Macbeth Soliloquies Essay Research Paper Probably composed

Macbeth Soliloquies Essay, Research Paper

Probably composed in late 1606 or early 1607, Macbeth is the last of Shakespeare’s four great tragedies, the others being Hamlet, King Lear and Othello. It is a relatively short play without a major sub-plot, and it is considered by many scholars to be Shakespeare’s darkest work. Lear is an utter tragedy in which the natural world is amorally indifferent toward mankind, but in Macbeth, Shakespeare adds a supernatural dimension that purposively conspires against Macbeth and his kingdom. In the tragedy of Lear, the distraught king summons the goddess of Chaos, Hecht; in Macbeth, Hecate appears as an actual character.

On the level of human evil, Shakespeare’s Scottish tragedy is about Macbeth’s bloody rise to power, including the murder of the Scottish king, Duncan, and the guilt-ridden pathology of evil deeds generating still more evil deeds. As an integral part of this thematic web is the play’s most memorable character, Lady Macbeth. Like her husband, Lady Macbeth’s ambition for power leads her into an unnatural, phantasmagoric realm of witchcraft, insomnia and madness. But while Macbeth responds to the prophecies of the play’s famous trio of witches, Lady Macbeth goes even further by figuratively transforming herself into an unnatural, desexualised evil spirit. The current trend of critical opinion is toward an upward re-evaluation of Lady Macbeth who is said to be rehumanized by her insanity and her suicide. Much of this reappraisal of Lady Macbeth has taken place in discussions of her ironically strong marriage to Macbeth, a union that rests on loving bonds but undergoes disintegration as the tragedy unfolds.

Throughout the novel, there are moments when important characters are given the opportunity to express details of their character and reveal information that is otherwise not given, but vital to the development of the story. A soliloquy is a classical literary technique to allow a character to share his or her thoughts and feelings with the audience. I will now examine and attempt to interpret two of these soliloquies, one from Lady Macbeth and the second from Macbeth himself.

As the scene opens, Lady Macbeth is reading a letter from her husband. The letter tells of the witches’ prophecy for him, which is

treated as a certainty, because “I have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge”.

“The perfectest report” means “the most reliable information,” so it appears that Macbeth has been asking people what they know about the reliability of witches. If that’s the case, he has ignored the advice of Banquo, who is quite sure that witches can’t be trusted. But Macbeth seems to trust the witches absolutely, because he is writing to his wife, his “dearest partner of greatness,” so that she “mightst not lose the dues of

rejoicing”. That is, he believes that she has a right to rejoice because she will be a queen. However, Lady Macbeth doesn’t rejoice. She is determined that he will be king, but she suspects that he doesn’t have the right stuff to do what needs to be done. Speaking to him as though he were really there, she says: “Yet do I fear thy nature; / It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way”.

Her reaction to the letter shows that Lady Macbeth is a woman who knows her husband very well, perhaps because she shares some of his instincts. For both of them, murder is the “nearest way.” In an earlier scene, Macbeth had commented that “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, / Without my stir”, but later he assumes that he must be an assassin in order to be king. This is always his wife’s assumption.

In addition, Lady Macbeth seems to share the witches’ views on good and bad. She says to her absent husband, “Thou wouldst be great; / Art not without ambition, but without / The illness should attend it”. She, like the witches, believes that foul is fair. Ambition “should” be accompanied by “illness.” Yet she does not believe that Macbeth is really good. She says that he “wouldst not play false, / And yet wouldst wrongly win”. In her view, he’s something of a coward, because he has that within him that tells him what he must do if he is to have the throne, but he’s afraid to do it. Lady Macbeth tells her absent husband that he should hurry home so that she can “chastise with the valour of my tongue / All that impedes thee from the golden round”. In other words, she plans to persist with him until he’s ashamed of himself for being afraid to be bad. After all, it’s only that fear that’s keeping him from wearing the crown.

As Lady Macbeth is wrapped up in these murderous thoughts, a messenger comes in with the news that the King is coming to stay the night. Lady Macbeth’s first reaction is almost enough to give her away. “Thou’rt mad to say it!” she exclaims. To her, it must seem that there’s some magic at work, because just as she’s thinking about killing the King, here comes the news that he’s going to be sleeping under her roof. She covers up by saying that Macbeth must be with the King, and that her husband would have sent someone ahead to tell her, so that she could prepare for the King’s arrival. The messenger informs her that Macbeth’s messenger has just now come, only moments ahead of Macbeth himself. With that, she sends the messenger away and prepares herself for what’s n