·
Nature
·
Manhood
·
Masks
·
Conflict between Reason
and Passion
"Thunder and lightning." This is the description of the scene
before Act I, Scene I, line 1. The thunder and
lightning represent disturbances in nature. Most people do not think of a great
day being filled with thunder and lightning. So the witches
are surrounded by a shroud of thunder and lightning. Also,
the first witch asks in line 2 about the meeting with Macbeth, "In
thunder, lightning, or in rain?" The meeting will also
be filled with these disturbances. The witches are
also surrounded by more undesired parts of weather: "Hover through
the fog and filthy air" (line 11). The weather might personify the
witches, meaning that the witches themselves are disturbances, though not
limited to nature. The bad weather also might mean that the witches are bad or
foul ("filthy air") creatures.
In Act II, Scene
I, it is a dark night. Fleance says "The moon is
down" (line 2), and Banquo says, "[Heaven's] candles are all out
[there are no stars in the sky]" (line 5). Darkness evokes feelings of
evilness, of a disturbance in nature on this accursed night. It creates a
perfect scene for the baneful murders.
Another
disturbance in nature comes from Macbeth's mouth,
"Now o'er the one half-world / Nature seems dead" (lines 49 - 50).
This statement might mean that nowhere he looks, the world seems dead (there is
no hope, as the existentialist philosophy supports). It might also give him
conceited ideas that the murder he is about to commit will have repercussions
spreading far. The doctor says in Act V, Scene i,
line 10, "A great perturbation in nature," while talking about Lady
Macbeth's sleepwalking. This is just another example of how nature is disturbed by human doings, placing emphases on mankind
(following the Humanistic philosophy).
When
Macbeth kills Duncan for the crown, he ends up creating chaos in Scotland
because God chose Duncan to be king.
The witches chorus on Act I, Scene I, line 10:
"Fair is
foul, and foul is fair."
This is a paradox.
It is also a prophecy, where one thing seems like another (the characters of
the play), or about how things will change through the story (again the
characters). Being so early in the play, it is a good grasper for the reader.
Not being a simple statement, it makes the reader think about the line to find
some meaning for themselves. It is easier to grasp a
meaning of this line as you progress through this book.
This theme is a
subtle theme, but no with out meaning. We will refer to this theme again and again throughout the play, adding new lines to the
theme, or analyzing characters and events using this theme.
The first thing
that Macbeth says when he enters scene three (line 38) is, "So foul and
fair a day I have not seen." Maybe when the witches said "Fair is
foul, and foul is fair," during scene one, they were just referring to the
condition of the day when they meet Macbeth, though I believe that there is
more, something we'll see later in the play.
"Come, you spirits / That tend on
mortal thoughts, unsex me here," says Lady Macbeth (Act I, scene v, lines
41 - 42). She wishes she were a man. Why? What does
Lady Macbeth see is a man? "And fill me, from the crown to the toe,
top-full / Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood, /
Stop up th' access and
passage to remorse, / That no compunctions visitings
of nature / Shake my fell purpose, not keep peace between / Th'
effect and it!" (lines 43 - 48). This is what a
true man to Lady Macbeth is.
To help convince
Macbeth not to call the murder off, Lady Macbeth questions his manhood. She
says, "When you durst do it, then you were a man; / And
to be more than what you were, you would / Be so much more the man" (lines
49 - 51). The sad part is that Lady Macbeth truly does believe that Macbeth wouldn't be a man if he didn't agree to the killing.
Probably the most
direct example of manhood being a theme in Macbeth is Macduff at the end of Act
IV. While Malcolm implores him to "dispute it like a man" (line 220),
Macduff says that he must also "feel it as a man" (line 221), which
changes the image of a man given above by Lady Macbeth. While she portrays men
as being cruel and cold-hearted, Macduff shows that a man is cruel and cold
when he needs to be, but feels just as intensely as he acts.
In Act I, scene v, as Lady Macbeth talks to Macbeth, she gives him
specific instructions:
"Look
like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your
hand, your tongue: like th'
innocent flower,
But
be the serpent under 't."
- lines 65 - 67.
Or
in other words, put on
a poker face so no one will suspect us (be foul though seem fair, as the
witches put it in scene one). Throughout the play, many characters put on
metaphorical masks to hide their true nature, thoughts, or feelings.
In scene vi, Lady Macbeth puts on her mask. She says (lines 14 - 20)
that the service and hospitality are nothing "Against those honors deep
and broad wherewith / Your Majesty loads our house . . ." She easily keeps
any suspicion off of her in her ruse.
There's one other thing before we move on.
"But be the serpent under 't" (line 67).
Lady Macbeth might be referring to herself, that she is the serpent under
Macbeth, and that Macbeth is the mask, or screen, which diverts attention from
Lady Macbeth.
As said earlier,
Banquo sees through Macbeth's masks. In Act III, scene i,
Banquo puts up his own masks. He almost knows that Macbeth is the murderer, but
he hides his suspicions while he idly talks to Macbeth. The masks aren't always limited to uses of evil.
Much of this play is filled with the struggle between light and
darkness (symbolizing Macbeth-- he asks for darkness to hide his desires in Act
I, and then darkness shrouds the night of the murder). The light in the first
two acts is King Duncan, but the struggle went in favor of darkness. This
struggle occurs in every act of the play.
Also, in Act V,
Scene vii, Macduff enters and says, "If thou [Macbeth] be'st
slain and with no stroke of mine,/My wife and
children's ghosts will haunt me still" (lines 15 - 16). Macduff can't rest until he gets revenge on the killer of his
family, something Malcolm and Fleance (whose family was also killed by Macbeth)
didn't say.
Macduff is the
hero of the play. He is the light that will soon come to a final climactic
battle with the dark (Macbeth). There is also religious meaning to this: God
against the devil, Macbeth being the devil (remember how he couldn't
say "Amen" in Act II?). This theme has been used in many contemporary
stories; it's an epic battle of good vs. evil.
http://alumni.imsa.edu/~ravi/macbeth/themes.html
Conflict
between reason and passion - Macbeth, a soldier in the army, meets three witches after a
battle. The witches tell him that he is to be king of Scotland. Macbeth wants
the crown so bad that he would kill Duncan for it. Macbeth also lets his
conscience argue with his heart which leads Macbeth to ignore his conscience
and go with his heart to kill Duncan.
Good
versus Evil -
When Macbeth ends up killing more than just Duncan, the people of Scotland see
the evil side of Macbeth. When Macbeth is killed the son of Duncan, Malcom, becomes king and Scotland is happy once again.