MACBETH ANALYSIS

The Bigg Daddy 0885 217 998

Analysis of Act 1

Fate, Prophecy, and Equivocation

Just as the Porter in Act 2

extemporizes about the sin of
equivocation, the play figures
equivocation as one of its most
important themes. Starting from the
Weird Sisters' first words that open
the play, audiences quickly
ascertain that things are not what
they seem. According to the Oxford
English Dictionary, the word
"equivocation" has two different
meanings—both of which are
applicable to this play. The first is:
1

Page 1 of 54
“The using (a word) in more than
one sense; ambiguity or
uncertainty of meaning in words;
also . . . misapprehension arising
from the ambiguity of terms.”

☆This definition as simple verbal

ambiguity is the one that audiences
are most familiar with—and one
that plays an important role in the
play. The Porter’s speech on
equivocation in Act 2, however,
refers to a more active type of
equivocation. The second definition
in the OED: reads:

The use of words or expressions

that are susceptible of a double
signification, with a view to

Page 2 of 54
mislead; esp. the expression of a
virtual falsehood in the form of a
proposition which (in order to
satisfy the speaker's conscience) is
verbally true.

☆This kind of equivocation is

similar to lying; it is intentionally
designed to mislead and confuse.

☆The intentional ambiguity of

terms is what we see in the
prophesies of the Weird Sisters.
Their speech is full of paradox and
confusion, starting with their first
assertion that "fair is foul and foul
is fair" (I i 10). The witches'
prophesies are intentionally
ambiguous. The alliteration and
rhymed couplets in which they

Page 3 of 54
speak also contributes to the effect
of instability and confusion in their
words. For many readers, more
than one reading is required to
grasp a sense of what the witches
mean. It is not surprising, therefore,
that these "imperfect speakers" can
easily bedazzle and confuse
Macbeth throughout the course of
the play (I iii 68).

Just as their words are confusing, it

is unclear as to whether the witches
merely predict or actually effect the
future. Banquo fears, for example,
that the witches' words will
"enkindle [Macbeth] unto the
crown"—in other words, that they
will awaken in Macbeth an
ambition that is already latent in

Page 4 of 54
him (I iii 119). His fears seem well-
founded: as soon as the witches
mention the crown, Macbeth's
thoughts turn to murder. The
witches’ power is thus one of
prophecy, but prophecy through
suggestion. For Macbeth, the
witches can be understood as
representing the final impetus that
drive him to his pre-determined
end. The prophecy is in this sense
self-fulfilling.

The oracular sisters are in fact

connected etymologically to the
Fates of Greek mythology. The
word "weird" derives from the Old
English word "wyrd," meaning
"fate." And not all fate is self-
fulfilling. In Banquo's case, in

Page 5 of 54
contrast to Macbeth’s, the witches
seem only to predict the future. For
unlike Macbeth, Banquo does not
act on the witches' prediction that
he will father kings—and yet the
witches' prophesy still comes true.
The role of the weird sisters in the
story, therefore, is difficult to define
or determine. Are they agents of
fate or a motivating force? And
why do they suddenly disappear
from the play in the third act?

The ambiguity of the Weird Sisters

reflects a greater theme of doubling,
mirrors, and schism between inner
and outer worlds that permeates
the work as a whole. Throughout
the play, characters, scenes, and
ideas are doubled. As Duncan

Page 6 of 54
muses about the treachery of the
Thane of Cawdor at the beginning
of the play, for example, Macbeth
enters the scene:

KING DUNCAN: There's no art

To find the mind's construction in
the face.
He was a gentleman on whom I
built
An absolute trust.
Enter MACBETH, BANQUP, ROSS,
and ANGUS.
To MACBETH: O worthiest cousin,
The sin of my ingratitude even now
Was heavy on me! (I iv 11-16)

The dramatic irony of Duncan’s

trust is realized only later in the
play. Similarly, the captain in Scene

Page 7 of 54
2 makes a battle report that
becomes in effect a prophecy:

