By (II, vi) the balance has shifted from ‘worthy gentleman’ Macbeth to ‘the good Macduff’. This once more adds to Macbeth’s fear of capture and angst of unpopularity. Macbeth finds it suspicious that Macduff is returning home to Fife as opposed to staying for Macbeth’s coronation and enhances his fear. In (III, I), when Banquo accuses Macbeth of winning but ‘thou play’dst most foully for’t’, tension rises in Macbeth’s castle, we see his demise and degeneration as a moral and good human being as he plots in cold blood against a good man and his innocent child (Banquo and Fleance).
Macbeth uses his evil and wicked ways to encourage two men to carry out the murders for him. He spurs them on by blaming Banquo for their failed careers and lack of promotion, when actually this is all down to Macbeth. He blames others for his faults, yet another sign of his lack or morals. Support from those around you is a very important part of the play, without the support of Lady Macbeth, the murders may never have been committed, and when Macbeth admits that his friendship with Banquo has ended, he admits that he is starting to weaken. ‘To be thus is nothing, But to be safely thus’, even though he is now King of Scotland, as he wished, he has realised that it means nothing unless he can feel safe – something we learn he will never feel, this lack of safety is what leads him to his extinction. Macbeth has developed a nihilistic view with no depth of emotion, it is as if he no longer has emotion, he is simply a murderer, who won’t stop until he can get what he wants.
Macbeth has initiated a circle of not feeling/being safe and giving inspiration to others to assassinate him by starting it means he can never live in peace (i.e. never sleep for fear of being murdered – ‘Macbeth does murder sleep’). It is this fear that forces him to murder anyone he sees as a threat to his life (e.g. Banquo). Macbeth’s actions have caused him a breakdown of relationships, his ‘folie a deux, Lady Macbeth, a life partner and unconditional supporter begins to crumble as Lady Macbeth loses her initial confidence and becomes mentally ill. He is petrified of a revolt from the people of Scotland; ‘To be thus is nothing but to be safely thus’ and scared of the plans of his surrounding Thanes and Malcolm and Donalbain (with the support of the English). He distances everyone from himself in an attempt to disguise his actions, he fails to inform Lady Macbeth of his plans to kill Banquo, ‘Be innocent of knowledge dearest chuck’.
At the Banquet, where all the Thanes and noblemen of Scotland are present, Macbeth turns into a gibbering wreck and has to be calmed and reassured by his wife and she informs everyone ‘my lord is often thus’ and asks them to ‘But go at once’. Macbeth describes himself as ‘cabined, cribbed, confined’; this alliteration is a metaphor for his personal realisation that his life here forward will be a never-ending cycle of him having to murder to survive.
Until (III, iv), people suspect, but nobody is positive that Macbeth is to blame for the murders and destruction, however, by the end, people are virtually positive they are down to him. (III, vi) further encourages Macbeth’s ruination of himself, in his country and thane’s eyes. Lennox acts as representative of all the thanes of Scotland and confirms that ‘The gracious Duncan was pitied of Macbeth – marry he was dead’. Macbeth’s suspicious behaviour of showing great favour towards Duncan, after his death has been recognised by the thanes. The scene is set in another Scottish castle, representing other homes throughout Scotland. The fear expressed by Lennox shows the shadow of fright under which Scotland is living. This fear makes everybody unable to relax, in addition to murdering his own sleep, Macbeth has killed everyone else’s aswell; ‘sleep to our nights, free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives’. As Macbeth’s ruination and that of divine Scotland grows worse, Macduff’s progress as a good man/potential saviour becomes obvious. Macbeth notices Macduff’s increase in political strength and, in his pledge for safety, decides to prevent him gaining any more power. The last few lines of the scene, signify the state of Scotland, ‘May soon return to this our suffering country, Under a hand accursed’.
