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After the first part of the witches' prophecy comes true, early in the play, he begins to think the subsequent part may also come true. Encouraged after continuous unrest from his wife, Lady Macbeth, Macbeth murders King Duncan, while he is a guest in his castle. Macbeth then seizes the throne of Scotland. But Macbeth has no peace. Duncan's sons, Malcom and Donalbain, have escaped to England, where they seek support against Macbeth. In addition, the witches had also prophesized that Banquo's progeny would be kings of Scotland. Macbeth consequently instructs the murder of Banquo and his son, Fleance. Macbeth's men kill Banquo, but Fleance escapes under his father’s cry, O treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! Act 3. Scene 3. 17-18 Macbeth is now hardened to killing. He orders the murder of the wife and children of his enemy Macduff, who had fled to England after Duncan's murder (Act 2. Scene 1). Macduff then gathers an army to overthrow Macbeth. By this time, Lady Macbeth, burdened with guilt over the murders, has become a sleepwalker. She finally dies a few scenes before the play concludes. In the end, Macduff kills Macbeth in battle. Duncan's son Malcolm is then proclaimed king of Scotland. During this period of time, the characters, as well as the country of Scotland, are affected by a tragic plague of murder and guilt which runs throughout the play. In Macbeth, Shakespeare wrote a tragedy of the decline of a man's conscience. During the course of the play, Macbeth changes from a person of strong but imperfect moral sense to a man who will stop at nothing to get and keep what he wants. By the play's end, Macbeth has lost all emotion and becomes a power-hungry mad man. The conflict of good and evil in Macbeth’s mind speaks about every kind of temptation within, and draws out sympathy through excessive ambition which allows him to fall out on to treachery and crime. Here Macbeth is portrayed by Macduff and Malcolm as; Of horrid hell can come a devil more damn’d Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin. Act 4. Scene 3. 55-59 He cannot even react to his wife's death, except to conclude that life is only “a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury / Signifying nothing.” There would have been a time for such a word. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in the petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time. Act 5. Scene 5. 17-21 This madness eventually leads to his death on the battlefield where he fought courageously, but was slain by Macduff as revenge over his family’s manslaughter and Duncan’s murder. That is Macbeth’s own tragedy, which was caused by the great perturbation of his sly wife, whose conscience grows as her husband's lessens. She soon sees what she has done wrong and deeply regrets it. Lady Macbeth’s attitude is quite the opposite yet she is still engaged with the murder factors of her life. She has also been hit with the tragic consequences of madness, though she is still determined to move on and use the power she has received, as she is queen. Lady Macbeth falls to her death after she had put herself under great stress and anxiety as well as her obsession with the murder of Duncan. Macbeth is engaged in further tragedies out of fear of loss of power, fear of others and greed. Lo you! Here she comes. This is her very guise; and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand Act 5. Scene 1. 18-20 Out damned spot! Out, I say! One; two: why, then ‘tis time to do’t. Hell is murky! Fie, my lord – fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have From the first scene of Macbeth, tragedy begins with the three Witches. These nefarious sisters were the ones who brought up the subject of tragedy. If it wasn’t for their prophecies of Macbeth being Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and to be king, Macbeth would probably been a failure as it needs some background for the play. They are the three nasty devils of the play who are not only the roots of the tragic events but also the foundation of all evil. So the essence of tragedy in Macbeth, both for the person and the play, was vital for it to be successful. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be King hereafter. Duncan’s murder was a tragedy all over Scotland and especially by Macduff who thought that; “Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee!” Where all this confusion and havoc is seen is where the play actually begins its tragedy and this also supports the rest of Macbeth. If the prophecy would have fulfilled by itself none of this would have happened and therefore Macbeth would not have been detested as much as he had by his fiends. Macbeth would have lived happily ever after with Lady Macbeth still alive and well. But as we know it, it was too late for Macbeth as he had an obsessive urge for ambition, which was the partial cause of his downfall as well as his greed and evil, and Lady Macbeth wanted Duncan’s power so she would be the queen. When Macbeth finally murders Duncan, he brings the daggers back accidentally, forgetting that they were the porters’ daggers, Lady Macbeth tells him to go and return them but he says that he will not go on any further. Even before Duncan’s murder, the tragedy inside himself had already kicked in, he started imagining a dagger floating in the air above him, he thought to himself whether this was a sign of madness. Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee: I have thee not, and yet I see the still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible O full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife; Thou know’st that Banquo and his Fleance lives. Murdering is a common scene throughout the entire play, from the first act to the last. All these murders relate to somebody or something else in a form of minor tragedy. Other deaths that result to tragedy in the play; is when the previous Thane of Cawdor was executed in Act 1. Scene 4, when Macbeth murders Duncan he hears a voice crying out that he has murdered sleep (Act 2. Scene 2), the Old Man in Act 2. Scene 4. 13 says that he has witnessed a falcon savagely killed by an owl, “Was by a mousing owl hawk’d atand kill’d” which was strange because that was exactly one week ago before Duncan’s murder, when Macbeth kills Macduff’s family in Act 4. Scene 3 and when Young Siward dies in battle in Act 5. Scene 7. Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep’ – the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, Chief nourisher in life’s feast-….. Still it cried, ‘Sleep no more’ to all the house: ‘Glamis hath murder’d sleep, and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more! Mainly, most of the tragedies are caused by the ill treatment of Macbeth, by his wife who controls his life, his thoughts and his actions. Lady Macbeth acts as the ”innocent flower under the serpent” and as the progresses the truth unravels. She is the one who has caused most of the tragedies. The bitter humor of the play also reinforces the tragic action on a slight basis in Macbeth. Bibliography: 1. Macbeth by Roma Gill Published in 1977 Oxford University Press 2. Macbeth by Barry Dahms Published in 1998 Science Press 3. Shakespeare’s Imagery and what it tells us by Caroline Spurgeon Published in 1935 Cambridge University Press 4. Macbeth by Jennifer Mulherin Published in 1988 Cherrytree Books 5. Shakespeare at a Glance by William Steele Published in 1989 Tynron Press 6. The Graphic Shakespeare Series: Macbeth by Hilary Burningham Published in 1997 Evans Brothers Limited 7. Video Recording: Macbeth Columbia Pictures Word Count: 1445
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