For brave Macbeth—well he

deserves that name!—
Disdaining fortune, with his
brandished steel
Which smoked with bloody
execution,
Like valour’s minion
Carved out his passage till he faced
the slave,
Which ne’er shook hands nor bade
farewell to him
Till he unseamed him from the
nave to th’chops,
And fixed his head upon our
battlements. (I i16-23)

Page 8 of 54
The passage can be interpreted as
follows: Macbeth “disdains
fortune” by disregarding the
natural course of action and
becomes king through a “bloody
execution” of Duncan; Macduff,
who was born from a Caesarian
section (his mother being
“unseamed. . . from the nave to
th’chops”) and who “ne’er shook
hands nor bade farewell”
decapitates Macbeth and hangs his
head up in public.

As in all Shakespearean plays,

mirroring among characters serves
to heighten their differences. Thus
Macbeth, the young, valiant, cruel
traitor/king has a foil in Duncan,
the old, venerable, peaceable, and

Page 9 of 54
trusting king. Lady Macbeth, who
casts off her femininity and claims
to feel no qualms about killing her
own children, is doubled in Lady
Macduff, who is a model of a good
mother and wife. Banquo's failure
to act on the witches' prophesy is
mirrored in Macbeth's drive to
realize all that the witches foresee.

Similarly, much of the play is also

concerned with the relation
between contrasting inner and
outer worlds. Beginning with the
equivocal prophecies of the Weird
Sisters, appearances seldom align
with reality. Lady Macbeth, for
example, tells her husband to "look
like the innocent flower, / but be the
serpent under’t" (63-64). Macbeth

10

Page 10 of 54
appears to be a loyal Thane, but
secretly plans revenge. Lady
Macbeth appears to be a gentle
woman but vows to be "unsexed"
and swears on committing bloody
deeds. Macbeth is also a play about
the inner world of human
psychology, as will be illustrated in
later acts through nightmares and
guilt-ridden hallucinations. Such
contrast between "being" and
"seeming" serves as another
illustration of equivocation.

The Macbeths and The Corruption

of Nature

One of the most ambiguous aspects

of the play is the character of
Macbeth himself. Unlike other

11

Page 11 of 54
Shakespearean villains like Iago or
Richard III, Macbeth is not entirely
committed to his evil actions. When
he swears to commit suicide, he
must overcome an enormous
resistance from his conscience. At
the same time, he sees as his own
biggest flaw not a lack of moral
values but rather a lack of
motivation to carry out his
diabolical schemes. In this he
resembles Hamlet, who soliloquizes
numerous times about his inaction.
But unlike Hamlet, Macbeth does
not have a good reason to kill, nor
is the man he kills evil—far from it.
And finally, while Macbeth
becomes increasingly devoted to
murderous actions, his soliloquies
are so full of eloquent speech and

12

Page 12 of 54
pathos that it is not difficult to
sympathize with him. Thus at the
heart of the play lies a tangle of
uncertainty.

If Macbeth is indecisive, Lady

Macbeth is just the opposite—a
character with such a single vision
and drive for advancement that she
brings about her own demise. And
yet her very ruthlessness brings
about another form of ambiguity,
for in swearing to help Macbeth
realize the Weird Sisters' prophecy,
she must cast off her femininity. In
a speech at the beginning of Scene
5, she calls on the spirits of the air
to take away her womanhood:

Come you spirits

13

Page 13 of 54
That tend on mortal thoughts,
unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the
toe top-full
Of direst cruelty. Make thick my
blood,
Stop up th'access and passage to
remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of
nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep
peace between
Th'effect and it. (I v 38-45)

Lady Macbeth sees "remorse" as

one of the names for feminine
compassion—of which she must rid
herself. Thus she must be
"unsexed." This does not mean,
however, that in rejecting her

14

Page 14 of 54
femininity she becomes manly.
Instead, she becomes a woman
devoid of the sexual characteristics
and sentimentality that make her a
woman. She becomes entirely
unnatural and inhuman. Like the
supernatural Weird Sisters with
their beards, Lady Macbeth
becomes something that does not fit
into the natural world.