(III, vi) shows the contrast between Scotland and England and emphasises the evil that has swept Scotland. It highlights how the King of England (Edward the Confessor) is a wonderful monarch, appointed by divine right. This is opposed to Macbeth, who is King due to brutal behaviour and has been appointed by witches (is this their way of spreading evil and becoming more powerful, in an attempt to overrule God?). Most pious Edward with such grace…holy King…malevolence of fortune nothing’. You will notice when reading this scene that there is a positive semantic field surrounding Edward, as opposed to Macbeth. He is associated with blood, evil and negativity. Real irony and sarcasm surrounds Macbeth’s persona in this scene, ‘Marry he was dead’, the variations in intonation are necessary to bring out Lennox’s sarcasm and irony.
In (V,i) Macbeth, desperate for some sort of reassurance of his power, revisits the witches. His fearless attitude is emphasised when he shows the witches no respect as he addresses them ‘midnight hags’. When the witches tell him to ‘Beware Macduff; Beware the Thane of Fife’ it is hereafter that Macbeth plans the unthinkable and sends murderers to kill Macduff’s entire virtuous household. He informs Lennox that ‘the castle of Macduff I will surprise, Seize upon Fife, give to the edge o’ th’ sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls That trace him in his line’. Having realised the threat that Macduff poses to him, Macbeth wishes to stop any of his lineage gaining royal privilege, so he uses the only way he knows how and does so in a very unrelenting manner.
Macduff shows great anger; 'Not in the legions of horrid hell can come a devil more damned in evils, to top Macbeth’. On discovering what Macbeth has done to the Macduff clan, Malcolm seizes the opportunity to gain his support to stop Macbeth and cause his downfall once and for all; ‘Let’s make us medicines of our great revenge, To cure this deadly grief’. Macbeth’s fate is at once clear as Macduff says ‘Within my sword’s length set him, if he scape, heaven forgive him too’. It is soon after this that we hear of Lady Macbeth’s suicide, Macbeth has lost his best friend, supporters and most important of his entire moral supporter and folie a deux partner, surely he can’t pull through now? However, he still appears to have some sort of lack of fear and a continuing determination to remain victorious. Nearing the end of they play, when Macbeth admits ‘I have lived long enough. My way of life has fallen to the sear, the yellow leaf…As honour, love, obedience…’.
When informed of the English force, that is fast approaching his castle, Macbeth still appears calm and collected, ‘Fear not Macbeth, no man that’s of woman born Shall e’er have power upon thee’. He seems unaffected by the invasion threatening his home; ‘Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, thou lily-livered boy…soldiers, whey-face?’. However, when informed by a servant that ‘I looked towards Birnam, and anon methought the wood began to move’, Macbeth starts to show fear as he realises this could be the end. Having slaughtered many men, Macbeth gains a new confidence and then proceeds into the castle courtyard to challenge Macduff – of whom he has no fear. That is, until Macduff informs Macbeth ‘was from his mother’s womb untimely ripped’. Macduff then kills Macbeth and axes off his head. Finally, Macbeth has gained his comeuppance and landed at the bitter end that he deserves.
However, it wasn’t just unto himself that Macbeth brought this fear and destruction, he also disrupted divine Scotland and made it into a country swept with fear and murder. The political system is completely overthrown by Macbeth’s fight for control, Thanes and lineage to the throne fled the country and anyone that stayed was restless and put their own lives and their families lives in danger. The fear of Scotland and it’s people, is shown in a conversation between Donalbain and Malcolm (II, iv) ‘There’s daggers in men’s smiles; the near in blood, The nearer bloody’. This is a metaphor for Donalbain’s mistrust of everybody around him. He feels everyone wears a disguise and underneath a smiling face, there could be hatred and evil. The imagery conjures up pictures of the innocent and pleasant man on the outside, but inside, he is a murderer and a traitor. The quote portrays the scenes of anarchy and chaos in Scotland.
