Ambition in Macbeth - the Soliloquy

The soliloquy
Definition & analysis of soliloquy: “to be or not to be”
The soliloquy: is the act of talking to oneself silently or allowed. In drama it’s a convention by which a character alone on stage utters his thoughts allowed; the playwright uses this device as a convenient way to convey directly to the audience information about a character’s motives, intentions and state of mind, as well as or purposes of general exposition. The soliloquies punctuate hat play at significant points, they are a privileged moments for the character who can verbalize his thoughts (confused so far) they are also considered as a privileged moment for the audience who gets to know more, it is a sort of intellectual self fulfillment, the audience does get to know more.
Hamlet is outraged by god, but somehow he does not know how he feels. In his situation, his father comes to ask him to revenge him which is the dilemma, he is confused and resistant. The audience need the soliloquy of what hamlet is feeling. A related stage device is the device in which a character explains his thoughts or intentions in a short speech which by invention is inaudible to the other characters on stage.
Different interpretations of Hamlet:
For many readers, hamlet remains an imaginative work which has been called a “great poetical puzzle”. Hamlet has caused more discussion than any other character in fiction, dramatic or non-dramatic. Many have been disturbed by what have been called: the two Hamlet in the play”. 1- The true sensitive young intellectual and idealist; the sweet prince, who expresses himself in unforgettable poetry. 2- The other, a barbaric who treats Ophelia cruelty and kills Polonius. Hamlet, a tragic hero who has a clear and sacred obligation to kill Claudius and to do so without delay; the basic question then is: why does so much time elapse before revenge?
1- 1st interpretation: hamlet is the victim of external difficulties, which makes immediate positive action impossible. Claudius was too powerful and did not place himself in a defensive position. Hamlet as a young man, attractive and gifted in many ways, he is incapable of positive action. For them: “the native hue of resolution is sicklied over with a pale of cast of thought”. There are several passages in the play which seem to support such an interpretation.
For Gwerty, hamlet is “a young man of lovely, pure and moral nature” without the strength of nerve which forms the hero. Many English leading romantics arrived at the same conclusion. For Coleridge, for instance, hamlet is the creature of mere meditation and loses his power to action. This romantic view of hamlet has survived into the 20th century and one modern critic could state: “Hamlet is full of purpose but void of that quality of mind which accomplishes purpose”. 3- Hamlet, the victim of excessive melancholy recognized as a disease, he has been called as the Melancholy Dane. Hamlet’s grief is pathological; it is distinctive and causes him to hesitate leading to his death.
4- 4th interpretation: hamlet the victim of the Oedipus complex, usually in the age of seven, pathology comes and he loves so much his mother that he cannot understand that she shares her love with Claudius. This Fraudian or Neo-freiun interpretation of hamlet appears too many people today. According to this theory, hamlet suffers from Oedipus complex which is unhealthy attachment of a son with his mother which can be surpassed a cause great mental distress. This ingenious theory motivates hamlet delay by identifying him with Claudius through whom he had accomplished the Oedipal act of murdering the father and marrying the mother.
5- 5th interpretation: Hamlet motivated by ambition: for many commentators, the primary reason for hamlet’s desire to kill his uncle is not to avenge him, but to make possible his own advancement to the throne. 6- One last theory, hamlet mislead by the ghost: the ghost of hamlet’s father is not an honest ghost, it is argued that the prince is called upon to execute private vengeance not public justice.
Conclusion: a major conclusion can be made, Shakespeare tragedy is a work of immense interest & genius & the tragic hero here is universally interesting & fascinating.
“To be or not to be” Act III Scene I:
Missed.
Macbeth and its different interpretations:
Macbeth received different interpretations emphasizing one act or the other of the play. In the 19th C, it has been considered one of Shakespeare most sublime plays because of its obvious analogues with ancient tragedies, particularly with Greek tragedy. Shakespeare in Macbeth borrows the idea of the fall of a great man from great status to a weak one.
The 20th century interpretations are more varied and critically diversified. In the eyes of readers like J. Barley “Macbeth neither interest the mind nor moves the heart nor fills the imagination as do hamlet, Othello and King Lear”. From the philosophical point of view Macbeth is weak; the play is void of philosophical ideas and perceptions. All the soliloquies offer us from an intellectual point of view who is good and remains weak and Shakespeare is giving us the portrait of a great man who all of a sudden fall from high status to a low one. It is wrong to say that it neither interests the mind nor moves the heart, there are no emotions involves into the heart.
Shakespeare fills our imagination by the use of language, metaphors and images “Macbeth speaks about tears shall drown the wind”. Others like G.B. Harrison in 1951, In Shakespeare tragedies think that Macbeth has been extravagantly over praised “. In his eyes, it is the weakest of Shakespeare tragedies; it is so full of blemishes that it is difficult to believe that one wrote it». Some have laid emphasizes on characterization, they like the play for its character delineation, others believe that there is little discrimination between the characters and like the play for its poetry as if the dramatic and poetic are separable in Shakespeare…. Why?
Some others see it as developing the theme of manhood. Lady Macbeth’s power over her husband defends on persuading him to accept a partial and improper definition of manliness. Macbeth the holder wants to avoid the danger of his feminist only to fight the great danger of pettishness. The play has been also perceived as about nature and immatureness: nature (the superior force in universe) offers men a choice between creativeness and destructiveness.
There are other more symbolic interpretations of Macbeth: the biblical phrases and images which fill the play give it a Christian interpretation. Seaton and officers attending on Macbeth is acquitted with! Hecate is acquitted with Lady Macbeth’s spirit. Another approach tends to look upon the play as a myth or mutual but without specific meaning. Macbeth is seen as “a board of mussel”, who has turned life into riot for his limited time and is then driven out and destroyed by the forces which embody the vitality and the communal happiness of the social group. Another way of looking at the play is to call it: “a morality play” (it is a sub genre) these kinds of plays are characterized by their flat characterization; they present simple characters embodying one main moral or psychological treat with little character development.