The corruption of nature is a theme

that surfaces and resurfaces in the
same act. When Duncan greets
Macbeth, for example, he states that
he has “begun to plant thee and
will labor / to make thee full of
growing" (I iv 28-29). Following the
metaphor of the future as lying in
the “seeds of time,” Macbeth is

15

Page 15 of 54
compared to a plant that Duncan
will look after (I iii 56). By
murdering Duncan, then, Macbeth
perverts nature by severing himself
effectively from the very "root" that
feeds him. For this reason, perhaps,
the thought of murdering Duncan
causes Macbeth's heart to "knock at
[his] ribs / Against the use of
nature" (I iii 135-36). Just as the
Weird Sisters pervert the normal
course of nature by telling their
prophecy, Macbeth upsets the
course of nature by his regicide.

Reflecting the disruption of nature,

the dialogue between Macbeth and
Lady in the scene following the
murder becomes heavy, graceless,

16

Page 16 of 54
and almost syncopated. Lady
Macbeth, for example, says:

What thou wouldst highly,

That wouldst thou holily; wouldst
not play false
And yet wouldst wrongly win.
Thou'd'st have, great Glamis,
That which cries "Thus thou must
do," if thou have it,
And that which rather thou dost
fear to do,
Than wishest should be undone. (I
v 28-23).

The repetition of the phrase "thou

wouldst," in all its permutations,
confounds the flow of speech. The
speech is clotted with accents,
tangling meter and scansion, and

17

Page 17 of 54
the alliteration is almost tongue-
twisting, slowing the rhythm of the
words. Just as Macbeth and Lady
Macbeth have corrupted nature, the
language Shakespeare uses in these
scenes disrupts the flow of his
usually smoothly iambic meter.

Yet another part of the theme of

corruption of nature lies in the
compression of time that occurs
throughout the act. When Lady
Macbeth reads Macbeth’s letter, she
states: Th[ese] letters have
transported me beyond / This
ignorant present, and I feel now /
The future in the instant" (I v 54-56).
By telling the future to Macbeth
and Banquo, the Weird Sisters
upset the natural course of time and

18

Page 18 of 54
bring the future to the present.
Thus when Macbeth vacillates over
whether or not to kill Duncan, he
wants to leap into the future: "If it
were done when ‘tis done, then
‘twere well / It were done quickly"
(I vii 1-2). He wants the murder to
be over quickly—indeed so quickly
that it is over before the audience
even registers it. Just as
equivocation twists the meaning of
words, Macbeth's murderous
desires twist the meaning of time.

Thus beginning with the Weird

Sisters, equivocation in all its
permutations is threaded
throughout the fabric of the first
act. Over the course of the play, the
breach between the worlds of

19

Page 19 of 54
reality and illusion that is the core
of equivocation grows ever wider.
------------------------------------------------
-----

Analysis of Act 2

Macbeth's famous soliloquy at the

beginning of this act introduces an
important theme: visions and
hallucinations caused by guilt. The
"dagger of the mind" that Macbeth
sees is not "ghostly" or supernatural
so much as a manifestation of the
inner struggle that Macbeth feels as
he contemplates the regicide. It
"marshal[s] [him] the way [he] was
going," leading him toward the
bloody deed he has resolved to
commit, haunting and perhaps also

20

Page 20 of 54
taunting him (II i 42). The same can
be said for the ghostly voice that
Macbeth hears after he kills
Duncan, as well as the ghost of
Banquo that appears in Act 3.
Indeed, almost all the supernatural
elements in this play could be—and
often are—read as psychological
rather than ghostly occurrences.

(But if this is the case, one also

wonders about the witches: are
they, too, products of Macbeth's
fevered mind? The fact that merely
give voice to the Macbeth’s
dormant ambitions would seem to
confirm this idea, but this is
countered by the fact that Banquo
also sees the same witches and
hears them speak.)

