Macbeth Themes

In that good is bad and bad is good, highlighting the mysterious and amoral nature of the witches.

2.”Her husband has sailed off to Aleppo as master of a ship called the Tiger. I’ll sail there in a kitchen strainer, turn myself into a tailless rat, and do things to him—“

This displays how the first witch is evil and wishes to do harm to a sailor and connects with the fact that James I’, believed that his wife Anne was also the victim of witchcraft when she attempted to sail to Scotland from Denmark.

3.“I’ll drain him dry as hay.

The first witch would inflict pain on the sailor and make him sleepless, once again reinforcing their cruel nature.

4. ‘So foul and fair a day I have not seen.’

Macbeth’s first words in the entire play, and very ironic because in that day there is a mixture of both good and evil. He will become Thane of Cawdor and King but his friend will have a line of kings and it is the beginning of Macbeth’s descent in to becoming a terrified and insecure murderer.

5. ‘What are these

Macbeth is not even fully sure if they are dead or alive. Their mysterious nature is such that even something as fundamental and basic as whether they are alive or dead is not clear.

7. ‘You should be women,

In addition to confusion of whether they are dead or alive Macbeth does not know whether they are men or women. Again the witches who they are, what they are are all strange and confusing.

8.

Strange and seemingly contradictory statements. Mysterious words from mysterious creatures. This also connects to the earlier statement of ‘Foul is fair, and fair is foul’. Good is bad and bad is good. Are the witches dead or alive, alive or dead? Men or women, women or men? Mysterious beings, cryptic statements.

9. Banquo The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them. Whither are they vanished? Macbeth Into the air, and what seemed corporal melted, As breath into the wind. Would they had stayed!

The significance of these lines are covered in more depth in the first article. In brief though the witches disappear mysteriously, elusive beings and so too will Macbeth’s happiness disappear ‘into the air’.

Now let’s continue…. * * * * * * *

Continuing on from where we left with Macbeth saying ‘Would they had stayed!’

Banquo says in response: “Were such things here as we do speak about?

This touches upon the disputed existence of the supernatural including witches and witchcraft. Banquo is questioning whether these witches were real. We know from the viewpoint of the play and the audience they most certainly were, and in addition to that their existence is not a good thing but a cause of destruction, pain and misery as is exemplified by the sad and tragic demise of Macbeth. James I in his quest to establish a much firmer and harsher state policy towards witchcraft would have seen this and been happy. For Banquo had not taken drugs ‘insane root’ but had indeed seen witches. Just as drugs intoxicate and deprive a person of their sanity and rational thinking, the witches prophesies do the same. Macbeth is indeed inflicted with a drug, but not a physical drug but the drug of his lust for power and after becoming king his ‘need’ to maintain his kingship through murder and brutality. The origins of this can all be attributed to the witches. The witches are the cause of the destruction of Macbeth.

Ross and Angus then come and inform Macbeth of his being chosen as the new Thane of Cawdor thus instantly ‘proving’ the words of the witches.

Banquo says:

Banquo’s cautious words are wise and correct. Those who watching the play during the time of James I if they were ever tempted to go to witches for fortune telling may have thought twice after seeing the play. Banquo refers to the witches as ‘instruments of darkness’. This ties in with everything we know of the witches, including the ‘foul’ weather on the heath that day, as well as of the mental imagery of the storms and powerful winds sent to the sailor being targeted by the first witch. It would have been better for Macbeth if he had never heard the witches prophecies, it would be better for any king James I to avoid going to witches.

Macbeth a little while later says:

Once again we see duality. Confusion. Following on from earlier on the scene when Macbeth was wondering of the witches, ‘Are they alive or are they dead?’, ‘Are they women, or are they men?’, ‘Are they of this world (humans) or not of this world (demons/supernatural beings)?

Are they one or the other of these mutually exclusive options.

There is a mental toing and froing, a back and forth, an unsettled, confused Macbeth.

Toing and froing, going back and forth, flip-flopping are in contrast to being firm and settled, to stability and to peace.

The witches even from the very beginning have unsettled Macbeth first in a relatively light manner when he is confused as to what and who they are but then later the greater and more serious toing and froing of ‘should I kill Duncan or not?’

In addition to the physical instability of the winds and storm that day, there is a mental storm which starts inside Macbeth and a metaphorical storm that destroys his life, the storm of killing for power.

If Macbeth and his life was likened to a tree. The tree was firm and settled then one stormy day it was shaken and was going to and fro, only for it ultimately to be ruined and destroyed.

When something is torn between one direction or another direction, that conflict can lead to it being ripped apart. Such is the case of Macbeth who is torn between conflicting internal emotional pressures such as not wanting to commit evil and murder his cousin, the King but also to please his wife. Macbeth’s life after meeting the witches becomes a metaphorical storm, with no stability and just pressure and turbulence.