In much many characters are brought in with no attempt to make them individual, e.g. a surgeon (messenger), the doctor, the waiting woman of Lady Macbeth and the murderers of Banko as well as Ross, Angus, Lennox are also without personality as much as in the character of morality play. Morality plays embody the struggle between good and evil with the triumph of god at the end.
Is Macbeth a morality play? There are some aspects of morality in the flat characters that belong to the morality play and other aspects are not because Macbeth is a complex character. Because of his soliloquies and as the play moves he develops.

Macbeth has also been seen as a great political play (to usurp the throne), he is seen as an ideal ruler who has subordinated all his personal pleasure and with them all his personal charm to his political obligations.

Some views have tended to sentimentalize Macbeth presenting him sympathetically and even as hero by given him a romantic image. Others, in the other hand, for one reason or another, it has been unconscious to di-sentimantalize him seeing him an ignorable character moved more by nerves than by conscience.

He is presented as oscillating between fear and ratiossness, one who begins with courage which is not real courage ending with the same thing.

Macbeth has also been seen divided into 2 irreconcilable elements closely tied together hero and criminal. Macbeth is not simply the victim of his imagination, he is also a man who fails to think clearly on moral issues.

Characterization:
In the eyes of many readers, Macbeth is less concerned with the covering of the crime to other than the uncovering of the criminal to himself. In the ply, we are not interested in on the criminal than the point of the play of how the criminal discovers/ knows himself. Through ought the play, we discover the multifaceted Macbeth; he does not know himself before and after the play.
The play develops from our interest in the hero and the hero here is a criminal or rather a man obsessed by his criminal tendencies, by his relation to evil “like his wife”. The play is often regarded as a discovery of an anatomy of evil. Of all Shakespeare’s plays, Macbeth is the most obsessively concerned with evil. Good struggles forward in the play of Macbeth but evil is all prevailing. Good men like Duncan, Bunko, and Flints Macdoff all die or fly the land but even in flight, they cannot escape from its power; they seem trapped, not knowing what other man may mean or what is true or false. “fair may be foul”: they must watch their own tongues and watch what they say because there is daggers in man’s smile. Macbeth is infected by evil and Malcolm is the medicine of the sickly weal. Macbeth’s infection spread outside his mind into the mind of others. At the same time, he is himself the 1st victim and thereafter the victimizer. In this mislead, it is interesting to know that in the last act his name is little used, he is the tyrant, the confident. With macdoff, we have forces of darkness, evil and good doers: The wicked that is, the witches who represent potential harm, potential evil (virtual not actual).
Also, Lady Macbeth who invokes evil “come to my woman breast and take my milk”. Good: represented by Duncan, he is honest, generous in his office (he is the king), together with his son, Bunco who represents loyalty and goodness is virtuous and honest together with his son fleance.
Mac duff represents kingship, he is brave, patriotic and noble. Therefore, we have forces of darkness, good except Macbeth who is between a conventional (brave and loyal) respecting social and moral obligation, a good husband who loves his wife & calls her partner. In the eyes of his wife, he is the milk of human kindness. Macbeth is easily influenced, ambitious and tempted to perform the deed, i.e. to kill to become king then feels the need to feel secure. Therefore, he kills more and becomes a tyrant, supports himself and eventually dies as a warrior.
The essential dialogue is between Macbeth and himself, C.F. Macbeth 5 great speeches:
Macbeth’s problem is that he cannot forget his deeds, he identifies completely with his deeds but at the same time cannot reconcile with his deed. From the moment he committed his crime, what he cares for is some security in what he does. This search of security pushes him to commit further crimes and kill at the end; he comes to measure manliness by the absence of feelings as his wife had earlier instructed him to do. In a similar way, the evil corruption spread in Lady Macbeth, it was believed that women were more prone to witchcraft than men. Lady Macbeth speedily and freely evokes the evil spirits to come and possess her, she says:”come to woman’s breast and take my milk for goal”, i.e. poison. Act I scene 5. The audience would surely assume that She had given her soul to the devil and was therefore a witch herself. Moreover, the doctors’ verdict after witnessing here sleep walking says: “more deeds she the Devine theraphisician”, this may be taken to mean that lady Macbeth should seek to confess her sins but also and more effectively means that she needs a priest to exhuise the spirit that had possessed her and caused her trance and confection, her death is obscure.

Act I scene I: Shakespeare establishes to create atmosphere (Thunder, lightning). It is a technique from him so that the audience is immediately into it; witches are abnormal beings and they use specific language and they are infighting environment. They are against nature, when they appear nature is disturbed, they are unnatural and it is in this atmosphere that Macbeth is going to meet them.
Act I scene II: involves King Duncan and his sons Malcolm and Donaldbom including attendants and a sergeant who comes from the battlefield. In this scene, Macbeth is described as violent, bright, invincible and loyal, worthy gentlemen. He is described as justice as he is the representative attire of justice. On the contrary, Macdonald is described as merciless, pitiless, traitor, rebel, unfaithful: this shows the contrast between them.
In terms of structure Shakespeare gives more convincing the 2nd part of the long speech. An account of violence in the battlefield, he uses words with negative quotations with regard to Macdonald, words positively quoted with regard to Macbeth both of them are compared to swimmers. Macbeth is a hero but he is also violent, brave and blood thirsty. He is in military action, that is why he is violent, but later on in his civilian life, he executes the king and this shows that he does not make a distinction.
Act I scene 3: it describes the 1st encounter of Macbeth; the witches are potential evils, mysterious whereas Macbeth belongs to mankind but he is not an ordinary man, he is a general, brave and loyal (he has many qualities) but he is puzzled by their apparition. Bunco compares their apparition to “bubbles on earth”, they are strange creatures and they use supernatural language (imagined by Shakespeare). To give suspense to their language he uses a technique of repetition and imagines the meeting between Macbeth and the witches; we see Macbeth for the 1st time in the play by this meeting and even his 1st words are an echo of the witches’ words “so foul and fair”: Macbeth is a Victorian and the day for him is foul and fair. Macbeth begs the witches to speak more, but banco does neither beg nor fear their hate. Macbeth is confused, not knowing what to think or say; from a technical point of view, his confusion is shown through several questioning. Another point is a succession of aside (a character who feels the need to speak either alone or share with one character), i.e. when Macbeth talks to himself it shows his confusion and he gets more confused when the idea of murdering cross his mind. This scene brought the confusion and the desire to Shakespeare; it shows a clear contrast between Macbeth’s attitude and banquo’s. This scene is important because it will determine Macbeth’s future.