21

Page 21 of 54
The "dagger of the mind" is only
one of many psychological
manifestations in the play. As the
bodyguards mutter “God bless us”
in their drunken stupor, Macbeth
finds that he is unable to utter the
prayer word “Amen.” A
psychological literary analyst may
perceive this as a physical inability
to speak, caused by Macbeth's
paralyzing doubt about the
correctness of the murder. The
inner world of the psyche thus
imposes itself on the physical
world. The same can be said for the
voice that Macbeth hears crying
"Macbeth shall sleep no more" (II ii
41). An overwhelming sense of
guilt will prevent “innocent sleep”

22

Page 22 of 54
from giving Macbeth respite from
his tormented conscience. While he
has consigned Duncan to eternal
rest, he himself lives now in eternal
anxiety.

In addition to his troubled

existence, Macbeth's perturbed
sleep can also be read as a
metaphor for the troubled state of
the country. In Macbeth—as with
many other Shakespearean plays—
there is a close and mirrored
relationship between king and the
country. In scene 4, for example,
Ross reports that "by the clock ‘tis
day, / And yet dark night strangles
the traveling lamp" (II iv 6-7). This
image of the darkness strangling
the light of day is a meteorological

23

Page 23 of 54
manifestation of the murder of
Duncan; the light of nature is
suffocated just as Duncan's life is
extinguished. Victorian writer John
Ruskin called such mirroring of a
character's psychological state in
inanimate natural objects "pathetic
fallacy." In animate natural objects
too, a similar mirroring occurs. The
old man describes Duncan's noble
horses eating each other and an owl
eating a falcon--events that echo the
slaughter of Duncan by Macbeth.
Thus the unnatural death of
Duncan plunges the country into
both physical and spiritual turmoil.

The image of an owl hunting a

falcon is part of a greater
framework of symbolism

24

Page 24 of 54
surrounding birds in the play.
When Duncan approaches
Inverness in Act 1, for example, he
comments on the martlets that he
sees nesting on the castle walls. He
takes this as a good sign—martlets
are lucky birds. Lady Macbeth, on
the other hand, mentions earlier in
this scene that there are ravens
croaking on the battlements. She
takes this as a harbinger of
Duncan's death. Duncan, the
trusting optimist, sees lucky birds,
whereas Lady Macbeth sees
ominous ones. One sign does not
exclude the other: for Duncan, "fair"
becomes "foul" as the lucky martlets
metamorphose into the deadly
ravens.

25

Page 25 of 54
In Act 2, characters discuss or see
birds in almost every scene. While
Lady Macbeth is waiting for
Macbeth to finish killing Duncan,
for example, she hears an owl
hooting and calls the owl a "fatal
bellman"—a bird whose call is like
a bell tolling for Duncan's death (II
ii 3). The owl could also be "fatal" as
an instrument of Fate, just as
Macbeth is in some ways an
instrument of Fate through the
intervention of the Weird Sisters
(keeping in mind that "wyrd"
derives from the Old English word
for "fate"). In this respect, one
observes a mirroring between
Macbeth and the owl: both hunt at
night; the owl is observed killing a

26

Page 26 of 54
falcon, just as Macbeth kills
Duncan.

Over the course of Macbeth,

dreams, symbols, fantasy, and
visions impinge upon the "real
world." The witches' fantastic
prophecy is realized. The "dagger of
the mind" points the way to a
murder committed with a real
dagger. And in the Porter scene, the
Porter imagining that he guards the
gate to Hell ironically creates a gate
of “real” hell caused by regicide.
When the Porter opens the gate for
the thanes, he mentions that he and
his friends were out "carousing till
the second cock" (II iii 23). This
statement calls to mind the cock
that crows in the New Testament

27

Page 27 of 54
after Peter betrays Jesus by denying
knowledge of him (Matthews 26;
Luke 22). In Macbeth, the betrayal
occurs in a more active form as
Macbeth murders Duncan after the
crows of the cock.
------------------------------------------------
--------

