be king, and that he has indeed soiled himself for the benefit of others. It is above all, this absolute vanquishment of his actions and the complete worthlessness of his travails which devastates him so. Shakespeare uses this pivotal moment in the play to show us that it really can only be all downhill from here. We know despite the witches’ ambiguous prophecies how this will all turn out; we realize that "blood will have blood". Fear in this case comes too late for Macbeth because he has gone too far and has no avenues of escape available. Unlike Malcolm and Macduff, he cannot escape to England even if he has nothing to leave behind. He cannot undo the murders in any way nor come clean without losing his head in the process. He is trapped with no way out. It is at this point of desperation where someone like Anton Chekov might end the play: Macbeth is terrified, because the jig is up....