Whatever the question is, we have to mention Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and Duncan.

Act I scene 5: this scene is very important because it talks about Lady Macbeth. At the beginning there is a court of Macbeth in which he gives her very accurate details of true nerves. He tells her about the witches who promised him greatness, and in the same day he has been announced to become Thane of Cawdor. HE CONSIDERS HER AS A PARTNER and though he is a violent general, he is kind and a good husband. Then, we have a court of Lady Macbeth who is determined to about what it is to be done. However, she is the best one to know Macbeth. She knows that he is not clear; he likes ambition but doubt about the weaknesses that accompanies it. He would not like to trick but if someone else does it for him he would accept.
From the moment she hears the news, she feels as if she is possessed and when she hears about the coming of the king Duncan, she calls the spirit of evil to possess her. She is looking for some force to dehumanize her, to make her blood thick in order not to feel any pity or any natural feeling that could filter into her heart and she wants to lose her fiminity to be rude, she wants the night to be thick so no one can see the crime even the heaven. She is evoking thick night so that everything would be in dark and she is determined by ordering her husband who has just arrived. She asks him to be hypocrite and hide his feelings”look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it” because he “is as a book where men may read strange matters”, she is even convinced to control everything and asks him to be innocent and she would be the one in charge of everything.
Act I scene 6: Lady Macbeth appears as a perfect hostess, she gives an ensuring and securing image to her guests (King Duncan, his sons, Bunco) she pretends to be a kind woman. In this scene, “guests” and “”hostess” are two words that are repeated to create an atmosphere of peace; these words are used in an ironic manner but there is also in them a dramatic irony, i.e. the reader and the author share complicity, there is an understanding between them in the expenses of the protagonist Duncan. This scene shows the hypocrisy of Lady Macbeth and describes complete defenseless of the king. He is trustworthy king, good hearted, honest, generous and lovely, kind and possesses all qualities but he is naïve. Shakespeare imagines this scene to heighten the horror of the crime. The generous king thinks of Macbeth’s castle as a creation of trust “every bird” and of the kind hostess, but it is in the very place that he would be killed. We notice one of Shakespeare’s techniques when a character feels free to speak of another one. This peaceful scene is contrasted to scene 5.
Act I scene7: Macbeth speaks soliloquies, he is verbalizing his dilemma, he is not a man who assumes consequences and wants the crime to be finished very quickly. He is imaginative; he is a man who refuses to take on his responsibilities, he is a moral coward and does not want to play falls. Macbeth wants the consequence of the act (become king). Shakespeare uses metaphors to describe this thought of murdering one another. Macbeth thinks of future and justice, he thinks that if he commits the crime, the crime will return to make his life miserable; here Macbeth is in an obvious moment of lucidity. He is right sided afraid of life to come, he is now a man who has a moral conduct and gives clearly well structured argument and he is clear sided and seems to be an intellectual against the murder “first…I’m his host I should protect him and not bear a knife…” (I should be his protector if a murder comes and not be the murderer) ”beside… this Duncan is so moderate and so generous that his virtues would transform into angles against the great péché which is his murdering. Finally he gives us a conclusion that in fact there is nothing that pushes him to commit the crime only ambition which is compared to a horseman who jumps too high and then falls in the other side. This ambition transcend himself, it is no longer an ambition because it overpasses its limits. In this conflict, we move from a moral (coward to someone who thinks of life to come to someone rational) then think of Duncan so good!!! About pity then the crime of Duncan has a cosmic dimension “the chain of being” the universe is disordered by the murder of Duncan.
These scenes are dominated by Lady Macbeth, who is probably the most memorable character in the play. Her violent, blistering soliloquies in Act 1, scenes 5 and 7, testify to her strength of will, which completely eclipses that of her husband. She is well aware of the discrepancy between their respective resolves and understands that she will have to manipulate her husband into acting on the witches’ prophecy. Her soliloquy in Act 1, scene 5, begins the play’s exploration of gender roles, particularly of the value and nature of masculinity. In the soliloquy, she spurns her feminine characteristics, crying out “unsex me here” and wishing that the milk in her breasts would be exchanged for “gall” so that she could murder Duncan herself. These remarks manifest Lady Macbeth’s belief that manhood is defined by murder. When, in Act 1, scene 7, her husband is hesitant to murder Duncan, she goads him by questioning his manhood and by implicitly comparing his willingness to carry through on his intention of killing Duncan with his ability to carry out a sexual act (1.7.38–41). Throughout the play, whenever Macbeth shows signs of faltering, Lady Macbeth implies that he is less than a man.
Analysis: Act 1, scenes 5–7
Macbeth exclaims that Lady Macbeth should “[b]ring forth men-children only” because she is so daring and courageous (1.7.72). Since Macbeth succumbs to Lady Macbeth’s wishes immediately following this remark, it seems that he is complimenting her and affirming her belief that courage and brilliance are masculine traits. But the comment also suggests that Macbeth is thinking about his legacy. He sees Lady Macbeth’s boldness and masculinity as heroic and warrior like, while Lady Macbeth invokes her supposed masculine “virtues” for dark, cruel purposes. Unlike Macbeth, she seems solely concerned with immediate power.
A subject’s loyalty to his king is one of the thematic concerns of Macbeth. The plot of the play hinges on Macbeth’s betrayal of Duncan, and, ultimately, of Scotland. Just as Lady Macbeth will prove to be the antithesis of the ideal wife, Macbeth proves to be a completely disloyal subject. In Act 1, scene 7, for instance, Macbeth muses on Duncan’s many good qualities, reflects that Duncan has been kind to him, and thinks that perhaps he ought not to kill his king. This is Macbeth’s first lengthy soliloquy and thus the audience’s first peek inside his mind. Yet Macbeth is unable to quell his desire for power. He evades answering his own questions of loyalty and yearns unrealistically for the battlefield’s simple and consequence-free action—“If it were done when ’tis done,” he says, “then ’twere well / It were done quickly” (1.7.1–2). At the same time, Macbeth is strongly conscious of the gravity of the act of regicide. He acknowledges that “bloody instructions . . . being taught, return / To plague th’inventor” (1.7.9–10). This is the first of many lines linking “blood” to guilt and cosmic retribution.
