Macbeth: A Critical Reading

"Macbeth is a dark, relentless tale of a good and brave Scottish general who, encouraged by the dark prophesies of three evil witches and by his own wife murders Duncan, king of Scotland. Macbeth then becomes king and brings about his own destruction"

Historical Overview   

Shakespeare wrote the play for King James I, England's new king after the demise of Elizabeth I. He had also been the king of Scotland.To please James, Shakespeare set the play in the King's native Scotland and used many characters who were James' ancestors, and included witches, a subject that James had great interest in.The play happens to Shakespeare's shortest tragedy -- probably because King James often fell asleep during performances -- and his bloodiest.

Under the realm of Queen Elizabeth I, political and economic growth of England was unrivalled. But she lived a spinster. Therefore, there was no Tudor successor to the throne of England and Elizabeth I chose James VI of Scotland, a Sturart to succeed her.  After her death in 1603, James VI of Scotland became James I of England. Earlier, it was Elizabeth I herself who was instrumental in the beheading  of her own cousin Mary Queen of Scots for she apprehended threat to her throne from her. On her deathbed, Elizabeth wanted to ease her way into Heaven, so she chose Mary’s son James to become the next King of England. This was  certainly a good political move, unifying England and Scotland under one King. 

A Few Points to Ponder 

• Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in 1606, during King James’ reign as a tribute to the king.

  

  Second Folio Edition of Macbeth

• King James was a devout advocate of the “Divine Right of Kings.”
• The setting is Scotland, King James’ homeland.
• Banquo was an ancestor of James and is shown in the play to be a virtuous person.
• James believed himself to be an expert on witchcraft and had an interest in faith healing.

But the Bard Took Liberties with the History ....

• Macdonwald’s rebellion & the invasion of Sweno took place at different times—Shakespeare combined them
• Duncan is supposed to have been killed by four hired servants—Shakespeare has Macbeth commit the murder
• History represents Banquo as equal in guilt with Macbeth—Shakespeare whitewashes Banquo’s character as a compliment to King James
• History makes no mention of Lady Macbeth—her character is almost wholly the creation of Shakespeare.
• In history, Macbeth fled before Macduff—Shakespeare shows Macbeth bravely fighting

And Shakespeare had immense knowledge about his audience

• Shakespeare ably demonstrated the Elizabethan belief that the country is stable only if the King is good and virtuous.
• Elizabethans believed that evil occurs in darkness, which is a recurring theme throughout Macbeth.
• Shakespeare included a lot of blood and murder, which the Elizabethans expected to see in a play.
• The play was considered a thriller – a threat to an anointed King and the perceived evil behind the threat.

Source

Second Edition of Holinshed's Chronicle 

Shakespeare's primary source for the story of Macbeth was The History and Chronicles of Scotland (1526), written by Hector Boece, a Scottish historian and humanist. Many scholars, however, question the factual reliability of Boece's work, and point out that Shakespeare took great liberties with Macbeth's history for dramatic purposes.

Setting of the Play

When the play opens in the midst of the eleventh century, Scotland confronted with two wars: one a civil war in which King Duncan is pitted against the rebels led by Macdownald, and the other a national war in which the Norwegian King Sweno attacked the Scotts. The other neighboring country England at that time was ruled by Edward the Confessor, whose mention, too, is found in the play. However, Shakespeare does bend certain political fact to suit his dramatic intentions.     

The Major Characters 

Macbeth: brave general under Duncan who becomes too ambitious after three witches prophesy that he will be King of Scotland. He turns to evil.

King Duncan: King of Scotland, murdered by Macbeth who was one of his generals whom he had just promoted.

     Macbeth

Lady Macbeth: Vicious wife of Macbeth, even more ambitious than Macbeth. She convinces Macbeth to murder the King. Later, she becomes insane from her wrongdoings and sleepwalks. 

Macduff: A general, believes that Macbeth killed the King Duncan. His family is murdered by Macbeth.

Banquo: Macbeth’s friend and general, suspected Macbeth of killing the King. 

