The audience at this point should feel concerned for Macbeth. They see a war-weary hero easily manipulated by creatures with more than “mortal knowledge”. His fate is being tampered with and appears beyond his control.
The audience are unable to condemn him as evil when all they see is a vulnerable person, clearly emotionally and physically drained and experiencing many feelings.
Macbeth’s soliloquy is evidence of the distress he is going through. He reveals his inner thoughts and motives. Despite being a determined person, he is human and has become withdrawn, indecisive and vulnerable. The concern the audience feel is strengthened at this point.
Soon after Malcolm is announced heir to the throne. This proves to be bad timing for Macbeth as he has had time to consider what the witches said and now sees Malcolm as an obstacle in his vaulting ambition rather than his future sovereign.
Macbeth desperately needs a strong, level headed and rational individual. He is unable to think rationally himself and he needs advice.
It is instinct to turn to someone who is close and knows you well this is what Macbeth does. He turns to his wife hoping for help, however he gets an immoral, malevolence conscience. She appears in this scene as a ruthless, two-faced woman whose effort is to strive for the greater glory of her husband. “Eve has tasted the forbidden fruit and will stop at nothing in her efforts to have Adam do the same”.
As a man, Macbeth has a tendency to ignore and think of ways round problems. A weakness Lady Macbeth sees and uses to her advantage.
Macbeth doesn’t lack the ambition to become what he wants although he is scared of the methods and the affect of these actions.
To achieve the outcome they want the assassination of the king is to be accomplished cautiously. If anyone finds out what they have done the consequences are serious. Therefore the evilness needed for the assassination must come from her. She acts “like the innocent flower” in public but behind closed doors the audience sees the “serpent under’t”. There is a part of Lady Macbeth’s character closely linking her with the witches, her actions and words come across as though she is the forth witch. She talks of pouring her spirits in Macbeth’s ear; as if she was giving him a potion to alter his good willed, noble character to be able carry out the wicked act of killing the king.
In this scene she prays for the darkness to hide her planned action. This is the evidence of guilt and her conscience. She knows that it is wrong yet she is prepared to suffer the consequences as though her conscience has no influence over what she is doing. The audience see a weak man give in to her wishes all to easily.
Macbeth is a victim: he is suffering from posttraumatic stress; he is vulnerable and incapable of reasonable thinking. He let himself fall into a trap of human nature, letting his wife manipulate him and was weak to allow himself to give in to his wife’s wicked nature.
The audience can sympathise with Macbeth although I believe that a stronger person would not of let this happen and many people would have acted differently. The audience may feel slight anger with Macbeth because of how he let his wife treat him.
From that scene on Macbeth continues to alienate the characters as well as the audience. Banquo becomes suspicious about the prophecies that the witches told and how they are coming true. He thinks that it is not fate alone that it causing these predictions to come true. He remembers what the witches told him and he becomes aware of what is to happen to his descendents. However Macbeth notices this change in character and sees the threat that Banquo posses therefore he arranges for his murder. Macbeth is losing the influence of his good intentions and is becoming a victim of his own conscience. He is getting a taste for murder and his greed is out weighing his valour.
Macbeth again meets with the witches and in response to what they say he has everyone in Macduff’s family brutally killed. By now he sees everyone as an obstacle, as though everyone is plotting against him. Macbeth is a prisoner of his own mind and is being played with, like a puppet by the witches. His vulnerable state of mind is perfect for the witches to take advantage of, what was once his fate has now turned into a vicious cycle of murders, deception and force of nature on a innocent person.
Before, Lady Macbeth was playing the dominant role, now the tables have turned and Macbeth is out of control and his actions are of his own accord.
In the end not even his wife can live with the monster Macbeth has become. The audience can only conclude that Macbeth is a brutal killer who is out of control. They see a man who’s lack of morals and hunger for greed has got the best of him.
At the end of the play his mind is “full of scorpions” as he comes to terms with what he has done and the person he has become. Macbeth has lost his wife, a loyal friend and a good king all because of his seek for power.
Near the end a final battle is to take place, Macbeth’s final battle. All has deserted him except his servant “seyton” whose name has significance itself. The forces of evil have destroyed his life and now he is left with the devil who is his only companion.
As Macduff brings an end to Macbeth the audience can only feel relieved that such a person has been killed. Sympathy can be felt because of how Macbeth was manipulated my forces stronger than his own.
“Macbeth” is a play about the fall of a good man. Although Macbeth wasn’t entirely an evil character, Lady Macbeth and the witches play a major role. He had the choices and he chose to follow the wrong side of his conscience. It has many lessons to learn about greed, envy, pride and others of the seven deadly sins. What Macbeth becomes is the result of a manipulative wife, the forces of evil in the form of witches and the cruelty of human nature.
