![]() It seems that Macbeth, with his auditory and ocular hallucinations, has the clearer moral vision. But this is another moment of dramatic irony. She says “a little water clears us of this deed”. Lady Macbeth seems to preserve her practical mindset for a time. He roams out of the king’s chamber with the bloody daggers still in his hands saying he has heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep.” The order of Macbeth’s mind begins to break down the moment he murders his king. That image from Act One of a man split down the middle is a potent symbol for the destruction the Macbeths have wrought upon themselves. Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Macbeth - Charles A Buchel (1872) Wikimedia commonsīut the treachery resonates inwardly, too, and Shakespeare keeps the inner dimension perpetually before the audience. A mood of paranoid crisis sets in as Macbeth is crowned. There is dramatic irony in Macbeth’s response to this poetic description of cosmic disorder: “It was a rough night.” Even before Duncan’s murder is discovered, Lennox speaks of the unruly night that has passed: chimneys were blown down, strange lamentings and screams of death were heard in the air, and the earth shook and was feverish. The physical world is portrayed as instantly ruptured by their act of violence. The unfolding of their murderous plot is dramatised by Shakespeare as having outer and inner dimensions. Guide to the classics: Shakespeare's Hamlet, the Everest of literature Here one of the inner-world themes intrudes – who is morally responsible for what Macbeth does? Do the witches wield power over him? Does Lady Macbeth, as the architect of regicide, carry equal blame with Macbeth? And when he arrives back at his castle, his wife Lady Macbeth urges him to “catch the nearest way” to fulfilment of the prophecy by stabbing King Duncan to death as he sleeps in their home. The thought of killing the king, a thought “whose murder yet is but fantastical”, occurs to him immediately. Violence is in his repertoire and he needs only to take one violent step further to fulfil their prophecy. This sets the spark to the powder keg of Macbeth’s ambition. The witches on the heath greet him as Thane of Glamis, which he is, Thane of Cawdor, which we know from Duncan’s command that he will be, and “king hereafter”. Macbeth’s second promotion is also achieved through violence, but this time by premeditated treachery. 'Supp'd full with horrors': 400 years of Shakespearean supernaturalism Macbeth and Banquo meet the Witches - Théodore Chassériau (1855) Public domain There is a fragile moment at the beginning of the play, when this violence seems to have restored order. Macbeth’s first promotion, then, is gained through the sanctioned violence of killing traitors. Among the rebels is the “disloyal traitor” the Thane of Cawdor, whose title Duncan transfers to Macbeth, commanding that the treacherous clan chief be executed. The military campaign is to suppress domestic rebellion. Macbeth does this in loyal service to King Duncan, and usually enters the stage splattered with blood, that of his victims and his own – blood lost in service to his king. In Act One, Scene One, a soldier reports that Macbeth, a Scottish general, has shown prowess on the battlefield and “unseamed” his rebel opponent, Macdonald, “from the nave to th’ chops.” That means he cut him in half. The play showcases both loyal violence and treacherous violence. In exploring what holds a society together and what tears it apart, the play doesn’t just condemn violence, it dramatises its uses. The intersecting themes of its inner world are ambition, and moral reasoning. The themes of Macbeth’s outer world of action are violence and treachery. The collision of their orbits provides the spark for the drama. Macbeth, like most of Shakespeare’s plays, sets two worlds spinning: one of outer action and one of inner being.
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