As her husband wavers, Lady Macbeth enters like a hurricane and blows his hesitant thoughts away. She spurs Macbeth to treason by disregarding his rational, moral arguments and challenging his manhood. Basically, she dares him to commit the murder, using words that taunt rather than persuade. Under her spell, all of Macbeth’s objections seem to evaporate and he is left only with a weak “If we should fail?” to set against her passionate challenge (1.7.59).
The idea of a moral order is present in these scenes, albeit in muted form. Macbeth knows what he does is wrong, and he recognizes that there will surely be consequences. As we have seen, his soliloquy reveals his awareness that he may be initiating a cycle of violence that will eventually destroy him. Macbeth is not a good man at this point in the play, but he is not yet an evil one—he is tempted, and he tries to resist temptation. Macbeth’s resistance, however, is not strong enough to stand up to his wife’s ability to manipulate him

Atmosphere in Macbeth: Shakespeare is always creating atmosphere at the beginning of the play and all along the play we find music being played from the beginning to the end. The play is already a somber story of revenge, in order to set the theme and the atmosphere e.g. the witches’ scene, he creates a special atmosphere repeated in scene 3, a warming up activity preparing what is going to happen.
Shakespearian tragedy as a whole has a special tone or atmosphere of its own quite perceptible however difficult to describe. The effect of this atmosphere is marked with unusual strength in Macbeth. Ingredients to create atmosphere:
1- Darkness: we may even say blackness, broods over this tragedy. It is remarkable that all scene which immediately reoccurred to memory, take place either at night or in some dark spot. The vision of the dagger, the murder of Duncan, the sleep walking of Macbeth all comes in night scenes.
2- The witches dance in the thick air or the storm “they are black and midnight hags….” And receive Macbeth in the witches’ scene set the atmosphere and mood of the play. When they appear, nature is disturbed; they threw confusion and disorder in Macbeths’ mind.
3- The witches language created by Shakespeare is mysterious and confers the play a certain atmosphere C.F. Act I scene I/ Act V scene I.
4- Atmosphere is created through the use of nature and natural elements: thunders and storm, on a desolate heath. There is use of natural elements to build natural atmosphere, this dark atmosphere is particularly noticeable in the Act 4 which could be entitled Macbeth’s 3rd Crime. In the 4th act there are only 3scenes: 1- take place in the witches cavern, this scene must have been very thrilling to Elizabethan audience. People believed in witchcraft and the king James I considered himself an authority in the subject. He wrote a book on … it is believed that such scenes were written by Shakespeare in flattery of James I; such scenes must have had a great appeal common people. The element of mystery in this scene is constituted by the appearance of the witches, by the food they prepare, by their language and by the N°3 they use which seems to have a magical value judgment by the frequency of its appearance as they are talking to one another and preparing their magic food.
Shakespeare has done his best to prepare a suitable atmosphere: thunder is heard, the food of the witches prepared with magic ingredients which create horror and disgust for e.g. Darkness is all over the play and Macbeth makes his appearance. In a different scene Macbeth urges the witches to answer his questions whatever the consequences may be for him. The witches promised to answer him and at their evocation, a series of apparitions occur:
1- 1st is an armed head representing Macbeths’ own head later to be cut off by Mac duff. It warns Macbeth to beware Macduff.
2- 2nd a child covered with blood representing Mac dough, it assures him that no one of woman born shall be able to harm Macbeth; from here on, Macbeth thinks that he can act with impunity. This leads him to his destruction because the prophesy is a fallacy or at least is equivocal since Macdouffs’ mother was dead and the corpse when Macduff was born, so it can be said that Macduff was not of woman born.
3- 3rd apparition: a child crowned represents Malcolm; this apparition also gives Macbeth an equivocal insurance that leads him to his destruction. Macbeth shall never be vanquished until boninn woods marches against some 12 miles. Then on his insistence, the witches show 8 kings, a king is mentioned as banco descendents are Robert II, Robert III and the 6 James of Scotland who will succeed Elizabeth I and become James I of England in 1603 and will become Shakespeare and his company protector. Macbeth seeing this abuses the witches for this unwelcome vision.

Imagery in Macbeth:
Imagery may be defined as “a little word picture used by poet or prose writer to illustrate, illuminate and embellish his thought” it is a description or an idea which by comparison or analogy, stated or understood, with something else transmits to us through the emotions and the associations it arose. Something of the holiness, the depth and richness of the way the writer views, conceives or has felt what he is telling us.
In other words, the image gives quality, creates atmosphere, converse emotions in a way no precise description however clear and apparent can possibly do. In the eyes of many readers, the imagery in Macbeth is richer and varied, more highly imaginative than that of any other single play; various motives have been noted in Macbeth:
1- The ill-fitting garments imagery, i.e. the imagery constantly reoccur’s to suggest that Macbeths’ new homers do not suit him or do not defeat him. They are like a loose and badly fitting garments belonging to someone else. Macbeth himself feels uneasy in his garments and expresses this unease quite early in the play e.g. When roose greats him as thane of Cawdor, Macbeth replied: “the thane of Cawdor lives, why do you dress me in borrowed robes” act I scene III. A few lines further, Banquo watching Macbeth lost in ambitious thoughts, banco murmurs: “new horrors come upon him, like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould, but with end of use…”
The same metaphor of clothes is used when Macbeth thinks he has been lately honored by the king, and therefore should enjoy his honors now and not cast them away so soon, he says: “I have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people, which should be worn now in their nerves gloss, not cast aside” act I scene 7. To which Lady Macbeth replies with utterances: “was the hope drink, wherein you dress’d yourself? At the end of the play Macbeth is seen as a man vainly trying to fasten a large garment on him with two small of belt. In act 5 scenes 2.