Fleance: Banquo’s son, who survives Macbeth’s attempt to murder him.

Malcom: King Duncan's eldest son who runs away to England after he learns of his father’s murder in order to escape the same fate. Later returns to Scotland aided by the King Edward to reclaim the throne.

Three Witches: Speaking in riddles, they tell Macbeth that he is to become King, leading him to evil. They also tell him that he will be defeated, but they disguise it in such a way as to give him false confidence.

Minor Characters  

Ross: Macduff’s cousin, messenger who carries news to people like Macbeth and Macduff throughout the play.

Lennox: A nobleman, suspicious of the murder of the king

Seyton: Macbeth’s lieutenant.

Porter: Watches Macbeth’s castle; when drunk, thought that he was the keeper of Hell’s Gates and that sinners were knocking at the door to be admitted.

Old Siward: Earl of Northumberland, ally of Malcolm and Macduff against Macbeth.

Young Siward: Old Siward’s son.

The Murderers:  A group of ruffians conscripted by Macbeth to commit murder for his sake.

Lady Macduff: Macduff’s wife. The scene in her castle provides our only glimpse of a domestic realm other than that of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. She and her home serve as contrasts to Lady Macbeth and the hellish world of Inverness.

The Play: How the Action Unfolds

Act I Scene I

The dramatic purpose of the scene is to establish the theme of Satanic hideousness and disorder. The three hags that hold centerstage here are ugly, poor, diseased, in a thunderstorm making malice greedily over their evil plans.  They set central tone and conflict of the play ‘fair is foul, foul fair’. The witches unite ugliness, evil and power, in the service of disorder and they seek Macbeth.

Act I Scene II

A wounded sergeant reports to Duncan the latest information about a battle against a Scottish nobleman, Macdonwald, who is rebelling against the king.  The sergeant, an accomplished warrior who protected Malcom during an attempt to capture him, in battle, relates Macbeth’s deeds on the battlefield. Before even introducing the title character, Shakespeare presents Macbeth as valorous and loyal who “disdaining fortune” (setting aside concern for his own life) found and killed the rebels mercilessly.  Here Macbeth is the agent who restores order to the Scottish kingdom.

Duncan ends the scene by ordering the rebellious Thane of Cawdor (Sinel) to be executed and his title given to Macbeth. But there is great dramatic irony  here as Macbeth does not know he has been given the title

Act I Scene III

The three weird sisters cause a storm to the seafaring husband of a woman who refused to share her chestnuts with one of the witches.  The weird sisters’ level of evil seems to reach its peak with the display of “pilot’s thumb” (28).  Clearly, these

weird sisters are set up as Macbeth’s foes, though we are yet to know their purpose. 

Macbeth and Banquo are literally travelling between the battle, which represents disorder, and the capital and court which represents order.  When they first meet these supernatural agents, Macbeth echoes the witches, “Foul and fair” lines from the first scenes.  This indicates that nature is out of order. 

The sisters through their riddled speeches predict Macbeth will be king and Banquo’s sons will be king. Titles are given in the play through the death of the holder

Act I Scene IV

Back at the royal court, Duncan names Malcom as the heir to the Scottish throne.  Significantly, Macbeth sees this recognition of Malcom as an obstacle that he must overcome in order to become the King of Scotland.  The scene ends with Duncan indicating that he will stay at Macbeth’s castle that night.   While Macbeth still realizes the difference between right and wrong, he finds himself unable to control his ambition.  It is ironic that the scene begins with Duncan’s comment that it is impossible to know someone’s inner thoughts and plans, and it ends with Macbeth asking that his inner thoughts and desires be disguised.

Act I Scene V

This scene marks the introduction of Lady Macbeth. When the scene opens, she is reading a letter from Macbeth that informs her of the predictions of the weird sisters. In her soliloquy, Lady Macbeth details her plans to “pour” her spirits into her husband’s ears so he can overcome his nature and take the crown.

