William Shakespeare: an analysis of Macbeth’s character

After a while Macbeth and his friend are stopped by some messengers of the king, who are empowered by him to confer upon Macbeth the dignity of Thane of Cawdor: an event so miraculously corresponding with the predictions of the witches astonishes Macbeth, who begins to think about the other and more important prophecy; particularly, to obtain the throne, he begins to think of murdering Duncan, the current king.

But probably Macbeth had these thoughts in his mind even before his meeting with the witches. This fact emerges from his strange reaction after the prophecies of the witches. We can also compare this reaction with Banquo’s one.

He, who is ambitious but perfectly honest, is hardly stricken by what the witches say and remains almost impassible; on the contrary when Macbeth hears the prophecies, he does not feel completely innocent: we find him to be quite afraid and unable to speak, he has a start of fears after the third prophecy just because ha had already conceived the murder, even if it was still something vague. So we can say that the temptation was already in Macbeth’s mind and the prophecies of the witches reinforce this temptation. 2

Perhaps even Banquo understands what Macbeth is thinking about after the meeting with the witches and tries to warn his friend against these prophecies, as we can notice from his dialogue with Macbeth:

Machb: “Do you not hope your children shall be kings,

When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me Promis’d no less to them?”

In deepest consequence […].”

I, III, 118-126

But Macbeth does not pay attention to Banquo’s warning.

So the witches do not have a decisive influence towards Macbeth’s decisions. This is also demonstrated by the fact that in the course of the play he never accuses them: Macbeth curses the

² Gabriele Baldini, Manualetto Shakespeariano. Torino: Piccola Biblioteca Einaudi 1964, p. 417

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witches because they cheat him, but he does not consider them as the cause of his terrible decisions that will lead him to the decline and the death. 3

In this moment Macbeth is between two fires: on the one hand his ambition drives him to Duncan’s murder, on the other hand his moral sense advices him to do nothing bad and to rely on destiny:

He thinks about his crime and he knows that the immediate consequence would be disastrous. Moreover he is a near kinsman to the king, he respects him and he is respected by him, and he perfectly knows that Duncan is, with his loyalty, his kindness, his skill, the right man to govern Scotland.

In spite of this awareness, he cannot give up with his bloody thoughts. This is due to his imagination, to his desire to see himself as king.

His imagination and his desire represent Macbeth’s wicked side: in the first part of the play the main function of Lady Macbeth is to keep this vision alive within him by any means at her disposal. She knows the weakness of his husband and tries to fight against it. So she takes command of the situation and encourages him to act; she also prepares a plan and affirms that nobody will discover them. Then, when she notices that Macbeth is not yet sure, she also resorts to the “foul play”: she uses the word “cowardly” that is an unpardonable insult to his warlike honour:

In Lady Macbeth there is not the conflict between the good and evil parts of her as we do see in Macbeth. The main difference between them lies in Lady Macbeth’s refusal to listen to her conscience at the beginning of the play.

After a lot of attempts, she succeeds in persuading his husband: Macbeth decides to murder the king of Scotland. It is important to underline the fact that he takes alone the final decision, he is forced

³ A. C. Bradley, La tragedia di Shakespeare. Milano: Casa Editrice Il Saggiatore 1964, p. 377

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by nobody: the prophecies of the witches and the attempts of his wife strengthen his ambition, but at the end he is absolutely free to decide.

So he makes for Duncan’s room with the daggers in his hand. He knows that what he is going to do is a dreadful crime, but he cannot oppose his imagination. He seems to be led by the dagger towards the murder (against his will); it is as if he is following an imagined projection of his desire. After the murder, he feels again repugnance for his action and he remains still in front of his wife. The reason of his behaviour is not the fear of being discovered: in fact he does not think to wash his hands dirty with Duncan’s blood, or to put on his dressing gown; he does not care for the daggers he has brought from the murder chamber instead of placing them near Duncan’s attendants. Now he thinks about the two men who were in the chamber of the King: when they saw Macbeth with the daggers one of them said: “God bless us” and the other one answered: “Amen”. Macbeth, who stood listening to them, tried to say Amen, but the word stuck in his throat and he could not pronounce it.

Then he tells his wife that he has heard a voice in his mind during the deed:

Macb.: “Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more!

Macbeth does murder sleep’, the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, Chief nourisher in life’s feast.” II, II, 34-39

He begins to understand that from now on his future life will be a terrible one without joys and quite moments. 4

Just after the murder, Macbeth sinks into a sort of despair: he understands the pointlessness and the meanness of his action. He takes it out publicly when he returns to Duncan’s chamber with Lennox half an hour later the murder:

There’s nothing serious in mortality,

All is but toys; renown and grace is dead,

⁴ A. C. Bradley, La tragedia di Shakespeare. Milano: Casa Editrice Il Saggiatore 1964, p. 387

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