We are told: “he cannot buckle his distempered cause, within the belt of rule…”act 5 scene 2 line 15. In the same scene, Angus in a similar image sums up the essence of Macbeths’ moral degradation and littleness, act 5 scene 2 line 20. “How does he feel his title, hand loose about him, like a giants’ robe.
This imagery, i.e. the ill-fitting garments imagery is the imaginative picture of a small ignorant man in encumbered and degraded by garments unsuited to him.
Other images: images of angels leading trumpet Act 1 S 7
The image of pity personified in a form of an angel Act 1 S7, “And pity, like a naked new-born babe, striding the blast, or heaven’s Cherubin, Hors’d upon the sightless couriers of the air, shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, That tears shall drown the wind.”
Thus, our imagination is filled with a picture of the crime being broadcasted through the great space universe with reverberating sounds.
The same imagery is taking up by Macduff when he cries: ACT4 S3 “each new more, new widows hole, new orphans cry, new sorrows strikes heaven in the face, that it resounds as it felt with Scotland and yellowed like a rebal of…”.
The same imagery is used by Ross when he reports the death of Macduffs’ wife and children: “… I have words that would be howl’d out in the desert air, where hearing should not latch them…”
Such vivid images suggest that Macbeths’ crimes are crimes against nature and confer them a cosmic dimension.
Another reassuring idea in the play arises out of the symbolism that:”light stands for life, virtue, goodness while darkness stands for evil death and destruction, angels are bright, the witches are secret black and midnight ho, evil is so horrible that darkness or partial blading are necessary to carry it out”.
Macbeth is horrified by his murderous thoughts, ACT 1 S4: “…stars, hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires”.
Lady Macbeth invokes darkness to carry out her desire in Act 1 S5/ “…come, thick night, and pall thee in the dumest smoke of hell”
In act 2 S1: “there’s husbandary in heaven, their candals are all out” this scene is set fro treachery, said by Banco on the night of the murder.
On the day following the murder, we are told in Act 2 S 4: “dark night strunggles the travelling hamp”.
In the same scene: “darkness does the face ofearht entomb when living light should kiss it? ”
Another cluster of images of the disease of Scotland: “Scotland is sick, the disease is Macbeth and the medicine is Malcolm”. Malcolm is the medicine of “the sickly weal” he is the country’s purge” Act 5 S 2. Malcolm speaks of his country as weaping, bleeding and wounded and after urges Macdoff to: “Make us medicine of our great revenge, to cure this deadly…”
Other images contant and recurring images of blood.
We have also animal imagery (predatory, fiers or unpleasant animal). We have a nest of scorpions, venomous serpent and a snake, a bear.
The feeling of horror and pain is increased by this constant and recurring imagery. It is through imagery that Shakespeare magically stirs our emotions and excites our imagination.

The play is called the tragedy of Macbeth; all along the play we have different of Macbeth. The initial stages of the play set Macbeth up as a courageous and noble character. "For brave Macbeth -- well he deserves that name --/ Disdaining Fortune, with brandished steel . . . Like valor's minion . . . (act I. Scene ii.)." The king later praises him, "O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman! (I.ii.24)" Further exposition upon Macbeth's bravery and the king's presentation of the Thaneship of Cawdor to Macbeth increases the awareness of his truly noble character. Shakespeare sets up a brave and noble character, who should, through some fault of character or error of judgment, fall from his noble state into dishonour. Macbeth, however, deviates from classical tragedy.
Few scenes later, we have Macbeth meeting the witches, Macbeth begs the witches to speak more which is shown in Act I scene III: “stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more… ”. Macbeth is confused and shows us the beginning of his weakness, not knowing what to think or say. He immediately writes a letter to his wife

Exam relation Macbeth and Lady Macbeth: In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, both are very important and …. In the play most concerned with evil. It has different interpretations as the one about ambition but it is only true to some degree.
The tragedy of Macbeth is not only a tragedy of ambition but there are some external vigor that led the downfall of the main character.
Yet, it may be more considerable to initiate with the murder of King Duncan.
In fact Lady Macbeth is seen contented when reading the letter he sent her: « wouldst not play false, and yet wouldst wrongly win », telling her about his fate brought by the witches prophesy. Her wicked character is exposed to us shortly after Duncan’s visit, when we discern her devilish intentions to murder the king. Though Macbeth unreasonable imagination is ablaze; he is still capable to remain alert and lists the three reasons why he should not kill Duncan: he is "his kinsman," "his subject" and "his host." Macbeth adds that "Duncan hath born his faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great office that his virtues will plead like angels."
However, Lady Macbeth’s prodigious attacks on her husband and making him doubt his manliness as well as her accusations of cowardice and fearfulness, as she says:: “When you durst do it,” « and live a coward in thine own esteem?» Lady Macbeth gives her husband improper description of manhood; she emasculates him constantly, knowing that in his desperation to confirm his manhood he will perform the acts she wishes him to do, she says, “then you were a man”.. In fact, this manhood questioning leads Macbeth to submit & agree to proceed with the murder.
Lady Macbeth tries to push her husband by all ways, as she says “screw up your courage“. When he refuses to take back the daggers into the room, so she takes them back herself, saying that she would be ashamed to be as cowardly as him and that: “A little water clears us of this deed,” “How easy it is then!”
Apart from this, Lady Macbeth becomes increasingly dehumanized and observable as an external vigour of Macbeth’s collapse. On the other hand, Macbeth is stimulated by his vaulting ambition which is another malicious mole of Macbeth. His powerful desire to be a king led to his downfall. The external circumstances together with Macbeth’s ambition changed him from a courageous soldier and loyal to a criminal, a dehumanized person and a confident oppressor. Above all, shortly after murdering the King, Macbeth feels remorse and awareness on his part but this sense guilt is comforted by his wife. Yet, Macbeth does not need any help coming up with the idea of murdering Duncan, but it seems unlikely that he would have committed the murder without his wife’s powerful taunts and persuasions. This is the case, particularly after murdering Banquo without allying his: “dearest partner of greatness “, telling her to be innocent of the murder.