When she learns that Duncan is staying at their castle that night, she becomes the first character to actually voice the regicidal act that is required. In Scene V when Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to “unsex” her, she wants the spirits to remove from her any feminine attributes that will interfere with her plan to murder Duncan. The request implies that men are more capable of cruelty than women. Her words are ironic because Macbeth though brave in battle is conflicted about killing Duncan – she is more suited to committing regicide.

Act I Scene VI

In his first true soliloquy, Macbeth contemplates the consequences of killing Duncan from a variety of perspectives, revealing his inner struggle. Lady Macbeth executes her plans to convince her husband to commit regicide through a combination of insulting her husband’s masculinity and demonstrating her own fierce support of this course of action.  This scene ends the first act with Macbeth resolved to kill Duncan and obtain the Scottish throne.

Act I Scene VII

Lady Macbeth describes to her husband how they will commit the crime and subsequently frame Duncan’s servants for the murder.  After she assures him that they will not be blamed for the crime, a shift occurs in Macbeth. Although he still

realizes that regicide is wrong, he commits to that course of action. Macbeth’s final line of the scene – “False face must hide what the false heart doth know”-illustrates the disparity between his face, which is false because it is not an accurate representation, and his heart, which is false because he is being traitorous. The full title indicates that this play is a tragedy, and the choice that ends this first act begins Macbeth’s tragic fall.  Under the notion of divine right kingship, regicide is the highest crime. Macbeth knows that here is no good reason for him to commit such an act, because Duncan is a virtuous and good king.  Ultimately, his personal ambition is the only reason to commit regicide.

Act II Scene I

This scene opens with a conversation between Banquo and his son, Fleance, in the courtyard of Macbeth’s castle late at night.  Fleance represents the second part of the weird sister’s prophecy, which foretold that although Banquo will never become king himself, he will have a line of kings.  Banquo refers to the stars as candles and notes that they are all “out.”  The darkness of this night resonates with the requests we heard from Macbeth and his wife in earlier sense for darkness to hide their evil thoughts and plans.

Act II Scene II

Although Banquo admits that he has been having dreams of pursuing the prophesy, he maintains his resolve to passively await the predictions when Macbeth broaches the possibility of taking action.  Left alone, Macbeth hallucinates a dagger that leads him toward Duncan’s chamber where Lady Macbeth has drugged his servants. Macbeth joins Lady Macbeth after killing Duncan.  Macbeth is extremely distraught over his actions and claims to have heard voices saying that he had murdered sleep.  Lady Macbeth is much more calm and composed however.  She returns the daggers to Duncan’s bed chambers and smears blood on Duncan’s servants.

Act II Scene III 

The comedic porter opens the gate and allows Macduff and Lennox to enter.  Shortly after a humorous exchange between the porter and Macduff, the thane discovers Duncan’s murder.  Chaos ensues.  In the conversation between the thanes, we learn that Macbeth, in a “fury,” killed the two servants thereby removing from the servants the possibility of defending themselves.  Malcom and Donalbain, Duncan sons, flee to England and Ireland for their own safety.

This scene reminds the audience that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are not the only two people in the world of the play.  It also offers comic relief after the tragic notion had risen to great heights.

The doorkeeper, whose drunken stupor is interrupted by knocking, opens the portal for Lenox and Macduff.  Macbeth joins them.  Macduff goes to the king’s chamber and returns in an uproar as the news spreads that Duncan has been murdered.  Macbeth takes charge, summons his wife and the princes, Malcom and Donalbain, and slays the guards. Lady Macbeth fakes a swoon.  Left alone, the princes analyze their position and decide that they must flee lest they be accused of their father’s death or dies by the same hand that killed Duncan.

Act II Scene IV

Ross and an old man discuss the turmoil. In Shakespeare we often find natural turmoil replicating political turmoil or provides premonition to the breaking of natural order and the rise of the evil.  Macduff reports that the king’s sons are accused of killing their father and announces that Macbeth has been named king.  Ross departs to prepare for the crowing at Scone; Macduff stays at his home at Fife.

