Macbeth - Weebly

MacbethAt about 2100 lines, Macbeth is Shakespeare’sshortest tragedy and among the briefest of hisplays. Scholars generally agree that the drama waswritten around 1606 because various references inthe play correspond to events that occurred in thatyear. Many also believe that it was composed for aperformance before King James I, who had a deepinterest in witchcraft. Quite possibly the playwas one of the court entertainments offered toKing Christian IV of Denmark during his visitto London in 1606. In addition, researchers suggestthat Shakespeare may have written Macbethto glorify King James’s ancestry by associatinghim, through the historical Banquo, to the firstScottish king, Kenneth MacAlpin. The principalhistorical source for Macbeth is Raphael Holin-shed’sChroniclesofEngland,Scotlande, and lrelande(1577). However, Shakespeare took great libertieswith this source, adapting various historical eventsto increase the dramatic effect of his tragedy.

Four hundred years later, students and actorscontinue to explore and embrace Macbeth for itsintriguingportrayal ofmadness, ambition, and thesupernatural. The play has remarkable depth, as italso encourages discussion about gender roles,human motivation, and what makes a good king.For students new to Shakespeare, Macbeth isfairly engrossing, and it is easy to determine earlywho the protagonists and antagonists are, andwhat their primary motivations are. Shakespearedisplays a sensitive understanding of the humancondition by dramatizing not only the way in

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which evil enters Macbeth’s world, but also thedevastating effect it has on those who yield totemptation and sin. Shakespeare concludes thetragedy on a hopeful note, however, for as awe-some and corruptive as the evil is that pervadesMacbeth, it is only temporary. Ultimately, timeand order are restored through the actions of thedefenders of goodness.

PLOT SUMMARY

Act 1Macbeth begins in an indistinct ‘‘open place,’’where three witches are speaking in chants andplanning tomeet again to speak toMacbeth. Theeerie scene is brief, and the witches depart.Scotland is at war, and in the next scene,Scotland’s King Duncan receives news from thebattlefield. Duncan has had Scottish rebels tofight, along with an army of Norwegians.Duncan learns that Macdonwald, a traitor, andhis army have been defeated, thanks in part tothe violent heroics of Banquo and Macbeth. Infact, Macbeth himself killed Macdonwald.Duncan also learns that the Thane of Cawdor,another traitor, has been captured and theNorwegian army has been driven back. Duncansentences the traitor to death and namesMacbeth as the new Thane of Cawdor.

In the third scene, Macbeth and Banquo arejourneying to the king’s castle when they aresurprised by the appearance of three witches.The hags predict that Macbeth, who holds thetitle of Thane of Glamis, will also become Thaneof Cawdor and then King of Scotland. They alsopredict that, although Banquo will never rule,his descendants will be monarchs. After thewitches vanish, Ross and Angus (Scottish noble-men) appear with word from King Duncan.Macbeth learns that Duncan has condemnedthe Thane of Cawdor for treason and that theking will bestow the title on Macbeth.

Macbeth and Banquo arrive at Duncan’scastle, where the king thanks them for theirvalor. Duncan also announces that his son,Malcolm, will be heir to the throne. Privately,Macbeth notes thatMalcolm now stands betweenhim and the fulfillment of his prophecy to becomeking. Because Duncan is going to have dinnerat Macbeth’s castle (Inverness), Macbeth leavesto talk to Lady Macbeth. Having read a letterfrom her husband about the prophecies, Lady

Macbeth receives the news of Duncan’s arrivalwith a sense of opportunity. She determines thatMacbeth will seize this chance to kill the king,thus moving him closer to the throne. Seeing herhusband as weak, she pushes him to do it. Whenthe king arrives, Lady Macbeth is the picture ofhospitality. Meanwhile, Macbeth has talked him-self out of murdering the king, realizing that thereis no unselfish reason to do so. After all, Duncanis not an evil man or a bad king. Killing himwould be purely an act of ambition. LadyMacbeth chides Macbeth and shares her planwith him on how to carry out the murder.Impressed by her guile, Macbeth agrees to gothrough with it that very night.

Act 2Banquo and his son, Fleance, are staying atInverness. Banquo is having difficulty sleepingand is surprised to find Macbeth also awake.Banquo tells Macbeth that his sleep has beenrestless, and that he has been thinking aboutthe witches’ prophecies. Banquo is anxious totalk to Macbeth about the matter, but theydecide to discuss it later. Alone again, Macbethsees a floating dagger that does not seem to bereal. It seems to be pointing the way to Duncan,with the handle pointing toward Macbeth.Despite the eerie talk of the witches and thehallucination, Macbeth shores up his courageto murder Duncan. Once Lady Macbeth indi-cates that the attendants are asleep (she hasmade them drunk with wine), Macbeth proceedsto Duncan’s room.

Waiting for her husband, Lady Macbethreflects on what is happening. She amazes evenherself, and says that she would have killedDuncan herself if he had not reminded her of herfather. Macbeth enters, covered in Duncan’sblood. He becomes so unnerved by the deed, how-ever, that he forgets to leave the daggers inDuncan’s chamber, andLadyMacbethmust finishthe task. She returns to the murder scene, smearsthe attendants with blood and places their kniveswith them to make it appear that they are guilty.

Just then, there is a knock at the door of thecastle. The porter is hung over and has fun pre-tending he is the porter to hell, as he wonderswhich sinners he will let pass through the door.The visitors are Lennox and Macduff, who aresupposed to meet Duncan early. WhenMacbethtakes him to Duncan, Macduff makes the grislydiscovery. In the ensuing chaos, Duncan’s sons,

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Malcolm and Donalbain, arrive. They are giventhe news of their father, followed by Macbeth’sannouncement that he has killed the apparent kill-ers, theattendants.Heexplains thatDuncan’sdeathcaused him to lose his temper, so he flew into a rageand killed the murderous attendants. Lady Mac-beth faints, and the others attend to her. MalcolmandDonalbain do not feel safe, and decide it is bestif they escape to Ireland and England.

Scene 4 takes place outside Inverness whereRoss and another man discuss the strange thingsthat have been happening lately. Macduff comesout and tells them that since Malcolm andDonalbain both fled, Macbeth has been crownedKingof Scotland.Macduff adds that although theattendants appear to be the guilty parties, there issuspicion that someone may have paid them tokill Duncan. Because Malcolm and Donalbainleft so quickly, many think they are involved.

Act 3Although Macbeth has fulfilled the witches’prophecy that he will become king, he still feels

threatened by the prediction that Banquo’s heirs

will one day rule Scotland. Banquo sees that the

two prophecies given to Macbeth have come

true, so he also wonders about the one concern-

ing his lineage. Macbeth enters in king’s robes

and invites Banquo to a feast.Macbeth delivers a

soliloquy in which he confesses that he fears his

friend Banquo. Based on the prophecies, Mac-

beth’s reign would lead nowhere. Now that he is

king, he fears that he will be targeted by Ban-

quo’s family. A servant returns with two men

Macbeth has enlisted to kill Banquo. He pro-

vokes their sense of manliness by asking if they

have what it takes to carry out themurder.When

they assure him that they can do it, he adds that

they must also kill Banquo’s son, Fleance.

Before the feast, Macbeth meets with LadyMac-

beth, and they briefly discuss the anxiety about

their actions. Although Lady Macbeth intends

to calm her husband, she is plagued by many of

the same feelings. WhenMacbeth tells her he has

arranged for the murders of Banquo and

Fleance, she is surprised.

Peter Lindford as Macbeth, Gerald Logan as Banquo and the witches in Act I, scene iii, at the LudlowFestival, 2001 (� Donald Cooper/Photostage. Reproduced by permission)

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The two murderers, joined by a third man,succeed in killing Banquo as he returns to hiscastle for the feast, but Fleance escapes. At thebanquet, Macbeth expresses his regret at theabsence of his friend; but as he approaches hisseat at the table, he is horrified to find Banquo’sghost sitting in his chair. Macbeth’s fearful criesstartle the other guests, who cannot see the spirit.LadyMacbeth tries to explain away his behaviorto the guests by telling them that he has had suchvisions before, and there is no need for alarm.Once the ghost vanishes, Macbeth recovers untilthe ghost reappears. Macbeth becomes hysteri-cal, and Lady Macbeth sends the guests away.Once Macbeth calms down, he decides to seekout the witches to receive their assurance abouthis future as King of Scotland. The paranoiathat dominates his thought patterns leads himto believe he will find the comfort he desperatelyneeds by learning more about the prophecies.

The witches meet with Hecate, the goddessof witchcraft. She is irate that the witches haveinvolved themselves in Macbeth’s life, and tellsthem that when he comes to talk to them, theyare to conjure up apparitions and visions toconfuse him further. Elsewhere, Lennox andanother lord discuss Banquo’s murder andreveal that, although they suspect the tyrannousMacbeth, others blame Fleance because he fled.Macduff has gone to join Malcolm in England,where they will ask for help from King Edwardin overthrowing Macbeth. Having caught windof these schemes,Macbeth is preparing for a warthat many hope he loses.

Act 4The witches meet with Macbeth and conjure upthree apparitions. The first is a severed head thatwarns him to beware Macduff; the next is abloody child that assures him that no man bornof woman can harm him; and last is a crownedchild telling him that he will not be conquereduntil Birnam Wood comes to his castle atDunsinane. Macbeth is disturbed, however,when he asks about the prophecy concerningBanquo and is shown an apparition of a succes-sion of eight kings led by Banquo’s ghost—anindication that Banquo’s heirs will indeed ruleScotland. Later, when Macbeth learns thatMacduff has fled Scotland to join forces withMalcolm, he sends assassins to murder LadyMacduff and her children. Meanwhile inEngland, Malcolm tests Macduff’s loyalty bypretending to be a lascivious and immoral man

incapable of ruling a kingdom. When Macduff

expresses his indignation at Malcolm’s supposed

exploits, the prince is satisfied that Macduff is

truly loyal to Scotland. Fully trusting Macduff,

Malcolm invites him to join his army. While

talking with Malcolm, Macduff receives word

that Macbeth has slaughtered his family and he

vows to avenge their deaths.

Act 5Driven insane by fear and guilt over Duncan’s

murder, Lady Macbeth walks in her sleep and

tries to rub out imaginary bloodstains on her

hands. Outside, several lords talk about the

approaching English army led by Malcolm. A

Scottish armywill meet them at BirnamWood to

join their effort to bring down Macbeth.

Meanwhile, Macbeth confidently clings to the

witches’ assurances that he is invulnerable as he

prepares to engage Malcolm’s army at Dunsi-

nane castle. He receives word that the army is

approaching the castle, and he prepares to don

his battle armor. When a doctor tells him that

Lady Macbeth is suffering greatly from delu-

sions, Macbeth merely tells the doctor to cure

her. He experiences increasing fear and nervous-

ness as a result of his past actions, but when he

learns that his wife has committed suicide, his

reaction is impassive. Macbeth is initially dis-

concerted when he hears reports that his enemies

approach Dunsinane camouflaged by tree

branches fromBirnamWood, but reassures him-

self that no man born of woman can harm him.

He feels invincible as he places all of his trust in

the apparent message from the witches. Still, he

cannot help but recall the strange prophecy

about the woods, and he begins to resign himself

to what may be his doom.

Outside, Malcolm commands his troops todrop their boughs and prepare to fight. Macbeth

fights vigorously, certain that no one can kill

him. Macduff seeks Macbeth out personally, as

Malcolm enters the castle. When Macbeth

encounters Macduff on the battlefield, he learns

that his opponent was ‘‘untimely ripp’d’’ from

his mother’s womb (meaning he was born by

Caesarean section). Realizing that his fate is

sealed, Macbeth nevertheless battles on until he

is killed by Macduff. Upon defeating his enemy,

Macduff triumphantly holds Macbeth’s severed

head aloft to Malcolm, who is proclaimed King

of Scotland.

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CHARACTERS

BanquoBanquo is a nobleman and a general in Duncan’s

army. With Macbeth, he encounters the witches,

and from their prophecies, he learns that his

descendants will be kings. Although Banquo

savors the thought of his heirs becoming kings,

he never considers speeding the process alongwith evil-doing as Macbeth does; he remainsloyal toKingDuncan. Banquo believesMacbethis still his friend, despite knowing what theprophecies say. This trust leaves him vulnerable.Macbeth arranges the murder of Banquo, andhis son Fleance, to thwart the witches’ predic-tion. Banquo’s ghost later haunts Macbeth at abanquet.