Macbeth causes distress for Malcolm and Donalbain at their loss of a father; and thus a threat to their lives ‘Hid in an auger-hole may rush and seize us? Let’s away; our tears are not yet brewed’. His plans also drive his once ironically confident and merciless wife to self-murder. From the start of the play, Lady Macbeth acts as her husband’s sidekick and supporter and spurs him on in his plight for power, however as Macbeth gains more power and carries out more and more evil deeds. His wife degenerates until she herself is left a gibbering wreck’ – ironic as she became angry with Macbeth for doing so incase he gave the truth away. Lady Macbeth obsessively washes her hands in a desperate attempt to clean the blood from her hand, ‘Here’s the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!’. Eventually, she takes her own life, leaving Macbeth alone, with no partner in crime to support him in his mission. This is ironic, as in Macbeth’s merciless journey to the highest position of the monarchy in Scotland; he has ended up killing the one he loved. Not only did he kill his wife, but his best friend and his captain, Banquo.
Is Macbeth ‘too full of the milk of human kindness’ as Lady Macbeth describes him, or is he the ‘butcher’ that Malcolm considers him to be in the final scene of the play? Is he a victim of his ambition, moral weakness or his limited concept of manliness? Other factors also play a pivotal role in his ill-fated future. Is it Lady Macbeth’s cajoling that caused evil to be unleashed over Scotland? Or did the witches manipulate his thoughts, foretell his future and work images in his mind in such a way as to unleash some form of evil inside him? Could it be a combination of all these factors; when put together, form some dark force? Whatever it is, the witches and Lady Macbeth supply a mitigating state of affairs for Macbeth’s degree of guilt in the play.
Macbeth demonstrates his merciless attitudes in battle against Macdonwald. From the very start of the play, we recognise his determination and ambitious strive. Shakespeare portrays him as a man of superstition and great determination. The first time we come into contact with him is with the witches, this depicts his character as once with interaction with supernatural forces. Not only this but it gives a sincere strangeness about him. His first words include the phrase ‘foul is fair and fair is foul’, which refer to the opening scene of the play and act as cohesive devices to bind the play throughout. Unusually, on encountering the witches, Macbeth’s character appears withdrawn (not as he behaves later in the book having committed several murders). On the other hand, Banquo contrasts Macbeth’s attitudes (metaphor for clash of views between Macbeth and Banquo) and is very forward towards the witches, ‘What are these…look not like inhabitants o’ th’ earth…you should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so’.
The audience doesn’t see Macbeth as a threatening or cunning character due to his withdrawn attitude. This is the first sign of Macbeth doing wrong, he acts the fool, thus is being two faced. Ironically Duncan shows Macbeth extreme kindness and respect; ‘What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won’. This portrays Macbeth as evil to the audience as this man is so nice to him and yet he plots to murder him – all due to his greed for more power. Macbeth shows a very split personality, when he is in soliloquy or with Lady Macbeth, he is somewhat forthcoming with his ideas; ‘My dearest love, Duncan comes here tonight’. However, on the other hand he is subdued and humble towards his counterparts. Macbeth deliberately seeks out the witches (as he did after he had carried out Duncan’s murder), it appears almost as though they feed him power. In order for the reassurance and details of his next step to monarchy he visits them to have his future actions foretold; ‘How now, you secret, black midnight hags! What is’t you do?’.
Note however that Macbeth dies a hero at the end and not a disgraced coward despite his actions, is this because he finally accepted his comeuppance after being dropped by his manipulators? He dies fighting and not running away, does this demonstrate any innocence and decency in this man; ‘Had he his hurts before? Ay on the front…’.
I think that Macbeth must undoubtedly have had some form of evil, or hatred inside him. There must have already been some sort of deep ambition and strive for power inside him initially. I don’t think that anyone would carry out such depraved acts as Macbeth did simply because some ‘weird sisters’ foretold their future in an accurate manner. Or because their lover encouraged them, helped them plan and supported their ‘power trip’. We must note that Duncan’s murder is what drove Macbeth to commit this awful deed. Shakespeare intended this to be the case, at the end of (II, ii), there is a rhyming couplet, Shakespeare had previously been noted for placing one of these at the end of any key scene in the book. Thus he was noting to the audience that the murder of Duncan was a key scene, what ‘sparked’ Macbeth in his ambition for leadership power. ‘Hear it not Duncan, for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell’.