Act III Scene I

Banquo suspects that Macbeth killed Duncan in order to become king.  Macbeth invites Banquo to a feast that night.  Banquo promises to return in time.  Macbeth, fearing that Banquo’s children, not his own, will be the future kings of Scotland, seizes upon the opportunity provided by Banquo’s scheduled return after dark to arrange for his murder.  To carry out the crime, Macbeth employs two men whom he has persuaded to regard Banquo as an enemy.

The third act of this play marks the beginning of Macbeth’s reign as King of Scotland.  The principal event of this act will be a banquet, described in Act III, Scene 4, at which Macbeth hopes to acquire the support of the thanes.  As early as Act I, Macbeth realized that he will be as vulnerable to traitors as Duncan was.  Therefore, his actions are driven by this desire to safeguard his position. Macbeth changes in this act, his thoughts and deeds take on a more sinister character.

Act III Scene IV 

The banquet begins; Macbeth sits with the thanes rather than in his royal position.  Banquo’s ghost enters and sits in Macbeth’s chair.  Macbeth’s disturbances and direct addresses to a ghost that only he can see cause the banquet to end in disorder. After the thanes depart, Macbeth notes Macduff’s absence and decides to consult the witches.

In order to satisfy the popular taste of the contemporary audience for melodramatic presentation of materials on the stage, Shakespeare presents a popular spectacle on the stage in the form of Banquo’s ghost in Macbeth, which subsequently has come to generate numerous debates, readings and, of course, presentation on both the stage and the celluloid. Whether the ghost of Banquo is subjective or objective is variously debated, and the best way to judging this is to appreciate the scene from the chair of an audience at the theatre, not from the easy chair of a reader at home. On the stage the ghost is visible only to Macbeth and the audience, both of whom understand the cruelty involved in the act of murder, while the other characters are supposed to be unaware of its presence. In this perhaps it becomes possible to understand that Banquo’s ghost plays an important and integral role in the development of the tragic action of the play and in bringing about the nemesis of

Macbeth.

Act IV Scene I

Macbeth revisits the witches, and they show him four apparitions that predict the future.  The first apparition, an armed head, tells Macbeth to beware of Macduff.  The second, a bloody child, informs the king that no man born of a woman will be able to kill Macbeth.  The third, a crowned child holding a tree, indicates that until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Hill, he

will not be conquered.  A fourth apparition depicts the initial prophesy of Banquo’s royal descendants.  Macbeth learns of Macduff’s departure and orders the execution of Macduff’s family.

Act IV Scene II

 Ross and Lady Macduff discuss Macduff’s departure for England, which has left his family unprotected.  After a pitiful conversation between Lady Macduff and her son, a messenger enters and warns them to flee for their safety.  Lady Macduff refuses, and soon murderers enter who kill their son onstage and pursue Lady Macduff off the stage.

Act IV Scene III

Macduff finds Malcom at the English court and urges him to attack Macbeth at once.  Malcom suspects that Macduff is Macbeth’s agent sent to lure Malcom to his destruction in Scotland.  After Malcom reveals that Edward, king of England, has provided a commander (Siward) and ten thousand troops for the invasion of Scotland.  Ross then arrives with the news of the slaughter of Macduff’s entire household.  At first grief-stricken, Macduff follows Malcom’s advice and converts his grief into a desire to avenge himself on Macbeth.

Act V Scene I

A doctor and a gentlewoman witness Lady Macbeth sleepwalking.  The gentlewoman indicates that Lady Macbeth

sometimes composes a letter in her sleep.  On this night, however, she rubs her hands together in an effort to “wash” a spot of blood off.  Lady Macbeth has come a full circle in her character -- from being a commandeering figure who had the ability to chastise her husband of being of ‘infirm purpose’, ironically, she herself has become sordidly infirm. The irony cannot be more vivacious when she is seen washing her hands continually so as to wash off the sins of murdering and the audience/ reader at once reminds that it was she that told Macbeth, her ‘partner of greatness’ that ‘a little water’ can wash off the crime. Although the doctor and the gentlewoman realize that her conscience is burdened, they don’t understand that it stems from her complicity in Duncan’s murder.  After Lady Macbeth returns to bed, the doctor commands that precautions be taken to prevent Lady Macbeth from committing suicide.