Analysis of Act 3

The “be a man” theme recurs in

Macbeth’s address to the
murderers. When Macbeth
demands whether the murderers
have the courage to kill Banquo,
they answer "we are men, my liege"
(III i 92). But their answer does not
satisfy Macbeth, who berates them
as less-than-exemplary examples of

28

Page 28 of 54
men. Macbeth thus uses very much
the same goading tactics his wife
used in compelling him to kill
Duncan. But what does it mean,
exactly, to “be a man”? Both
Macbeth and his Lady seem to have
a clear idea of properly masculine
actions. In Act 1, Lady Macbeth
suggests that masculinity is largely
a question of ruthlessness: one must
be willing to “das[h] the brains out”
of one’s own baby (58). She claims
that she herself is less "full o' th'
milk of human kindness" than
Macbeth—that is, more capable of
casting away the last shreds of
compassion, tenderness, loyalty,
and guilt.

29

Page 29 of 54
Lady Macbeth is not the only
character that values ruthlessness
as a masculine trait. Duncan, too,
evaluates heroic action on a rather
gory scale. When the captain
describes how Macbeth “unseamed
[Macdonald] from the nave to th’
chops” with “his brandished steel /
Which smoked of bloody
execution,” Duncan responds with
high praise: "O valiant cousin,
worthy gentleman" (I ii 17-22)! A
"real man” in Macbeth, then, is one
who is capable of copious
bloodshed without remorse. The
catch, of course, is that the
bloodshed must be justified.
Whereas Macbeth needs no reason
to slay Macdonald in battle per se,
the two murderers require the

30

Page 30 of 54
justification that Banquo is an evil
man.

As for the terms of murder,

Macbeth warns the murderers to
kill Fleance and thus “leave no rubs
nor botches in the work" (III i 135).
Macbeth "require[s] a clearness”—
that is, a clearance from suspicion
but also a mental and physical
cleanliness. The theme of stains and
washing runs throughout the play.
From Macbeth's cry about all “great
Neptune’s ocean” in Act 2, to his
instructions to the murderers in Act
3, to Lady Macbeth's famous “Out,
damned spot" speech in Act 5, the
Macbeths are haunted by the idea
that they will be forever stained.
Even when Macbeth has Banquo

31

Page 31 of 54
killed at a safe distance from
himself, the spilled blood still
returns to haunt Macbeth. When
the murderer shows up to report
his success, Macbeth observes:
"There's blood upon thy face" (III iv
11). The blood itself serves a sign
and reminder of the Macbeths’
culpability—ultimately driving
Lady Macbeth mad.

Banquo's murder itself makes use

of a common theme in
Shakespeare's plays: the contrast
between light and dark. While the
murderers wait for Banquo and
Fleance to approach, one of them
observes that the sun is setting. This
is no coincidence: Banquo serves as
a bright contrast to the dark night

32

Page 32 of 54
that accompanies Macbeth's rise to
power. He is a man who does not
allow his ambitions to eclipse his
conscience. At the moment that he
dies, therefore, it is appropriate for
the last remnant of sunlight to fade
away. Such symbolism is reinforced
by the fact that Banquo and Fleance
approach the murderers carrying a
torch. The torchlight is the first
thing that the murderers see: "a
light, a light" notes the second
murderer (III iii 14). And after the
deed is finished, the third murderer
asks: "who did strike out the light?"
(III iii 27). At the same moment that
the good and kind Banquo dies, the
light is extinguished.

