MACBETH

Great opening scene with the witches. The economy of words to create an atmosphere and tell the audience what is happening. Tetrameter style. The witches create confusion and not certainty in the play; they hide evil behind "honest trifles".

There is a quick succession of scenes in the first Act, the audience immediately get drawn into the action.

As with a number of Shakespeare’s plays, e.g. Hamlet & King Lear, Macbeth is mentioned by other characters before we actually meet him ourselves, a picture of the man has already been formed. See 1,ii,54.

Macbeth is a play that contains numerous references to night and to darkness, this creates the atmosphere of growing evil that reflects the plot, defines the dramatic world. Globe during the day!

Macbeth is one of the best known of Shakespeare’s characters this is because the thrust of the play is his emotions and personnel examination of how he should act and the consequences of the action. Compared to Lady Macbeth who does not divorce thought from deed. The key to the greatness of this play is how we, the audience, are allowed access to Macbeth’s mind.

By the end of the play the audience realises that there is more to Macbeth than merely a "dead butcher". The ending has shows a waste of good, not just an expulsion of evil

Act V, v Visual images, reductive imagery as his mind gives up.

During these speeches Macbeth often considers the deed rather than the gains.

Porter’s scene reflects the Tragedy in his Comedy.

A play for the king

When Elizabeth I of England was dying, childless, she named James VI of Scotland as her successor. He became James I of England.

In August 1606 James was at Hampton Court, a palace near London, entertaining his brother-in-law, King Christian of Denmark. A play was acted for them, Macbeth, written by the best dramatist of the time, William Shakespeare. It was a new play, but the story was an old one. James knew it well, because it was about ancestors, Banquo and Fleance, through whom he had inherited the throne of Scotland.

Shakespeare found the story in The History of Scotland, by Raphael Holinshed, but his play is much more than a dramatic re-writing of the historical facts. He made many changes, and the biggest of these concerned James’s ancestor. In the true story, Banquo joined Macbeth in killing Duncan; but clearly it would be tactless to suggest that James was descended from a regicide — the murderer of a king. So Shakespeare’s Banquo is innocent.

James also believed that he was descended spiritually from the long tradition of English monarchs, and that he had inherited the power of healing that Edward the Confessor (1042–56) possessed. Shakespeare’s description of this power (4, 3, 150–60) is, to some extent, deliberate flattery of his king. Shakespeare also knew that James was extremely interested in witchcraft, and had written a book about it.

Macbeth is certainly a play "fit for a king".

But of course it is more than this — more than flattery for an ancient British monarch; and although the story is largely true, we do not read Macbeth as "history". We could interpret Shakespeare’s play as a moral lesson. Macbeth murders his king. To murder any man is a crime, but those who lived at the time of Shakespeare thought that the murder of a king was the greatest of all crimes. Kings were appointed by God, to rule as His deputies: rebellion against a true king was rebellion against God. By murdering Duncan, Macbeth gains the crown; but he loses love, friendship, respect — and in the end his life. His crime is rightly punished.

There is still more to the play. On one "level" it is royal entertainment — and entertainment, too, for all those of us who enjoy the suspense and excitement of a murder story. On another level, it teaches us, in a new way, the old lesson that crime does not pay. But there are two more levels.

As we look at the character of Macbeth we see, more clearly than we are able to see in real life, the effects of uncontrolled ambition on a man who is, except for his ambition, noble in nature. Macbeth has full knowledge of right and wrong; he knows that he has committed a very great crime by murdering Duncan. Shakespeare shows us how Macbeth becomes hardened to his crimes, and yet how he suffers from fears which he has created himself.

On the last level, the play has great power as a work of poetry and imagination. The language is rich in sound and meaning, full of pictures, and immensely varied. Take this episode, for example. When Macbeth comes from the murder of Duncan, his hands are covered in the king’s blood; he looks at them, and feels that all the waters in the ocean cannot wash away the blood, but that

this my hand will rather. The multitudinous seas incarnadine,

Making the green one red.

(2, 2, 59–61)

The word "multitudinous" gives a sense of vastness, and "incarnadine" (meaning "redden") is another impressive word; its length and sound give strength to the meaning. The two words are more Latin than English, and were very new to the English language; Shakespeare was one of the first writers to use them. They are followed by the simplest, most direct words. Imagine a film camera. First the camera shows you a picture of endless waters, stretching as far as the eye can see: then a sudden close-up picture, perhaps a small pool of green water that turns red with blood as we look at it. Such skill in the use of language is unique.

