The Corrupting Power of Unchecked Ambition

The main theme ofM acbeth—the destruction wrought when ambition goes unchecked
by moral constraints—finds its most powerful expression in the play’s two main
characters. Macbeth is a courageous Scottish general who is not naturally inclined to
commit evil deeds, yet he deeply desires power and advancement. He kills Duncan
against his better judgment and afterward stews in guilt and paranoia. Toward the end
of the play he descends into a kind of frantic, boastful madness. Lady Macbeth, on the
other hand, pursues her goals with greater determination, yet she is less capable of
withstanding the repercussions of her immoral acts. One of Shakespeare’s most
forcefully drawn female characters, she spurs her husband mercilessly to kill Duncan
and urges him to be strong in the murder’s aftermath, but she is eventually driven to
distraction by the effect of Macbeth’s repeated bloodshed on her conscience. In each
case, ambition—helped, of course, by the malign prophecies of the witches—is what
drives the couple to ever more terrible atrocities. The problem, the play suggests, is
that once one decides to use violence to further one’s quest for power, it is difficult to
stop. There are always potential threats to the throne—Banquo, Fleance, Macduff—
and it is always tempting to use violent means to dispose of them.

The Relationship between Cruelty and Masculinity

Characters inM acbeth frequently dwell on issues of gender. Lady Macbeth

manipulates her husband by questioning his manhood, wishes that she herself could
be “unsexed,” and does not contradict Macbeth when he says that a woman like her
should give birth only to boys. In the same manner that Lady Macbeth goads her
husband on to murder, Macbeth provokes the murderers he hires to kill Banquo by
questioning their manhood. Such acts show that both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth
equate masculinity with naked aggression, and whenever they converse about
manhood, violence soon follows. Their understanding of manhood allows the political
order depicted in the play to descend into chaos.

At the same time, however, the audience cannot help noticing that women are also
sources of violence and evil. The witches’ prophecies spark Macbeth’s ambitions and
then encourage his violent behavior; Lady Macbeth provides the brains and the will
behind her husband’s plotting; and the only divine being to appear is Hecate, the

goddess of witchcraft. Arguably, Macbeth traces the root of chaos and evil to women,

which has led some critics to argue that this is Shakespeare’s most misogynistic play.
While the male characters are just as violent and prone to evil as the women, the
aggression of the female characters is more striking because it goes against prevailing
expectations of how women ought to behave. Lady Macbeth’s behavior certainly shows
that women can be as ambitious and cruel as men. Whether because of the constraints
of her society or because she is not fearless enough to kill, Lady Macbeth relies on
deception and manipulation rather than violence to achieve her ends.

Ultimately, the play does put forth a revised and less destructive definition of manhood.
In the scene where Macduff learns of the murders of his wife and child, Malcolm
consoles him by encouraging him to take the news in “manly” fashion, by seeking
revenge upon Macbeth. Macduff shows the young heir apparent that he has a mistaken
understanding of masculinity. To Malcolm’s suggestion, “Dispute it like a man,” Macduf

replies, “I shall do so. But I must also feel it as a man” (IV.iii.221–223). At the end of the
play, Siward receives news of his son’s death rather complacently. Malcolm responds:
“He’s worth more sorrow [than you have expressed] / And that I’ll spend for him”
(V.xi.16–17). Malcolm’s comment shows that he has learned the lesson Macduff gave
him on the sentient nature of true masculinity. It also suggests that, with Malcolm’s
coronation, order will be restored to the Kingdom of Scotland.

The Difference between Kingship and Tyranny

In the play, Duncan is always referred to as a “king,” while Macbeth soon becomes
known as the “tyrant.” The difference between the two types of rulers seems to be
expressed in a conversation that occurs in Act IV, scene iii, when Macduff meets
Malcolm in England. In order to test Macduff’s loyalty to Scotland, Malcolm pretends
that he would make an even worse king than Macbeth. He tells Macduff of his
reproachable qualities—among them a thirst for personal power and a violent
temperament, both of which seem to characterize Macbeth perfectly. On the other
hand, Malcolm says, “The king-becoming graces / [are] justice, verity, temp’rance,
stableness, / Bounty, perseverance, mercy, [and] lowliness” (IV.iii.92–93). The model
king, then, offers the kingdom an embodiment of order and justice, but also comfort
and affection. Under him, subjects are rewarded according to their merits, as when
Duncan makes Macbeth thane of Cawdor after Macbeth’s victory over the invaders.
Most important, the king must be loyal to Scotland above his own interests. Macbeth,
by contrast, brings only chaos to Scotland—symbolized in the bad weather and bizarre
supernatural events—and offers no real justice, only a habit of capriciously murdering
those he sees as a threat. As the embodiment of tyranny, he must be overcome by
Malcolm so that Scotland can have a true king once more

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can

help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Hallucinations

Visions and hallucinations recur throughout the play and serve as reminders of
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s joint culpability for the growing body count. When he is
about to kill Duncan, Macbeth sees a dagger floating in the air. Covered with blood and
pointed toward the king’s chamber, the dagger represents the bloody course on which
Macbeth is about to embark. Later, he sees Banquo’s ghost sitting in a chair at a feast,
pricking his conscience by mutely reminding him that he murdered his former friend.
The seemingly hardheaded Lady Macbeth also eventually gives way to visions, as she
sleepwalks and believes that her hands are stained with blood that cannot be washed
away by any amount of water. In each case, it is ambiguous whether the vision is real
or purely hallucinatory; but, in both cases, the Macbeths read them uniformly as
supernatural signs of their guilt.