Initially, more important than my own interpretations of the texts are Shakespeare’s intentions. He would undoubtedly be out to please King James, who was infact a keen believer in witchcraft and was supported by the majority of the British population at the time. James thought that Guy Fawkes had been led on by witches (the gunpowder plot that had occurred 9 months previous) and as this was probably a shaky subject Shakespeare would support his beliefs in writing that Macbeth had been led to assassination by supernatural causes. Shakespeare intended Macbeth’s death to be sudden and for him to hurtle to his demise after the murders, even though this didn’t really happen in history, the Divine Right of Kings deemed regicide an awful offence – the worst infact. Kings were God’s regents to be given complete obedience. Thus, Shakespeare would ensure Macbeth a brutal and quick demise immediately after he’d killed Duncan in order to please the Jacobeans, as this was a firmly believed philosophy of theirs. In order to achieve this he made the play quick and with an intelligent structure to show demise of the time (only about 2 hours and 30 minutes).
Macbeth was undoubtedly primarily physically responsible for Duncan’s death as he himself stabbed him. However, to what extent was it his own mental doing? He is driven to murder due to his ambition to become King of Scotland. Duncan, who is a good man and never done wrong to Macbeth. Macbeth owes him gratitude for the honours he has given him. Macbeth is Duncan’s kinsmen, one the elite generals. Macbeth should have no reason to murder his ruler, especially not one so good as Duncan, ‘He hath honoured me of late’ – Macbeth admits that Duncan has been good to him. Macbeth appears simply too intelligent to simply be manipulated and used by a mere mortal - his wife and a group of old women – the witches, who claim to be able to foretell his future.
Either the evil was all within Macbeth initially and was instantly unleashed when he was sparked by ideas or there was some sort of supernatural/evil power emitted from these sources. Since the witches put forward the three prophecies to him, Macbeth is constantly thinking about kingship (did him and Lady Macbeth not leave completely normal lives before they encountered the ‘supernatural’?). He demonstrates his enticement and queries Banquo as to whether or not he would ally him; ‘Let us speak free our hearts to each other’. The prophecies show he has been demonically possessed, he asks the spirits to ‘come ye spirits’. Macbeth allows Lady Macbeth to dominate him and the witches predictions to seep into his thoughts and plant imagery of evil doings in his mind, which he feels he should go through with. Surely he could have opposed Lady Macbeth in a more efficacious manner. An important point in the play is however when Macbeth says that he could ‘If chance may crown me then doves may have me’, surely if he is willing to wait for kingship then, he wouldn’t have committed so many brutal murders to quicken the process? Macbeth’s ambition was the spur to prick his intent, he simply needed other catalysts (witches and Lady Macbeth) to allow the process to be carried through and completed.
There is a large contrast in Macbeth’s character before and after his initial encounter with the forces of the supernatural, the witches. Shakespeare’s writing of the play may have been partly motivated by a desire to impress King James I of England. The King had previously created a book called Demonology and his interest in witchcraft was commonly known. This could suggest that Macbeth intended the audience to blame the witches for the disastrous occurrences. However, some may interpret it that he attempted to clearly blame the witches but the truth behind the blame was a lot deeper and less obvious. It is believed that the source of Macbeth, aswell as the dark history of royal Scotland, is a play, The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland. The playwright, Raphael Holinshed tells a story of a man, urged by his wife and foretold by prophecy, that murders a King in order to gain power. Does this mean that Macbeth intends people to think that the underlying force for these acts is already present and the witches are simply a catalyst to spark evil within this folie a deux?