33

Page 33 of 54
Another aspect of Banquo's murder
has intrigued generations of
scholars: who is the third
murderer? Some believe that it is
Lady Macbeth, who expressed
curiosity about Macbeth’s plans in
Scene 2. Others believe that it is
Macbeth himself, who could not
trust the murderers fully. The third
murderers could even be the three
witches in disguise. In any case,
introducing a third murderer
rounds out the number of
murderers so that they balance the
three witches. There is power in the
number three: Macbeth meets three
witches, commits three separate
murders, and sees three
apparitions. The number three
recurs throughout the play, adding

34

Page 34 of 54
to its mysterious and magic
atmosphere

Finally, one of the most compelling

scenes in Macbeth takes place at the
banquet haunted by Banquo's
ghost. Once again, the boundaries
between reality and the
supernatural are blurred as
Banquo's ghost appears twice—
both at exactly the moment
Macbeth mentions him. It seems
that the vision of Banquo
accompanies the idea of Banquo in
Macbeth’s mind. The ghost thus
seems more like the manifestation
of an idea—a figment of the
imagination—rather than a “real”
ghost. Lady Macbeth says as much
when she pulls Macbeth aside:

35

Page 35 of 54
“This is the very painting of your
fear; / This is the air-drawn dagger
which you said / Led you to
Duncan" (III iv 60-62). Just like the
dagger, Banquo's ghost appears to
be a realization of Macbeth's guilt.
Even if the occurrence is
supernatural, the event is very real
for Macbeth.
------------------------------------------------
-------

Analysis of Act 4

As the act opens, the witches carry

on the theme of doubling and
equivocation that threads
throughout the play. As they throw
ingredients into their cauldron,
they chant "double, double, toil and

36

Page 36 of 54
trouble"—a reminder that their
speech is full of double meanings,
paradox, and equivocation (IV i 10).
The apparitions that the witches
summon give equivocal messages
to Macbeth, and they appear to
know quite consciously that he will
only understand one half of their
words. Although Macbeth himself
has previously acknowledged that
"stones have been known to move
and trees to speak" (III iv 122), the
apparitions give Macbeth a false
sense of security. He takes the
apparitions' words at face value,
forgetting to examine how their
predictions could potentially come
true.

37

Page 37 of 54
The theme of doubling is amplified
when the witches summon the
"show of kings." Each king who
appears looks "too like the spirit of
Banquo," frightens Macbeth with
their resemblance (IV i 128). For
Macbeth, it is as if the ghosts of
Banquo have returned to haunt him
several times over. In the
procession of kings, Macbeth also
notes that some carry "twofold balls
and treble scepters"—as if even the
signs of their power have been
doubled.

On a historical note, it is generally

thought the eighth king holds up a
mirror in order to pander to James
I. This last king—the eighth-
generation descendant of Banquo—

38

Page 38 of 54
is none other than a figure of James
I himself. He thus carries a mirror
to signal as much to the real James
I, who sits at the forefront of the
audience. A similar moment of
pandering occurs when Malcolm
notes that the king of England has a
special power to heal people
affected by “the evil” (147). In
various subtle ways, Shakespeare
complimented King James I—a
legendary descendant of Banquo
and author of a book on witchcraft
(Daemonologie [1597]).

James I is not the only character

who is doubled in Macbeth.
Throughout the play, characters
balance and complement each other
in a carefully constructed harmony.

39

Page 39 of 54
As a man who also receives a
prophecy but refuses to act actively
upon it, Banquo serves as sort of
inverse mirror image of Macbeth.
Although he has troubled dreams
like Macbeth, his arise from the
suppression of ambitions whereas
Macbeth's arise from the fulfillment
thereof. Other major characters,
including Malcolm, Macduff, and
Lady Macbeth, can also be seen as
foils or doubles for Macbeth.
Particularly interesting is the case
of Lady Macbeth, who in some
sense “switches roles” with
Macbeth as the play progresses.
Whereas she first advises Macbeth
to forget all remorse and guilt, Lady
Macbeth becomes increasingly

40

Page 40 of 54
troubled by her own guilt as
Macbeth begins to heed her advice.

