Macbeth

Who He Is

Thane of Glamis, captain under King Duncan and his kinsman, hero of the war against the rebel Macdonwald and the Norwegians, and the man who, after hearing three witches, kills the king sleeping under his roof to seize the throne. He is the protagonist of the play, and the play follows him from within: almost everything we know about him comes from the asides and soliloquies in which he thinks through the crime before committing it, sees a dagger in the air, hears the voice that condemns sleep, and, once king, discovers that the crown can only be kept with more blood. He ends without his wife, without friends, and without obedience, surrounded and killed by Macduff.

Trajectory

Before he enters, Macbeth is pure glory: in Scene 2 of Act I, the wounded Captain says that he killed the rebel Macdonwald and that, with Banquo, he resisted the Norwegians, and Duncan, by condemning the traitor Thane of Cawdor to death, hands the title to Macbeth.

In Scene 3 of Act I, the witches greet him as Thane of Glamis, of Cawdor, and future king, and Ross and Angus confirm the second promise soon after, naming him Cawdor. Banquo warns that evil sometimes tells small truths in order to betray in great ones. Macbeth, unsettled, already imagines a murder and asks himself whether Fortune could crown him without his having to act: the prophecy does not order anyone killed, and the thought of the crime is his own.

In Scene 4 of Act I, Duncan names Malcolm Prince of Cumberland and announces that he will go to Inverness. In an aside, Macbeth sees in the prince's title a step he must climb and asks the stars to hide their light.

In Scene 5 of Act I, the letter he sent his wife tells of the meeting with the witches, and it is Lady Macbeth who takes charge of the night's plan: he must appear innocent and leave the rest to her. In Scene 7 of Act I, alone, he weighs the crime: Duncan is his kinsman, his king, and his guest, and nothing drives him but his own ambition. When his wife arrives, he backs away, saying they will not proceed because the king has honored him, and he is shamed: she challenges his manhood and lays out the plan to ply the chamberlains with drink and put the blame on them. He gives in and decides to cover with a serene face what his false heart knows.

In Scene 1 of Act II, at midnight, Banquo tells him he dreamed of the witches, and Macbeth replies that he does not think of them at all, while he offers honor in exchange for Banquo's support, which Banquo accepts only if his honor and conscience remain intact. Alone, he sees a dagger in the air with drops of blood and heads for the king's chamber. In Scene 2 of Act II, he returns with the crime done and shaken: he could not say amen and heard a voice announce that Glamis has murdered Sleep and that Macbeth will sleep no more. He brought the daggers with him instead of leaving them in the room and dares not go back; it is his wife who takes them.

In Scene 3 of Act II, he points out the king's chamber to Macduff and, once the body is found, kills the chamberlains, saying he did it in a rush of love for the king. Malcolm and Donalbain flee, and in Scene 4 of Act II Macduff tells that Macbeth has been elected and has left for Scone to be crowned.

In Scene 1 of Act III, already king, he says that wearing the crown is nothing and that what matters is keeping it safe, and that his fear has its roots in Banquo: the witches gave him a barren crown, to be torn from him by another man's descendants. He persuades two resentful murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance that very night. In Scene 2 of Act III, the couple admit that the crown has brought no peace, he says they have only wounded the serpent and that he no longer sleeps without nightmares, and he hides the plan from his wife, announcing only one terrible act before the day is out.

In Scene 3 of Act III, a third murderer, sent by him, joins the other two, and Banquo dies, but Fleance escapes. In Scene 4 of Act III, warned at the door of the hall, Macbeth returns to the table and sees Banquo's ghost sitting in his place, which the guests cannot see. He loses control before the court, and Lady Macbeth sends the nobles away. Alone with her, he notices Macduff's absence and decides to seek the witches again, by the worst means. In Scene 5 of Act III, Hecate rebukes the witches for serving someone who loves his own ends, and promises illusions that will lead him to despise Destiny, and Macbeth knows nothing of this.