The witches appear to completely alter Macbeth’s character and state of mind. They call upon apparitions who give Macbeth warnings, promises and prophecies. The ‘weird sisters’ have caused him to change from the hero to the traitor he has become. They effectively plant the seed of evil within him and give him the power he needed to cause destruction. The witches are the first supernatural experience Macbeth encounters but, aren’t the only ones. The dagger appears to confirm the fate planted in Macbeth by the witches. It appears to restart his urge for power. It is also a way to appease his wife and her own appetite for power. We must firstly ask what the witches intentions in all this are, and then ask whether or not the tragedies would have occurred had it not been for their intervention.
At the time in which the play was written, the witches were not thought to be supernatural beings themselves, but supposedly gained their powers by selling their souls to Satan, and then were constructed and controlled by ‘familiar spirits’. The existence of witchcraft was recognised by English Law – an act formed in 1604 made the practice of it punishable by death – but it was by no means unquestioned. I feel there is little doubt that Shakespeare’s audience would have believed in witches and that he himself would have accepted their reality. Thus, I think that in the play, Shakespeare almost certainly would have intended the supernatural force be perceived as real, and powerful. I think that the witches intended to bring about the downfall and destruction of Macbeth, after all, his rise had many devastating repercussions. The witches aim was to destroy the harmony of the people in political Scotland. At one point in the play, where Hecate is present, it becomes apparent that she wishes to overturn Scotland and it’s people in an attempt to gain the holy power of god, rather than just to cause destruction – the underworld trying to conquer the heavens perhaps? ‘Though you untie the winds and let them fight against the churches; though the yesty waves’.
Secondly, I must investigate whether or not Macbeth would have caused such huge destruction had it not been for the intervention of the witches and had it just been left down to Lady Macbeth and his own ambitions. The three witches are obviously intended to be a major part in the play as they introduced in a dramatic scene right at the start of the play. These opening scenes give immediate impressions of horror, mystery and uncertainty. They create an atmosphere of evil and disorder. The opening scene is plagued by thunder and lightening. The semantic feel of evil is created by the repetitions and the pattern in which things are uttered by the witches in (I,i), ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’, this also give an air of confusion. The thunder and lightening creates a pathetic fallacy and sets the tone for what will occur in the rest of the play. However, the ‘fog and filthy air’ suggests that the entire ‘picture’ is still unclear and uncertain.
We become aware of Banquo’s innocence when he negatively describes the witches, ‘The instruments of darkness tell us truths, win us honest trifles, to betrays in deepest consequence’. Banquo has the ability to see that the witches are flagitious whereas Macbeth is fooled. This blindness possessed by Macbeth - unbeknown to most where he got it from – is what causes his eventual spiralled downfall and the destruction of many around him. I think that although the witches cannot control Macbeth’s destiny, they saw his weaknesses and added temptation when they foretold the future in an evil attempt to prey on an otherwise unsuspecting mortal to physically carry out their wish for destruction and control of Scotland. Once given the inspiration to strive for power, Macbeth creates his own misery, having stupidly murdered the King, he is then driven by his own sense of guilt. This causes him to become insecure as to the reasons for his actions, which in turn cause him to commit more murders. The witches offer great enticement, but it is in the end each individual’s decision to fall for temptation or to be strong enough to resist their captivation.
I think that the witches are responsible for the proem of these ideas and for emphasising ideas in Macbeth’s head but can’t be blamed for his actual actions. The witches are very persuasive when they encounter Macbeth and talk in very enticing and suggestive manner. The witches are a physiological force as opposed to a physical force. They know, from their great intelligence what Macbeth’s ambitions would be and they simply use their evil mannerisms, add temptation and add ‘atmosphere’ to their chants in order to make them appear more supernatural. Due to the hidden ambitions any man in Macbeth’s position is bound to posses and the encouragement posed to him by the scheming witches, Macbeth is given the ‘ammunition’ he requires to go about with these awful actions.