Another form of doubling or

equivocation is found in the theme
of costumes, masks, and disguises.
While planning Duncan's murder,
Lady Macbeth counsels Macbeth to
"look like the innocent flower, / But
be the serpent under't"—to "beguile
the time" by disguising his motives
behind a mask of loyalty (I v 61).
After the murder, Lady Macbeth
paints the bodyguards' faces with a
mask of blood to implicate them.
Similarly, while preparing to kill
Banquo, Macbeth comments that
men must "make [their] faces visors
to [their] hearts, / Disguising what
they are" (III ii 35-36). Thus when

41

Page 41 of 54
Malcolm tests Macduff's loyalty, he
begins appropriately by saying that
"all things foul would wear the
brows of grace" (IV iii 23). Even the
most foul of men—perhaps like
Macbeth and the murderers—are
able to disguise themselves. Just as
the witches’ equivocation covers up
the true harm within their alluring
words, disguises and masks hide
the inner world from the outer.

Finally, during the scene in which

the murders occur, Lady Macduff
reflects the bird symbolism that
began in Act 1. When Lady
Macduff complains to Ross about
the abrupt departure of Macduff,
she states: "the poor wren / The
most diminutive of birds, will fight,

42

Page 42 of 54
/ Her young ones in her nest,
against the owl" (IV ii 9-11). Her
metaphor comes to life when she
and her son are attacked by
Macbeth's men. Macbeth, as earlier
established, is identified with the
owl; so Lady Macduff, trying to
protect her son, becomes the wren
in a realization of her own figure of
speech. It is with particular pathos
that the audience sees Macduff’s
precocious son fall prey to the
swords of Macbeth’s ruthless
murderers.
------------------------------------------------
--------

Analysis of Act 5

43

Page 43 of 54
Until Act 5, Macbeth has been
tormented with visions and
nightmares while Lady Macbeth
has derided him for his weakness.
Now the audience witnesses the
way in which the murders have
also preyed on Lady Macbeth. In
her sleepwalking, Lady Macbeth
plays out the theme of washing and
cleansing that runs throughout the
play. After killing Duncan, she
flippantly tells Macbeth that "a little
water clears us of this deed" (II ii
65). But the deed now returns to
haunt Lady Macbeth in her sleep.
Lady Macbeth's stained hands are
reminiscent of the biblical mark of
Cain—the mark that God placed on
Cain for murdering his brother
Abel (Genesis 4:15). But Cain's

44

Page 44 of 54
mark is a sign from God that
protects Cain from the revenge of
others. Lady Macbeth's mark does
not protect her from death, as she
dies only a few scenes later.

The doctor's behavior in Act 5

Scene 3 resembles that of a
psychoanalyst. Like a Freudian
psychoanalyst, the doctor observes
Lady Macbeth's dreams and uses
her words to infer the cause of her
distress. Lady Macbeth's language
in this scene betrays her troubled
mind in many ways. Her speech in
previous acts has been eloquent
and smooth. In Act 1 Scene 4, for
example, she declares to Duncan:

All our service,

45

Page 45 of 54
In every point twice done and then
done double,
Were poor and single business to
contend
Against those honors deep and
broad wherewith
Your Majesty loads our house. For
those of old,
And the late dignities heaped upon
them,
We rest your hermits. (I vi 14-19)

In this speech, Lady Macbeth

makes use of metaphor (Duncan's
honor is "deep and broad"),
metonymy (he honors "our house,"
meaning the Macbeths themselves),
and hyperbole ("in every point
twice done and then done double").
Her syntax is complex but the

46

Page 46 of 54
rhythm of her speech remains
smooth and flowing, in the iambic
pentameter used by noble
characters in Shakespearean plays.
What a contrast it is, therefore,
when she talks in her sleep in Act 5:

Out, damned spot, out, I say! One.

Two. Why then, ‘tis time to do't.
Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a
soldier and afeard? What need we
fear who knows it, when none can
call our power to account? Yet who
would have thought the old man to
have had so much blood in him. . .
The Thane of Fife had a wife.
Where is she now? What, will these
hands ne'er be clean? No more o'
that, my lord, no more o' that. You
mar all with this starting. (V i 30-48)

47

Page 47 of 54
In this speech, Lady Macbeth's
language is choppy, jumping from
idea to idea as her state of mind
changes. Her sentences are short
and unpolished, reflecting a mind
too disturbed to speak eloquently.
Although she spoke in iambic
pentameter before, she now speaks
in prose—thus falling from the
noble to the prosaic.