The next time when we really see the supernatural featured in the play is in scene 5 after lady Macbeth reads her husbands letter telling her of the witches prophecies and how he has indeed become Thane of Cawdor as they foretold. She then delivers one of the most powerful speeches in the play, a soliloquy, which we shall look at this time through the prism of examining the supernatural in the play.

She summons ‘spirits’ i.e. demonic beings that ‘tend on’ mortal thoughts i.e. they look after or nurture (‘tend on’ in Biblical English at that time could mean to cultivate or grow as in ‘Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit’, it could also mean to wait for  or monitor) ‘mortal thoughts’.

‘Mortal’ here means murderous. An immortal person is one who never dies. Mortality refers to dying. We can see these spirits or beings of evil that incite and encourage thoughts of killing and murder.

She attempts to invoke these evil beings to ensure that she will have no sense of compassion or guilt that will restrain her from working to her goal of securing the crown for her husband.

She wants no indecisiveness, no hesitance on her part, which might emanate from natural human feelings of morality. She wants to be amoral, devoid of morality thus she has to turn to these evil beings to ensure that. Once again the audience sees how evil the supernatural is and witchcraft which is said to involve the invoking of demons and dark forces, something James I would have wanted all his subjects to keep far away from and which Shakespeare helped him through this play.

However we also see that even lady Macbeth felt she might be subject to the toing and froing of ‘should I do wrong or should I not do wrong’. If we think of the image of the tree shaking from side to side and of being indecisive, lady Macbeth did not want to be as such but to be firm and entrenched in her plan.

Life is about choices. Should I do this or should I do that. Depending on the choice we make we will have different outcomes and our life will be different. Lady Macbeth did not wish to be ambivalent or confused and ‘needed’ external powers (demonic beings) that had none of the humanity that even lady Macbeth had. Lady Macbeth had a kind side as we see in her hospitality to guests and her ‘love’ for her husband, she was not totally devoid of morality, but these beings she summons are, which is why she ‘needs’ them to suppress all of her natural humanity, any goodness inside her.

Later on in the play there is a reference to the supernatural, some aspects of it called the ‘paranormal’ when after Macbeth murders Duncan he says to his wife that he thought he heard a voice.

‘Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more!

Aside from the supernatural itself, we can see:

1. Macbeth starts to feel some sort of guilt or unease.

2. He will be denied sleep from now on.

This denial of sleep ties in with the earlier reference to denying sleep to the sailor that the first witch spoke about in Act 1, Scene 3.

Macbeth too, like this sailor, will not be having sleep or at the least much of it.

Shakespeare, through Macbeth elaborates on the benefits of sleep including how it ensures rest and heals ‘hurt minds’.

The supernatural element of this is that normally in the material world people can only speak to people who are physically present either in front of them or electronically, but to physical beings who exist and are alive. In the material normal world they cannot hear voices from another realm, as such a realm or world is said not to exist. For those who believe in the paranormal they hold that people can see information in their dreams or see messages from dead ones. For Shakespeare’s audience in 17th century England at that time rather than dismiss Macbeth’s hearing of this ‘voice’ as delusional they would have been more inclined to thinking of it as some form of supernatural voice warning Macbeth of punishment, of lack of sleep. A modern reader would think that Macbeth is hearing his own conscience, for James I and his audience it may well have been someone else, a soul, possibly Duncan himself or someone. Macbeth later on in the play sees Banquo’s body in ghostly form, and perhaps he hears Duncan or someone else’s voice. Though many in the modern audience may not view it, many of those present at the time of Shakespeare and James I may well have. However Macbeth is clearly not in a good state emotionally with his earlier speech in the play seeing a dagger which he is not sure is real or he is imagining, so it could well just be his conscience. Act 3, Scene 4

In this scene, Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost at a banquet that he is holding. Others who see Macbeth startled think he is delusional.

Some of the quotes of Macbeth from this scene are: ‘(to GHOST)Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake

Later Macbeth says:

Lady Macbeth hearing this thinks Macbeth is mentally unwell and says to him, ‘What, quite unmanned in folly?’

Again a short time later Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo and says: ‘Avaunt, and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee.

Macbeth clearly does not want to see this ghost. It may well just be a figment of his imagination, a manifestation of his guilt, and a deep subconscious desire not to be confronted by the actual real results of his murderous actions i.e. that Banquo was a person, a fellow human being who is now dead.

However the theme of the supernatural continues in the play, this time in the form of a ghost (real or percieved) in addition to the witches, the storms they cause, their prophecies which cause harm, the demonic beings lady Macbeth summons and now a ghost.

In the next article we will continue to look at the  theme of the supernatural in Macbeth with Macbeth visiting the witches again and new cryptic statements of theirs.

Useful vocabulary for students.