The witches use a lot of repetition every time that they appear in the play which shows how they emphasise and ‘drum’ their evil prophecies into Macbeth’s thoughts. This repetition is demonstrated when repeat ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’ and then (I, iii, 38) is seen to repeat that phrase, proving that their ideas are already starting to creep into Macbeth’s ideas and thoughts, ‘So foul and fair a day I have not seen’. They appear to foretell the future and posses supernatural knowledge –convincing Macbeth that they are correct and persuading him to be more ambitious for himself? ‘All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis…Thane of Cawdor…that shalt be King hereafter!’. Having listened to the witches and (stupidly?) informed his wife of their prophecies, Macbeth has murdered Duncan and now he has sparked his evil voyage of destruction. Macbeth effectively starts to rely on the witches due to his insufferable guilt. He revisits them, does this mean that he relies on them to carry out his actions? He needs the witches to instruct him what to do next?
Shakespeare portrays the witches as evil beings and gives them a supernatural feeling about them. He makes references to the devil in their speeches and their chants and actions appear to circulate around the number 3, thought to be an evil number in Jacobean times. The language gives unfavourable connotations and every time the witches feature in the play thunder is queued to sound; Thunder and lightening. Enter three witches (stage directions, start of the play). ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair…(new line) fog and filthy air’, rhyming paradox/riddle recurs throughout the play. ‘Tiger’s chaudron…blaspheming Jew…snake…hemlock’.
Having committed two murders and fearing for his own safety Macbeth has fled to the witches lair the witches use more repetition ‘trouble…boil…bubble…toil…trouble’. Macbeth addresses the witches with no respect, which is very different to the way in which he behaved towards them when they first encountered one another, ‘How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags…you do?’. He no longer fears them, does this mean that once the evil has been sparked inside of Macbeth, he is fearless? The second witch describes how Macbeth has become evil of his own accords. ‘By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes; Open locks’.
The witches however continue to recount three prophecies, they tell him, ‘Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth, beware Macduff, beware the Thane of Fife’. Can the witches really foretell the future? They could just be guessing, they target Macbeth’s fellow thanes, is this a way of forcing Macbeth to kill them as he thinks it is a way to make himself safe? This is probably the witches plan to destroy the divine unity of Scotland, by causing fear to sweep the nation. They then try and make Macbeth feel ‘safe’ and encourage him that he really does have supernatural powers by recounting two more prophecies.
These ideas initially appear impossible, ‘The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth…Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him’. We must note however that the witches initially predict the future to be on Macbeth’s side. However once he abides and they have gained his trust and effectively inevitably destroyed him, he is so far entangled he cannot do anything when they turn against him and negatively predict his inevitable downfall. However, as Shakespeare clearly demonstrates in the final chapter of the play, they are possible, just not in a way the audience or Macbeth himself for that matter thought possible. They don’t take supernatural powers to become true, the witches could just have a wide knowledge – they probably just knew that trees were used in battle to disguise the amount of soldiers. They would have also known that Macbeth was born of Caesarean section. By giving Macbeth these forecasts, the witches have tricked him and lulled him into a false sense of security, insuring he continues to destroy the lives of the Scottish people and those around him in a fearless manner.
Macbeth has a false power that causes him to destroy Scotland however, he must have had an ambition, weakness or devious feature inside himself already because as Banquo demonstrated in (I, iii), it is easy to resist the witches power. However cannot control his vaulting ambitions. The text gives us insights into the relationship and power balance in the marriage between Macbeth and his wife. Initially, his wife seems to have the dominant role in the partnership, which was very unusual at the time as a male was a typical controlling figure in 11th century Scotland, but also in the Jacobean era when the play was performed. Lady Macbeth is a controversial figure, she is described as a ‘gentle lady ‘tis not for you to hear what I can speak, the repetition in a woman’s ear would murder as it fell’ by Macduff and a ‘fiend-like queen’ by Malcolm.