While much of the action of Macbethrevolves around the protagonist and his wife,Banquo is also an important figure. One criticalperspective views Banquo’s function as essen-tially symbolic: he is portrayed as a man who,like Macbeth, has the capacity for both God’sgrace and sin; but unlike Macbeth, he puts littlestock in the Weird Sisters’ prophecies and doesnot succumb to their temptations. Banquo’sreluctance to dwell on the witches’ predictionstherefore underscores, by contrast, the nature ofMacbeth’s descent into evil. Another criticalviewpoint, however, suggests that Banquo isjust as guilty as Macbeth of succumbing to thewitches’ temptations. By complying with Mac-beth’s accession to the throne and not raisingsuspicions about his role in Duncan’s murder,Banquo reveals a secret hope that the WeirdSisters’ prophecy for him will also come true.

DonalbainDonalbain is Duncan’s son and Malcolm’sbrother. After the king’s murder, he flees toIreland in fear of his life, while his brother fleesto England.

DuncanDuncan is the King of Scotland when the playbegins. He is depicted as a good and just kingwith a sense of honor toward his men and hissubjects. He seems to be a man of wisdom, grace,and order. But he is perhaps too trusting, as heallows himself to be vulnerable in Macbeth’shome, even though he just endowed Macbethwith the promoted position of thane. Havingjust been betrayed by the Thane of Cawdor,one might expect him to be more cautious inhis assessments of those near him, but he is not.While a guest at Macbeth’s castle, Duncan ismurdered by his host. Shakespeare contrastsDuncan and Macbeth. Through his benevo-lence, graciousness, and almost naive trust,Duncan embodies a sense of harmony whichgenerally inspires loyalty among his followers.These attributes become inverted in Macbeth,

MEDIAADAPTATIONS

� Macbeth has been adapted for numerousfilm productions all over the world. A 1948film featuring Orson Welles (who alsodirected), Jeanette Nolan, Dan O’Herlihy,and Roddy McDowell, was released byRepublic and was distributed by RepublicPictures Home Video.

� In 1971, Roman Polanski wrote a contro-versial adaptation, which featured realisticdesign, graphic violence, and a fatalisticatmosphere. It was produced by AndrewDraunsberg and Hugh Hefner, and was dis-tributed by RCA/Columbia Pictures HomeVideo.

� The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)and Miami Dade Community College pro-duced a 1978 film adaptation narrated by JoseFerrer and distributed by Films, Inc.

� Numerous television adaptations ofMacbethhave also been produced worldwide. TheBBC and Time Life Television produced atelevision adaptation in 1976; it was distrib-uted by TimeLife Video.

� In 1979, Trevor Nunn wrote a television adap-tation that starred Ian McKellan and JudiDench; it was produced by the Royal Shake-speare Company and Thames Television.

� In addition, audio adaptations includereleases by Caedmon (1995); CambridgeUniversity Press (unabridged, 1998); Cana-dian Broadcasting Company (2003); andAudio Partners (unabridged, 2005).

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who introduces tumult and disorder into thekingdom when he murders the king and assumeshis place on the throne. The sense of order inher-ent in Duncan’s reign is thus displaced. Hisassassination sets into motion a series of evilactions and unnatural disturbances that are notcorrected until Malcolm and Macduff restoreorder at the end of the play.

FleanceFleance is Banquo’s son. Macbeth attempts toassassinate him along with his father in order tothwart the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’sdescendants will become kings. Fleance escapes,however, thus assuring the survival of the familyline.

MacbethAt the beginning of the play, Macbeth is theThane of Glamis and a general in Duncan’sarmy. He is fierce and heroic on the battlefield,and his valor wins him the admiration and grat-itude of his king. The play begins with Macbethon the battlefield, and it ends with him on thebattlefield, although the two situations aremarkedly different and clearly demonstrate thedegree to which Macbeth has fallen. Yet for allhis leadership and courage in the face of battle atthe beginning of the play, Macbeth is easilymanipulated by the witches and Lady Macbeth.Macbeth encounters three witches who predictthat he will become King of Scotland; theseprophecies begin the process of awakening hispersonal ambition for power. Influenced by thisambition and LadyMacbeth’s urgings, Macbethplots tomurder Duncan and take the throne. Hisevil deed introduces corruption and unnaturaldisturbances into the kingdom. As quickly ashe rose to power, he begins to unravel anddescend into paranoia and madness. He is theepitome of a tyrannical king, abusing power andwielding it for his own personal agenda withoutregard for the kingdom. Macbeth is ultimatelyconquered by Malcolm and Macduff.

One of the most significant reasons for theenduring critical interest in Macbeth’s characteris that he represents humankind’s universal pro-pensity to temptation and sin. Macbeth’s exces-sive ambition motivates him to murder Duncan,and once the evil act is accomplished, he sets intomotion a series of sinister events that ultimatelylead to his downfall. ButMacbeth is not merely acold-blooded, calculating murderer; even beforehe kills the king, he is greatly troubled by his

conscience. While plotting Duncan’s murder, hisbetter nature warns him that the act is wrong; he

nearly persuades himself to reject the plan, buthis wife forces him to reaffirm his determination.The fact that Macbeth possesses a conscience

seems to be established from the beginning ofthe play, and it is this conscience that fuels suchanxiety and madness. He finds himself caught in

a tug-of-war between his hubris compelling himto push past his conscience and commit violent

crimes, and his conscience that punishes him forignoring it.

In addition, Macbeth possesses a powerfulimagination—demonstrated by his excessive

philosophizing over his condition—that swayshis actions. In fact, the hero’s imagination con-

tributes greatly to his decision to murderDuncan: after his first meeting with the WeirdSisters, Macbeth acknowledges that he can wait

to see if their prediction of his imminent kingshipwill come true, but his imagination persuades

him to fulfill the prophecy with his own hands.Later, Macbeth’s overworked imagination pro-duces feelings of guilt and betrayal that throw his

mind into disorder, gradually eroding his brav-ery and replacing it with inexplicable fear andparanoia. Several critics remark that although

Macbeth fully embraces evil, his philosophizingover the hopelessness of his situation results in

some of the greatest poetry ever written on thehuman condition. Others argue, however, thatthe hero’s rhetoric becomes less sincere as his

actions become more ruthless.

Macbeth is the character who reveals themostabout himself throughout the play, although the

audience likely never develops much sympathy forhim. His psychological workings (rise of ambition,hallucinations, belief in prophecy, madness) pro-

vide the development necessary for the themes ofambition, evil, and kingship. Through his solilo-

quies, the audience learns the truth about Mac-beth’s thoughts, feelings, and ambitions.

Lady MacbethLady Macbeth is Macbeth’s wife. She is cold,

scheming, and ruthless. She coerces her husband

into murdering Duncan, first chiding Macbeth

for his reluctance. Shakespeare shows the audi-

ence from the beginning that this is a woman

who knows her husband very well; she antici-

pates his reluctance to kill Duncan, and she

plans for how she will pressure him into doing

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it anyway. She challenges his manliness so she

can manipulate him, and unfortunately, she is

his only advisor throughout the play. It is she

who devises the plan to kill Duncan and frame

the chamberlains for the regicide, all the while

keeping up her appearance as the lady of the

castle. After the murder, however, Lady Mac-

beth is driven insane with guilt and commits

suicide. She is ultimately unable to handle the

horror she has set into motion. While initially

she seemed to know herself, by the end of the

play it is clear that she had an exaggerated per-

ception of how much evil her psyche could han-

dle. Her descent into madness ends where it

began—with killing. Although it is not explicit,

the play strongly suggests that she commits sui-

cide. She wanted nothing more than to be queen,

yet the means by which she attained it would not

allow her to have any peace or enjoyment of it.

Most critics contend that Lady Macbeth’sprincipal dramatic function in Macbeth is topersuade her husband to commit evil. Some crit-ics further suggest that Lady Macbeth embodiesa feminine malevolence in the play that corre-sponds to a masculine fear of domination bywomen. This antagonism is particularly evidentin the unusual level of control Lady Macbethexerts over her husband. Further, she servesmuch the same role as the witches do in manip-ulating Macbeth to murder Duncan, but herinfluence is of a more frightening nature. Assupernatural beings, the witches represent aremote, abstract evil, and their mode of exploi-tation exists only on a cosmic level. LadyMacbeth’s coercion of her husband is more ter-rifying because she brings the full magnitude ofthe witches’ evil influence to the domestic levelby calling on demonic forces to suppress herfemininity and give her the power to makeMacbeth murder Duncan. This unholy contractdoes not endure, for, after she actively partici-pates in covering up Duncan’s murder, LadyMacbeth’s feminine nature reasserts itself, andshe is driven insane. Many commentators assertthat Lady Macbeth’s mental breakdown mani-fests itself in the sleepwalking episode (act 5,scene 1), in which she is not so much distractedby the guilt over her role in Duncan’s murder asshe is by the inability to escape the memory of it.

MacduffMacduff is the Thane of Fife, and one ofDuncan’s generals. He is depicted as honorable,

loyal, and level-headed, even in crisis.Macduff isthe one who discovers Duncan’s murdered body.As he sees the destruction wrought by Macbethand harbors suspicions toward him, Macduffbecomes an avenger. He sees not just revengeor power, but peace and order for the Scotlandhe so loves. He flees to England to join forceswithMalcolm, who is seeking military assistanceto bring down Macbeth. Upon learning thatMacbeth has killed his family, Macduff swearsrevenge. When Macduff returns to Scotlandwith Malcolm’s invading army, he meetsMacbeth on the battlefield. He kills his enemyafter informing him that he was ‘‘untimelyripp’d’’ from his mother’s womb, thus fulfillingthe witches’ prophesy that no man born ofwoman can harm Macbeth.

Lady MacduffLadyMacduff is Macduff’s wife. Macbeth sendsassassins to murder Lady Macduff and her fam-ily when he learns that her husband has fled toEngland.

MalcolmMalcolm is Duncan’s son, Donalbain’s brother,and heir to the Scottish throne. He is a loyal,determined, brave, and careful young man. Heseems to have a good idea of whom he can trust(as when he goes to King Edward for help), andhe knows how to test those he is not sure he cantrust (as when he tests Macduff). After hisfather’s murder, Malcolm flees to England infear of his life. There, he recruits an army toinvade Scotland and conquers Macbeth’s forcesat Dunsinane. Malcolm ultimately regains hisrightful place on Scotland’s throne. Because hewas originally the rightful heir to the thronethrough his father, he reinforces the theme ofdivine right of kingship that was so importantto King James. Unlike Macbeth, who stole thethrone, Malcolm has a right to the throne.

The WitchesTheWitches, or the Weird Sisters, are three hagswho practice black magic under the authority ofthe goddess of witchcraft, Hecate. They speak inchants and riddles, and they are both mischie-vous and sinister. While they may seem nonsen-sical, the text proves that they are cruel andviolent. They talk about what they have doneprior to their meetings, and their actions includekilling a hog and setting about revenge because awoman would not give one of them a chestnut.

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The witches’ prophecies to Macbeth andBanquo suggest that Macbeth will rule Scotlandand that Banquo’s descendants will be kings.These prophecies effectively set the action ofthe play in motion. Later, the witches conjureup three apparitions who warn Macbeth againstMacduff, assure him that no man born ofwoman will harm him, and declare that he willnot be conquered until Birnam Wood comes toDunsinane. Readers are never quite sure howmuch of the prophecies delivered by the witchesare merely their relaying information from thefuture and how much is their direct doing.Regardless, their malevolent intentions areclear in their delight in deception and destructionof Macbeth.

In act 1, scene 3, the witches refer to them-selves as the ‘‘weird sisters,’’ which is a significantword choice. In Shakespeare’s first folio, hespelled it ‘‘weyward,’’ and most scholars pointto the origins of these words as the Old English‘‘wyrd’’ and the Middle English ‘‘werde.’’ Bothwords have to do with fate, destined, or becom-ing. The Norse had the three Norns, goddessesof destiny, and the Greeks had the three Fates(one who spun the thread of a person’s life, onewho measured it, and one who cut it.) By align-ing the witches with these past mythologicalwomen, Shakespeare invokes a powerful andserious role for the witches.

THEMES

AmbitionThe predominant theme in Macbeth is ambitionunchecked by morality. Initially, Lady Macbethis the character who personifies this theme. It isshe who first considers killing Duncan in herown home so that Macbeth might become king,and it is she who pressures her reluctant husbandinto committing the crime. She has no thoughtfor right and wrong, only a lust for power. As theplay progresses, however, Macbeth becomes theone who is unyielding in his determination toprotect his claim to the throne. Once he wearsthe crown, his ambition takes flight. He readilyhas his friend Banquo killed, and even tries tohave Banquo’s son killed to ensure that there isno threat to him from Banquo’s family. Carriedto its conclusion in Macbeth, ambition withoutmoral boundaries is utterly destructive.

