Macbeth


 * Character of Macbeth **

By Olivya Bato

When we are first introduced to Macbeth, our initial impression is that he is a brave and capable warrior. We see that he is very well respected. We find out that brave Macbeth killed Macdonald and stuck his head on the battlements. He is originally a loyal and honest man, driven by loyalty to King Duncan.

We find out about Macbeth’s tragic flaw: his ambition. His own "Vaulting ambition," leads to him killing King Duncan to secure his own destiny. The man at the end of play is one we would barely recognise from the loyal Macbeth we meet at the beginning, “Brave Macbeth” and “Valiant cousin, worthy gentleman” as Duncan calls him.

When the witches first see Macbeth they hail him as Thane of Glamis and as Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth’s is baffled by this title as he doesn’t know of the King’s decision yet. What shocks and intrigues Macbeth even more is that the Witches declare that Macbeth will be king one day. Macbeth is stunned by this and he tries to convince the witches to tell him more but they do not. In this scene, we see Macbeth’s reaction to the witches as very interesting in contrast to Banquo’s who notes to them that they don’t seem to be “inhabitants of the earth.” (1.3-39) Macbeth becomes fixated on the details of the prophecies the witches present to him, and becomes amazed when he finds out the second prophecy has came true almost as soon as the witches disappear, he is named Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth is a noble and courageous warrior but his reaction to the witches’ pronouncements emphasises his great desire for power and prestige, as he unable to think of anything else. As banquo says< Macbeth is “rapt withal” by what he has heard. Macbeth lacks complete fear of darkness and evil, and has no sympathy for the supernatural as he commands the witches: “Speak, I charge you.” He is hungry for more of their knowledge; his ambition has been sparked.

We see Macbeth’s character turning when he says: “…Stars hide your fires, let not light see my blank and deep desires.” Macbeth is manipulated, his ambition has been awakened, he sees Malcolm as a problem and wants to eliminate him. He calls on the stars to hide light so that he is even with the night because of the darkness and evil that fills him.

“Bear welcome in your eye, your head, your tongue, look like the innocent flower. But be the serpent under’t.” Lady Macbeth says, be the evil snake but look like the innocent flower.

Macbeth wants to get the death of Duncan over and done with and he starts thinking of the consequences “We still have judgement here.” He knows he will not only be judged by God but also by everyone on Earth. He also says he is willing to “Jump the life to come.” He is willing to give up his afterlife in order to be King, he would grab this opportunity and let go of his life after death.

He also starts thinking about how if he kills Duncan someone else could kill him once he is King.“ Which being taught return to plague the inventor” “I have no spur to prick the sides of intent, but only vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself and falls on th’ other.” He realizes that besides his ambition he has no other reason to do this.

“False face must hide what the false heart doth know.” Macbeth’s turning point, he comes to change from the honest, trustworthy, brave and loyal Macbeth to lying and scheming Macbeth. “And mock the time with fairest show.” He’s just going to put on a show, where was true and honest, he is now false and dishonest. He lies and deceives the people around him as to his true motivations and actions. Macbeth lies to Banquo, who was once his closest friend, when he says “I think not of them.” Referring to the witches when really it is all he thinks about.

In the lead up to the murder, Macbeth loses control of his mind; he starts hallucinating things such as a dagger. “Proceeding from the heat oppressed brain.” He is stressed from all the thinking. “Mine eyes are made the fools O’ th’ other senses.”

He once again gets control of himself again: “It is the bloody business which informs thus to mine eye.”

Macbeth is breaking the natural order: Sleep is a metaphor for death. “Macbeth shall sleep no more.” Sleep is innocent and peaceful but he will never be at peace.

Macbeth can’t say Amen because he’s broken his connection with God. At this point, he has not fallen to his lowest point. He retains his humanity in the form of his conscience and he fears what he is going to do. However, as the play progresses, he loses even these things as wades in so much blood that he can never return to his true, innocent self: “I am in blood stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er ”. This acknowledgement prompts him to say rather ominously: “We are yet but young in deed” He is unable to sleep, which is a symbol for the loss of his innocence: “you lack the season of all natures: sleep” Lady Macbeth tells him. He is tormented: “O full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife.”