Act V Scene II & III

From here on the play attains great velocity. Events happen quickly than ever before reaching in a crescendo of action. A group of Scottish thanes enter their way to Birnam Wood to unite with Malcom and the English forces.  They also indicate that although Macbeth’s army still obeys him, it no longer feels loyalty toward the King.

The reference to Birnam Wood in line 5 should raise a signal.  Recall that this is the forest that has to move to Dunsinane hill (on top of which stands Dunsinane castle where Macbeth is fortified) in order for Mabeth to be vanquished. Waiting for the battle to begin, Macbeth oscillates between being overly aggressive and confident and sad “sick at heart.” Macbeth is seen as pitiable.

Act V Scene IV & V

The Scottish thanes unite with Malcom the English forces at Birnam Wood.  Malcom reveals his plan to use tree branches to disguise the approach of the army to Dunsinane Castle.  With a large army, this strategy will create the illusion that the woods are moving.

Preparing for war, Macbeth learns of his wife’s death but exhibits little grief as he famously says that that was no opportune moment for Lady Macbeth to die.  A messenger informs Macbeth of the approach of Birnam Wood.  Questioning his invulnerability, Macbeth decides that if he is to die, he wants to die in battle.

Act V Scene VII & VIII

Macbeth learns that Birnam Wood is marching against Dunsinane. His bravado wilts at this confirmation of the witches’ prophesy.  He outfights young Siward, who dies in the struggle and moves on to a face-off against Macduff. Macbeth voices his false hope that no man born of woman can harm him.  Macduff, supercharged with hate, shatters his confidence by describing how he was delivered surgically and was, therefore, never born in the ordinary sense of human birth.  Their final clash ends Macbeth’s life.  Macduff beheads his enemy and exposes the gory trophy on the battlefield, where the proclaims Malcolm the next ruler of Scotland.

Important Themes of Macbeth

• Corrupting Power of Unchecked Ambition 

Macbeth's hamartia lies in his over-ambitiousness. His is a tragedy of an over-reacher where he allows an unbridled run for his self-defeating ambition. A few quotes from across the play will allow us to comprehend how this ambition leads to mighty Macbeth's downfall.

His vaulting ambition shows for the first time after he meets the Witches to be informed of the royal prophecy in the the third scene of the first act:   

My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man
That function is smother'd in surmise,
and nothing is but what is not. (1.3.52-55)

 As he is received by great honour by the Scottish King Duncan, Macbeth's ambition only but grows. only to be suddenly pruned down as the King anoints his eldest son Malcom as an heir to the throne. Macbeth retorts aside: 

The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;Let not light see my black and deep desires.The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. (1.4.55-60)

None but Lady Macbeth knows the real mettle of Macbeth. She knows him to be ambitious but knows all too well that he is honest and truthful to his duty towards his master. Partly Macbeth  is as much a drama depicting Macbeth's royal ambitions and partly indeed it can be read also as one showing Lady Macbeth's intention to be queen as well:

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great,
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it. (1.5.15-20) Macbeth, prodded by his 'partner of equal goodness', once gets committed to the crime of killing Duncan is left to observe:

I have no spurTo prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other— (1.7.25-28)

And his crime is not without a fair share of guilt but Macbeth's ambition does override that, too:

For mine own good
All causes shall give way. I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er. (3.4.167-170) 

Finally, when King Macbeth receives the news of the death of his lady at a time he was preparing to contain rebel within as from without he is left with little scope of mourning as he mutters:

She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word. (5.5.20-21)

• The Question of Kingship and Tyranny
  
  The divine right of kings says that a monarch is given the kingship because it is the will of God. King Duncan fulfilled the divine right of kings; he was meant to be on the throne, but Macbeth was not. Macbeth killed King Duncan, and was crowned king of Scotland. After he was placed on the throne, however, he began to be considered a “tyrant,” rather than a “king.” Before him, Duncan was always referred to as a “king” because of his loyalty to his country, and the order he brought to Scotland. On the contrary, Macbeth had a violent temper and a thirst for power: two characteristics of a tyrant. Macbeth brought chaos and danger to Scotland while he was king. He was not loyal to Scotland, as a good king should be, but loyal to himself and his own interests. When people began to notice the evil in Macbeth, they tried to take him off of the throne, and put a rightful king on, thus leading to the downfall and death of Macbeth.