Macbeth’s ambition is within him from thebeginning, but without the encouragement of thewitches and Lady Macbeth, it might have beenrestrained. But had it not been in him at all, thewomen would never have been able to awakensuch a cruel and violent force. This insight intoMacbeth’s character forces the audience to won-der what the outcome would be if their ambi-tions were fully awakened. What is alsointeresting about Macbeth’s ambition is thatthere seems to be no objective beyond sittingon the throne. Macbeth does not have loftyplans of becoming a great king, expandingScotland’s holdings, or building a thriving econ-omy. His thoughts are only for himself, so oncehe ascends to the throne, his ambition turns toparanoia and madness in his resolve to keep hisplace on the throne.

Shakespeare demonstrates that ambitiondoes not reside only alongside evil. After all,Banquo is taken with the prophecy that hisheirs will sit on the throne one day, even thoughhe never will. Anyone would be proud to hearsuch a thing, and Banquo is no exception. UnlikeMacbeth, however, Banquo’s ambition is per-fectly content in the future of his family. He hasno aspirations of his own to overthrowMacbeth,even though he sees no way that his own heirscould become royalty. Banquo is also differentfrom Macbeth in that he wants to discuss theprophecies with the man he thinks is still hisfriend, Macbeth. Just as anyone would talkabout important matters like this with confi-dants, Banquo wants to talk to his friend aboutit. Macbeth, however, now sees Banquo as athreat that must be eliminated.

KingshipMacbeth explores the theme of kingship—goodand bad, legitimate and illegitimate. InMacbeth,the audience sees what happens to a countrywhen it falls under the reign of a self-centered,immoral, and evil king. Not only are the meansto his ends evil, he rapidly descends into cruelimmorality to the point that he uses monarchicalmeans (his power and his men) to carry outpurely personal revenge (the murder ofMacduff’s family for no other reason thanspite). Where a good king places his personalinterests below the good of the kingdom, a badking makes the kingdom subservient to his ownpersonal whims. In a short period of time,Macbeth’s court becomes afraid for the futureof the country, and hopes that Malcolm and

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England’s army will defeat their king. Macbethis also an example of a king who appears to havelegitimate authority, but the audience knowsthat the only reason he has been crowned isbecause he got away with murdering the rightfulking. So, Macbeth represents a monarchy of badkingship and an ultimately illegitimate claim toauthority.

In contrast to Macbeth are the charactersDuncan, Malcolm, and King Edward. Before hisdeath, Duncan appears to have been a noble, kind,and just king. Malcolm is the rightful heir to thethrone and is, by all indications, amanwhowill be agood king to Scotland. He is perceptive, bold,moral, shrewd, militarily gifted, and deeply loyalto Scotland. His only apparent weakness seems tobe his youth, but Shakespeare proves to the audi-ence that he is discerning enough to learn from thewisdom of older, honorable men like Macduff.When he is crowned king at the end, the playseems to have achieved a happy ending.

Although less obvious, King Edward is alsopresented as an example of a good king. Not

only is he characterized as a compassionateman who uses his healing powers to help hispeople, but he also hears Malcolm andMacduff and agrees to help them oust the unjustKing Macbeth. He seems to be free of personalambition, yet discerning enough to know towhom he can trust his army.

EvilMacbeth is a complex study of evil and its cor-rupting influence on individuals. Some criticsargue that Shakespeare adapted historicalaccounts of Macbeth to illustrate his largerview of evil’s operation in the world. The partic-ular evil that the protagonist commits has wide-spread consequences, causing a series of furtherevils. As a result, the tragedy is not fully resolvedthrough the fallen hero’s death, but through theforces of good that ultimately correct all the evilMacbeth has unleashed. The witches, throughtheir ambiguous prophecies, represent a super-natural power that introduces evil intoMacbeth.Their equivocations—the intentional stating ofhalf-truths—conceal the sinister nature of their

Sean Bean asMacbeth and Samantha Bond as LadyMacbeth in Act I, scene vii, at the Albery Theatre,London, 2002 (�Donald Cooper/Photostage. Reproduced by permission)

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TOPICS FORFURTHER

STUDY

� There is an intriguing bit of theater lore sur-rounding Macbeth called ‘‘the curse ofMacbeth.’’ Do some research on this curseto see what supposedly triggers the curse, andwhat supposedly happens as a result of thecurse. Are there are any countermeasures forthe curse? How seriously do actors and pro-ducers take this legend, and how do youthink it began? Prepare a multimedia presen-tation explaining the origins and specifics ofthe curse, and how you explain it. Your pre-sentation should be persuasive in tone.

� BothMacbeth andLadyMacbeth seemover-whelmed by their guilt. Consider these twocharacters from a psychological standpointby first researching the effect of guilt andconscience on the psyche. Youmay read con-flicting reports based on different research ortheories, so you will have to determine whichyou think are the most reliable. Write up areport as if you were the psychotherapist fortheMacbeths, and you have been assigned toassess their psychological states. Assumingthey are both still alive, what course of actiondo you recommend for them?

� Banquo is based on a historical figure fromwhom James I descended. See what you canfind out about the real Banquo, and write aspeech for James I about him. To the best ofyour ability, write in language of the time.

� Macbeth is thematically rich and relevant totoday’s world. What theme do you findmost closely parallels something you see inthe world around you? It might be a person,a cultural tendency, an event, or anythingelse that appears parallel to you. Usingquotes from the play, prepare a five- toten-minute speech about the relevance ofMacbeth to today’s readers. Your speechshould be memorized and delivered to yourclass or another small audience.

� Because of the popularity of Macbethamong actors and theater-goers, there havebeen many major productions over the

years. Find photos from various produc-tions of the play and choose the ones youthink are especially evocative of the play.Make copies of the pictures and put themin order as a slideshow or some other visualpresentation to show scenes from the playfrom start to finish. You will not have apicture for every scene, which is fine. If youare able, choose music and set your presen-tation to a score.

� Shakespeare penned some of the greatsoliloquies and speeches of dramatic litera-ture. Among them is the one in act 4, scene 5,beginning, ‘‘Tomorrow, and tomorrow, andtomorrow.’’ Memorize this speech and prac-tice delivering it in a way that conveysMacbeth’s feelings at this moment in theplay. Deliver it to a beginning acting class,explaining why you made some of thechoices you made regarding delivery. Doesthis exercise give you a greater appreciationfor Shakespearean actors?

� Malcolm goes to England to seek help fromthe king to overthrow Macbeth. How com-mon a practice was this in Britain’s past?Why would one country help another coun-try become stronger? Read about Britain’spast with special attention to militaryendeavors. Look for patterns or themesexplaining the relations between these coun-tries. Using maps and diagrams, put togethera lesson to illuminate this issue for your class.Be sure to leave time for questions.

� Although the audience does not have thechance to know Duncan very well beforehis murder, he is presented as an exampleof a good king. Drawing from the text of theplay and your imagination, write a charactersketch of Duncan as we might have knownhim if given the chance. Write one scenefrom a play that takes place in his court toshow what kind of man and king he was,according to your sketch.

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predictions, and Macbeth does not consider thepossibility that they are trying to deceive him. Infact, the witches’ attempts at misinformationsucceed not only because they favorably inter-pret the hero’s future, but also because theirrevelations seem to come true almost immedi-ately. Although inherently malevolent, thewitches’ prophecies do not necessarily signifythe actual existence of evil, but suggest insteadthe potential for evil in the world. The witchesthemselves do not have the power to enact adiabolic course of events such as those seen inMacbeth; rather, their power lies in temptinghumans like Macbeth to sin. When Macbethsuccumbs to the temptation to commit murder,he himself is the catalyst that unleashes evil uponthe world. The evil that initially manifests itselfin Duncan’s murder not only disintegratesMacbeth’s personal world, but also expandsuntil it corrupts all levels of creation, contami-nating the family, the state, and the physicaluniverse. For example, Macduff’s family is mur-dered, Scotland is embroiled in a civil war, andduring Duncan’s assassination ‘‘the earth wasfeverous, and did shake’’ (act 2, scene 3).

Gender RolesAnother important issue in Macbeth is Shake-speare’s ambiguous treatment of gender and sexroles. In many instances, the playwright eitherinverts a character’s conventional gender char-acteristics or divests the figure of them alto-gether. For example, Shakespeare makes thewitches less human by taking away their femi-ninity.Macbeth and Banquo find them repulsiveand comment on their beards. Lady Macbeth isperhaps the most obvious example of this dis-possession. In act 1, scene 5, she prepares toconfront her husband by resolving to ‘‘unsex’’herself, to suppress any supposed weakness asso-ciated with her feminine nature, so that she cangive Macbeth the strength and determination tocarry out Duncan’s murder. After the king iskilled, however, her feelings of guilt graduallyerode her resolve and she goes insane.

Macbeth is perhaps the character mostaffected by the question of gender in the tragedy.From the beginning of the play, he is plagued byfeelings of doubt and insecurity which his wifeattributes to ‘‘effeminate’’ weakness. Fearingthat her husband does not have the resolve tomurder Duncan, Lady Macbeth cruelly manip-ulates his lack of self-confidence by questioninghis manhood. Some critics maintain that as a

result of his wife’s machinations, Macbeth devel-ops awarped perspective ofmanliness, equating itwith the less humanistic attribute of self-seekingaggression. When he talks to Banquo’s hiredassassins, he incites their anger by challengingtheir manliness, just as his wife had done to him.The more Macbeth pursues his ideal understand-ing of manliness—first by murdering Duncan,then Banquo, and finally Macduff’s family—theless humane he becomes. Commentators whosubscribe to this reading of Macbeth’s characterargue that the ruthlessness with which he strivesto obtain this perverted version of manhood ulti-mately separates him from the rest of humankind.Through his diminishing humanity, Macbethessentially forfeits all claims on humanityitself—a degeneration, he ultimately realizes,that renders meaningless his ideal of manliness.

STYLE

SymbolismShakespeare infuses Macbeth with symbolism,giving the play a greater sense of drama andforeboding. The weather in the play symbolizesMacbeth’s—and, later, Scotland’s—condition.Upon the play’s opening, with the witches’ firstappearance, and also on the night Macbeth killsDuncan, there are thunderstorms, symbolizingthe violence and chaos being stirred up inScotland. When Duncan is killed, there is evenan earthquake, symbolizing Scotland’s throes ofgrief for its king. Blood is used to symbolize twoelements: the ascension to the throne, and alsothe guilt from which the Macbeths can neverescape. Duncan’s blood on Macbeth and Mac-beth’s blood on Macduff represent changes inthe monarchy; this is a fitting symbol, as king-ship is usually based on bloodlines. But theblood Macbeth must clean from his hands, andthat which Lady Macbeth seems never able toclean from hers, symbolizes the guilt of theirheinous acts. Blood is a stain on their consciencethat cannot be removed.

OxymoronThe witches speak extensively in oxymoron.From the very beginning, in the first scene ofthe play, the audience hears them say, ‘‘Whenthe battle’s lost and won,’’ and ‘‘Fair is foul, andfoul is fair.’’ In act 1 scene 3, they say suchinscrutable and contradictory things as, ‘‘Lesser

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than Macbeth, and greater,’’ ‘‘Not so happy, yetmuch happier,’’ and ‘‘Thou shalt get kings,though thou be none.’’ The things the witchessay, coupled with their incantation-like delivery,create an atmosphere of mystery and eeriness.They seem to speak truth, but they do it inriddles. This makes Macbeth and Banquobelieve that what they are saying is extremelyimportant and fateful. Macbeth never seems toconsider that at least some of the prophetic state-ments made were self-fulfilling, and so thewitches and their oxymoron become the veryvoice of fate.

The witches are not the only ones to speak incontradictions. The first words out of Macbeth’smouth in the play are, ‘‘So foul and fair a day Ihave not seen.’’ This indicates a divided natureand a sense of disorder about him that acts simul-taneously as oxymoron and foreshadowing.

Depiction of TimeShakespeare’s depiction of time is another cen-tral concern inMacbeth. Macbeth dislocates thepassage of time—a process fundamental tohumankind’s existence—when he succumbs toevil and murders Duncan. Shakespeare usesthis displacement as a key symbol in dramatizingthe steady disintegration of the hero’s world.Macbeth’s evil actions initially interrupt the nor-mal flow of time, but order gradually regains itsproper shape and overpowers the new king, asdemonstrated by his increasing guilt and sleep-lessness. Ironically, the witches can be seen as anelement that contributes to the restoration oforder. Although Macbeth disrupts the naturalcourse of events by acting on the witches’ earlyprophecies, their later predictions suggest thathis power will shortly end. This premonition isapparent in the Birnam wood revelation; whileMacbeth believes that the prediction insures hisinvulnerability, it really implies that his rule willsoon expire. Some critics observe that differentkinds of time interact in Macbeth. The mostapparent form of time can be described as chro-nological. Chronological time establishes thesense of physical passage in the play, focusingon the succession of events that can be measuredby clock and calendar, as well as the movementof the sun, moon, and stars.