<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">As the play progresses, he is increasingly isolated and despised. Where at the start of the play, he was much loved by all men, as he says, he has in the place of friends, “Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour”. Malcolm too echoes this when, about to attack the castle, he says, “None serve him but constrained things”. <span style="color: #222222; font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">At last, Macbeth is seen as an “abhorred tyrant” whose name is hateful. He is called a “hell-hound”. Malcolm refers to him as “this dead butcher” and Lady Macbeth, as “his fiend-like queen.” <span style="color: #222222; font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">


 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Notes on the character Macbeth **

<span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12pt;">By Alice Watts and Lani Brown

In William Shakespeare’s //Macbeth// the main character Macbeth is introduced to us as a noble warrior. However, over the duration of the play Macbeth is consumed by his over whelming ambition for the throne. This was due to the witches’ prophecy ** : **


 * // “FIRST WITCH //**// All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis! //


 * // SECOND WITCH //**// All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! //


 * // THIRD WITCH //**// All hail, Macbeth that shalt be king hereafter!” //

The three witches’ prophecies play an important role that urges Macbeth to lose all sense of morality and humanity. Once Macbeth acts upon the witches’ prophecy, Scotland is no longer the same “A falcon towering in her pride of place was by a moussing owl hawked at, and killed” showing that the natural order has been upset: the rightful king has been murdered by a usurper.

At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a brave and noble soldier, cousin and friend to the king, and a devoted husband. However, once the witches shed light on his future, Macbeth is no longer content with his current lifestyle, he is overcome with desire and greed for what he knows could be his. Macbeth confesses his true feelings to his beloved wife and they plot to kill the king. Once the deed is done, Macbeth is overcome with grief and shame, unable to believe his own actions. He looks at his hands which are covered in blood, which is a symbol for his guilt. He says: “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood from mine hands?” He is tormented: “O full at scorpions is my mind, dear wife.” In time, Macbeth realises that his actions have consequences and is lead to kill more. He says: “O full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife.” Macbeth loses himself in his ambition and before long there is nothing but a shell left. Macbeth stops caring, he uses killing as a way to solve his problems and in doing so loses the love of everyone around him.

Shakespeare uses pathetic fallacy to help show the negative effects on the natural order after Macbeth’s actions. “The night has been unruly. Where we lay, our chimneys were blown down, and as they say, Lamentings heard I’ th’ air, strange screams of death.” The storm is unnatural with the screams being symbolic of Duncan’s murder. This all goes to illustrate that despite the witches’ prophecies, Macbeth was never meant to be King. The natural order being upset is also evidenced in - “By th’ clock ‘tis day, and yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp. Is’t night’s predominance, or the day’s shame.” The pathetic fallacy of light and dark show evil is overcoming good, such as Macbeth over comes Duncan only leading Macbeth into a deeper evil.

The natural order is broken when Macbeth is crowned; throwing Scotland into complete and utter chaos as it is apparent that Macbeth is truly unfit to be king. This was foreshadowed through the imagery of Duncan’s horses turning cannibalistic.

The devastation of Macbeth’s ambition takes over and leaves him with no friends, family. He is given faint hope by witches resulting in his fall from grace into completely cutting his losses and he spirals downwards till his death. “They have tied me to a stake: I cannot fly, but bear-like I must fight the course. What’s he that was not born of woman? Such a one am I to fear, or none.”His overwhelming ambition becomes his down fall.

Through William Shakespeare’s play, the main character Macbeth changes from a noble and trusted friend of the king in to a hated tyrant and murder. He was tempted by his ambition and in the end lost everything he cared about. “Tomorrow ,tomorrow and tomorrow, Creeps in the petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to the dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, poor player, The struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”