Here is a very significant write-up on the issue 

• Fate, Prophecy and Freewill   

From the moment the weird sisters tell Macbeth and Banquo their prophecies, both the characters and the audience are forced to wonder about fate. Is it real? Is action necessary to make it come to pass, or will the prophecy come true no matter what one does? Different characters answer these questions in different ways at different times, and the final answers are ambiguous—as fate always is.
Unlike Banquo, Macbeth acts: he kills Duncan. Macbeth tries to master fate, to make fate conform to exactly what he wants. But, of course, fate doesn't work that way. By trying to master fate once, Macbeth puts himself in the position of having to master fate always. At every instant, he has to struggle against those parts of the witches' prophecies that don't favor him. Ultimately, Macbeth becomes so obsessed with his fate that he becomes delusional: he becomes unable to see the half-truths behind the witches' prophecies. By trying to master fate, he brings himself to ruin.

External Link: Fate Vs Self-fulfilling Prophecy

• Violence and Bloodshed

The Elizabethan-Jacobean audience had a special flair for violence. Drama as a form of popular entertainment in the Renaissance had to vie for superiority with blood sports such as bear-baiting and bull-fighting. It is no surprise then that gory violence was an usual feature to be grossly introduced in plays. A lot many revenge tragedies of the do exploit this to the fullest extent. Shakespeare, however, was a master craftsman who, in spite of making Macbeth his most blood-soaked tragedy, was able to curtail much bloodshed on

stage through his exquisite versification where much of the violence was interiorised. 

To call Macbeth a violent play is an understatement. It begins in battle, contains the murder of men, women, and children, and ends not just with a climactic siege but the suicide of Lady Macbeth and the beheading of its main character, Macbeth. In the process of all this bloodshed, Macbeth makes an important point about the nature of violence: every violent act, even those done for selfless reasons, seems to lead inevitably to the next. The violence through which Macbeth takes the throne, as Macbeth himself realizes, opens the way for others to try to take the throne for themselves through violence. So Macbeth must commit more violence, and more violence, until violence is all he has left. As Macbeth himself says after seeing Banquo's ghost, "blood will to blood." Violence leads to violence, a vicious cycle.  

As it has been quite rightly pointed out "The text of Macbeth is infused with blood: Shakespeare uses the word more than forty times. Putting it very simply, the play is about Macbeth’s ambition to be king, and having trod a bloody path to realise that he now finds it to have been a hollow and empty enterprise. His attempt to cover up his route to the throne and simply to survive as king involves increasingly desperate acts of violence, and a lot more blood, as he sets about eliminating his opposition."

Here is an interesting essay on violence and bloodshed in Macbeth

Download Jenny Brown's Essay "Blood Will Have Blood": Female Deviance and Male Violence in Macbeth

• Manhood, Masculinity and Cruelty   

Lady Macbeth wishes that she could be "unsexed."

Also, she doesn't contradict Macbeth when saying a woman like her should only give birth to boys.
Macbeth provokes the murderers he hires to kill Banquo by questioning their manhood.
Lady Macbeth's behavior proves to show that women can be just as diabolical and cruel as men.
Have you ever noticed that when Macbeth and his wife argue over masculinity it ends in some form of violence?

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both equate masculinity with aggression.
The witches prophecies spark Macbeth's ambition and violence.

Lady Macbeth provides the brains behind her husband's murder plot.

The only divine being to appear is Hecate, an evil woman.

Might Shakespeare be tracing the roots of chaos and evil to women?
Lady Macbeth relies on deception and manipulation rather than violence.

Is this because of the restraint on society? Or because she is not fearless enough to kill?
Malcolm consoles Macduff by saying to handle it in a "manly" fashion...

...by murdering Macbeth in return.


