Assumptions are made throughout our lives, just as the nobles suspect Macbeth of murder. Macbeth has given them a reasonable amount of examples to justify their predictions of his bloody doings, yet his inner monologue is available only to the reader. Such thoughts of his guilt and remorse are expressed through his discussions with Lady Macbeth, his unconscious reactions to Banquo’s ghost and the “tomorrow and tomorrow” speech. Scotland makes accusations through Banquo’s soliloquy and the nobles speaking of Macbeth in act five proving their beliefs of murder. The entire country believes he is covered in blood yet the reader is the only one who understands his reactions towards the deeds he has committed.
Like a child, Macbeth attempts to run away from his problems, yet he has no where to go. “I am afraid to think what I have done”, reveals his inability to think over scenarios before he commits them. He now realizes what he has done is against his own morals, knee deep in guilt, and attempts to figure out his problems with his wife. Macbeth ‘s conscious screams through, “Ere we will eat our meal I fear and sleep in the affliction of these terrible dreams that shake us nightly”, for the reality of the crime has come into realization and the only one Macbeth can confide in is Lady Macbeth. At this point in the book, no guilt is felt on behalf of Lady Macbeth leaving Macbeth resembling a boy crying for help when no one is listening.
Through Macbeth’s attempt to make sense of what has happened during the “tomorrow and tomorrow” speech, he states, “Life’s but a waking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more”. He claims we will all, at some point in our lives, end up having to finish our play, though when that happens it makes no difference, for our lives ‘signify nothing.’ By claiming life is insignificant, Macbeth makes excuses for the murders he has committed, yet deep down inside this is simply a cover-up for the guilt boiling inside. Assumptions, made by Macbeth, about the meaning of life proves Macbeth is really to soothe his own remorse by summarizing life through the eyes of a murderer.
Such a soliloquy has Scotland looking down upon him, for he seems relentless and bloody.
Evil of the Witches and Lady Macbeth
Evil of the Witches and Lady Macbeth
In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the main character, Macbeth has many motivators and influences causing him to do evil deeds. Lady Macbeth is the main one. She pressures Macbeth to kill king Duncan. Also, there are the three witches, who give Macbeth prophecies that manipulate him in which disaster strikes at the end of the play. Macbeth’s character changes through the course of the play. In the beginning of the play Macbeth is a kind, loyal, hero, and at the end he becomes an evil tyrant.
One day Macbeth comes home to his wife (Lady Macbeth) and tells her all about the prophecies, and how he was crowned Thane of Cawdor by the king of Scotland, King Duncan. To the reader this was a big mistake; him telling his wife. With sudden amusement Lady Macbeth sets up a plan for her husband to execute the king, but thinks that her husband is to kind to pull it off. “It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness.”
Lady Macbeth creates a plan :
“And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep
…When in swinish sleep
…/Their drenched natures lies as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
Th’ unguarded Duncan”
Macbeth was shocked and surprised of Lady Macbeth’s proposal, and had refused to follow her orders. Then Lady Macbeth made a comeback by saying :
” What beast was’t, then,
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man…”
What Lady Macbeth said, made Macbeth snap and therefore he used her plan to attack Duncan.
The prophecy that Macbeth found rather alluring was that he would be future king. “All hail, Macbeth!, that shalt be king hereafter!”
At first Macbeth doesn’t believe the words of the witches thinking they are lying, but slowly starts to come to his senses, when things the witches say become true. Macbeth then believes that he should let fate take its course by waiting and letting what was told happen, and if it doesn’t then shall be it. “If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me Without my stir.