![]() The line is blurred between Macbeth’s evil and his opponents’ good, and there are new attitudes toward both witchcraft and gender. Recently, it has been applied to nations that overreach themselves and to modern alienation. Its story was once seen as that of a hero who commits an evil act and pays an enormous price. Like other plays, Macbeth speaks to each generation. Is Macbeth tempted by fate, or by his or his wife’s ambition? Why does their success turn to ashes? In depicting a man who murders to become king, Macbeth teases us with huge questions. Essentially, though, he is a human being whose private ambitions are made clear to the audience through his asides and soliloquies (solo speeches). He found a spectacle of violence and stories of traitors advised by witches and wizards, echoing James’s belief in a connection between treason and witchcraft. Character Analysis Macbeth Macbeth is introduced in the play as a warrior hero, whose fame on the battlefield wins him great honor from the king. London was alive with an interest in all things Scottish, and Shakespeare turned to Scottish history for material. In 1603, James VI of Scotland ascended the English throne, becoming James I of England. He still pulls up his courage, however, and dies fighting.Listen to this introduction: Read by Karen Peakes – a special recording for The Folger Shakespeare’s Macbeth by the Folger Theatre The play opens with their premonition that fair. He is brought to doubt the witches’ promises by the moving forest of Birnam, and in his last moments convinced of their falseness when Macduff reveals the circumstances of his birth. The witches, often referred to as the three weird sisters, are Macbeth’s dark and mysterious guides on his descent into evil and tyranny. He alternates between wild rage and deep, nihilistic depression as his wife commits suicide and his enemies arrive at his gate. By the time Malcolm’s army begins its approach, he has lost all touch of the fear that afflicted him in the lead-up to his killing Duncan. He cares about his wife in her illness, though his concern for her state of mind may apply as much to his own. Still, he arms himself, and swears that he will not simply give up. The reassurances of the witches lead him to discount the desertions in his ranks, but he is nevertheless grown to a state of despair, thinking that his life has gone on long enough. Hearing of Macduff’s flight, he resolves to now act on his first impulses, and he sends his men to sack Fife and murder all of Macduff’s family. He is reassured by the three apparitions they conjure for him, but fails to note the warnings in their shapes which offer a hint of the loopholes in their promises. By this stage an insomniac, he has lost all hope of redemption, and is determined to do anything that he must to keep himself safe. To explain his fit, he explains to his assembled noblemen that he is subject to an epileptic-type condition, but whether this is true or not is uncertain. Courageous though he may be in battle, he is not proof against the supernatural, as evidenced by the apparition of Banquo’s ghost. He hides the murder plot from his Queen, signaling an end to the closeness of their relationship. Once king, he becomes far more manipulative than he was, able to convince the murderers that their complaints against him are actually Banquo’s responsibility. ![]() He plans to have Banquo and Fleance killed in the hopes of undoing the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s descendants would take the throne. Deeply insecure, he is a paranoid king, keeping spies in the household of every nobleman. He is quick-witted enough to kill Duncan’s grooms as his supposed murderers before they can protest their innocence. As he leaves after killing Duncan, he hears a voice predicting that he will never sleep again, a prediction that comes true. He is possessed of a powerful imagination that is able to conjure a dagger before his eyes. ![]() He still over-thinks the matter, finding out all the moral objections to the act, but he cannot adequately answer his wife’s incitements to committing it. Though at first he seems willing to let Fortune take care of bringing him to the throne, the thought of murder cannot be hid, and his wife soon pushes him to it. Very close to his wife, he writes to her of the prediction as soon as he can. The predictions of the witches make a great impression on him though he insists on reasons for being called Thane of Cawdor, the moment it is confirmed the thought of becoming king lodges in his mind. ![]() A superb general, he is a physically powerful man, able in a fight to eviscerate a man with an upward stroke. ![]()
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