Finally, Macduff shows Malcolm he has a mistaken understanding of what masculinity is and is not.
“you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full / Of direst cruelty”
-Lady Macbeth (I.v.38-41)
FIRST WITCH
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis!

SECOND WITCH
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!

THIRD WITCH
All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!
"What beast was ’t, then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
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."
-Lady Macbeth (I.vii.49)
-The Wyrd Sisters (I.iii.49-51)

• Natural, Unnatural and the Supernatural 

The term supernatural was first used in 1520-30 AD. The definition of supernatural is “that which is not subject to the laws of physics, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature” (“Supernatural”). The term supernatural, or unnatural, refers to paranormal, religions, and magic. Macbeth was written in 1606 and contains many of the unnatural elements listed above. In Macbeth, the supernatural plays a huge part in the play. The play is more focused on the unnatural element than the natural element. The element of unnatural is shown through the three weird sister witches, the deaths that occur in the play, and Banquo's ghost.

In medieval times, it was believed that the health of a country was directly related to the goodness and moral legitimacy of its king. If the King was good and just, then the nation would have good harvests and good weather. If there was political order, then there would be natural order. Macbeth shows this connection between the political and natural world: when Macbeth disrupts the social and political order by murdering Duncan and usurping the throne, nature goes haywire. Incredible storms rage, the earth tremors, animals go insane and eat each other. The unnatural events of the physical world emphasize the horror of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's acts, and mirrors the warping of their souls by ambition.

It is noteworthy the way that different characters talk about nature in the play. Duncan and Malcolm use nature metaphors when they speak of kingship—they see themselves as gardeners and want to make their realm grow and flower. In contrast, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth either try to hide from nature (wishing the stars would disappear) or to use nature to hide their cruel designs (being the serpent hiding beneath the innocent flower). The implication is that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, once they've given themselves to the extreme selfishness of ambition, have themselves become unnatural.

A Brief Analysis on the Role of Natural, Unnatural and the Supernatural in Macbeth

 Blogpost on Natural and the Unnatural in Macbeth 

• Appearance and Reality 

In a riveting play laden with the supernatural, nothing is as it outwardly appears to the naked eye. Tension, mystery, dread and ambiguity pervade the drama. Using the theme of appearance vs reality, Shakespeare delves deep into the darker side of humanity and the inner plotting/scheming of the human mind.

The witches set the scene for confusion and illusion in the play. They successfully manage to mislead, cheat and incite evil throughout Scotland via deliberately ambiguous and misleading language. Even their physical appearance is contradictory and perturbing:

Fair is foul and foul is fair

Lesser than Macbeth and greater

You should be women and yet your beards forbid me to interpret

Look not like the inhabitants of the wart yet are on’t

Then there is this famous line by Macbeth in the very first act:

This supernatural soliciting cannot be be ill, cannot be good

Macbeth believes the prophesy does not seem bad, as what he was promised turned out to be true, but it cannot be good either, as he is now thinking of murdering the kind. This line follows the motif of “fair is foul, and foul is fair.” This also shows that Macbeth is violent and power-hungry. Although many believe that Lady Macbeth is most blameworthy for the murder of Duncan, Macbeth was the first to think of killing him, despite the prophesy not mentioning anything about killing. This quote contains paradoxes that can be dealt from multiple perspectives.

Duncan’s naive and misplaced trust shows that none can be believed or truly relied upon. The dramatic irony between himself and Macbeth as well as his dismissal of Donalbain’s advice are key:

Absolute trust

There’s no art to find the minds construction in the face

And how ironically prophetic it is when Donalbain tells Malcom: “There’s daggers in men’s smiles”. But Duncan appears with all his sympathy fondly placed as he tells Macbeth, his ‘valiant cousin’: “More is thy due then all can pay” whose ‘black and deep desires’ runs all through the play.

