As a result of Macbeth’s killings, many people are becoming wary of him. At the opening of ‘Macbeth’ we think of Macbeth as brave and victorious after he defeated the rebellion of the Highlanders and Islanders. At this point, he would not have been referred to as a butcher as he killed for his people and not just for purely selfish reasons. Macbeth believes that he has already killed too many people and it would be easier to continue killing them than turn back;
“I am in blood stepped so far”
Macbeth is saying that he has progressed so far with his killing that he his so far in blood. We can compare this with a river of blood. Macbeth continues to say;
“that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er”
If Macbeth was in a river of blood, he believes that he must be at least half way there as it is easier to wade forwards than it is to turn back again. Macbeth’s speech, shown above tells the audience that there are to be more killings, just like a butcher continues to kill his animals.
Macbeth’s first murder as a result of selfish reasons was that of Duncan. A phrase that strongly suggests that Macbeth is not proud of the killing is;
‘for them the gracious Duncan have I murdered, put rancours in the vessel of my peace.’
From the above phrase, we are told that Macbeth killed a gracious man and therefore deserves to have bitterness replacing his peace, maybe in his heart. Before the death of Duncan, Macbeth wanted Duncan dead but once he has been killed he soon regrets it. Early on in the play we are shown that Macbeth’s intentions were to kill Duncan. A soliloquy shows this;
‘Is this a dagger I see before me, the handle towards my hand?’
Here we are told that Macbeth is having visions of a dagger in front of him, pointing towards Duncan’s room. This shows us that his mind is full of killing. There is an image of torment and Macbeth can’t resist the temptation. He doesn’t stop to consider others feelings, but only his own ambitions of becoming king.
As the play progresses, Macbeth becomes more and more hungry for blood and human flesh. We can compare Macbeth to ‘the ravined salt-sea shark’. The shark needs the salty sea and to kill other smaller sea-creatures to live, whereas Macbeth needs blood and to kill to live as it is a way of both of their lives. Sharks also kill others of their own kind, meaning other sharks, just as Macbeth kills other humans.
One may chose to believe that Macbeth is not a butcher. There is also sufficient evidence to make this conclusion. A butcher kills any animal for its flesh whereas Macbeth selects his victims to his advantage He will only kill if he feels that they are a threat to him and will stop him from becoming king. This attitude is un-butcher like. We are told that Macbeth’s ‘Fears in Banquo stick deep’. He therefore decided to murder him so he has nothing left to fear in. A butcher does the entire killing and slaughtering himself but this in not continually apparent with Macbeth. As we are shown later on in the play, Macbeth does not commit all of the murders, the killing of Banquo was performed by others. These others were two men who Macbeth quickly turned against Banquo. This gave them the incentive to kill.
After looking at the evidence I feel that the description of Macbeth being ‘a butcher’ is agreeable. One reason for this decision is that there is more evidence. Macbeth is a butcher mainly because of the way he killed Duncan- by stabbing him with daggers. This is the way a butcher would kill his animals- with knives. However, Macbeth tries to hide the evidence that proves Macbeth killed Duncan by laying the daggers next to the guards. This would begin to persuade me to disagree with the statement, however I still feel that the evidence disagreeing with the statement is not strong enough to persuade me, and make me believe that Macbeth is not a butcher.