Although I have distinguished four levels on which the play Macbeth can work, I do not want to give the impression that these levels can in fact be separated from each other. The entertainment, the moral teaching, the psychology, and the poetry are often all contained in the same speech — even, sometimes, in the same line. Macbeth demands an alert reader.

No summary can do justice to the play. At best, a commentary such as this can be no more than a map. It can show the roads, and even point out the important places; but it is no substitute for reading the play.

Macbeth: The man

Who can tell us more about a man’s character than his wife? Shakespeare allows Lady Macbeth to explain her husband’s character as she understands it, and although she cannot see the whole truth, she tells us a great deal about Macbeth that is true. Two lines of her soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 5 are particularly significant:

Thou wouldst be great,

Art not without ambition, but without

The illness should attend it. (1, 5, 17–19)

By "illness" Lady Macbeth means "evil", but her metaphor is appropriate: Macbeth "catches" evil, as one might catch a disease. The play shows how his symptoms develop, until there is no hope of a cure, and the man must die.

We hear a lot about Macbeth before he comes on to the stage, first from the Sergeant who has fought on his side, and then from Ross, who also speaks of Macbeth’s courage in battle. These reports lead us to expect a noble warrior and a loyal subject to Duncan. We have only one slight doubt about Macbeth, and we are not able to explain quite what this is. We know that, somehow, he is associated with the witches; and this, surely, cannot be good.

Macbeth speaks very little when first the witches, and then Ross, hail him as "thane of Cawdor". Perhaps he is stunned to silence by his good fortune. But soon we hear him speak — or rather, think aloud, for he does not mean to be overheard:

Glamis, and thane of Cawdor.

The greatest is behind.

(1, 3, 114–15)

Very soon he begins to admit a "suggestion", some "horrible imaginings", and then he says to himself the word "murder" (1, 3, 133; 137; 138). Once this word has been spoken, we must regard Macbeth with suspicion, and the suspicion grows when he confesses his "black and deep desires" in the scene that follows (1, 4, 51). It is confirmed when his wife, speaking as though he were in the room with her, tells Macbeth that she knows he wants

that which rather thou dost fear to do

Than wishest should be undone.

(1, 5, 23–4)

It is not, however, cowardice that restrains Macbeth. At the end of Act 1 he is wrestling with his conscience. He is acutely aware of the duty which he owes to Duncan:

He’s here in double trust:

First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,

Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,

Who should against his murderer shut the door,

Not bear the knife myself.

(1, 7, 12–16)

These are profound reasons for curbing his ambition, but Macbeth continues the soliloquy. Even if he were not — as kinsman, subject, and host — in duty bound to defend Duncan, rather than harm him, there would still be enormous sin in killing the king. Macbeth appreciates Duncan’s fine qualities — his humility and his integrity in carrying out to perfection the tasks of kingship; and he knows that to destroy such virtue would be a crime against heaven. He can appreciate Duncan’s good qualities, and this is a virtue in Macbeth.

Before Lady Macbeth comes on to the scene, Macbeth has won a great victory over himself, and he is almost triumphant when he tells her, "We will proceed no further in this business" (1, 7, 31).

But Lady Macbeth has no such conscience as her husband has. At this moment she is the stronger of the two, and Macbeth cannot stand up to her accusations that he is a coward, lacking in manliness, and a traitor to his word. He yields to her, and in order to prove himself a man in her eyes, submits to a woman’s guidance.

After the murder of Duncan, Macbeth is horrified to think of what he has done. Again Shakespeare contrasts Macbeth and his wife in their attitudes to murder. Lady Macbeth is bold and confident, because she does not understand that the deed is morally wrong; her only concern is to destroy the evidence. Macbeth, however, awakens to a consciousness of guilt that will remain with him until his death.

Macbeth now has to act many parts. When the body of Duncan is discovered, he must appear as the loyal subject, appalled by the murder of his king. In speaking to the two Murderers whom he has hired to kill Banquo, he tries to show that he is a worthy ruler, distressed by injuries which have been inflicted on his subjects. And at the state banquet, probably his first public appearance since he was made king, he plays the part of host and friend to his thanes. He is not wholly successful in any of these roles. When the murder is discovered, he over-acts to such an extent that his wife tries to draw attention from him by fainting. The Murderers are not interested in his efforts to justify the murder of Banquo: they have been hired to kill a man, and they will do the job they are paid to do. And the banquet is ruined for Macbeth by the appearance of Banquo’s Ghost.