Lady Macbeth's dissolution is swift.

As Macbeth's power grows, indeed,
Lady Macbeth's has decreased. She
began the play as a remorseless,
influential voice capable of sweet-
talking Duncan and of making
Macbeth do her bidding. In the
third act Macbeth leaves her out of

48

Page 48 of 54
his plans to kill Banquo, refusing to
reveal his intentions to her. Now in
the last act, she has dwindled to a
mumbling sleepwalker, capable
only of a mad and rambling speech.
Whereas even the relatively
unimportant Lady Macduff has a
stirring death scene, Lady Macbeth
dies offstage. When her death is
reported to Macbeth, his response is
shocking in its cold apathy. (Here
again Macbeth stands in relief to
Macduff, whose emotional reaction
to his wife's death almost "unmans"
him.)

As the play nears its bloody

conclusion, Macbeth's tragic flaw
comes to the forefront: like Duncan
before him, his character is too

49

Page 49 of 54
trusting. He takes the witches'
prophesies at face value, never
realizing that things are seldom
what they seem—an ironic flaw,
given his own treachery. He thus
foolishly fortifies his castle with the
few men who remain, banking on
the fact that the events that the
apparitions foretold could not come
true. But in fact the English army
does brings Birnam Wood to
Dunsinane. And Macduff, who has
indeed been "untimely ripped"
from his mother's womb, advances
to kill Macbeth. The witches have
equivocated; they told him a double
truth, concealing the complex
reality within a framework that
seems simple. (As a side note, it
may also be worthwhile to consider

50

Page 50 of 54
the dramatic “weight” of such a
conclusion: does it appear strange
that such a tragic play should be
resolved through a more or less
frivolous play on words?)

It is fitting that the play ends as it

began—with a victorious battle in
which a valiant hero kills a traitor
and holds high the severed head.
The first we hear of Macbeth in Act
1 is the story of his bravery in
battle, wherein he decapitated
Macdonwald's and displayed it on
the castle battlements. At the end of
the tragedy, Macbeth—himself a
traitor to Duncan and his family—is
treated in exactly the same manner.
After killing Macbeth, Macduff
enters with Macbeth's severed head

51

Page 51 of 54
and exclaims "behold where
stands / Th'usurper's cursed head"
(V xi 20-21) The play thus ends with
the completion of a parallel
structure.

One moral of the story is that the

course of fate cannot be changed.
The events that the Weird Sisters
predicted and set in motion at the
beginning of the play happen
exactly as predicted, no matter
what the characters do to change
them. Macbeth tries his hardest to
force fate to work to his bidding,
but to no avail. Banquo still
becomes the father of kings and
Macbeth still falls to a man not born
of woman. The man who triumphs
in the end is the one who did

52

Page 52 of 54
nothing to change the fate
prescribed for him. The prophecy is
self-fulfilling.

The river of time thus flows on,

despite the struggles of man.
Although Macbeth's reign of terror
has made “the frame of things
disjoint,” by the end of the play the
tide of time has smoothed over
Scotland (III ii 18). The unnatural
uprising of Macbeth now in the
past, Macduff comments that "the
time is free" (V xi 21). And
Macbeth's life proves to be indeed a
"tale / Told by an idiot, full of
sound and fury, signifying nothing"
(V v 27-29). Time washes over his
meaningless, bloody history:
Banquo's family will give rise to the

53

Page 53 of 54
line of Stuart kings and Malcolm
will regain the throne his father left
him—all exactly as if Macbeth had
never dared to kill Duncan.
------------------------------------------------
--------

------------------------------------------------
--------

EASYPASS 2020{ EVANGELIST}

0885 217 998

54

Page 54 of 54