Gordon Shi
(This essay was assigned by Mr. Tristram Wood, my sophomore year English teacher.)
To the superstitious, it is an embodiment of occultism and witchcraft, and the mere utterance of its title evokes from them a ritualistic response intended to ward off evil. To the scholarly, it is a historical masterpiece that remains unrivaled in terms of beautifully poetic language, captivating storytelling, and insight into its sociopolitical climate. Yet to all those who experience it, either through the pages of a book or the performances of a film, Macbeth is a tragedy of character in which a man who, in an attempt to achieve a rise to power, launches himself into a descent into madness. Despite the influences of Lady Macbeth and fate itself, Macbeth is ultimately responsible for the consequences of the actions he takes of his own accord, and the reasons for his culpability lie within the brutal belligerence of his past, the paranoia and insanity which grow like a cancer within him, and the intrinsic ambition and eventually hubris which directs his each and every step.
The American novelist Mark Twain once said that “To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” If the statement holds true, then amidst the violently chaotic wars happening in Scotland, there were plenty of nails on the battlefield for Macbeth to bring the metaphorical hammer down upon. He did so relentlessly, almost as if it were second nature, as a captain in his army describes to King Duncan: “His brandished steel / … smoked with bloody execution” (I. ii. 17-18). Those unfortunate enough to encounter Macbeth in the heat of a battle died quick but gruesome deaths, such as one man who was “Unseamed … from the nave to th’ chops” (I. ii. 22). As a result of these experiences, Macbeth gains an ability that very few men ever develop: the ability to kill efficiently and without remorse. Granted, this superpower of his ironically does not interfere with his moral compass; it seems as though he is able to retain his core values of nobility, honor, and valor throughout his military career. But Macbeth’s downfall is like a chemical reaction waiting to happen. All it needs is a catalyst. When opportunity manifests itself in the form of three weird sisters, Macbeth begins to consider the implications of the prophecy and his thoughts turn dark almost immediately:
Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings.
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man
That function is smothered in surmise,
And nothing is but what is not. (I. iii. 138-143)
The foreboding ambiguity of the last sentence in Macbeth’s aside does not leave much room for interpretation; it is clear that the thought of assassinating Duncan has already overtaken Macbeth’s subconscious. Soon, after relentless cajoling from his wife, Macbeth acts upon this desire and kills Duncan with his own hands. After he stains his hands with the blood of the old monarch, they are never dry again. Under Macbeth’s tyrannical and short-lived reign as the new king, Banquo and the family of Macduff meet the same fate.
Had Macbeth listened to the voice of reason, he would have stopped using the treasonous and violent tactic he used to secure the throne for himself; however, that voice was drowned out in the resounding cries of paranoia which grew inside his mind. Even before he carries out the awful deed, Macbeth is plagued by surreal visions that seem to transcend both reality and imagination, such as the appearance of a dagger (unseen by Shakespeare’s audience) whose handle points towards his hand frightens Macbeth but also beguiles him: “Thou marshall’st meme the way that I was going, / And such an instrument I was to use” (II. i. 42-43). After Duncan’s untimely execution, the visions grow worse, and shame and guilt take root within Macbeth. These emotions manifest themselves in different forms, the most symbolic being blood:
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red. (II. ii. 63-66)
As Macbeth suffers from these hallucinations, his state of mind grows dangerously volatile, and subsequently he chooses to resort to more drastic measures in order to preserve the secrecy of his heinous act. This mentality contributes to his ultimate downfall because it traps him within a vicious cycle of desperation and paranoia in which the more he acts, the worse his visions become. For instance, Macbeth’s growing and arguably misplaced suspicion in his old friend Banquo eventually brings him to “solve the nail with the hammer.” Of course, this does little to ease his mind. Shortly afterwards, the ghost of Banquo, invisible to all but Macbeth, pays the newly crowned king a visit at his banquet that shakes him to his core. Even then, Banquo is not the last victim of Macbeth’s increasingly reckless actions. After a witch cautions him to be wary of the Thane of Fife, Macbeth sends murderers to kill not only Macduff but his wife and son as well. Despite the presence of the forces of fate in this situation and others, it is the horrendous overkill executed by Macbeth himself that lead to the events which cause his eventual downfall.
While paranoia and fear undoubtedly maintained an iron grip on Macbeth’s perception of reality throughout his rise to power, it is Macbeth’s unrelenting ambition that drives him to perform the drastic actions which cross his mind. However, it is worth mentioning that Macbeth’s ambition only begins to escalate after he is emboldened by his wife. In fact, upon hearing the news, Lady Macbeth worries that her husband would not be able to accomplish the murder:
Yet I do fear thy nature.
It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great,
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it. (I. v. 15-19)
In fact, it is only after Lady Macbeth calls into question the masculinity of Macbeth that he finally agrees to do what is necessary. Yet as the play progresses, the moral character of Macbeth diminishes and allows for the seed of ambition planted by Lady Macbeth to grow unchecked. As Lady Macbeth becomes wracked by guilt (eventually killing herself later on), it sprouts and consumes his ability to think rationally and influences every move he makes. Macbeth, once afraid to take the life of the king, now summarily calls for the murders of children such as Fleance and the son of Macduff. This growing ambition is joined by a rising sense of hubris after Macbeth hears the second set of prophecies: “Macbeth shall never vanquished be until / Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill” (IV. i. 92-93). The vaguely worded omen is misinterpreted by Macbeth as a message that he is immortal (shouldn’t it be impossible for forests to move?) and he awaits the impending battle with confidence. Only before Macbeth is stabbed by Macduff, a man who is not “of woman-born” but rather the result of Cesarean section, that he realizes the great irony of falling victim to the prophecy he fulfilled through his own imprudent actions.
The forces of fate may have pulled some strings in prophesying to Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth did initially wield significant influence over her husband. But in spite of these factors it was Macbeth, acting on his paranoia, ambition, and willingness to kill, who held the ultimate responsibility for the blood spilled in the pages of Shakespeare’s tragedy, and Neptune’s great oceans may never cleanse his hands of that blood.
Gordon Shi's English Class Writings at Peddie School (2016-2019) 