states, ‘sleep shall neither night nor day… though bark cannot be lot yet it shall be tempest tossed.’ This is clearly a metaphorical reference to the Macbeth’s damnation, predicting how his kingdom will come to turmoil under his ‘captaincy’. Macbeth’s fear and despair is reflected by, ‘I am afraid of what I have done’. His nervousness is reflected by his heightened hearing; ‘hot is’t with me, when every noise appals me?’ There is strong imagery of blood, reflecting Macbeth’s guilt as he realises his conscience can never be cleaned of the deed:
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No: this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incardine,
Making the green one red” (Act 2, Scene 3: line 63)
He goes on to say, ‘wake Duncan with thy knocking: I wish thou couldst’’, revealing his guilt and wishes that he had never committed the deed.
It is also very possible to see Macbeth’s deeds, and the way he runs Scotland with a very unsympathetic approach. His mental anguish as a result of the murder might be seen in a very negative light, where the audience might feel that Macbeth deserves the guilt and responsibility, and in effect damnation. This would view would most probably have been taken by most in Shakespeare’s time. They believed in the divine right of kings, where no one was above the king but God, and he was his messenger on earth. The murder of the king therefore would have been the highest form of treason in their eyes. Shakespeare demonstrates this breakdown of order through events in the natural world. After the murder Lennox talks of how, ‘the earth was feverous and did shake’, and, ‘a falcon tow’ring in her pride of place was a mousing owl hawked at and killed.’ This suggests unnatural happenings and thus the audience would be fearful of the murder and Macbeth.
After the murder of Duncan, Macbeth begins to take control and the audience in turn begins to feel less sympathetic towards his constant battle with his conscience. After the murder Lady Macbeth and her husband switch roles, in effect. She is the one who is greatly troubled by her conscience, whilst he makes plans to murder Banquo and thus we see that Macbeth is acting of his own free will, no longer manipulated by an antagonist. ‘We gear our bloody cousins are bestowed in England and Ireland’. This shows that Macbeth’s devastation has gone and he is able to blame others for the murder. In his soliloquy in Act 3, Scene 1, we see that emotional battle has changed. Similarly he talks to the audience, but this time is not debating the murder of Banquo, but is decided on it; ‘For Banquo’s issue have filled my mind; for them, the gracious Duncan I have murdered’. The speech is very much his justification for his actions, as he decides that Banquo is a threat to the kingship. It seems that he is no longer powered by anything but ambition and paranoia, which is shown by, ‘to be thus is nothing but to be safely thus’. He also appears to mirror the words of Lady Macbeth, echoing his switch of roles, ‘ay, in the catalogue ye go for men’. Similarly he challenges their manliness. The audience might now feel very unsympathetic as Macbeth is being associated with the devil, as was his wife. He knows, however that his actions are wrong when he says to Lady Macbeth, ‘Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill’. This suggests that Macbeth might stop if he wanted to, but does not.
Bloody imagery is used to convey Macbeth’s ruthless murder of Lady Macduff’s children – ‘blood will have blood…bleed bleed poor country’. The audience imagines Scotland to be in a sense of chaos under Macbeth, through the use of strong imagery suggesting the extent of his evil. Shakespeare emphasises and brings effect to this by using hyperbolic language, ‘Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned in evils to top Macbeth’. Macduff states Macbeth’s faults in a way, which appears as if they were brought against him in a court of justice:
“I grant him bloody,
Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,
Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin
That has a name” (Act 4, Scene 3: Line 56)
Shakespeare uses negatively aimed imagery to get the audience to question Macbeth’s rule and the extent of his tyranny, reducing him to the following; ‘…now does he feel his title hang lose about him, like a giant’s robe upon a dwarfish thief’. To an extent this complies with the description of a tragic hero, where his flaws and external influence lead to his downfall, thus making them ‘tragic’. The simile impresses the idea that Macbeth, like the giants clothes on the dwarf, is not fit for the kingship, which is also reflected earlier by the image of ‘borrow’d robes’, where Macbeth is depicted as having assumed the role designated to others.
Macbeth is seemingly captivated by the spell of the witches and returns to them for advice; ‘even till destruction sicken: answer me to what I ask you’. Upon seeing the apparitions he is lulled into a false sense of security as stated by Hecate; ‘for you all know security is mortals chiefest enemy’. The final twist of fate results in Macbeth’s eventual downfall. This is a clear example of dramatic irony.
It is this final twist at the end of the play, where it seems almost as if the witches are playing with Macbeth and it appears he was always doomed to fail that leads to the audience perceiving Macbeth as a tragic hero. The extent to which he redeems himself in their eyes, however, is arguable. He does recognise he has been trapped by the witches; ‘I pull in resolution and begin to doubt the equivocation of the fiend’. Although he loses all resolution for fear; ‘I have supped full of horrors’, Macbeth is seemingly bored and tired with life as he describes its ‘petty pace from day to day.’ Macbeth is viewed with some sympathy and understanding at this point, after the death of his wife, and a strong sense of tragedy is impressed upon the audience. There is a reversion to the beginning of the play, where he was seen sympathetically as a valiant soldier. He is made to appear strong and, in a sense courageous, as he puts on his armour, stating he is prepared to die bravely, ‘I’ll fight from my bones, my flesh’. This brings effect in that the audience is given a point to reflect upon Macbeth’s valance after having seen his character, and been involved in his struggle. Finally having seen that the way he interpreted the prophecies to be false, Macbeth does not give up hope. He can, however be seen unsympathetically as someone who is in control of his deeds and who has grown to be a cold-blooded killer.
It appears to me that Macbeth was very much a tragic hero. Shakespeare uses Catharsis and the audience’s emotions are purged through a mixture of pity and fear for Macbeth throughout the play. He falls from prominence due to certain flaws in his character. The tragedy lies equally in that he was partly manipulated by external forces. These were the witches to a large extent. One might put forward the question, would Macbeth, had he not met the witches, have committed the murder of Duncan and so have ventured along the path he did? It seems, in my mind that had he not, he would not have even had thoughts of this nature. I feel the play is written in a way that tends to hint towards the witches having some control over the happenings throughout. I feel as if Shakespeare intended to leave us with the feeling that the witches were willing the tragic events to happen as they did. There also lies the possibility that the witches, although not a fabrication of Macbeth’s thoughts (Banquo sees them as well), act as a means by which Shakespeare can show the audience what might lie in a man’s mind if presented with a certain situation and equally a means to bring out the murderous side of Macbeth. In addition, his wife, who likewise immediately thinks of murdering the king, urges Macbeth to commit the deed, playing off his ambition and negative views of himself. One cannot, however, ignore that Macbeth almost immediately ventures upon the idea of murder. This reflects Macbeth’s ambition, which in this case comes through most strikingly as a flaw. There is little to question that Macbeth is responsible for his actions especially those after he murders Duncan, but I feel most importantly, that it is only due to outside forces that firstly the prospect of murder arises, and secondly he ends up committing it in the last, and continuing in the way he did. After the first murder, Macbeth acts of his own accord and loses, to an extent, the audiences’ sympathy. Macbeth appears to have suffered to a large extent, after his effective fall from grace. This suffering is portrayed through his constant anguish and terrible guilt and eternal battle with his conscience. This, in addition to the final twist in the play seems, in a sense to be the God’s retribution. This nemesis – the betrayal of Macbeth’s trust and predictions, culminating in his eventual death, brings the tale to a conclusion as a tragedy. It equally demonstrates the extent to which Macbeth is a tragic hero.
