Macbeth is a weak man who is easily influenced by other characters. Discuss with reference to the whole text.
Shakespeare’s play Macbeth was written in the 1600’s. Macbeth is the sole figure and the play outlines his rise to glory, then fall to demise because the power was too much of a burden to control. He is a weak man whose decisions were based on other peoples influence. It is unlikely that without being told the prophecies by the witches and encouraged by his wife that he would have killed Duncan and betrayed many. Shakespeare took facts and made it into his own more entertaining, imaginative story. These historical facts were taken from the book (Chronicles of England and Scotland) and his creativity was combined with factual knowledge to create an amazingly interesting play. Duncan was king from 1001 to 1040, but was killed by Macbeth. In real life Duncan was not popular or a good king, however Macbeth enjoyed a successful spell as tyrant. He was killed by Malcolm after 17 years of reigning in 1057. Malcolm succeeded Macbeth. Thanes are Scottish version of Lords. Each of them have an area where they own power. The more land they own, the more powerful a Thane is. Duncan was King but he also shared power with Lords and nobles. To become a Thane it is useful to impress in a battle and serve the king respectfully. Another key theme is the Supernatural as they were very believable in the 1600’s and the witches’ appearance would surely shock the audience. Comparing this to the present is weird as a ghost or witch would be looked over as children’s play. It was believed that knowledge of the future came from the devil. The witches back up this statement and looked demonic enough. As soon as Macbeth meets the withes he has a desire to do something evil e.g. killing Duncan when they tell him he will become king. The witches and ghosts are vital characters and are apart of his struggle between good and evil. Shakespeare always represented Macbeth as blood hungry from the moment he beheaded a traitor in battle all the way to killing Duncan and Banquo. He was loyal, but the influence from the witches and Lady Macbeth cannot be overlooked. Macbeth shows regret secretly after every evil deed. He was a good man whose mind was overruled by others. At the end he dies in a fight and this reflects his regret. He just wanted to die with dignity and in battle where he started off, as a soldier.
On a heath the Three Witches decide to meet after a battle being fought nearby. Thunder, storms and the desolate heath paint a gloomy picture, setting the tone of this play and defining an imagery of nature at war with itself, a recurring theme in this play. The witches meet in horrible weather and they speak of thunder, lightning, fog and filthy air. This introduces Macbeth as a dark, dangerous play, in which the theme of evil is central. From the start of the play the Witches talk about Macbeth, the sole focus. “Their to meet with Macbeth” suggests that he is their target from the start that they want to toy and play with. When the witches chant “Fair is foul, Foul is fair” the words appear to be a contradiction making it confusing. We seem as the reader to ask ourselves Is that what this play is about? Is everything as it seems? The words release an idea of illusion and reality. The influence and supernatural power they have over Macbeth is obvious when he exclaims “So foul and fair a day I have not seen.” This is weird as he echoes the witch’s eerie, spooky vibe with these words. This associates Macbeth with the witches and their evil. This echo introduces us to thought of a prophecy and makes us wander, Is Macbeth in control of his own destiny? The witches approach Macbeth when he is full of triumph and fresh from killing. They point out that Macbeth will Be Thane of Cawdor and become king. Macbeth is engrossed in their prophecies and says “Stay you imperfect speakers tell me more” He is already thinking about their predictions, most importantly becoming King. Macbeth speaks of “horrible imaginings” which strongly suggest that he is contemplating the murder of Duncan immediately soon after the witches tell him he will become King. The witches could only have power Macbeth if he had already these brutal thoughts in his mind before. They speak his inner thoughts and know exactly what to say to make Macbeth react with a precise timing of entrance. The witches seem to act with one mind, rather than 3 as their speech of rhythm, rhyme, flow and pattern chants reflect this. Ross and Angus arrive soon after this and reveal the news that we already know, Duncan has made Macbeth Thane of Cawdor. As soon as the first prophecy is true Macbeth immediately believes that they (The Witches) know his future. They have Macbeth is under their spell. From now on, their words will always be in his thoughts. We only see them once more, but the witches are always present in Macbeth's mind. When the consequences of the murders of Duncan and Banquo are too much for Macbeth to handle, his instinct is to go back to the witches (Act 4 Scene 1). They are now his only hope. It is a theory that he cannot control things any longer and from this point in the play, we know Macbeth will die. They plant the seed of evil in Macbeth's head that grows to dominate his mind and Banquo even spots this when he says to Macbeth that they have eaten an “insane root that takes the reason prisoner” and that Macbeth is “rapt” by the witches meaning that Macbeth is on the road to evil madness while also being possessed by the witches. His echoing of them furthers this idea. Further to all this The Witches’ curse of the sailor foreshadows what Fate has in store for Macbeth. The sailor is the captain of a ship, in the same way that Macbeth is to become “captain” of his