Lady Macbeth is the foremost example and epitome of deceit and false appearances. Inwardly she is consumed with a lust for power but outwardly maintains a masquerade of a loving and subservient wife and an ‘honour’d hostess’:

Fill me from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty

Take my milk for gall you murdering ministers

Too full o’ the milk of human kindness

Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t

My keen knife not see the wound it makes

Macbeth befools Duncan and carries out his coup against him. In the aftermath of the murder he abandons his once dearly held principles and lies to the assembly. Macbeth maintains his reputation while secretly corrupted by his own delusions of grandeur by building up a masquerade of selfless devotion and martyrdom. His own psychological uncertainty peeps through in no uncertain terms as he quite helplessly utters: ‘Is this a dagger I see before me?’ Does the supernatural, then, helps Macbeth to carry out the murder, which otherwise remains his own design and conviction? Yet he does repent what he does:

I do repent me of my fury that I did kill them (the two guards he framed for the murder, and from this time on Macbeth journey to downfall starts for he becomes “no less than a pitiless, merciless serial killer”)

He is so disturbed internally to conflict-torn in his mind that he cries out: “Had I but died an hour before this chance I had lived a blessed time.”

Banquo is the subtlest example of appearance vs reality. He successfully hides his ambition. Unlike the others his mask is never unveiled due to his untimely demise at the hands of Macbeth who says (Act II, Sc. III):

Noble Banquo

Too cruel anywhere (the murder)

Bosom franchised and allegiance clear

I fight of treasonous malice

I fear thou playd’st most foully for it

May they not be my oracles as well?

But hush! No more.

Even the forces of good who oppose Macbeth are drawn into deception and appearance vs reality. The princes are falsely accused of Duncan’s murder. Malcolm is forced to lie to Macduff to test his loyalty and convictions and he says: “Stolen away and fled which puts upon them suspicion of the deed”. Again, the play between appearance and reality is clearly evident here. No less ironical it is when Macduff’s wife scorns his exile: “His flight was madness. When our actions do not,/ Our fears do make us traitors”.

Macbeth himself is undone by his association with the witches. The equivocation of the witches give him a false sense of security and superiority which ultimately makes him very vulnerable to being overthrown. He somewhat foolishly thinks that ‘Macbeth shall never be vanquished’ till the ‘Great Birnam wood/ Shall come against him’ and suffers from the witch-induced delusion that ‘None of woman born shall harm’ him. Thus Macbeth having been ‘Damned all the trust them (witches)’ and suffers most ignominiously when being killed by ‘not a woman’s born’ Macduff ‘ripped off untimely from his mother’s womb’. Macbeth till the very end of the play ‘cannot taint with fear’ the ‘Golden opinions’ – nothing but delusory images confined in half-truths uttered by the weird sisters. 

Here is a brief essay that delves deep into the question of appearance and reality

• Imagery, Visions and Hallucination 

A number of times in Macbeth, Macbeth sees or hears strange things: the floating dagger, the voice that says he's murdering sleep, and Banquo's ghost. As Macbeth himself wonders about the dagger, are these sights and sounds supernatural visions or figments of his guilty imagination? The play contains no definitive answer, which is itself a kind of answer: they're both. Macbeth is a man at war with himself, his innate honor battling his ambition. Just as nature goes haywire when the normal natural order is ruptured, Macbeth's own mind does the same when it is forced to fight against itself.

 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.

Visions and hallucinations can be seen as a reflection of one’s conscience – and in this case, Macbeth’s guilt getting to him.  The supernatural element adds a feeling that forces beyond nature are in control.  The three together give the play deeper meaning, as Macbeth seems to embrace the forces of evil or the unnatural.

• Macbeth speaks to the witches, in Act 1, Scene 2.

• Macbeth sees the bloody dagger leading him to kill Duncan, in Act 2, scene 1.

• Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost at the banquet in Act 3, scene 4.

A Research Article on Macbeth's Vision andHallucination

• Irony 

You would get adequate material on this topic in my discussion above on the debate between appearance and reality in Macbeth. However, I am giving links below to two very interesting theses on the importance of dramatic irony so far as Macbeth is concerned: 

Dramatic Irony in Macbeth: A Detailed Study

Link to an in-depth essay on Dramatic Irony in Macbeth