Lady Macbeth is a woman ambitious for her husband and herself; ‘That no compunctions visitings of nature shake fell purpose, nor keep peace between Th’effect and it…’ She is astute enough to recognise her husband’s strengths and weaknesses, and ruthless enough to exploit them. The instant Macbeth writes to her informing of his encounter with the witches (I, v, l.1-28) she realises his ambition to gain the crown of Scotland and realises that without her succour he will never win the crown. We see her as she analyses the weaknesses in Macbeth’s character and his personality traits (i.e. great self-ambition) and decides to overcome his scruples, ‘hie thee hither that I may pour spirits at thine ear’.
Overcome by ambition, she allies herself with the powers of darkness; ‘Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here…come to my woman’s breasts and take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers’. Do these utterances imply that she fears her own womanliness and realises the unnaturalness of the murder of Duncan? She demands a strong male prophesy so that she can have the strength to carry out the murder herself.
Lady Macbeth acts as more of a physical catalyst than the witches; she bullies Macbeth and emotionally blackmails him by mocking his bravery and manhood. When Macbeth shows uncertainty towards the act she tells him ‘when you durst do it, then you were a man; and, to be more than what you were, you would be so much more a man’. Every opposition to the act that he manages to present to her in an attempt to back down from the act, she has an rebuttal for; Macbeth: ‘Will it not be received…marked with blood those sleepy two…their very daggers…That they have done’t?’ Lady Macbeth: ‘Who dares receive it other, as we shall make our grief’s and clamour roar upon his death?’.
When Duncan expresses his desire to stay at Macbeth’s castle, Lady Macbeth is very welcoming, we get the impression that she is more ambitious for Duncan than he is for himself; ‘only look up clear, to alter favour ever is to fear. Leave all the rest to me’. Lady Macbeth also organises the fine details of the murder, she ‘his two chamberlains…with wine and wassail so convince, that memory the warder of the brain’ and also returns the daggers to the scene of the murder when Macbeth ‘Look on’t again…dare not’. She removes her feminine feelings and caring attitudes so that she is able to pressure Macbeth and assist him in the murder. However, she does demonstrate humanity at some points in the play, which make us question her power. When Macbeth is unable to murder Duncan she brands him a coward, ‘and live a coward in thine own esteem, letting I dare not wait upon I would’, however she is ironically unable to murder Duncan ‘had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t’.
She is cunning in her behaviour and much more astute than Macbeth, to emphasise her shock, she purports to collapse at the sight of the dead bodyguards; ‘help me, hence ho!’. In (II, ii), Lady Macbeth has to result to alcohol to cope with the murder and gain courage; ‘that which hath made them drunk hath made me bold’. Is this another sign perhaps that she hasn’t been filled with ‘direst cruelty?’. She constantly attempts to cover up Macbeth’s actions and appears to be the better criminal. I think that she is afraid her lover may betray himself and so does everything in her mortal power to stop him, even if that involves cruelty to be kind. For example, I don’t think the hatred is real when she argues him of wearing ‘a heart so white’,
As she and Macbeth grow apart, her involvement in the play lessens and so does her resolve. In (III, ii), Lady Macbeth is coming to realise that the crown has not brought happiness, ‘Nought’s had, all’s spent, Where our desire is got without content’. Is she suffering from remorse here, or does she think that the murder of Duncan has alienated Macbeth from her? ‘How now my lord, why do you keep alone!’, she is worried about his unhappy frame of mind and tries to console him; ‘what’s done is done’. She demonstrates her strength and unruffled persona when Macbeth becomes unmanned and incredibly disturbed in (III, iv) when he sees the bloody ghost of Duncan, she excuses him and rationally explains ‘the season of all natures, sleep’. This could show her compassion towards him, or her thoughts that further argument would be useless.
The next time that we meet Lady Macbeth, she has been reduced to a poor, mad creature broken by events. Is there a stress on her sense of guilt, despair and perhaps her determination? Macbeth’s few words about her (V, v) may be uttered in an indifferent tone or even with the sense of something already lost; ‘she should have died hereafter’. In the end, we feel a sense of guilt for her; however, the significance of her hardness and harsh cruelty is hard to forget.