Another aspect of time, identified as provi-dential, overarches the action of the entire play.Providential time is the divine ordering of eventsthat is initially displaced by Macbeth’s evil

actions, but which gradually overpowers himand re-establishes harmony in the world.Macbeth conceives of another kind of time thatseems to defy cause and effect when he unsuc-cessfully attempts to reconcile his anticipation ofthe future with the memory of his ignobleactions. This dilemma initiates a period of inac-tion in the protagonist’s life that culminates inhis resigned acceptance of death as the inexora-ble passage of time. This confused displacementof time pervades the action of Macbeth untilMalcolm and Macduff restore a proper sense oforder at the end of the play.

ImageryVarious image patterns support the sense of cor-ruption and deterioration that pervades the dra-matic action of Macbeth. Perhaps one of themost dominant groups of images is that of babiesand breast-feeding. Infants symbolize pitythroughout the play, and breast-milk representshumanity, tenderness, sympathy, and naturalhuman feelings, all of which have been debasedby Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s evil actions.Another set of images focuses on sickness andmedicine, all of which occur, significantly, in thelast three acts of the play, after Macbeth hasascended the Scottish throne. These patternsare given greater depth through Shakespeare’sgraphic depiction of blood in the tragedy. Thenumerous references to blood not only provideMacbeth’s ruthless actions with a visual dimen-sion, they also underscore Scotland’s degenera-tion after Macbeth murders Duncan and usurpsthe crown. Ironically, blood also symbolizes thepurifying process by which Malcolm andMacduff—the restorers of goodness—purge theweakened country of Macbeth’s villainy. Othermajor image patterns include sleep and sleepless-ness, order versus disorder, and the contrastbetween light and darkness.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Reign of King James IEngland’s James I (also James VI of Scotland)was born in 1566 in Edinburgh. At the end ofElizabeth’s reign in England, she had producedno heir. The ascension of her cousin James (theonly son of Mary, Queen of Scots) to the thronebrought much-needed dynastic stability to thethrone of England. James had been careful in

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his rule of Scotland not to do anything to jeop-ardize his claim to the English throne. He had aneye toward England, and Elizabeth’s chief min-ister, Robert Cecil, had corresponded withJames for two years before Elizabeth’s death.These letters prepared James for the dauntingtask of ruling England. Upon first taking thethrone in England, James’s insensitivity toEnglish ways made waves with Parliament, andthe English people found him a very disappoint-ing successor to Elizabeth. Where she had been agrand people-pleaser, James was frumpy andlacking in social graces or respect for tradition.James found that Elizabeth had left a sizeabledebt, but he only grew it over his first five years.Further, many people in England had highhopes that James would be able to solve thelong-standing problem of unity with Scotland.But James’s move to London kept him apartfrom his native Scotland, and the chasm betweenthe two nations remained. Still, James’s reign isremembered as one of peace and security thatbrought stability to the issue of religion,although political conflicts burdened his rule.

Shakespeare’s career was in full force fromElizabeth’s reign when James came to power,and James embraced the playwright as fully ashis predecessor had. Not only was Shakespeare afavorite of James, but it was he who gaveShakespeare’s company the title of King’s Men.Macbeth reflects James’s kingship and court inseveral ways. First, James descended from thehistorical Banquo, so Shakespeare’s inclusion ofBanquo as a sort of father of the English mon-archy is a nod to James’s heritage. Second, theapparition Macbeth sees of the procession ofkings includes, in the original stage directions,a king holding a mirror. This is interpreted bysome scholars to be a way of including England’scurrent king (James, who did not allow referen-ces in plays to living monarchs) at the time in thelineup. Third, the theme of kingship was one ofspecial interest to James, who was working outhis version of the theory of the divine right ofkings over their people and land. In 1598, he hadwritten a treatise titled Trew Law of FreeMonarchies. Fourth, James had a particularinterest in the power of witchcraft, an interestshared by many people in his day.

Shakespeare’s English TheaterA prolific writer of comedies, tragedies, and his-tories, Shakespeare is credited with authorship ofthirty-seven plays, many of which are frequently

performed in today’s theater. As a playwright,Shakespeare’s achievement is considered bymany to be unparalleled and his era is considereda pivotal time in Western literature. Historiansfrequently observe that Shakespeare’s arrival onthe London theater scene was well-timed. Thetheater was coming into its own as a seriousliterary venue, and plays were diverse in subjectmatter. The theaters in London were also well-attended and patronized. Shakespeare’s uniqueability to write about universal human experien-ces and truths brought depth and accessibility tohis dramas aswell as his comedies. By alsowritinghistories, he reinforced the popular interest innational, classical, and monarchical history,while paying homage to the monarchs on whosesupport he depended.

Shakespeare wrote during the reigns ofElizabeth and James, and he found differentpreferences between the two monarchs. Jaco-bean drama, in particular, tended to feature theroyal court and London, although King Jamesforbade overt references to living monarchs.Where Elizabethan drama had encouraged jus-tice-seekers, Jacobean drama was drawn topathetic, manipulated characters. Also commonin Jacobean drama were conniving women,which is certainly a prominent feature in Mac-beth.Macbeth also typifies Jacobean drama in itselements of violence, terror, and darkness. EvenJacobean comedy was often satiric and biting.Although Shakespeare may have been less pro-ductive under James’s patronage, many scholarsbelieve that his works in these years were morerefined and intense.

CRITICAL OVERVIEW

Not surprisingly, Macbeth has received volumesof critical commentary over the years. Not onlyis the play an audience favorite, but its complexcharacterization, deeply woven themes, andcharacteristic Shakespearean style make it richground for scholarly inquiry. Critics such asHarold Bloom have remarked on the importanceof Macbeth in the context of Shakespeare’sworks. In Shakespeare: The Invention of theHuman, Bloom writes, ‘‘The rough magic inMacbeth is wholly Shakespeare’s; he indulgeshis own imagination as never before, seeking tofind its moral limits (if any).’’ Bloom alsoremarks, ‘‘Macbeth is an uncanny unity of

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COMPARE&

CONTRAST

� 1000s: Scotland has a monarchy. During the1000s, three different dynasties ruled Scotland.

1600s: Scotland has a monarchy. During the1600s, the House of Stuart maintains author-ity on the throne.

Today: Scotland has its own parliament,established in 1998. This is the first timeScotland has had an independent parlia-ment since 1707, when the Scottish Parlia-ment and the English Parliament united intothe British Parliament under the Treaty ofthe Union.

� 1000s:Drama in the eleventh century is oftenreligious, and is born out of the tradition ofretelling biblical stories in Latin. But a trendtoward performing plays outdoors, in nativelanguages, and with secular subjects is grow-ing. Acting troupes rely on trade guilds tosponsor their productions. Mystery playsbecame popular; in these plays, the biblicalaccount of salvation was presented. Mysteryplays focused on Old Testament subjectssuch as the Fall or the prophets, or on NewTestament subjects such as Christ’s birth, oron Christ’s death and resurrection. Together,these were known as cycle dramas. Eventu-ally, these would become secularized to thepoint that the church raised seriousobjections.

1600s: London theater is thriving as theEnglish language is considered amajor vehiclefor literary expression. By combining Englishinterests and culture with conventions ofclassical drama, the English theater is full ofpotential. Besides portraying stories aboutrelationships, history, and politics, the Lon-don theater has become a vital instrument inthe passionate religious debates of the day.

Today: Theater must compete with televisionand film for audience interest. Althoughmanytheaters still attract large audiences, the mostpopular plays tend to be well-known plays ormusicals, or those by already-established play-wrights. While there is room in the theater

world for experimental and modern drama,audiences for these types of plays tend to beniche theater-goers.

� 1000s: With respect to marriage in commonhouseholds, keeping up the home is the prior-ity for families. In the earlyMiddle Ages, onlythe eldest sons marry, so that the others canstay and help the family. Men perform thelabor necessary to work a farm or bring inincome, while the women perform domesticduties. Men are considered the leaders of thehome, and they generally exercise authorityover money and other major decisions.

1600s: It is common for families to arrangemarriages, and they can be arranged whilethe bride and groom are young teenagers.The parents make these deals with oneanother to try to improve the social or finan-cial standing of their families. Gender rolesinmarriage remain traditional, with themanworking to support his family and thewoman overseeing domestic responsibilities.Women possess no political power (with theobvious exception of monarchs) and theyare not empowered to own land. Submissionto their husbands is important for the familyto run smoothly and for the family to berespected in society.

Today: Not just in England, but throughouttheWesternworld, gender roles inmarriage aremore fluid than ever. Men and women decidewhether they will both work, and if not, whichwill stay home. Men and women share anabundance of work opportunities, based ontheir education and experience rather than gen-der. This givesmarried couples a greater degreeof flexibility than in the past to make decisionsabout how their work will factor into theirmarriage. At home, gender roles are no longerassigned or assumed. Either the husband or thewife may perform domestic duties, manage thefamily finances, or make social plans. Thenorm is for the couple tomakemajor decisionstogether in equal partnership.

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setting, plot, and characters, fused together

beyond comparison with any other play of

Shakespeare’s.’’ Bloom is not alone in his admi-

ration for this enduring play. In his article ‘‘Mac-

beth: The Pattern of Idea and Action’’ for

Shakespeare Quarterly, Irving Ribner states,

‘‘Macbeth is a closely knit, unified construction,

every element of which is designed to support an

intellectual statement, to which action, charac-

ter, and poetry all contribute.’’

Critics continue to debate the characteriza-tion of Macbeth as a tragic hero. There is no

consensus as to whether Macbeth is technically

tragic or whether he is to be considered a hero. In

drama, a tragedy traditionally recounts the sig-

nificant events or actions in a protagonist’s life

which, taken together, bring about the catastro-

phe. Classical rules of tragedy also require that

the hero’s ruin evokes pity and fear in the audi-

ence. Some critics assert that since Macbeth’s

actions throughout the play are inherently evil,

he gets what he deserves in the end and therefore

his downfall is not catastrophic in a tragic sense.

Critic Mary McCarthy takes the position that

Macbeth is actually an average manwho is easily

duped by superstition and the will of others. In

‘‘The Writing on the Wall and Other Literary

Essays,’’ McCarthy describes Macbeth as gulli-

ble because he never question the witches’ pre-

dictions. Knowing that they are witches, he still

does not consider that they may be trying to

confuse and mislead him. She writes, ‘‘Macbeth

is not clever; he is taken in by surfaces, by

appearance. He cannot think beyond the usual

course of things.’’ Although he is bold and takes

initiative in battle, at home he is submissive to

the will of his wife. This facet of his personality,

however, compels other commentators to argue

that his feelings of guilt, combined with the coer-

cion of the witches and his wife, generate pity

and fear among readers and spectators at his

ruin, a feeling identified in classical tragedy as

catharsis. In College English, J. Lyndon Shanley

contributes an article titled, ‘‘Macbeth: The

Tragedy of Evil.’’ In this essay, Shanley writes

that Macbeth’s downfall is caused by his deci-

sion to sin willingly and knowingly. He adds:

Macbeth is terrified by the warnings of his

conscience, but he cannot surrender. That he

acts with full knowledge of the evil only

increases the pity and fear aroused by his

deed. For this knowledge causes much of his

suffering; it makes his condition far worse than

it would have been had he acted with less than

complete knowledge.

Shanley is not the only critic to find some-thing sympathetic in Macbeth, despite his ruth-less and violent ways. In his article ‘‘Macbeth asTragic Hero,’’ Wayne C. Booth claims thatMacbeth’s failing was less about having deplor-able character and moral fiber, and more aboutlack of perception. He maintains that Macbethdoes not understand the external forces workingso hard to manipulate him (namely, the witchesand Lady Macbeth); he does not understand thedistinction between killing on a battlefield andkilling in civilian life; and ‘‘he does not under-stand his own character—he does not knowwhat will be the effects of the evil act on hisown future happiness.’’

Still, there is a difference between pitying acharacter and relating to him. Bloom maintainsthat readers and audience members have diffi-culty not relating to Macbeth. He answers thequestion of why this is so by explaining thatMacbeth ‘‘so dominates [Shakespeare’s] playthat we have nowhere else to turn.’’ As evidence,he notes how, although she is a strong character,Lady Macbeth is onstage very little; and readersdo not have the chance to get to know othercharacters, such as Duncan, Malcolm, Banquo,and Macduff very well.