Violence
Macbeth is a famously violent play. Interestingly, most of the killings take place

offstage, but throughout the play the characters provide the audience with gory
descriptions of the carnage, from the opening scene where the captain describes
Macbeth and Banquo wading in blood on the battlefield, to the endless references to
the bloodstained hands of Macbeth and his wife. The action is bookended by a pair of
bloody battles: in the first, Macbeth defeats the invaders; in the second, he is slain and
beheaded by Macduff. In between is a series of murders: Duncan, Duncan’s

Deceit is, I feel, the most dominant theme in Macbeth. There are numerous characters in
Macbeth who are deceitful, either in what they say or how they behave; from the open treachery
of the Thane of Cawdor to the equivocation of the Witches. The reason that I feel that deceit is
the most dominant theme is that there are more references to deceit, in some form or another,
than to any other of the other themes that run through the play.

Rather oddly, the first reference that one can make in terms of how dominant deceit is can be
taken from Duncan's words upon the entrance of the Thane of Ross.

'So should he look

that seems to speak things strange.'

Soon people will be hiding their true ambitions and motives behind faces of deceit.

The next reference is when Banquo gives Macbeth a warning after the Witches prediction of him
becoming Thane of Cawdor is realized.

'Tell us truths,.....to betray's in deepest consequence.'

After the treacherous Thane of Cawdor is executed, Duncan once again makes reference to
deceit:

'There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.'

When Lady Macbeth speaks to Macbeth she advises deceit.

'To beguile the time, look like the time,'

'Look like th'innocent flower, but be the serpent under't.'

From here we start to see a 'sub-theme' of deceit wherein people will pretend to be who they are
not. This theme is also often recognized as reality versus appearance.

Another act of deceit is that Lady Macbeth and Macbeth not only plan to murder Duncan, but to
then frame his officers for the murder and pretend grief at his death.

Macbeth also says:

'mock the time with fairest show: False face must hie, what the false heart doth know.'

Early in the second act Macbeth lies to Banquo when they discuss the Witches predictions by
saying: 'I think not of them.' yet by now we know that the Witches predictions have taken root so
strongly in Macbeth's mind that he has already planned to murder his king.

In order to achieve their deceitful ends, framing the officers for Duncan's murder, Lady Macbeth
takes the bloody daggers from Macbeth and goes as far as saying that if Duncan is bleeding she
will smear their faces with his blood.

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth put on a show of grief when Duncan's murder has been discovered.
In what we can only assume is a step to ensure that the officers do not get a chance to speak in
their defense, Macbeth kills them and then claims that is was done in grief at seeing Duncan's
bloody body.

Malcolm and Donalbain, Duncan's sons,

seem to be more astute than Duncan in realizing that there is danger in trusting people.

Malcolm states: 'To show an unfelt sorrow is an office which the false man does easy.'

Donalbain states: 'Where we are there's daggers in men's smiles.'

In act three, under the pretense of friendship, Macbeth questions Banquo about his plans in
seeming innocence but then later meets with hired killers and plots the murder of Banquo and his
son by manipulative means - even in his deceit he is deceitful.

seem to be more astute than Duncan in realizing that there is danger in trusting people.

Malcolm states: 'To show an unfelt sorrow is an office which the false man does easy.'

Donalbain states: 'Where we are there's daggers in men's smiles.'

In act three, under the pretense of friendship, Macbeth questions Banquo about his plans in
seeming innocence but then later meets with hired killers and plots the murder of Banquo and his
son by manipulative means - even in his deceit he is deceitful.

Even in his plotting of Banquo's murder he implicates Banquo to these men: 'Know that it was
he in the times past which held you so under fortune.' Furthermore he tells them: 'Both of you
know Banquo was your enemy.'

Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are hosting a banquet and once again Lady Macbeth councils
Macbeth to: 'sleek o'er your rugged looks'.

Macbeth responds saying: 'make our faces vizards to our hearts, disguising what they are.'

At the banquet, after speaking with one of killers, and hearing that Banquo is dead, Macbeth then
laments his absence to Lennox and Ross. Macbeth even goes so far as to toast Banquo.

After the banquet, when discussing Macduff's absence, Macbeth mentions that he has a 'servant
fee'd in house. It is clear that the servant is paid to spy on Macduff.

Whilst not a specific reference to deceit, Macduff's refusal to attend Macbeth despite orders to do
so serves as a counterpoint to highlight the difference in their characters; the one honest in action
and the other deceitful.

In act four Macbeth goes to the Witches who show him three apparitions, these apparitions each
make a pronouncement. The first warns Macbeth to beware of Macduff, this merely confirms
what Macbeth already knows.

The next two apparitions each make a pronouncement that is prophetic, but that can also be
viewed as being made with the deceitful intent in terms of providing false comfort to Macbeth.

The second apparitions says: 'none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.' Macbeth's response to
this is to almost dismiss Macduff as a threat.

The third apparition says: 'Macbeth shall never vanquished be until great Birnam wood to high
Dunsinane hill shall come against him.' Macbeth takes this literally as expressed in his response
regarding trees being earth-bound.

Although Macbeth openly goes about murdering Macduff's family, from what people say as a
result of Macduff's flight to England, there is an inference that Macduff is being painted as a
traitor. (which one can suppose that he is for he is acting in defiance to his king - even if the man
who is king gained that throne through murder and deceit)

In act four, Macbeth's nature is recognized by others through his actions and they are no longer
deceived by him.
In act five when Macbeth is facing Macduff and learns that Macduff was 'untimely ripped' from
his mother's womb Macbeth finally realizes that he too was deceived.