She tries to keep controlling him after Banquo’s ghost appearance; however, her overbearing personality begins to crumble, leaving Macbeth increasingly on his own.
Thus, Each murder Macbeth commits or commissions is intended to bring him security and serenity, but the deeper his arms sink in blood, the more violent and horrified he becomes. This search of security pushes him to kill even more followed by immediate regret and remorse and to emphasize his suffering, Shakespeare made him aware of evil side. He said: “«I have almost forgot the taste of fear The time has been, my senses would have cooled to hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair at a dismal treaties rouse, and stir as life were in it ». So Macbeth whose hair would stand up for a little horrible story now lost the sense of fear as life wasn’t really with him. He was suffering tragically that he becamea dehumanized individual guided by his devilish ambitious thoughts.
To conclude, one may say that these two main characters of Shakespeare’s play. One representing vaulting ambition accompanied with moral cowardice, the other standing for evil personified influencing Macbeth to commit a heretical assassination that brings confusion in both heaven and earth.
Soliloquies
The soliloquy is the act of talking to oneself silently or aloud. It’s a dramatic device Shakespeare made use of in his Macbeth to convey information about Macbeth’s state of mind, intentions and motives. To be able to put words’ unto one’s dilemma is such a great thing that soliloquies are privileged moments for characters. Macbeth was privileged with five great speeches which revealed the evaluation of his character. -The first soliloquy came to show/convey Macbeth’s unreadiness to betray the one who « planted him and would labour to make him full of growing ». The idea of murdering the king was so awful that it « doth unfix his hair and make his seated heart knock at his risks ». « All present fears were less than horrible imaginnings ». He would have been happier if fate did things for him so that he becomes king without killing anyone. Or just like his wife said in her reaction when reading the letter he sent her: « wouldst not play false, and yet wouldst wrongly win ». But the king named his son, Malcolm as the prince who made of waiting for fate to do things not an option especially that his wife made him doubts his manliness. But Macbeth still hesitated as he suffered of a lack of self-awareness and as he knew « they had judgment there ». « If it were done when it’s done, then t were well it were done quickly ». He didn’t want any consequences of the crime he was about to commit. He wanted it to be all and end all of the affair. He was aware of the troubles that would follow his business that he decided « he would proceed no further in it ». -The second soliloquy came just before the murder. Macbeth’s « heat opressed brain » made him hallucinating. He was talking to a dagger created by his mind. « Is this a dagger which I see before me? The handle towards my hand. Come let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I can see thee still ». Macbeth knew there was no dagger. It’s only the crime he was about to do that made him see one. Talking helped him collect courage: »words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives ». His hallucination didn’t stop even after the murder. He was suffering because of it. He couldn’t enjoy his life after it. The day he murdered the king was the end of his sane life: he said: «Had I but died an hour before this chance, had lived a blessed time ». He was so right. His life after the murder was a struggle between good and evil which got him committing a crime after another. -So the third soliloquy came to show how he started suspecting Banquo. He wanted to be safe as a king »To be thus is nothing . But to be safely thus ». But his fear in Banquo stick deep which emphasised Macbeth’s suffering. He said he « put rancors in vessels of his peace » by murdering the gracious Duncan. Macbeth couldn’t accept that Banquo’s sons will take his place as king. He became suspicious about him for he knew « tis much he dares and to do that dauntless temper of his mind he hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor to act it safety ». Just like the Hecate told the three sisters, Macbeth wanted to challenge the fate not to let Banquo’s sons to be kings and found himself willing to commit another crime. -The fourth soliloquy came when Macbeth was brought some reports about the English soldiers moving towards Scotland. He said: « brig me no mor reports. Let them fly all ». He was trying to look courageous and that he can’t be affected by fear. He was actually contradicting himself when saying: « the mind I sway by and the heart I bear shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear ». His brain was completely shaken with fear of Banquo’s ghost and everyone he had killed. « Was Malcom not born of woman? ». He could do him no harm. The spirit that know all mortal consequences have pronounced him thus ». But even though he knew that, the tragedy he was going through was still obvious which was confirmed in his fifth freat soliloquy. -This fifth one came after he received Lady Macbeth’s death. Macbeth here lost every meaning of life: « Life ‘s but a walking shadow ». He was ‘t sorry for the death of his partner. « She would have died hereafter » and so would everybody including him. Life is an illusion. « It’s a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, dignifying nothing ». His realising this got him sick of living: « I begin to be aweary of the sun ». Now he was ready to die. So Macbeth who got hallucinating before killing Duncan, and killed everyone he thought to be a threat to his safety as a king, now realised that life was no big deal. Of course it wouldn’t be a big deal for him he who became dehumanized. And to emphasize his suffering, Shakespeare made him aware of his being so. He said: « I have almost forgot the taste of fears. The time has been, my senses would have cooled to hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair at a dismal treaties rouse, and stir as life were in it ». So Macbeth whose hair would stand up for a little horrible story now lost the sense of fear as life wasn’t in him really. He was suffering tragically that he became dehumanized.
Evaluation of Macbeth character:
The play is called the tragedy of Macbeth; all along the play we have different of Macbeth. Shakespeare sets up a brave and noble character, who should, through some fault of character or error of judgment, fall from his noble state into dishonour. Macbeth, however, deviates from classical tragedy.
The initial stages of the play set Macbeth up as a courageous and noble character. "For brave Macbeth -- well he deserves that name --/ Disdaining Fortune, with brandished steel . . . Like valor's minion . . . (act I. Scene ii.)." The king later praises him, "O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman! (I.ii.24)" Further exposition upon Macbeth's bravery and the king's presentation of the Thaneship of Cawdor to Macbeth increases the awareness of his truly noble character. This sets the stage that is established in every great tragedy. A brave and noble character is introduced who should, through some fault of character or error of judgment, fall from his noble state into dishonour. Macbeth, however, deviates from classical tragedy.