Although the minor characters appear onlybriefly (usually because they are murdered) andtheir personas are not fully developed, readersand critics are drawn to them. Duncan, forexample, is held up as an example of a goodking in contrast to Macbeth’s figure as a badking. Van Doren remarks, ‘‘Duncan was every-thing that Macbeth is not. We saw him briefly,but the brilliance of his contrast with the thanehe trusted has kept his memory beautifulthroughout a play whose every other featurehas been hideous.’’ Similarly, Lady Macduffand her son appear fleetingly, but their fateevokes the pity of the audience and rousesmore indignation toward Macbeth.

A substantial body of criticism addressesLady Macbeth. Her importance in the play andher position as a dominant woman in Westernliterature have prompted lengthy discussion andcharacter evaluation. Ribner juxtaposes LadyMacbeth with Banquo in her role in Macbeth’spsychological makeup. He maintains that whileBanquo represents the part ofMacbeth’s dividednature that would ‘‘accept nature and reject

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evil,’’ Lady Macbeth represents the other side.Numerous critics believe that left to his owndevices, Macbeth would not have murderedDuncan and set into motion the tragic events ofthe play. Shanley explains that Lady Macbeth‘‘could sway him because she understood himand loved him, and because he loved her anddepended on her love and good thoughts ofhim.’’ While most commentary centers on thesheer strength and determination of LadyMacbeth, there are critics who find her lesspowerful than she seems, and even less powerfulthan her husband. Mark van Doren in Shake-speare asserts:

When the crisis comes she will break sooner

than her husband does, but her brittleness

then will mean the same thing that her melo-

drama means now: she is a slighter person than

Macbeth, has a poorer imagination, and holds

in her mind less of that power which enables it

to stand up under torture.

Aligned with LadyMacbeth are the witches,who are also female figures who seem in controlof themselves and of Macbeth. He is easilymanipulated by them, intellectually and emo-tionally. Critics often note that the witches andLady Macbeth work in tandem (although notintentionally) to undo Macbeth. Commentingon the witches’ influence on Macbeth’s will,Bloom explains, ‘‘Between what Macbeth imag-ines and what he does, there is only a temporalgap, in which he himself seems devoid of will.The Weird Sisters, Macbeth’s Muses, take theplace of that will.’’ In her article ‘‘‘Born ofWoman’: Fantasies of Maternal Power inMacbeth,’’ Janet Adelman describes the dualinfluence of the witches and Lady Macbeth.She writes, ‘‘Lady Macbeth brings the witches’power home: they get the cosmic apparatus, shegets the psychic force.’’

The themes in Macbeth, including evil, guiltand conscience, ambition, time, and the super-natural have garnered a great deal of criticalattention. In his article for ShakespeareQuarterly, Ribner explores the theme of evil indepth. He boldly writes:

Macbeth is in many ways Shakespeare’s matur-

est and most daring experiment in tragedy, for

in this play he set himself to describe the oper-

ation of evil in all its manifestations: to define

its very nature, to depict its seduction of man,

and to show its effect upon all the planes of

creation once it has been unleashed by one

man’s sinful moral choice.

Ribner applauds Shakespeare’s use of bloodimagery and darkness to reinforce his theme ofevil, and he notes thatMacbeth carries out evil inevery aspect of his life. His personal relation-ships are destroyed by evil, as is his self-perception. An because he sought only thepower of the crown and not the responsibilities,he invited evil into Scotland. Ribner explains,‘‘On the level of the state Macbeth unleashesthe greatest evils of which Shakespeare’s audi-ence could conceive, tyranny, civil war, and aninvading foreign army.’’

One of the more subtle themes runningthrough Macbeth is time. The introduction ofprophecy and the rush to fulfill it makes timeseem to Macbeth and his wife something thatcan be controlled and manipulated by temporalbeings. They see in the present signs of thefuture, and they look to the past for the samereason. Perhaps because of its subtlety, scholarsoften find the theme of time extremely pervasiveand influential. Bloom comments, ‘‘What noto-riously dominates this play, more than any otherin Shakespeare, is time, time that is not theChristian mercy of eternity, but devouringtime, death nihilistically regarded as finality.’’Tom F. Driver in The Sense of History in Greekand Shakespearean Drama states plainly, ‘‘Muchas he would like, Macbeth cannot separate thepresent from the past and the future. By the actof murder he has made his own history, and therest of the play is the account of the fulfillment ofthat history, ultimately self-defeating.’’

Few playwrights have demonstrated thekind of enduring popularity as Shakespearehas. As for Macbeth, its relevance is still upheldby scholars, students, professors, readers, andaudience members. To some, the play’s rele-vance is topical. In The Penguin New Writing,contributor Stephen Spender points to Macbethas an obvious choice when seeking Shakespear-ean drama relevant to today’s world. Heexplains, for example, ‘‘It is impossible to readthe lines beginning, ‘Our country sinks beneaththe yoke; it weeps, it bleeds’ [act 4, scene 3, lines38–39], without thinking of half a dozen coun-tries under the yoke of a tyrant.’’ AlthoughSpender’s comment wasmade in 1941, the obser-vation is equally true today. To others,Macbethendures for its universal appeal to the humanspirit, even at its darkest. As Bloom suggests,‘‘We are to journey inward to Macbeth’s heartof darkness, and there we will find ourselves

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more truly and more strange, murderers in andof the spirit.’’ Ribner suggests a more positive, ifsurprising, reading of Macbeth when he pointsout that Macbeth’s ultimate downfall is theresult of his own choices. He concludes, ‘‘Wemay thus, viewing the play in its totality, seegood, through divine grace, inevitably emergingfrom evil and triumphant at the play’s end with apromise of rebirth.’’

CRITICISM

Mary Ives Thompson and FrancescoAristide AnconaThompson and Ancona analyze how the charac-ters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth undergo suchdramatic transformations from the beginning ofthe play to the end. The critics contend that thesetransformations are rooted in the issue of genderroles, and specifically in the characters’ desire toescape from the rigidly defined roles that societyhas created for them.

In Macbeth, both the title character andLady Macbeth undergo a role reversal of sortsby the end of the play. In aworldwhere fair is souland the natural order is completely subverted,Macbeth becomes completely confident in hisgrab for power, while Lady Macbeth wandersthe castle corridors at night bemoaning herunclean hands following the murder of Duncanand his guards. The question, then, is why thesetwo characters change so much in their attitudesin the relatively short space of the drama. Whatcould cause Macbeth, referred to by his own wifeas ‘‘too full o’ themilk of humankindness to catchthe nearest way’’ (1.5.17–18), to become com-pletely remorseless in his bid for the crown, evento the point at which he eliminates not only hiscompetitors for the throne but their progeny aswell? And why has Lady Macbeth, who was sobent on ambition and power in the opening actsthat she begged whatever spirits might be listen-ing to ‘‘unsex me here / and fill me from the crownto the toe top-full / of direst cruelty!’’ (1.5.41–43),become a guilt-ridden somnambulist?

Clearly, this role reversal revolves aroundthe question of gender, specifically, the attemptto break out of rigidly defined roles for whichpersons might be unsuited. Lady Macbeth hasseveral problems, the most notable of which areas follows: She is intelligent, she craves power,she is strong enough to determine what action

she must take to achieve her goals, and she iswilling to turn to unsavory means to achieve herends. Oh, yes, and she happens to be a femaleliving in medieval Scotland. In short, LadyMacbeth’s dramatic role reversal and subse-quent demise at her own hand can be tracedback to one source: her own desire for somesort of power and the attempted overthrow oraltering of the patriarchal order of her societythat dictates a passive role for which she wascompletely unsuited.

Tellingly, Macbeth opens with an initial actand scene populated entirely by female charac-ters, the only Shakespeare play to do so.Immediately, by the very presence of the weirdsisters, the audience is given to understand some-thing unnatural is afoot. While clearly women,the witches display androgynous characteristics,leading Macbeth and Banquo to question theirgender: ‘‘You should be women, / And yet yourbeards forbid me to interpret / That you are so’’(1.3.53–47). The difficulty of gender character-ization and the attempt on the part of the malecharacters to neatly file other people into a clear,gender-specific role (the witches should bewomen) foreshadows Lady Macbeth’s plea twoscenes later—she too wishes for sex to be takenaway or at least fundamentally changed, so shewill not display the weaknesses inherent in allfemales: compassion and tender-heartedness.The reason for her desire for this change is appa-rent when the audience beholds her ambition.Macbeth refers to her as his ‘‘dearest partner ofgreatness’’ (1.5.11), something unheard of in thepaternalistic and bloodyminded society in whichshe lives. How else can Lady Macbeth hope tolive up to the faith that Macbeth has placed inher unless she rids herself of her female imper-fections of kindness and mercy? In a society thatrewards bloody murder if done in the service of

A CLEARLY INTELLIGENT AND AMBITIOUS

WOMAN, LADY MACBETH’S ROLE IS COMPLETELY

DETERMINED BY HER HUSBAND’S. WITHOUT EVEN A

NAME OF HER OWN, THE ONLY WAY SHE CAN ACHIEVE

POWER IS IF HER HUSBAND FIRST ATTAINS IT.’’

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the state (three scenes earlier, the captain isheard praising Macbeth for dispatching the trai-torous Macdonwald when he ‘‘unseamed himfrom the nave to the chops / And fixed his headupon our battlements’’ (1.2.22–23)), how can amere woman hope to achieve any power if notthrough her husband? And if that husband is tooplagued by conscience or kindness to commitmurder without cause, how can Lady Macbethnot pray to have her feminity revoked, so shemay be the one to do the deed herself?

The only way for a man to be successful inMacbeth’s world is to take arms and end the lifeof another. Macbeth’s early success against thetraitorous Macdonwald paves the way for otherbloody acts that will allow him to gain greaterglory and fame. At first unsure of his coursetoward what he views as greatness, he progressesnevertheless toward his destiny. The speech inwhich he speaks of his hallucination of thebloody dagger indicates the only tools of hiscreativity: an unsheathed weapon, first clean

and then covered with blood and gore. Whilemost characters in the play cling to this warlikeand vengeful ideal of the masculine, one charac-ter displays what more modern readers mightdetermine to be a ‘‘real man,’’ one who exempli-fies the often conflicting characteristics of phys-ical strength and emotional depth. WhenMacduff discovers his wife and children areslaughtered, he is understandably moved. Mal-colm, however, advises him to ‘‘Dispute it like aman’’ (4.3.221), or take up arms against Mac-beth and bring him down. In this masculineworld, the only acceptable reaction to treacheryand murder is vengeance. Macduff acknowl-edges action is important and that he will soonseek revenge, but emotions also must play a role:

I shall do so;But I must also feel it as a man.I cannot but remember such things were,That were most precious to me.

This brief interlude into acknowledgmentand even valuing of emotion is short lived, forin the next few lines Macduff ‘‘pulls himselftogether’’ and steels himself for what he mustdo as a man:

Oh, I could play the woman with mineeyes

And braggart with my tongue! But, gentleheavens,

Cut short this intermission. Front to frontBring thou this fiend of Scotland and

myself;Within my sword’s length set him.

The only male character willing to recognizehis ‘‘feminine side’’ is quickly pulled back intothe world of brutality and vengeance, and it is inthis world and against this backdrop of violenttendencies that Lady Macbeth exists.

A clearly intelligent and ambitious woman,Lady Macbeth’s role is completely determinedby her husband’s. Without even a name of herown, the only way she can achieve power is if herhusband first attains it. Only with Macbeth asking can LadyMacbeth be queen. How frustrat-ing it must be for such a strong woman to beforced to rely on such a weak vessel! Followingthe lead of all the successful males of whom sheknows, Lady Macbeth plans a quick successionto the throne for her husband and taunts himinto participation with what she views as his ownweakness and lightness of affection towards her.WhenMacbeth’s conscience torments him to the

Brid Brennan as Lady Macbeth in Act V, sceneI, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, 1996(� Donald Cooper/Photostage. Reproduced by permission)

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point at which he decides he cannot go throughwith the planned murder, she responds:

. . . Was the hope drunkWherein you dressed yourself?. Hath it slept

since?And wakes it now, to look so green and paleAt what it did so freely? From this timeSuch I account thy love.(1.7.36–40)

This response to her husband’s qualmsmakes her seem cruel and manipulative, a shrewwhomust use her sexuality to twist her husband’slove to her own selfish ends, and to a certainextent this is true. On the other hand, whatother options were available to her? If she wantedpower for her husband (and, by extension, forherself) she must force Macbeth back on thebloody path to regicide. And when Macbethresponds he cannot kill Duncan because, ‘‘I daredo all that may become a man; / Who dares domore is none,’’ (1.7.46–48) Lady Macbeth rightlypoints out what manly behavior means in herexperience:

. . . What beast was’t, then,That made you break this enterprise to me?When you durst do it, then you were a man;And, to be more than what you were, you

wouldBe so much more the man.

