Characters
Macbeth
they play on his innate ambition to encourage him towards evil. This is repeated later in the play when the witches’ apparitions give Macbeth false hope. Hecate realises that overconfidence can be the downfall of a man: ‘And you all know, security / Is mortals’ chiefest enemy’ (Act 3, Sc 5). The apparitions tell Macbeth that ‘none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth’ (Act 4, Sc 1) and that he has nothing to fear until BirnamWood comes to Dunsinane Hill. He seeks the witches out at this point in the play and actively courts evil. His overconfidence is in part due to these equivocal predictions. Similarly, Lady Macbeth influences Macbeth. Because she worries that her husband is ‘too full o’
the milk of human kindness’, she plans to persuade him to murder Duncan: ‘Hie thee hither, / That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, / And chastise with the valour of my tongue’ (Act 1, Sc 5). She exerts her influence on him by using persuasive rhetoric: ‘Was the hope drunk Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since? And wakes it now, to look so green and pale At what it did so freely?’ (Act 1, Sc 7)
The audiencewatch asMacbeth is cajoled, taunted and flattered into agreeing to proceedwith the murder.
Although he does make the decision to kill Duncan himself, and his later crimes are his alone, the influence of the witches and Lady Macbeth help him along a destructive and violent path.
Burdened by Guilt One the most compelling features of Macbeth’s personality is the guilt he feels for his murderous actions. The vision of a man torn between his ‘black and deep desires’ and the ‘milk o’ human kindness’ creates a psychological spectacle evoking both sympathy and moral revulsion. From the moment he first entertains the idea of killing Duncan, Macbeth is troubled by his conscience: ‘My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, / Shakes so my single state of man’ (Act 1, Sc 3). It is this aspect of his personality thatmakesMacbeth a reluctantmurderer. In a long soliloquy, he outlines a number of reasons for not killing Duncan. He sees that he has a moral obligation to Duncan, noting that as both his guest and relative, Duncan is in ‘double trust’. He realises that he ‘should against his murderer shut the door, / Not bear the knife’ (Act 1, Sc 7). After he wrestles with his strong sense of ambition, he seems resolved not to commit the murder. He says to Lady Macbeth: ‘We will proceed no further in this business’ and although he later changes his mind, Macbeth reveals here the conscionable side of his character. However, he lacks the moral courage to resist the temptation of power and the attack on his
manhood. He gives into the pressure from Lady Macbeth and his own personal desires. After murdering Duncan, he is deeply remorseful for what he has done. As he washes Duncan’s blood fromhis hands he listens to the knocking at the gate and laments, ‘WakeDuncanwith thy knocking! I would thou couldst!’ (Act 2, Sc 2). The spectacle of Banquo’s ghost dramatically personifiesMacbeth’s guilt.We understand that
Macbeth is haunted by his crimes. His response to the burden of guilt is to harden himself. He believes that he can make himself numb to his crimes by committing further acts of violence: ‘My strange and self-abuse / Is the initiate fear that wants hard use: /We are yet but young in deed’ (Act 3, Sc 4). It is at this point that his moral decline accelerates as he grows increasingly tyrannical, murderous and callous. He reigns cruelly over Scotland inspiring terror rather than respect. This is dramatically represented through his vicious slaughter ofMacduff’swife and children. It appears that as the play progresses, Macbeth suppresses his conscience and attempts to use violence to smother his guilt. Ultimately this strategy fails as he reveals his burdened conscience in his confrontation with
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