Few scenes later, Macbeth is the victim of an external force. This external force is fate, fate introduced by prophecy, supported by the Weird Sisters, and reinforced by Lady Macbeth. The Witches' prophecy to Macbeth that he shall become Thane of Cawdor and King in future. This dramatic irony lends credibility to an already strange and supernatural dialogue between the Sisters, Macbeth, and Banquo. Macbeth meeting the witches, Macbeth belongs to mankind but he is not an ordinary man, he is a brave and loyal general (he has many qualities) but he is puzzled by their apparition. Macbeth is confused and shows us the beginning of his weakness, not knowing what to think or say “stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more… ”..
He immediately writes a letter to his wife feeling that she needs to be rejoiced, that letter is an indirect portrait of Macbeth who considers her his “dearest partner of greatness”. Lady Macbeth gives us another portrait of Macbeth since she is the best one to know him. She knows that he is not clear, i.e. he likes ambition but doubt about the weaknesses that accompanies it. He would not like to trick but if someone else does it for him he would accept. Lady Macbeth in murmurs that he is: “the milk of human kindness», in which she means that is it difficult for him to take the necessary steps to make himself king showing that he is a moral coward.
Additionally, in his first lengthy soliloquy, He thinks about the qualities of the king and realizes that even the universe is against the killing, it convey Macbeth’s unreadiness to betray the one who « planted him and would labour to make him full of growing ». The idea of murdering the king was so awful that it « doth unfix his hair and make his seated heart knock at his risks ». « All present fears were less than horrible imaginings ». At that moment, he is rational and conscious that he has no stimulus reason to make his act “but only Vaulting Ambition which o’erleaps itself”. He is right sided afraid of life to come, he is now a man who has a moral conduct and gives clearly well structured arguments and he is clear sided and seems to be an intellectual against the murder “first…I’m his host I should protect him and not bear a knife…” (I should be his protector if a murder comes and not be the murderer) ”beside… this Duncan is so moderate and so generous that his virtues would transform into angles against the great péché which is his murdering. He gives us a conclusion that there is nothing that pushes him to commit the crime only ambition. yet, at the end of the soliloquy, there is a scene with his wife who comes to manipulate his thoughts by telling him that he does not have the strength of character to commit the crime “are you afraid”, we quickly notice the disappearance of Macbeths’ human heart and the entrance of the devilish and satanic heart. Macbeths’ ambition and self image of bravery wins over his virtues.
In Act I scene v and Act I scene vii Lady Macbeth demonstrates her influence upon Macbeth. Lady Macbeth becomes increasingly dehumanized and observable as an external manifestation of fate and ambition. She argues bravery and manliness with Macbeth to push him into murdering Duncan. "I would . . . Have plucked my nipple from [my baby's] boneless gums, / And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you/ Have done to [Duncan's murder] (I.vii.56-69)." Lady Macbeth's influence on Macbeth furthers the external aspect of Macbeth's fall. Macbeth proves to be completely disloyal; he does not want to assume his responsibility and wants the crime to be finished very quickly. And get the consequence of the act (become king). His ambition transcends himself and overpasses its limits.
On the other hand, soon after murdering the King, Macbeth feels remorse on his part; he discovers aspects of his personality that he did not know about “I wish I had known myself…” This regret, however, is short lived. He quickly recovers from his pangs of regret to order Banquo and Fleance murders simply because he feels threatened. Shakespeare heightens his degenerating character and lack of conscious as well as his sense of immorality. In another scene, we see Macbeth hallucinating. When he is about to kill Duncan, Macbeth sees a dagger floating in the air representing the bloody course on which Macbeth is about to embark “Art thou not, fatal vision…thus to mine eyes”,”now o’er the one half world…” -This fifth one came after he received Lady Macbeth’s death. Macbeth here lost every meaning of life: « Life‘s but a walking shadow ». He wasn‘t sorry for the death of his partner. « She would have died hereafter » and so would everybody including him. Life is an illusion. « It’s a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, dignifying nothing ». His realising this got him sick of living: « I begin to be aweary of the sun ». Now he was ready to die. So Macbeth who got hallucinating before killing Duncan, and killed everyone he thought to be a threat to his safety as a king, now realised that life was no big deal. Of course it wouldn’t be a big deal for him he who became dehumanized. And to emphasize his suffering, Shakespeare made him aware of his being so. He said: « I have almost forgot the taste of fears. The time has been, my senses would have cooled to hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair at a dismal treaties rouse, and stir as life were in it ». So Macbeth whose hair would stand up for a little horrible story now lost the sense of fear as life wasn’t in him really. He was suffering tragically that he became dehumanized.
By the end of the play, Macbeth obviously achieved an immoral status, but Shakespeare uses a technique to make us go back to the brave Macbeth we liked in order to gain sympathy and compassion for him, Act 5 scene 5: “our castle is strength, will laugh a siege to scorn, here let me lie», «I have almost forgot the taste of fear”, Macbeth in this part is a dehumanized individual and quickly after that we see another Macbeth, the hopeless who is thinking about the fleeting of time in life “life is but a walking shadow…signifying nothing”. Shakespeare shows us how Macbeth realizes that life is not as it seems but just a delusion filled with precipitations, hopes and ambitions. this sympathy deriving from the largely tragic character of his fall into immorality and the confusion surrounding fate's influence on Macbeth in the murder Duncan.
In a sense, it is a morality play, but in the other hand, it is characterized with the struggle between good and evil. We have forces of good “Macduff, Duncan…” Macbeth has several: the good, original, warrior and the milk of human kindness. As soon as he meets the witches we have the entrance of the evil heart after that there is this suffering in Macbeth (regret). So Macbeth is not that of a morality play, we have the complex character.

This part is From Internet: tragic hero:
Amongst all of Shakespeare's tragedies, Macbeth creates the most puzzling sensitive reaction. In contrast to most of his other tragic characters, Macbeth evokes a confused sympathy from the reader which disrupts the continuity of the play. This is because the tragedy of Macbeth's fall is diluted by his own moral degeneracy. The exposition of the play parallels a classical tragedy, but fate and the Weird Sisters complicate Macbeth's characterization, resulting in a barrier to audience identification. It is Macbeth's character and his morality in combination with the play's emphasis on fate that cause the dichotomy between Macbeth as a tragedy and Macbeth as a morality play, ultimately destroying the play's unity.