The idea for the murder was her hus-band’s—Lady Macbeth has simply determineda practical course of action to help fulfill theweird sisters’ prophecy and now that the timefor completion is nearing, Macbeth is havingpangs of conscience that are disrupting thescheme. How intolerably infuriating this mustbe to the ‘‘dearest partner of greatness,’’ to seeeverything she had been allowed to hope forslipping away through the perceived weaknessof one man!

In one sense, Lady Macbeth fulfills her roleas helpmate of her husband, although in anadmittedly gruesome fashion. She attends herhusband at the murder, eggs him on, and com-pletes the task of incriminating the grooms bysmearing them with blood, all of which is com-pletely outside the guidelines of acceptablefemale behavior but is done to assist her hus-band. Had she been a stereotypical Scottish wifeof the period, she would have known nothing ofher husband’s business dealings and would havebeen content to wait for Macbeth to bring homeguests for her to entertain. Instead, when

Duncan is admitted to her home, she plans andparticipates in the murder, and she shows muchself-awareness of prospective guild as she doesso, informing Macbeth, ‘‘These deeds must notbe thought / After these ways; so, it will make usmad’’ (2.2.37–38). The realization of wrong-doing is upon her; nevertheless, she knows thather own mind might turn on her if she dwells tooheavily on what she has done. Macbeth’s mindalready displays somemisgivings, but as the playprogresses, he will follow the second counsel ofthe witches and rush headlong toward his doomin the surety of his invincibility. The strongfemale in this case is the one whose mentalcapacities will degrade as the drama moves toits end, since the idea of a thinking woman in aposition of power was still viewed as unnaturaland could not be allowed. It would not be pos-sible to have Macbeth killed and Lady Macbethleft alive—what would the male-governed soci-ety do with her? Would Malcolm or any of theothers hold her guilty for her actions? Could theyeven conceive of the idea of a woman so filledwith cunning and treachery? After all, Macduffspeaks of Malcolm’s mother in 4.3 as an idealwoman who was ‘‘Oft’ner upon her knees thanon her feet.’’ (111) In this society, all women arefit to do is watch, wait, and pray. WouldMalcolm have been able to execute a woman,even one he knows to be a ‘‘fiendlike queen’’?No, leaving Lady Macbeth alive and having thequestion of punishment appropriate for a femalewould have been a loose end in an otherwisetight drama, and so Lady Macbeth must punishand quietly remove herself from the reach ofmale justice by taking her own life. She operatescompletely in her own sphere, untouched byinteraction with any character other than herhusband. Even in her dealings with him, LadyMacbeth is the stronger of the two, taking thelead and pushing for her goals. Only in her sleepdoes her femininity of her conscience have freereign, and even then the physician recognizes sheis the only one who can minister to herself.Throughout the drama, no man can truly assistLady Macbeth.

Perhaps this isolation occurs because,through much of the play, Lady Macbeth isviewed as an outsider even by herself. The lawsof nature do not apply to her in the same waythey do to everyone else in the play. When thegrooms are lulled to sleep by alcohol, Lady Mnotes, ‘‘That which hath made them drunk hathmade me bold; / What hath quenched them that

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given me fire’’ (2.2.1–2). Even strong drink actsdifferently in her system, making her appear anaberration indeed. When Macbeth realizes theextent of his villainy immediately after Duncan’smurder and begins to fear he hears knocking,Lady Macbeth responds to his qualms:

My hands are of your color, but I shameTo wear a heart so white. (Knock.) I hear a

knockingAt the south entry. Retire we to our chamber.A little water clears us of this deed.How easy is it, then! Your constancyHath left you unattended.

Lady Macbeth hears the same sounds asMacbeth, but they raise no feelings of guilt orpanic; rather, they bring out her practical nature,and she supports her husband as he falters in hispurpose. She will continue fulfilling at lease onerole of the attentive wife andwill be atMacbeth’sside to assist him when his hallucinations wor-sen, and he sees the ghost of Banquo. It is LadyMacbeth who again subverts the natural orderby allowing all the guests to leave the chamberquickly and without regard for rank as shedirects them to, ‘‘Stand not upon the order ofyour going, / But go at once.’’’ (3.4.120–121)Attempting to function in male society whilestill outwardly appearing to be a dutiful wife,she throws aside the masculine rules of order,perhaps out of ignorance or perhaps out ofdesperation.

None of this is meant to excuse the repre-hensible actions of either character, however. Itis merely an explanation of why one womancould act with such a stony heard and dauntlesspurpose to kill an old man of whom she wasadmittedly fond. (Indeed, the only reason LadyMacbeth cannot bring herself to kill Duncanwhen Macbeth falters is Duncan’s passingresemblance to her own father. The primitiveban against patricide still exists in her psyche,even if regicide is an acceptable course of actionin her desperation and ambition.) BothMacbethand LadyMacbeth are acting in unnatural ways,or at least in ways in which a perversion of the‘‘might makes right’’ principle is in play. Theyhave departed from violence in service of theState and moved to violence for personal gain,something which the playwright has a duty tocondemn. The messages of the drama resonates:Unnatural behavior on the part of both sexescan only lead to calamity as Nature itself rebelsand rises up to restore accepted order. In this,

one of the only Shakespeare plays in which theprotagonist can be classified as evil rather thansimply flawed, Shakespeare seems to be indicat-ing that a woman as unnatural as LadyMacbethcannot be allowed to live or flourish. The onlyacceptable outcome for this rebel against her sexis for her to take her own life.

LadyMacbeth is not the first unruly womanin the drama to be constrained or returned to heracceptable role. We see the three witches haveoverstepped their bounds when Hecate appearsin 3.5 and chides them for their support ofMacbeth, ‘‘ . . . a wayward son, / Spiteful andwrathful, who, as others do, / Loves for hisown ends, not for you’’ (11–13). Even the witcheshave an established hierarchy, and their prophe-cies can only be used for the benefit of an accept-able subject. Macbeth is not a good choice forthe hearing of the prophecy, and the three sistersmust now restore the balance they had dis-turbed. Their last prophecy to Macbeth, ofcourse, leads him to the false sense of securitywhen he believes he can never be harmed. Whenhe listens to and heeds this prophecy, he andLady Macbeth begin to switch roles in thedrama. He becomes completely blind to anydanger to himself, and Lady Macbeth changesfrom a murderer who philosophically states,‘‘Things without all remedy / Should be withoutregard. What’s done is done’’ (3.2.13–14) to adisturbed sleepwalker who paces futilely everynight in search of enough water to cleanse her ofher sins. Macbeth is stepping up to the role hewanted but was afraid to kill for, and LadyMacbeth’s strength is no longer needed. A dis-placed person, she has no further role in thesupport of her husband and will revert to themore traditional feminine role. As he becomesstronger, she weakens, for two such blindlydriven characters are not needed to rule.Finally, with her suicide, she removes herselffrom the stage completely, leaving her husbandnot to mourn her passing but to simply com-ment, ‘‘She should have died hereafter.’’

Lady M’s downfall comes more quicklythan Macbeth’s, for she has rebelled moreagainst her femininity than he has against hismasculinity. Macbeth has taken society’s appro-val of state-sanctioned murder too far, to theextent of killing and supplanting the head ofstate, but his behavior is an extension of appro-priate masculine action for his military-mindedworld. Lady Macbeth, however, has stepped

M a c b e t h


completely outside the bounds of femininity and

must be punished, even if it is by her own hand.

More self-aware than Macbeth to the end, she

does not wait for anyone else to end her unnatu-

ral existence—she does it willingly to herself,

quietly and offstage. Macbeth, on the other

hand, determines not to surrender and not to

fall upon his sword, for at the end his overconfi-

dence blinds him to any possible danger, and he

only completely understands his own doom

WHATDO I READ

NEXT?

� Clarence Valentine Boyer’s chapter onMacbeth in The Villain as Tragic Hero inElizabethan Tragedy (1914; reprint, 1964)presents a detailed examination of Mac-beth’s character, tracing the developmentof his thought throughout the play’s action.

� Edited by John Russell Brown, 1982’s Focuson ‘‘Macbeth’’ contains eleven essays on theplay by prominent critics. The subjects ofthese essays range from thematic concernsand language to theatrical considerations ofthe play.

� Herbert R. Coursen provides a reliable andinformative guide toMacbeth inMacbeth: AGuide to the Play (1997). Chapters cover thebackground of the play, general thematicconsiderations, and comments on variousproductions.

� In James I and the Politics of Literature:Jonson, Shakespeare, Donne, and Their Con-temporaries (1990), Jonathan Goldberg pro-vides important historical and culturalinformation about the context in whichShakespeare and his peers (and rivals)penned classic and enduring works ofliterature.

� AnthonyHolden’s 2002 book,WilliamShake-speare:An IllustratedBiography, offers readersan honest attempt to present the facts ofShakespeare’s life, separate from the legendsthat surround the playwright. The book isbrought to life by the inclusion of illustrationsand ephemera related to the Bard’s life.

� In Stratford Papers on Shakespeare (1963),editor B.W. Jackson demonstrates the over-all intensity of Macbeth, which is chiefly

apparent in its language and imagery.Foakes argues that the drama’s simplicityof action and character belies the fact thatShakespeare was attempting to develop anew kind of tragedy distinct from Hamlet,King Lear, and Othello.

� In a chapter about Macbeth in ArnoldKettle’s 1964 work, Shakespeare in aChanging World, J. K Walton analyzesMacbeth’s individualism and associates itwith the play’s imagery of isolation and ster-ility. Walton also notes that opposed to thisindividualism is a combination of forces thatchallenge Macbeth; he states that the play’soptimism is partly suggested by ‘‘the factthat a unified people overcome the tyrant.’’

� L. C. Knights provides a general overview ofMacbeth’s major themes and images inSome Shakespearean Themes (1959), notingthat ‘‘the essential structure ofMacbeth . . . isto be sought in the poetry.’’

� Editor Edwin Quinn analyzes the world ofMacbeth in 1978’sHow to Read Shakespear-ean Tragedy. He divides Shakespeare’sworld into four parts: the physical, the psy-chological, the political, and the moral.Leary considers each of these aspects sepa-rately, but maintains that they are ‘‘all partsof a unified whole.’’

� In an article for Shakespeare Quarterly,(October 1953) titled ‘‘The Unity of Mac-beth,’’ Brent Stirling proposes that the poeticand dramatic structures of Macbeth are uni-fied in four traditionally Elizabethan themes:darkness, sleep, raptness, and contradiction.

M a c b e t h


when nature itself, in the form of a mobileBirnam Wood, and another man outside ofnature yet willing to restore order, Macduff,takes his life away from him.

Of final interest in this commentary on gen-der psyche in the drama, one last area of symbol-ism exists and is particularly important in thecontext of Lady Macbeth’s suicide. If nature ispersonified as a female presence, it is interestingto note the male use of the feminine boughs oftheWood as a shield until subterfuge is no longerneeded, at which time nature is cast away andsteel swords again become the most importantimplements. Likewise, Macduff was once shel-tered by a woman who was later discarded asunnecessary in the birth process—after all,‘‘Macduff was from his mother’s womb untimelyripped.’’ (5.8.16) Even the witches who openedthe play are displaced, and it is a male figure whowill offer the final words to sum up the moraland message of the work. The drama ends withthe natural (and, what else? patriarchal) order ofsociety and rank being restored, as is evidencedbyMalcolm’s final statement, ‘‘ . . . what needfulelse / we will perform in measure, time, andplace’’ (5.8.73–73). However, try as Malcolmmight, the audience knows that his reign willend with or shortly after his own death, foraccording to the prophecy it is the murderedBanquo whose children will gain the throne. Ifthe weird sisters’ prophecy is correct, how longcan it be until nature is again in upheaval? WhileShakespeare himself must stress the return of thegenders to their rightful places, it seems only amatter of time until the feminine intrudes onceagain in this masculine world, no matter howcarefully kings attempt to structure their legacy.

Source: Mary Ives Thompson and Francesco Aristide

Ancona, ‘‘He Says/She Says: Shakespeare’s Macbeth (a

Gender/Personality Study),’’ in Journal of Evolutionary

Psychology, Vol. 27, No. 3–4, October 2005, pp. 59–69.

Kenneth MuirMuir analyzes various image patterns in Mac-beth. The first pattern the critic examines is thatof babies and breast-feeding. According to Muir,infants symbolize pity throughout the play, andbreast-milk represents ‘‘humanity, tenderness,sympathy, natural human feelings, [and] thesense of kinship, all of which have been outragedby the murderers.’’ Another group of imagesfocuses on sickness and medicine, all of whichoccur, significantly, in the last three acts of theplay, after Macbeth has ascended the throne.

