Macbeth Essay

Well, Language Arts 112 is officially done with Macbeth on Monday! YES!!!! I found this play to be an excellent piece of writing, and loved reading it, but, like most teenagers, hated having to do the work the teacher gave us around it.....Can I get an amen? Anyway, i had to write an essay of 800 to 1000 words, and (YES!!!!) got a 47 of 50 on it! That's an A, right? Since I'm so glad for my mark, i felt like posting it on here, so you could read it...not that I'm bragging, but I really like this essay lol :) By the way, I have corrected one or two things since i got my grade...I missed one contraction which is no longer there, etc. There are 1354 words as well... The indentation messed up copying from Word, so i had to double space between paragraphs. Sorry.
This essay is titled: Bloody Hands: A Study Into the Guilt of Macbeth (by me, of course!)
Long regarded as one of Shakespeare’s darkest plays, Macbeth is a pinnacle of tragedy. Even the very name brings to mind visions of dark, stormy nights with murderous, chilling screams echoing through the highlands’ air. Any study of Macbeth revolves around this one question: who is actually responsible for the deaths of Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff’s wife, son, and servants, and the eventual suicide of Lady Macbeth? Does the blame fully fall on Macbeth and his wife, or on the “weird sisters” (4.1.148) for provoking an unstable man? If it is Lady Macbeth’s fault, is the guilt of murder the main catalyst in her suicide? Even with all the evidence against these others, Macbeth appears as the most liable suspect.

“I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. / Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell / That summons thee to heaven, or to hell” (2.1.69-71). With this final proof of resolve, Macbeth creeps into Duncan’s bedchamber to slay the king. Is Macbeth responsible for the further bloodshed in the play? True, he has already proven that he is able to kill in battle, as a soldier has told us that:

Disdaining fortune, with his brandish’d steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour’s minion carved out his passage
Till he [Macbeth] faced the slave;
Which never shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam’d him from navel to the chaps,
And fix’d his head upon our battlements.
(1.2.19-25)

Amazing, is it not, that this same warrior felt that he had “no spur / To prick the sides of [his] intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself / and falls on the other” (1.7.25-28). After killing Duncan and ascending to the throne, Macbeth soon begins to realize the consequence of kingship: the ever-present fear of betrayal. He sees Banquo, his old friend, as a threat to his power, and hires two murderers to ambush Banquo as he rides to the palace. He gives the two tales of how Banquo has subjected them to harsh times, while he is living in splendor. The two are hardened and attack Banquo “strik[ing] out the light” (3.3.27) and giving him “twenty trenched gashes in his head” (3.4.31). We again see Macbeth fall from his position of valour, evil though it is, in fear, as he states:

It will have blood; they say blood will have blood.
Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak;
Augures and understood relations have
By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth
The secret’st man of blood. What is the night?
(Macbeth, 3.4.151-155)

In scene two of act four, Macbeth sends the murderers to have Macduff’s “wife, children, servants, all / that could be found” (4.3.245,246) “surprised…[and]…savagely slaughter’d” (4.3.236,237), for no apparent reason other than anger at the fact that Macduff has fled Scotland and rejected his rule.
Macbeth is preparing for battle and hears a scream from the women’s quarters of the castle. He immediately sends his armour-bearer, who brings back word of Lady Macbeth’s suicide. Macbeth does not mourn or seek solace, but declares that “ She should have died hereafter; / There would have been time for such a word…Out, out brief candle! / Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player…And then is heard no more:” (5.5.19-26). How could this man say such a thing of the woman that could very well be responsible for his rise to power, if not the bloodshed? It is without doubt that if not for Lady Macbeth, the entire state of chaos, murder, and darkness in Scotland might have been averted; and yet, does this make her responsible?

I have given suck, and know
How tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn
As you have done to this.
(1.7.59-64)

It is quite apparent that Lady Macbeth is extremely resolute, and has more determination than her husband to kill Duncan. She reads Macbeth’s letter in scene five of act one, and immediately begins planning her husband’s (or is it hers) takeover by submitting herself to “ murdering ministers” (1.5.51) and asking them to “…fill [her], from the crown to toe, top-full / of direst cruelty! Make thick [her] blood…And take [her] milk for gall…wherever in your sightless substances / You wait on nature’s mischief!” (1.5.45-46,51-53). She lays her plan to have Duncan’s guards drunk, and succeeds, but cannot bring herself to kill the sleeping king, as “ he...resembled [her] father as he slept” (2.2.16,17).

She goes on encouraging her husband as he tells her of his distrust of Banquo. She follows his plan without any apparent doubts, and after time passes, seems to be cracking under the pressure and guilt-which, if she were not responsible, should not happen, right? She begins to sleepwalk and hallucinate, and “has spoke what she should not,” (5.1.44). She mumbles that “the thane of Fife [Macduff] had a wife, where is she / now?” (5.1.39), which implies her knowledge and possible backing or responsibility, perhaps, of the massacre at Macduff’s castle. What would motivate her to support the murder of Lady Macduff: jealousy, a grudge, or a sensation of threat to her power now that Macduff has fled Scotland? After all, Lady Macduff has related that “Yes, he [Macduff] is dead” in her eyes (4.2.45) and claims to be able to “buy [herself] twenty at any market” (4.2.58) Perhaps she has simply supported her husband, as evidenced in her next words. “ Look not so pale: I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; / He cannot come out on’s grave.” (5.1.58,59). However the case, the madness eventually drove her to the state where she “by self and violent hands / Took off her life,” (5.9.42,43). Does this prove her guilt, or shame at her husband’s failure? It is an unanswered question into the mind of one disturbed woman.

As for the “weird sisters” (4.1.148), do they partake in the responsibility for the temporary downfall of Scotland? At the start of the play, they are already waiting for Macbeth, who is in battle. They disappear, only to reappear when Macbeth and Banquo enter the dark moor.

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.
(1.3.50-53)

Banquo asks for his own prophecy, and is told that he is “Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. / Not so happy, yet much happier. / Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none:” (1.3.68-70). After this, the witches disappear again. They reappear in a secluded area, performing a spell while waiting for counsel from Hecate, their apparent overseer.

And at the pit of Acheron
Meet me I’ the morning; thither he
Will come to know his destiny…
…Shall draw him on to his confusion:
He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
His hopes ‘bove wisdom, grace, and fear:
And you all know security
Is mortals’ chiefest enemy.
(3.5.16-33)

When Macbeth comes to them for advice, the witches remark that “something wicked this way comes.” (4.1.45). They have been composing a potion of unknown use, until out of it appears the three “apparitions”, who speak strange words to Macbeth. After this, they disappear, never to be seen again.
All in all, the guilt must rest upon someone. Lady Macbeth would not have sought to assist her husband in the killing if it had not been for the letter. Macbeth would not have murdered Duncan without motivation, for he was his kinsman and ruler. The witches, however, seem to have had no motivation except for by their superiors, and are given a background of causing despair. Macbeth must then be guilty, for even with a prophecy of sovereignty, he could have sought other ways to ascend to the throne. He planned the subsequent murders of Banquo, Lady Macduff, her son, and servants, and the attempt on Fleance’s life. He hired the men who performed the murders, and thus is responsible for their actions. He bears the guilt, and condemns himself by his own actions.