Macbeth appears again as himself (that is, not playing any "part") at the end of Act 3, Scene 4, when he and his wife face each other across the remains of their banquet. He now knows that "blood will have blood" (3, 4, 121), and that the first murder is only the first. A new character is emerging — a man who is so desperate that he must act and not stop to consider the reasons for acting:

Strange things I have in head that will to hand,

Which must be acted ere they may be scanned.

(3, 4, 138–9)

The last line here refers to an actor’s part in a play, which ought to be "scanned" — that is, learned — before it is performed. With this comparison, Macbeth is beginning to recognise an unreality about his life.

The new Macbeth confronts the witches and demands to be answered; the answers give him a feeling of confidence which we, the audience, know to be unfounded. But Macbeth trusts no-one. He has no faith in the loyalty of the thanes, and sets spies on each one of them (see 3, 4, 130–1); now it seems that he will not trust even the witches and their "masters", for he is determined to "make assurance double sure" (4, 1, 83) by slaughtering Macduff’s entire family.

We do not see Macbeth for some time after his appearance in this scene with the witches. We hear a lot about him — and everything that we hear tells us that Macbeth has become a cruel tyrant, and that he has changed Scotland into a country "Almost afraid to know itself" (4, 3, 165). There are more rumours to be heard when Malcolm’s army moves towards Dunsinane; opinions about Macbeth vary:

Some say he’s mad, others that lesser hate him

Do call it valiant fury.

(5, 2, 13–14)

He is indeed madly self-confident, believing that he is invincible:

Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane

I cannot taint with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm?

Was he not born of woman?

(5, 3, 2–4)

Alone, however, Macbeth is neither mad nor furious. He feels old and lonely:

my way of life

Is fall’n into the sere, the yellow leaf,

And that which should accompany old age,

As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,

I must not look to have. (5, 3, 22–8)

Seyton tells him that his wife is dead, but he cannot grieve for her. Life has no meaning for him, and once again he sees himself as an actor,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more.

(5, 5, 24–5)

He has lost everything, and when he hears of the "moving grove" (5, 5, 36) he knows that he is defeated.

Macbeth chooses to die in battle, "with harness on our back" (5, 5, 50), and the decision perhaps revives a spark of our former respect for the mighty warrior. At last he is challenged by Macduff, and he is reluctant to fight:

Of all men else I have avoided thee:

But get thee back, my soul is too much charged

With blood of thine already.

(5, 10, 4-6)

How should we interpret this? The first of the Apparitions told Macbeth to "Beware Macduff" — is this why he has avoided him? Or is it guilt that has kept Macbeth from coming face-to-face with the man whose wife and children have been so brutally murdered ? Is conscience returning with courage?

 Leading characters in the play

Duncan The king of Scotland, murdered by Macbeth. Duncan is a true and gracious king, who represents the Elizabethan concept that the king was appointed by God, and is therefore almost divine.

Malcolm Duncan’s elder son. Early in the play Malcolm is named as the next king of Scotland. After Duncan’s murder Malcolm, with his brother Donalbain, escapes from Scotland. He takes refuge in England, at the court of Edward the Confessor, until he is able to lead an army against Macbeth. At the end of the play he is crowned king of Scotland.

Macbeth A mighty and ambitious warrior, one of the leaders of Duncan’s army. He hears a prophecy that he will be king one day. This makes him more ambitious and leads him to murder Duncan. He is elected king of Scotland, but he becomes a cruel and unjust ruler. He is always conscious of guilt, and never knows a moment’s peace after he has killed Duncan. At the end of the play he is killed by Macduff.

Lady Macbeth She is even more ambitious than her husband, and has no regard for morality. She urges Macbeth to kill Duncan, and refuses to understand his doubts and hesitations. Husband and wife are at first affectionate, hiding nothing from each other; gradually this relationship is destroyed. Lady Macbeth becomes obsessed with the murder of Duncan, suffers from nightmares, and finally kills herself.

Banquo He and Macbeth are the leaders of Duncan’s army, but he is not so conspicuously valiant as Macbeth. It is prophesied that his children will be kings, but although he hopes that this prophecy will come true, he takes no action. He is killed by murderers working for Macbeth, but his son, Fleance, escapes.

Macduff A Scottish thane (nobleman), who comes to prominence after the murder of Duncan. Macbeth is particularly afraid of him, and orders murderers to kill Lady Macduff and her children. Macduff persuades Malcolm to lead an army against Macbeth, and it is he who kills Macbeth.

Ross Although Ross has a large part in the play, he does not really have a "character". He brings messages, describes events, warns of dangers to come, and comments on the progress of the play.