In Scene 1 of Act IV, he demands answers in the cavern and receives three apparitions: an armed head tells him to fear Macduff, a bloody child says that no one born of woman will harm him, and a crowned child, with a tree in its hand, says he will fall only when Birnam Wood marches against Dunsinane. He also asks to see Banquo's descendants and sees eight kings, with Banquo at the end. Lennox brings the news that Macduff has fled to England, and Macbeth decides that the impulses of the heart will be those of the arm as well: in Scene 2 of Act IV, the murderers reach the castle of Fife, kill the son, and pursue Lady Macduff, whose death Ross confirms in Scene 3.

In Scene 3 of Act V, at Dunsinane, he scorns the barons' flight, trusting the promise about Birnam, humiliates the Servant who brings news of the English army, asks Seyton for his armor, and demands from the Doctor a cure for the queen. In Scene 5 of Act V, he mocks the siege until he hears women's screams and learns that the queen is dead, and he answers with the speech about tomorrow.

A Messenger swears he sees Birnam advancing, and Macbeth, shaken, begins to doubt the words that deceived him and runs to arms. In Scene 7 of Act V, surrounded, he kills young Siward. Facing Macduff, he says that he bears an enchanted life that no one born of woman can end, and he hears that Macduff was torn from his mother's womb before his time. He curses the tongue that tells him this and accuses the demons of playing with ambiguous words, but he refuses to surrender and be shown off like a rare monster, with his portrait painted on a pole under the caption “the Tyrant,” and he fights to the end. Macduff returns with his head and hails Malcolm as king.

Themes Embodied

Crime is born in him before any pressure from outside. In Scene 3 of Act I, just after the first promise comes true, Macbeth already thinks of a still fanciful murder and asks whether Fortune could crown him without his action, and Banquo, hearing the witches with him, reads in them a warning. The prophecy does not speak of killing, and it is Macbeth who completes the reasoning, at the point where the play crosses Ambition with Fate and Free Will.

The prophecies come true to the letter, and by human means: in Scene 4 of Act V, Malcolm orders each soldier to carry a branch to hide the size of the troop, and in Scene 7 of Act V Macduff reveals that he was taken from his mother's womb before his time. Macbeth accuses the demons of playing with words.

None of this is a miracle. What enrages him is not admitting that it was he who read as impossible what the promise left open. The play's Supernatural deceives by telling the truth.

Macbeth is the character in whom Power empties out most as it is completed. Each step leaves him more alone: in Scene 2 of Act III he already decides without his wife, in Scene 1 of Act IV he acts without hesitation, and in Scene 3 of Act V he lists what old age should bring, respect, love, obedience, and friends, and says that none of it is his to wish for. In Scene 5 of Act V, the queen's death does not make him stop to mourn, and what he says of time and life shows what the crown has left him.

His Violence changes its nature over the course of the play. In Inverness, the crime costs one night of images, the dagger, the hands, the voice over sleep, and Guilt appears as suffering of the imagination. After the banquet and the apparitions, doubt disappears, and the massacre at Fife happens without a scene of hesitation, in a Macbeth who no longer thinks before he kills.

Relationships

• Lady Macbeth: the wife who gives a name to what he desires, shames him in Scene 7 of Act I and pushes him toward the crime, and from whom he slowly withdraws, deciding alone from Scene 2 of Act III on.
• Banquo: the companion in arms who hears the witches with him and reads them in reverse, and who dies on his orders in Scene 3 of Act III, returning as a ghost in Scene 4 of Act III.
• Duncan: the king, kinsman, and guest whom he kills at Inverness, and who honored him up to the eve.
• Macduff: the Thane of Fife whom the first apparition tells him to fear, whose family he orders massacred, and who kills him in the end.
• Malcolm: the heir he sees as an obstacle in Scene 4 of Act I and who returns as king in Scene 7 of Act V.
• The Witches: those who tell him what will be, and to whom he returns, by the worst means, after the banquet.