land. Sleep will be denied to Macbeth and he later believes that, in murdering Duncan, he “has murder’d sleep”. This further suggests that the witches have great power over Macbeth as a similar situation in what happened to the captain has happened to Macbeth. Macbeth is more ambiguous. His speech is full of questioning, doubting and thoughts wandering through his head. “This supernatural soliciting, Cannot be ill, cannot be good” He can’t get their thoughts out of his head and ‘Cannot be ill’ could mean that it is not bad as he will become king, but it ‘Cannot be good’ as he is thinking of murdering Duncan which is an evil thought. This effect of him being aside makes us feel as if he we are inside of his mind and only we know his evil secretive thoughts that he is feeling. In Act 3 Scene 5 the very place reserved for him at the table, Macbeth sees, or thinks he sees, the spirit of the assassinated Banquo. Instead of Macbeth sitting “in the midst,” showing his prominence, his throne has been taken over by the bloody apparition of his former friend. Macbeth’s language reflects this change. The ghost, so hideous that it would “appall the devil,” appears to have risen from a grave or a “charnel-house.”In contrast to the urgent horror of Macbeth’s insults to the gruesome apparition are moments of calm. Each time the ghost vanishes, Macbeth’s relief is seen “Can such things be, and overcome us like a summer’s cloud, without our special wonder?” Indeed, the entire structure of this scene shows a man swinging from one state of mind to another. Three times Macbeth sees the ghost, and three times he appears to recover his senses. This alternating structure adds strongly to the impression of Macbeth’s loss of control. With the departure of the guests, Macbeth appears to regain some of his earlier self-confidence. He announces his decision to visit the Weird Sisters once more, this time of his own accord. His language in this banquet scene is mysterious and prophetic. The short scene is dominated by the repeated word “blood” and by the idea that a tide of murder has now been initiated which Macbeth is powerless to stop. He will spiral downwards into madness and death as he realizes that the witches’ third prophecy will now probably come true. It is imperative for Macbeth to meet with the witches again in order to retain some sort of sanity. Macbeth’s hallucinations have escalated from a mere dagger to a hideous ghost, matching his escalating madness. During this episode, Lady Macbeth keeps her cool and is able to cover for her husband, and when they are alone, she says to him “when all’s done you look but on a stool” (Banquo’s empty seat). It is evident that The Witches and Supernatural have got to Macbeth and he even has to turn to the Witches for help as he is too confused, helpless to make decisions for himself. In Act 4 Scene 1 Shakespeare again reminds us of the world that Macbeth now inhabits. He is no longer the hero of Scotland, but has caused the evil fate of his country. His purpose in confronting the witches is to find out his destiny. He concentrates more on the first three apparitions, which appear to confirm his existence and he ignores the final one, which gives a clear indication that there is no place for Macbeth’s line in the Scotland of the future. He makes the mistake of only interpreting the good parts of the vision, and he fails to understand that fate is unstoppable, however he decides to act. This meeting with the witches is different from his first encounter with them. He was in awe of their power when he first met them, but now he is King, he demands answers from them. He thinks he is in control of the situation. Macbeth also demonstrates arrogance by making sarcastic comments to the second apparition. The apparition says “Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth”, and he responds by saying “Had I three ears, I’d hear thee”. Another interesting point is Shakespeare’s use of children in the last three visions. Normally children are regarded as innocent, but here they are involved in images of death, which are dramatic, terrifying and bloody. The choice of these images is carefully made to annoy Macbeth, who has no children. Macbeth does grasp the point of the last apparition, which indicates that Scotland will be free of Macbeth soon enough. Misguidedly, Macbeth cannot believe his good fortune so he asks the witches again to confirm the truth of the visions, and they respond “Aye sir, all this is so”. By disregarding the final apparition, he thinks he is safe and invincible. The witches have layed out more prophecies from the future. They influence him as if he didn’t see the apparitions he would not attack so willingly in the final battle because he wouldn’t be sure of his well-being. As he now thinks he will be safe looking at the first three apparitions and not the last, he is ready to attack. By standing up to the witches he tries to make them think he is in control and that they haven’t affected him, but the downfall of Macbeth is lead by Macbeths decisions, however the witches triggered these decisions by laying out the tempting prophecies. The witches influence on how Macbeth made his decisions playing a crucial part in contributing to his eventual destruction. The witches were trying to create chaos by telling Macbeth prophecies of the future in order to get him to act. But it was Macbeth who made the choices that determined his fate. He was not forced to kill Duncan nor any of his other victims. But after he murdered Duncan, Macbeth lost his sanity. The witches were easily able to control his mind. They made him believe that he was invincible, and then he willingly continued to fight when he knew that it would mean his doom. Macbeth's downfall was planned by the