Images of sickness, the critic contends, signifythe ‘‘disease of tyranny’’ which has infectedScotland, and which can only be cured by ‘‘bleed-ing or purgation.’’ Muir also observes a contrastbetween the powers of light and darkness inMacbeth. Darkness pervades all the action inMacbeth’s world, whereas light manifest itself inthe scenes in England and those in which Malcolmand Macduff restore order at the end of the play.Other dualities related to the light/dark motifinclude contrasts between angel and devil, heavenand hell, and truth and falsehood.

THEMURDER OF A SLEEPING GUEST, THE

MURDER OF A SLEEPING KING, THEMURDER OF A

SAINTLY OLDMAN, THEMURDER, AS ITWERE, OF SLEEP

ITSELF, CARRIES WITH IT THE APPROPRIATE

RETRIBUTION OF INSOMNIA.’’

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Lady Macbeth, Macbeth, and Banquo’s Ghost, Act III, scene iv

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M a c b e t h


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Source:KennethMuir, ‘‘Image and Symbol inMacbeth,’’

in Shakespeare Survey: An Annual Survey of Shakesperian

Study and Production, Cambridge University Press,

Vol. 19, 1966, pp. 45–54.

J. Lyndon ShanleyShanley considers the tragic context of Macbeth’sevil actions in an attempt to determine whether ornot his downfall warrants sympathy or arouses

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fear at the end of the play. The critic maintainsthat Macbeth has a fundamentally different expe-rience from Shakespeare’s other great tragic her-oes: he does not achieve a great recovery in the endbecause his actions throughout the play were igno-ble. Shanley suggests, however, that Macbeth’send is perhaps more tragic than that of the otherheroes because he ultimately loses himself to adegree that none of them does. According to thecritic, our pity for Macbeth might therefore lie inthe fact that by declaring that life signifies noth-ing, he acknowledges ‘‘the almost completedestruction of the human spirit.’’ Shanley alsoobserves that our ability to pass judgment on thehero’s ruin is further complicated by severalfactors.

Nowhere can we see the essential humanityof Shakespeare more clearly than inMacbeth, ashe shows that the darkest evil may well behuman, and so, though horrible, understandablein terms of our own lives and therefore pitiableand terrible. Yet nowhere apparently are we solikely to miss the center of Shakespeare’s view ofthe action; forMacbeth, while less complex thanShakespeare’s other major tragedies, frequentlyraises the crucial question: Is Macbeth’s fallreally tragic?

Many who are deeply moved by the actionof the play cannot satisfactorily explain theirfeelings. The doctrine of Tout comprendre, c’esttout pardonner [if all is understood then all ispardoned] leads them to think (most of thetime) that there is no guilt, that there should beno punishment. When faced with unpardonableevil and inescapable punishment for the guilty,and when moved at the same time to pity andfear by the suffering of the evil-doer, they areconfused. Since they confound the understand-ing of an act with the excusing of it, they areprevented from understanding acts (and theirreactions to them) for which excuse is impossi-ble. Some, of course, find an excuse for Macbethin the witches. But those who do not see him asthe victim of agents of destiny appear to wonderif they have not been tricked into sympathy byShakespeare’s art. How, they ask, in view ofMacbeth’s monstrous career and sorry end, sodifferent from those of Hamlet, Lear, or Othello,how can his fortunes win our pity and arouse ourfear?

Macbeth is defeated as is no other ofShakespeare’s great tragic figures. No pity andreverent awe attend his death. Dying off-stage, he

is, as it were, shuffled off, in keeping with hisdreadful state and the desire of all in his worldto be rid of him. The sight of his ‘‘cursed head’’ isthe signal for glad hailing of Malcolm as king; allthought of him is dismissed with ‘‘this deadbutcher and his fiend-like queen’’ [V. ix. 35]. Thephrase is dramatically fitting, but it does notexpress the whole truth that Shakespeare showsus of Macbeth’s story. Seldom do we feel sostrongly both the justice of the judgment and theretribution and at the same time pity for him onwhom they fall; for behind this last scene lies therevelation of Macbeth’s almost total destruction.

Hamlet, Lear, and Othello lose much that iswonderful in human life; their fortunes are sadand terrible. So near, their stories seem to say, isman’s enjoyment of the world’s best gifts—andyet so far, because his own errors and weaknessleave him unable to control his world. To loseHamlet’s delight in man and his powers, and theglory of life; to have Cordelia’s love and tendercare snatched away, after such suffering asLear’s; or to have thrown away the jewel ofone’s life as did Othello—this is painful. Buttheir fortunes might have been worse. At onetime they were: when the losers thought thatwhat they had served and believed in were mereshows that made a mockery of their noblest love;when life and all their efforts seemed to havebeen utterly without meaning.

But before the end they learned that theirlove had value and that life hadmeaning. On thisknowledge depends the twofold effect of theheroes’ deaths: death at once seals, withouthope of restitution, the loss of the world and itsgifts, but at the same time it brings relief from thepain of loss. Furthermore, this knowledgerestores the courage and nobility of soul that

MACBETH IS DEFEATED AS IS NO OTHER OF

SHAKESPEARE’S GREAT TRAGIC FIGURES. NO PITY AND

REVERENT AWE ATTEND HIS DEATH. DYING OFF-STAGE,

HE IS, AS ITWERE, SHUFFLED OFF, IN KEEPINGWITH HIS

DREADFUL STATE AND THE DESIRE OF ALL IN HIS

WORLD TO BE RID OF HIM.’’

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raise them far above their enemies and the ruinsof their world. Without this knowledge, Hamletand Lear and Othello were far less than them-selves, and life but a fevered madness. With it,there is tragedy but not defeat, for the value ofwhat is best in them is confirmed beyondquestion.

But in the end of Macbeth we have some-thing fundamentally different. Macbeth’s spirit,as well as his world, is all but destroyed; no greatrecovery is possible for him. He does not, for hecannot, see that what he sought and valued mostwas good and worthy of his efforts. He is awarethat he has missed much; shortly before LadyMacbeth dies, he broods over the ‘‘honour, love,obedience, troops of friends’’ [V. iii. 25] he haslost and cannot hope to regain. But this knowl-edge wins no ease for his heart. It does not raisehim above the conditions that have ruined him.Macbeth, it is true, is no longer tortured as heonce was, but freedom from torture has led onlyto the peace of despair in which he looks at lifeand denounces it as ‘‘a tale told by an idiot’’ [V. v.26–7].

Bitter as life was for Hamlet, Lear, andOthello, it was not empty. But all Macbeth’sefforts, all his hopes and dreams were in vain,because of the way he went; and when he discov-ers that they were, he concludes that nothing canbe realized in life. Hence his terrible indictmentof life—terrible because it reveals him to be allbut hopelessly lost in the world of Shakespereantragedy, as he desperately and ironically blas-phemes against a basic tenet of that world, tothe truth of which his own state bears over-whelming evidence: that man’s life signifieseverything.

It is the despair and irony in this blasphemythatmakesMacbeth’s lot so awful and pitiful.Wesee the paralyzing, the almost complete destruc-tion of a human spirit. The threat of hostile actiongalvanizes Macbeth into action to protect him-self, but the action is little more than an instinc-tive move toward self-preservation and the lastgesture of despair.

He has not even the bitter satisfaction ofrebelling and saying, ‘‘As flies to wanton boys,are we to the gods’’ [King Lear, IV. i. 36]. Only

Macbeth with the witches and apparitions, Act IV, scene I, at the Young Vic Theatre, London 1975(� Donald Cooper/Photostage. Reproduced by permission)

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sheer animal courage remains to flash out andremind us of a Macbeth once courageous in anhonorable cause. This reminder is pitiful, forMacbeth has not even the slim hope of a trappedanimal which, if it fights loose, has something toescape to. All Macbeth did resulted in nothing;whatever he does now will result in nothing butthe anguish of meaningless action. It is hardenough to realize that one has been on thewrong track for part of life; to be convincedthat there is no right track to get on becausethere is no place for any track to go—this is tobe lost with no hope at all.

At the very end we see some saving touchesof humanity in Macbeth: he has not lost allhuman virtue; he would have no more ofMacduff’s blood on his soul; and even with thecollapse of his last security, his bravery does notfalter. These touches show him a man still, andnot a fiend, but they by nomeans reestablish himin his former self. There is no greatness in deathfor him. Rather than the human spirit’s capacityfor greatness in adversity, we see its possible ruinin evil. Because we never see Macbeth enjoyingthe possession of the great prize he sought, andbecause from the beginning of his temptation wehave no hope that he will be able to enjoy it, hisloss of the world’s gifts is not so poignant as thatof Hamlet, Lear, or Othello. But to a degree thatnone of them does, Macbeth loses himself, andthis is most tragic of all.

It may be objected, however, that Macbethalone of Shakespeare’s great tragic figures is fullyaware of the evil of the act by which he sets inmotion the train of events leading to his ruin. Hisculpability seriously weakens the sympathy ofmany. In the face of this difficulty, some inter-preters justify sympathy for Macbeth by seeinghim as the victim of the witches, the agents ofdestiny. This point of view, however, seems to cutthrough the complex knot of human life asShakespeare saw it, instead of following the vari-ous strands which make it up. We cannot dodgeMacbeth’s responsibility and guilt—he never does.

His ruin is caused by the fact that he sins: hewilfully commits an act which he knows to bewrong. This ruin and sin are seen to be tragic, asShakespeare, like Dante, reveals the pity andfear in a man’s succumbing to grievous tempta-tion, and in the effects of sin on his subsequentthoughts and deeds. Macbeth’s guilt and thecircumstances upon which it depends do notdecrease our pity and fear; they produce it; for

Shakespeare presents Macbeth as one who had

hardly any chance to escape guilt.

The concatenation of circumstances which

make Macbeth’s temptation is such as to seem a

trap. At the very moment when he is returning

victorious from a battle in which he has played a

chief part in saving his country from disaster,

there comes to him a suggestion—touching old

dreams and desires—that he may be king.

Shakespeare uses the witches to convey the dan-

ger of the suggestion. The witches and their

prophecies are poetic symbols of the bafflingly

indeterminate character of the events that sur-

round men. The witches force nothing; they

advise nothing; they simply present facts. But

they confound fair and foul; just so, events may

be good or ill. The witches will not stay to explain

their greetings any more than events will interpret

themselves. The witches’ prophecies and the

events that forever surround men are dangerous

because they may appear simple and are not,

because they may be so alluring as to stultify

prudence, and because their true significance

may be very hard to come at. Depending on con-

ditions, they may be harmless, or they may be

delusive, insidious, and all but impossible to

read correctly.

Macbeth is in no condition to read themaright. He had restrained his desire for greatness

in the past since he would not do the wrong

which was needed to win greatness. The hunger

of his ambitious mind had not died, however; it

had only been denied satisfaction. Now, when

the sense of his own power and his taste of it are

high indeed, the old hunger is more than reawak-

ened; it is nourished with hope, as immediate

events seem to establish the soundness of the

suggestion. Enough hope to lead him to ponder

the suggestion seriously, and then, in spite of an

attempt to put it out of his mind since he recog-

nizes the evil of his thoughts, to retail the won-

derful news of possible greatness to his wife.

There follow immediately two events whichpress the matter on most hastily. The king pro-

claims his eldest son as his heir, and in the next

breath announces his visit to Macbeth’s castle.

Thus, while desire and hope are fresh, Macbeth

sees put before him, first, an obstacle which time

will only make greater, and then an opportunity

for him to prevent time from working against

him. ‘‘If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere

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well it were done quickly’’ [I. vii. 1–2]. In fact, itmust be done quickly if it is to be done at all.

Desire, apparent promise of fulfillment,need for speedy action, and immediate opportu-nity fall together so rapidly as to create an all butinescapable force.

Yet Macbeth would have resisted tempta-tion had he been left to himself. Great thoughhis hunger for power and glory, especially whenwhetted by such circumstances, it would nothave completely overcome his fears and scruples.Even if he were to jump the life to come, he knewthat if he could and would kill Duncan, anothermight well do the same for him. On a higherplane, the double loyalty he owed to the kingheld him back. Finally, a point that reveals thevirtue that was in him, he felt the goodness ofDuncan so strongly that killing him seemed tooterrible a thing to do.Worldly prudence, loyalty,reverence for what is good—these turned Mac-beth back. Lady Macbeth’s fears were wellfounded; his nature was not such as to let him‘‘catch the nearest way.’’

But that nature could, as she felt, be worked.It was good, but not firm in its goodness.Macbeth is a moderately good man, no better,but also no worse, than the next one. The point is(and it is a grim one) that the virtue of theordinarily good man is not enough to keep himfrom disaster under all possible circumstances—especially when some of them are such as may befor good or evil.