Macbeth is, both by expectation and by means of the exposition, set up as a classical tragedy. The very title of the play, The Tragedy of Macbeth, encourages the supposition on the part of the audience that Macbeth is indeed a tragedy. In Elizabethan times by expectation and certainly in modern times by Shakespeare's reputation, the audience would assume that Macbeth is a tragedy.
The initial stages of the play set Macbeth up as a brave and noble character. "For brave Macbeth -- well he deserves that name --/ Disdaining Fortune, with brandished steel . . . Like valor's minion . . . (I.ii.16-19)." The king later praises him, "O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman! (I.ii.24)" Further exposition upon Macbeth's valor and the king's presentation of the Thaneship of Cawdor to Macbeth heighten the audience's awareness of his truly noble character. This sets the stage that is established in every great tragedy. A brave and noble character is introduced who should, through some fault of character or error of judgment, fall from his noble state into dishonour. Macbeth, however, deviates from classical tragedy.
While the tragic hero suffers from a flaw within himself, a personal and self-oriented error which is purely the fault of the character, Macbeth is the victim of an external force. This external force is fate, fate introduced by prophecy, supported by the Weird Sisters, and reinforced by Lady Macbeth. The Witches' prophecy to Macbeth that he shall become Thane of Cawdor and King hereafter, while perhaps unrealistic to Macbeth, is already half-fulfilled to the audience. This dramatic irony lends credibility to an already strange and supernatural dialogue between the Sisters, Macbeth, and Banquo. In Act I scene v and Act I scene vii Lady Macbeth demonstrates her influence upon Macbeth. Throughout the dialogues between Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth becomes increasingly dehumanized and observable as an external manifestation of fate and ambition. She argues bravery and manliness with Macbeth to push him into murdering Duncan. "I would . . . Have plucked my nipple from [my baby's] boneless gums,/ And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you/ Have done to [Duncan's murder] (I.vii.56-69)." Lady Macbeth's influence on Macbeth furthers the external aspect of Macbeth's fall.
Macbeth seems to express some regret after murdering Duncan in his refusal to return and arrange the daggers and in various statements including his terror at his incapacity to say "Amen." This regret, however, is short lived. Even Macbeth realizes that he has lost the brave and noble self of the beginning of the play to an evil and dominant force which now absorbs his character. At this point Macbeth has lost all autonomy, obliterating the character of Macbeth and becoming a symbol of evil.
Reinforcing this moral interpretation perhaps most strikingly is the knocking which continues throughout the end of Act II scene ii. Every time there is a knock Macbeth seems to recoil in fear. This fear, in fact, becomes guilt, and the knocking his conscience, as the knocking goes on unanswered and continues in the next scene as the Porter discusses it in terms of Beelzebub, hell, everlasting flame, etc. Macbeth also recounts that he heard a voice yelling, "Sleep no more! . . . Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor/ Shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more (II.ii.39-42)." Again an interlude appears which parallels Macbeth's conscience and condemns him for his actions, for his lack of morality.
The interpretation of Macbeth as tragic is acceptable in the preliminary stages of the play where the Witches and Lady Macbeth seem to drive him against his will, but Macbeth becomes an anti-conscience after Duncan's murder as he indifferently murders his friends and subjects. The section of the play after Duncan's murder significantly alleviates the split of the emotive forces. Earlier, the Witches introduce a complication in the form of free will versus fate. This element embodies the very contradiction of tragedy versus morality as Macbeth seems both to be forced into action by the prophecy and to be hastily achieving his fate by ill means. This also dichotomizes his character by either magnifying his ambition or revealing its innate magnitude. The central evil of Macbeth's world also produces this division.
From these and similar contradictions, little but confusion can be produced. While in the beginning both a tragic and a moralistic interpretation of the play can be supported, in the post-murder section of Macbeth little but morality can be supported. Macbeth quickly recovers from his pangs of regret to order Banquo and Fleance's murders. Macbeth's commentary on Banquo deems him a man of "royalty of nature" and "dauntless temper of . . . mind (III.i.50-53)." Macbeth then enters into a lengthy and splendid speech condemning Banquo and persuading men to murder him, a murder which evokes disgust as Banquo "safe in a ditch . . . bides,/ With twenty trenched gashes on his head, . . . (III.iv.27-28)." The following dinner scene heightens a sense of morality as Macbeth's conscience seems to confront him with the appearance of Banquo's ghost.
Further meetings of the witches, popular suspicion upon Macbeth indicated by Lennox in Act III scene vi, and a many of speeches by Macbeth which reveal his degenerating character and lack of conscience all continue to heighten the sense of Macbeth's immorality. Macbeth later decides to murder Macduff's line as he completely surrenders to fate in a justification of allowing "The very firstlings of [Macbeth's] heart shall be/ The firstlings of [Macbeth's] hand (IV.i.147-148)." On this note Macbeth orders the murder of Macduff's wife, his children, and anyone who is related to Macduff. This last murder is the most cold-hearted and overtly immoral of all of Macbeth's actions.
Macbeth has obviously achieved an immoral status by the end of the play, a fact which should make Macbeth an antagonist and moral scapegoat for the audience to condemn. This, however, is not the case. The audience sympathizes with Macbeth, a sympathy deriving from the largely tragic character of his fall into immorality and the confusion surrounding fate's influence on Macbeth in the murder Duncan. The immorality of Macbeth causes a sense of guilt in the audience for sympathizing with Macbeth.
What result does this ambivalence have upon the audience? A strict morality play sanctifies social morality and condemns its transgression while a tragedy creates a sympathetic horror of the main character and achieves a cathartic renewal of the audience's social righteousness. Both of these methods have a similar goal in their effect upon the audience which is to maintain social cohesion. The methods of achieving this goal, however, destroy the ultimate purpose when they create opposing emotive reactions for the same character, the character which would facilitate either method. This is precisely what happens in Macbeth and precisely why the character of Macbeth destroys the play's purpose, resulting in ambiguity and confusion instead of a cohesive emotional response.