Lady Macbeth uses ‘the golden round’ as the euphanism for the crown, this symbolises to her both wealth and power, power being perhaps the most important to her. She could be driven by the pride she felt when her husband was awarded the title of Thane of Cawdor, or greed for a higher social status. The actions she subsequently took make her appear either possessed by true evil or mentally unstable. I think that her manipulative nature was played upon by fate, a recurring theme in the play. Maybe the witches control her mind, they are a personification of a twisted and evil force. They appear to manipulate fate by building vices on the people around them. I think that they have control over Lady Macbeth, either through her mind, or external factors.
Finally, with all the different aspects of the play, era and Jacobean beliefs taken into account, I can come to some conclusions in answer to the essay title. Firstly, it is quite clear the damage caused by Macbeth’s actions, his ambitions were the eventual (not direct however) cause of the downfall of his wife and the reason for her to commit suicide. Macbeth took the lives of many and robbed Scotland of it’s monarch, Duncan. By doing this he not only caused Malcolm and Donalbain, Duncan’s sons to flee the country, the Thanes and people of Scotland to were living in fear of their lives as they lay in the way of Macbeth’s ambitious path to the top of Scotland. Finally, and most important of all, Macbeth caused his own downfall, his aspiration for power, violent streak and somewhat evil personality combined with a susceptible character led to his eventual, but somewhat inevitable untimely demise.
So the question I need to answer is was this destruction purely down to Macbeth himself, or did the witches and Lady Macbeth has a part to play in it? Maybe the murder wasn’t due to plan or force other than a combination of fate and metaphysical aid. Shakespeare’s texts are commonly written in a sophisticated manner and there is good reasoning for any single events. I think that Lady Macbeth was a tool of fate and exercised her influences of the very susceptible Macbeth to play out a series of pre determined events. I don’t think that there is particular reasoning behind this play however the moral mystery is a great underlying evil force. I don’t know what Shakespeare wanted this evil to represent, perhaps he didn’t know himself or maybe it represents the vulnerability of all humans to fate or chance. It may pessimistically represent the basic evil found in some humans that needs a powerful character and metaphysical aids to start the cycle. Or perchance it was written to enthral audiences and leave them wondering.
Macbeth evidently committed the murder in a physical manner and I think he undoubtedly had some power to carry out the act inside him already, I don’t think that this power was supernatural, but I do think it was evil. It was probably simply ambition combined with jealousy and other moral sins. So who did force him to do it? I think it was a combination of them both. The witches’ intelligence combined with Lady Macbeth’s ruthlessness. The witches had the cleverness to spot a ‘flaw’ in Macbeth and target his weaknesses with their wicked spells.
But was their power real magic? I think that Shakespeare intended their power to be real magic as it was the belief of the King and most Jacobean people and thus probably the writer himself. However, I think he was also trying to communicate the message to the audience that the witches didn’t have very powerful abilities and it needed other things to make their plans come alive (i.e. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth). Lady Macbeth shared many of her husband’s qualities, ambition, jealousy and wants for a powerful profile in Scotland and thus worked very well as the other catalyst to drive Macbeth towards his goal. Thus, in final conclusion, I can say that physically Macbeth is to blame however, the murders and disasters would never have happened without all three parties’ involvement. They all played off each others weaknesses and relied on the ‘support’ of one another to survive and continue to strive to their goal. When the witches stopped supporting Macbeth and started to predict his downfall, the ‘folie a trois’ collapsed and Macbeth and his wife met their end, leaving Macbeth at peace and the witches still alive and ready to strike. The witches survived, which is my reasoning behind thinking that they were the most powerful part of the threesome and the creator of the film Roman Polanski agrees as this is what his video demonstrates – the witches having the power of the final words…
