NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
... onset want to feel this way about one such as Macbeth, Banquo still cant hide his fears and nagging doubts about the King. He tries to talk to Macbeth just before the Kings murder to discuss the Witches, but they dont have time and they never get a chance to again. Banquo does a small soliloquy as Macbeth is getting crowned, talking about his fears for Macbeth and how he got the kingship: I fear thou plays most foully fort. (A. 3, S. 1, L. 3) This shows how Macbeth isnt fooling his old friend at all, and Macbeth knows this, even though he lies to Banquo repeatedly to continue the innocence routine. Macbeth sees Banquo and his son Fleance as obstacles that need to be gotten rid of; Banquo because of his suspicions and Fleance because hes Banquo's son and Banquo's children were predicted to take the throne from Macbeth. As a solution to the problem, Macbeth hires murderers to get rid of father and son.
This shows the depravity of Macbeth; not only was he willing to kill a King to get the crown, but hes willing to kill one of his oldest friends to keep it. It shows how far Macbeth has fallen from the once great soldier that he was to the murdering fiend he now is. As a soldier killing the enemy, Macbeth is admired but as a killer in his homeland hes despised. After Banquo's murder, we see how Macbeth's guilt-ridden conscience catches up with him and temporarily makes him see Banquo's ghost at a banquet hes holding at his castle.
This is an example of when the audience doesnt know precisely whats going on is the ghost a figment of Macbeth's mind resulting from his paranoia or is the supernatural to blame? Macbeth reacts to the situation by demanding who at the table has done such trickery and then almost assures people believe his guilt when he starts shouting that they canst not say (he) did it. Remember this is at the time when Banquo is believed to be not present due to some other business, not dead as Macbeth knows him to be. When the ghost of Banquo leaves the table Macbeth decides to cover up what hes just seen by telling his guests that he has some strange infirmity, which is nothing to those who know me. (A. 3, S. 4, L. 86) He plays along with the idea his wife first suggested, that hes ill and its a fit that pass, a short madness hes always had. The way this affects the play is that it dampens the party mood of the banquet, it ruins the evening and destroys the celebratory atmosphere, as Lady Macbeth announces: You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting. (A. 3, S. 4, L. 108) It also makes everyone present wonder just what Macbeth was talking about when he was proclaiming his innocence over a deed he supposedly hasnt committed. Therefore it makes everyone more sceptical of the King and is a focus point because this is the first time in the drama of the play hes appeared under suspicion to other people at the banquet.
Before, Macbeth only had Banquo to worry about, but after his performance in front of the nobles he knows more and more people are concerned about the things hes done in the past and his denying having done anything only makes him look more and more guilty, only the guests do not know what hes done exactly, they can only make assumptions. This affects the drama greatly as Macbeth gets in deeper and deeper into the web of lies and the trail of murder hes taken begins to unhinge him. In fact, Macbeth has had tricks played on him by his mind before. The first time was when he was debating the consequences of killing King Duncan and he sees a dagger floating in front of him and hes not sure whether its hallucinant or real: Is this a dagger I see before me? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not yet I still see thee. (A. 2, S. 1, Ls. 33 / 35) We can safely assume that this is the influence of Macbeth's guilty conscience at work and this shows that Macbeth is slowly being tormented by his deeds.
We see straight away, within the same scene as killing King Duncan, that he regrets it: Wake Duncan with though knocking, I would thou couldst. (A. 2, S. 2, L. 74) Its not just Macbeth who seems to be the worse for wear when it comes to consciences Lady Macbeth, the one who pushed Macbeth into doing things in the first place, is ultimately driven insane by guilt over Duncan's murder, the act she asked the supernatural spirits to help her with. Lady Macbeth undergoes a rapid transformation from the start of the play, and the main event which seems to finally shatter her is the news of Lady Macduff's castle being attacked and everyone inside murdered. When we see Lady Macbeth after this shes raving about the murders, envisioning her hands still coated in the blood of the dead King: Out damned spot, out I say! heres the smell of blood still what, will these hands neer be clean? (A. 5, S. 1) At the beginning of the play, it was Lady Macbeth who goaded her husband for being weak and thinking of their actions consequences, and told him he was foolish to think of such things.
She told him that she wished to be cruel and heartless, and that he should act like a man and do what needed to be done. However, in the scene just before her death with the doctor, she seems racked by guilt and cant stop trying to wash her hands of the blood on them, saying that her hands will never be clean (i. e. her conscience). This outburst of guilt is similar to the way Macbeth acts at the banquet, which she is angry with him for.
Macbeth too tells things to people present he shouldnt (when he denies having done anything), just like his wife who the doctor and gentlewoman hear talk of killing old men and so on. Although Lady Macbeth's ramblings arent really affected directly by the supernatural like Macbeth's were (the ideas of ghosts and so on), her fractured reason is one of the results of whats happened before in the play, which, as I discussed earlier, is linked to the supernatural in a big way, the way in which the Witches affect the events of the play. When Macbeth is King and having doubts about his future, he goes to visit the Witches for a second time and demands answers. He is given apparitions by the three Witches concerning his situation and these figures each make a statement Macbeth listens to. The first apparition tells Macbeth to beware Macduff (A. 4, S. 1, L. 71), the second none of woman born shall harm Macbeth (A. 4, S. 1, L. 80), and the last one that Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until Great Birnam Wood to High Dunsinane Hill shall come against him. These predictions again fool Macbeth into thinking things will go his way.
The way the predictions are told to Macbeth make it seem as if hes totally invincible, by saying that he will not be harmed unless a forest can move and no man thats been born by a woman can kill him. The Witches and their apparitions arent exactly deceitful in the things they tell Macbeth, theyre just cloaked in riddles that Macbeth doesnt think can come true and so he feels hes safe. This is the last time we see the Witches themselves in Macbeth, although they influence a lot of things still. The predictions theyve made affect Macbeth until the end and their power reaches out to the characters even when theyre not on stage or present or talking to other characters. However, at the end of the play as Macbeth is nearing his death he realises how much the Witches have tricked him into carrying out their evil deeds and that truthfully the kingship wasnt worth losing everything for. He learns of the way the woods move, cloaking Macduff's English-enforced army towards his castle, and also of the way Macduff wasnt born of a woman; he was born by Caesarean section: Macduff was from his mothers womb untimely ripped. (A. 5, S. 8, Ls. 15 / 16) As Macbeth discovers this, he realises that he isnt as invincible as he thought and that the Witches have duped him.
Macbeth has lost his wife, his best friend, his kingship, his respect, his holiness, and his conscience haunts him every waking moment of the day. Hes done everything for nothing. He realises that what he thought was worth anything for (the kingship) he cant hold onto and it was pointless to begin to try to attain by foul means. He figures out that all what the Witches were interested in was corrupting a once valiant soldier into something they could play with. Overall, its a combination of things that lead Macbeth to his downfall, not just witchcraft, although this does start it all off and without it the play couldnt have developed very well. It would have been boring and less dramatic if the supernatural hadnt made itself known in the play, not to mention far less complex.
To conclude, I can finally say that the effect of the supernatural and the way it changes Macbeth and influences his actions is apparent throughout the entire Shakespeare play. Without the supernaturals intervention in the Macbeth's lives, none of the events would have happened the way they did. The play couldnt have progressed through Macbeth's downfall and at the end led to his ultimate corruption because Macbeth would have stayed the worthy gentleman (A. 1, S. 2, L. 24) that hes portrayed as being at the start of the play. Bibliography:
Free research essays on topics related to: lady macbeth, first time, s 1, king duncan, start of the play
Research essay sample on The Effect Of Supernatural Upon Events In Macbeth