This was the nature of Lady Macbeth’sinfluence on Macbeth. She could sway himbecause she understood him and loved him,and because he loved her and depended on herlove and good thoughts of him. She could andwould have urged him to noble deeds had occa-sion arisen. To prevent her from urging him onto evil ones, he needed more than the ordinaryfirmness to act as he saw right. But to cut clear ofsuch a source of strength and comfort is difficult;too difficult for Macbeth. It is the old story ofthe perversion of the potentially good, and of theproblem of getting only the good from the baf-fling mixture of good and evil in all things.

Just afterMacbeth has decided to give up hismurderous plot, but before intention can hardento resolve, Lady Macbeth adds the force of herappeals to that of Macbeth’s desires and thepress of circumstances. She sees his chance towin the prize of life; she knows he wants it, asshe does not know in their full strength his

reasons for renouncing it. She beats down, at

least long enough for her immediate purpose,

the fears and scruples which would otherwise

have kept him from the crown, and murder and

ruin. She does not answer Macbeth’s scruples;

her attack is personal. Whether she knows or

simply feels his need of her admiration and sup-

port, she strikes at the right point. The spur of

ambition did not driveMacbeth too hard toward

his great opportunity, but her goading taunts he

could not withstand, though they drove him on

to horrors.

All this does not excuse Macbeth; no excuseis possible for one who, with full knowledge of

the nature of the act, murders a good man to

whom he owes hospitality, loyalty, and grati-

tude. Shakespeare makes us realize, however,

how dangerous the battle, how practically irre-

sistible may be the forces arrayed against a man.

Some men are saved from evil because they

marry a Cordelia or a Viola [in Twelfth Night];

others because opportunity never favors their

desires; and still others because the stakes do

not justify the risk of being caught in evil

doing. For Macbeth, the stakes are the highest,

the opportunity golden, and the encouragement

to evil from a wife whom he loves and needs.

Macbeth is terrified by the warnings of hisconscience, but he cannot surrender. That he

acts with full knowledge of the evil only increases

the pity and fear aroused by his deed. For this

knowlege causes much of his suffering; it makes

his condition far worse than it would have been

had he acted with less than complete knowledge;

and, finally, it emphasizes the power of the trick-

ery, the lure, and the urging to which he was

subjected. We pity his suffering even as he does

evil because we understand why he could not

hold on to the chance which he ought to have

taken to save himself; and we are moved to fear

when we see his suffering and understand how

slight may be the chance to escape it.

Once that chance is lost greater sufferingand evil follow inescapably. The bloody career

on whichMacbeth now embarks can no more be

excused than could his first crime, but it

increases rather than detracts from our pity and

fear. The trap of temptation having been sprung,

there is no escape for Macbeth, and his struggles

to escape the consequences of his sin serve only

to ensnare him more deeply. As we witness that

struggle, our pity and fear increase because we

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feel how incompetent he is to do anything butstruggle as he does.

Evil brings its own suffering with it, butMacbeth cannot learn from it. The unknownfifteenth-century author of The Book of thePoor in Spirit wrote of evil and suffering:‘‘One’s own proper suffering comes from one’sown sins and he suffers quite rightly who lives insins, and each sin fosters a special spiritualsuffering . . . This kind of suffering is similar tothe suffering in hell, for the more one suffersthere the worse one becomes. This happens tosinners; the more they suffer through sin themore wicked they become and they fall moreand more into sufferings in their effort toescape.’’ Just so did Shakespeare conceive ofMacbeth’s state.

Macbeth has no enemy he can see, such asIago or one of Lear’s savage daughters; he iswithin himself. In first overriding the warningsof his conscience, he brings on the blindnesswhich makes it impossible for him to perceivehis own state and things outside him as theyreally are, and which therefore sends him in pur-suit of a wholly illusory safety. When he putsaway all thought of going back on his first evildeed, he deals the last blow to his consciencewhich once urged him to the right, and he blindshimself entirely.

No sooner does he gain what he wanted thanhe is beset by fears worse than those he overrodein murdering Duncan. But having overriddenthe proper fears, he cannot deal rightly with thenew ones. His horror of murder is lost in the fearof discovery and revenge, and the fear of losingwhat he has sacrificed so much to gain. Briefly atleast he wishes the murder undone and Duncanwaking to the knocking at the gate. But just asearlier he thought, but failed, to put the witches’prophecies and his evil thoughts out of mind, sonow his better thoughts die. By the time heappears in answer to the knocking at the gate,he is firmly set on a course to make good themurder of Duncan and to keep himself safe.

All is terrible irony from this point on. Witha new decisiveness Macbeth kills the grooms inDuncan’s chamber; alive, they were potentialwitnesses; dead, they can serve as plausible crim-inals. Then he plays brilliantly the part of a grief-stricken host and loyal subject:

Had I but died an hour before thischance,

I had liv’d a blessed time; for from thisinstant

There’s nothing serious in mortality;All is but toys; renown and grace is dead;The wine of life is drawn, and the mere leesIs left this vault to brag of.[II. iii. 91–6]

Irony could not be sharper. At the verymoment when he seems to himself to be completemaster of the situation, Macbeth, all unknow-ingly, utters the bitter truth about his state. He isstill to be troubled by thoughts of evil, but thedrive of his desire for peace from fear is greater;and to win security he is hurrying on the way inwhich he thinks it lies, but it is the way to theutter, empty loneliness he describes for us here.

Macbeth finds that the death of the groomswas not enough; Banquo and Fleance must go ifhe is to be free from torment. Through Mac-beth’s conversation first with Banquo about hisjourney, then with the murderers, and finallywith Lady Macbeth, we comprehend to its fullextent the disastrous change in him; he nowcontemplates murder with hope rather than hor-ror. He still sees it as something to be hidden:‘‘Come, seeling night, scarf up the tender eye ofpitiful day’’ [III. ii. 46–7]. But he is willing to domore evil since he believes it will insure his safety:‘‘Things bad begun make good themselves by ill’’[III. ii. 55]. With the appearance of Banquo’sghost comes the last flicker of conscience, butalso an increasing terror of discovery andrevenge which drives Macbeth further thanever: ‘‘For mine own good all causes shall giveway’’ [III. iv. 134–35].

The only thing he can gain in his blinded stateis the very worst for him. He now seeks out thewitches to get that reassurance in his course whichhe cannot find in himself. Although they will notstay for all his questions, he unhesitatinglyaccepts their equivocations; since they do reassurehim, his doubts of them are gone. With theiranswers, and having lost ‘‘the initiate fear thatwants hard use’’ and being no longer ‘‘young indeed’’ [III. iv. 142–43]. Macbeth enjoys the senseof security of any gangster or tyrant who has theunshrinking will to crush any possible opponents,and who thinks he has power to do so withimpunity. All that he has gained, however, is thefreedom to commit ‘‘every sin that has a name toit’’ [IV. iii. 59–60].

His delusion is complete; his ruin inevitable.Not until he experiences the bitter fruition of his

M a c b e t h


earthly crown does he discover what has hap-pened to him. Even then, however, he sees onlyin part; the blindness he suffered when he suc-cumbed to temptation was never to be lightened;and hence the final irony of

a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.[V. v. 26–8]

The action of Macbeth evokes a somber‘‘there but for the grace of God.’’ We understandbut we do not therefore pardon all. Rather weacknowledge the evil and the guilt and so acqui-esce in the inevitable retribution, but at the sametime we are deeply moved by Macbeth’s suffer-ing and ruin because we are acutely aware of thedangerous forces before which he falls, andbecause we recognize their power over one likeourselves—a moderately good man who suc-cumbs to temptation and who, having suc-cumbed, is led to more evil to make good thefirst misstep, until there is no chance of with-drawal or escape. As we watch him, we knowthat he should not have fallen; he might haveresisted; but Shakespeare’s vision here is of aworld in which men can hardly do better amidthe forces of circumstance; and in which, if mendo no better, they must suffer, and lose not onlythe world but themselves as well. Of such suffer-ing and loss is tragedy made.

Source: J. Lyndon Shanley, ‘‘Macbeth: The Tragedy of

Evil,’’ in College English, Vol. 22, No. 5, February 1961,

pp. 305–11.

SOURCES

Adelman, Janet, ‘‘‘Born of Woman’: Fantasies of Mater-

nal Power in Macbeth,’’ in Cannibals, Witches, and

Divorce: Estranging the Renaissance, edited by Marjorie

Gruber, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, pp.

90–121.

Bloom,Harold, ‘‘Macbeth,’’ in Shakespeare: The Invention

of the Human, Riverhead Books, 1998, pp. 516–45.

Booth, Wayne C., ‘‘Macbeth as Tragic Hero,’’ in The

Journal of General Education, Vol. 6, No. 1, October

1951, pp. 17–25.

Driver, Tom F., ‘‘The Uses of Time: The Oedipus

Tyrannus and Macbeth,’’ in The Sense of History in

Greek and Shakespearean Drama, Columbia University

Press, 1960, pp. 143–67.

McCarthy, Mary, ‘‘General Macbeth,’’ in TheWriting on

the Wall and Other Literary Essays, Harcourt Brace

Jovanovich, 1970, pp. 3–14.

Ribner, Irving, ‘‘Macbeth: The Pattern of Idea and

Action,’’ in Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 2,

Spring 1959, pp. 147–59.

Shakespeare, William, Macbeth, 2nd Series, edited by

Kenneth Muir, Arden Shakespeare, 1997.

Shanley, J. Lyndon, ‘‘Macbeth: The Tragedy of Evil,’’ in

College English, Vol. 22, No. 5, February 1961, pp.

305–11.

Spender, Stephen, ‘‘Books and the War—II,’’ in The

Penguin New Writing, No. 3, February 1941, pp. 115–26.

Van Doren, Mark, ‘‘Macbeth,’’ in Shakespeare, Henry

Holt & Company, 1939, pp. 252–66

FURTHER READING

Asp, Caroline, ‘‘‘Be bloody, bold and resolute’: Tragic

Action and Sexual Stereotyping in Macbeth,’’ in Studies

in Philology, Vol. 78, No. 2, Spring 1981, pp. 153–69.

Asp discusses the effect that stereotyping sex-

ual roles has on the major characters in

Macbeth.

Fosse, Jean, ‘‘The Lord’s Anointed Temple: A Study of

Some Symbolic Patterns in Macbeth,’’ in Cahiers

Elisabethains, No. 6, October 1974, pp. 15–22.

Fosse studies a group of images in Macbeth

concerned with the human body to demon-

strate that they are closely related and that

they form an important symbolic pattern.

Heilman, Robert B., ‘‘The Criminal as Tragic Hero:

Dramatic Methods,’’ in Shakespeare Survey, Vol. 19,

1966, pp. 12–24.

This article focuses on Shakespeare’s attempts

to evoke sympathy for Macbeth despite the

character’s increasing villainy. Heilman asserts

that the playwright ‘‘so manages the situation

that we become Macbeth or at least assent to

complicity with him.’’

Jaarsma, Richard J., ‘‘The Tragedy of Banquo,’’ in

Literature and Psychology, Vol. 17, Nos. 2–3, 1967, pp.

87–94.

Jaarsma maintains that Banquo undergoes a

radical change as a result of the witches’ proph-

esies and becomes Macbeth’s ‘‘silent accom-

plice’’ to Duncan’s murder. Jaarsma argues

that by illustrating how evil affects a man

‘‘who is more realistic and less susceptible to it

than Macbeth,’’ Shakespeare generalizes the

tragedy of yielding to temptation.

Kimbrough, Robert, ‘‘Macbeth: The Prisoner of Gender,’’

in Shakespeare Studies, Vol. 16, 1983, pp. 175–90.

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Kimbrough examines the role of gender in

Macbeth, asserting that the protagonist’s

‘‘failure to allow the tender aspects of his char-

acter to check those tough characteristics

which are celebrated by the chauvinistic war

ethic of his culture [and] championed by his

wife’’ results first in his emotional, then his

physical death.

Moorthy, P. Rama, ‘‘Fear in Macbeth,’’ in Essays in

Criticism, Vol. 23, No. 2, April 1973, pp. 154–66.

Moorthy asserts that fear is a unifying theme in

Macbeth. Moorthy examines how fear affects

Macbeth in particular, noting that it is his

peculiar fate to be continually exposed to its

horrifying consequences.

Rackin, Phyllis, ‘‘Macbeth,’’ in Shakespeare’s Tragedies,

Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1978.

Rackin Offers a general discussion ofMacbeth.

Rackin’s book, which she states is ‘‘written for

amateurs,’’ includes photographs from numer-

ous theatrical productions.

Sadler, Lynn Veach, ‘‘The Three Guises of Lady

Macbeth,’’ CLA Journal, Vol. 19, No. 1, September

1975, pp. 10–9.

Sadler declares that Lady Macbeth is more

imaginative than her husband and that she

projects three guises in the play: the public

Lady Macbeth, the woman who plays to the

audience of her husband only, and the private

Lady Macbeth.

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