weird sisters, but it was Macbeth's own free will that leads him to it. The three witches called the weird sisters are the root of the problem that is the subject for this play. The weird sisters are creators of chaos by nature. They associate with evil spirits and obey them, and they are followers of the evil goddess, Hecate. In the play the witches, with their spells, plan the downfall of Macbeth. They cannot directly harm him themselves, so they tell Macbeth predictions for his possible future, in order to make him act on them. The witches tell Macbeth that he will become the thane of Cawdor and then king of Scotland. They poison his mind with these prophecies, making him greedy with ambition and bringing out the evil qualities in his soul. When the first of the promises is proven authentic, Macbeth then considers the idea of murdering Duncan for the first time. This is his first step on the journey to his demise, as the witches had planned. The three witches' plan succeeded, they had aroused the greed in Macbeth, allowing him to make the most important choice of the play - to kill Duncan. Macbeth does not easily make this decision. In fact, at first he decides against it, but, with the knowledge that he could be king, he could not help himself from considering it. After constant persuasion from Lady Macbeth, she and Macbeth finally made their decision to go through with the murder. This act surges Macbeth forward on the direct path to his destruction. Afterwards, when Duncan is discovered dead, Macbeth kills again when he murders the servants who were guarding Duncan. Claiming he acted in rage Macbeth kills the servants so that they cannot bear witness against him. Macbeth's greed had taken control of him and he could not turn back. It only took the one idea in Macbeth's head to lead him toward corruption. After Macbeth grows more sinful and overpowered with greed he does not make any real attempt to change, and his conscious is bothered by this. Slowly Macbeth loses grasp of his sanity and self-control. Being consumed with power, Macbeth lets nothing stand in the way of his reign, because his reign is all that he has left now. It is not long before Macbeth's own ruthlessness begins to disturb him, greatly. He suffers from troubled sleep, nightmares and loss of appetite, and he is going insane. Later in the play Macbeth says to Lady Macbeth, "I am in blood, Stepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er." This remark paints the image of Macbeth swimming in a sea of blood, having proceeded so far that it is easier to continue than to go back. Macbeth has lost hope. With regret, he feels that he is past the point of no return, he has sinned so brutally and severely that he is unable to reverse it. Now that the witches have succeeded in bringing out Macbeth's evil qualities, they are ready to finish their plot and make sure that Macbeth follows his destiny to his downfall. With Hecate's guidance, the witches plan to lead Macbeth to his death by making him feel overconfident. Macbeth goes to seek the witches in a dark cave. When he finds them, they present him with three apparitions. The first apparition appears as an armed head that says, "Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff; Beware the thane of Fife." The second apparition is a bloody child that tells Macbeth, "Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn the power of man, for none born of woman shall harm Macbeth." Finally the third apparition, in the form of a child with a crown on his head, holding a tree, tells Macbeth that he "Shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him." Macbeth now feels assured that he cannot be killed because he assumes that all people are born of a woman and it is impossible for a forest to move. He could never have guessed that the apparitions meant that Macduff did not have a natural birth and that the English would use trees as camouflage. This false confidence Macbeth was given was extremely important to allow him to make his final decisions that resulted in his defeat. The apparitions made an effect on Macbeth and he acts foolishly because of them. When he is told that Macduff has fled to England, Macbeth, in fury, orders his family murdered. This only strengthens Macduff's desire to confront and kill Macbeth. When Macbeth finally realizes that he has been deceived by the witches his overconfidence turns into arrogance. A messenger reports to Macbeth that it appears that Birnam Wood is moving toward Dunsinane, as the apparitions had warned Macbeth it would. But Macbeth now is too determined to fight than to retreat, so he orders his soldiers to attack. On the battlefield he feels trapped. But at the same time however, he clings to the prophecy that he cannot by killed by anyone born of a woman. When Macbeth is finally confronted by Macduff, Macduff explains that he was delivered by caesarian section and thus, technically, not born. Now Macbeth fully understands the deception of the witches and realizes that he is destined to die here. But when he is given the chance to live he does not take it, he would rather die than live in shame. By free will, despite knowing that he would probably die, Macbeth fights Macduff, and is slain. It was Macbeth's free will, with the influence of the witch’s prophecies that determined his destiny. Macbeth chose to kill Duncan, chose to kill his servants, Banquo, and Macduff's family, and chose to fight to his death. And he was not forced to do so; he took each step on the path to his destruction by choice. Even though Macbeth seemed to have a predetermined fate, I don't think that he was bound to it. I think he could have chosen to break away from the direction he was heading at anytime, but just simply did not have the willpower.
