How is the theme of evil dramatized in Macbeth? Essay

In Elizabethan times everyone believed in the Natural Order which can also be referred to as The Chain of Being. The Chain of Being is a hierarchy, where God is at the top and the King is second, last are the elements; fire, air, water and earth. If something happened to the king everything under the king’s rank would be affected. This stopped people overthrowing the king because they were told bad things would happen to them. We can tell that the Chain of Being was affected in Macbeth because of what some of the characters say in Act 2 Scene 4 after King Duncan has been murdered. â€Å"A falcon tow’ring in her pride of her place, Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed† This shows an image of a mouse hunting an owl and killing it which is the reverse of what happens under normal circumstances. Animals are under the king’s rank. The horses also turn to cannibalism, â€Å"And Duncan’s horses†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ â€Å"’tis said they eat each othe r.† Treason is the illegal act of overthrowing the government or king. Macbeth manages to overthrow King Duncan, which is treason, and at the end of the play Macbeth gets overthrown by Macduff. Just a few years before Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, Guy Fawkes attempted to overthrow King James I. Treason involves people at lower ranks of the Chain of Being moving up the chain, which will include killing and murdering, which are evil acts. Shakespeare wrote Macbeth for King James I, who had just been crowned, to warn him about the revolution that was about to take place. In Act 1 Scene 3 the opening establishes the witches as evil. They act haphazardly and randomly. There words â€Å"fair is foul and foul is fair†, is chanted in a mischievous way. It implies the witches believe that evil is good and they find good repulsive. Not only does this portray their attitude to life but it is also a warning to the audience that there is much confusion and things are not what they may seem to be. Macbeth is also heard to utter these words and show that he is influenced by the witches. In Elizabethan times, witches were usually women rejected by society and represent evil. In the play they have a great influence over Macbeth and intend to involve him in their evil, â€Å"There to meet with Macbeth.† Evil is created around the witches because the witches are instantly thought to be dark and to have a connection with the devil. The feeling of evil is made stronger because the witches meet in lifeless dark places away from society. In Act 1 Scene 1 the witches meet in a desolate place and in Act 1 Scene 3 they meet on a heath. This creates an eerie feeling. The weather reflects the witches’s emotions and in the four witch scenes there is thunder. All this emphasizes their destructive nature. The witches also do not look human. They are supposed to be women but they are bearded. â€Å"You should be women and yet your beards forbid me to interpret † Anyone who does not look ‘normal’ or human may have evil links. In some productions of Macbeth, the witches come across as alien, which can be evil as it’s not the norm. In one film production the witches are naked. It is a human trait to cover up with clothes. When asked where the second witch has been she replies â€Å"killing swine† which shows cruelty for her own amusement. The curses they chant are to cause pain upon others which reflects their own evil behaviour â€Å"sleep shall neither night or day† – the first witch causes insomnia upon Macbeth. In Act 4 Scene 1 the witches used black magic which involves adding ingredients to a cauldron. They use the image of innocence by adding a â€Å"finger of a birth strangled babe† which shows new life destroyed. Many people would say this is evil. ‘That look not like†¦.’ this, said by Banquo, shows us that he fears the witches and is unsure if they are real, on the other hand he confidently asks ‘What are you’, suggesting that he may know of the witches, or even be friendly with them. Although this also has the possibility of being interpreted as Macbeth seeing the witches as unnatural and evil for he does ask about what they are. Macbeth can be considered as being an evil character in that he kills King Duncan in cold blood by stabbing him. It is premeditated as indicated in the soliloquy of his inner thoughts. â€Å"We’d jump the life to come, but in these cases, we still have judgment here.† It also shows selfishness, ambition and self gain for the King’s position. In suspecting his close friend Banquo may want to turn Macbeth in for his crime, â€Å"Wisdom that doth guide his valor†¦to act in safety.† Macbeth knows he must get rid of Banquo and his manipulating character by convincing the murderers and himself that killing him is right. â€Å"Both of you know Banquo was your enemy†¦so he is mine; and it such bloody distance that every minute of his being thrusts against my near’st of life.† He portrays evil in that he is plotting a murder against his friend and influencing others in believing that they are doing the right act in killing him. Others may consider Macbeth to be more of a strong warrior than evil. He goes beyond the limits of a solider in battle for his king and country. Therefore he can be seen as an honorable man â€Å"What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won†. Lady Macbeth describes him as having â€Å"Too full o’th’milk of human kindness†, a humanity. Macbeth can be seen as corruptible for ambition but lacking the ruthlessness to get what he really wants. He is a complex character – he has aggression and determination which makes him a successful warrior. However he also has a conscience with a sense of guilt. These contrasts in Macbeth’s character and his attempts to fix them are what make him human. â€Å"Commends th’ingredience of our poisoned chalice to our own lips†. This shows Macbeth to be a reluctant murderer; he is troubled by his conscience even before committing the act. He uses the soliloquy to express his struggle between right and wro ng. Macbeth constantly questions his brutality and his inability to live with himself as a murderer. â€Å"This is a sorry sight†. At the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth appears to be a kind, caring wife to Macbeth but underneath that â€Å"innocent flower† there is a â€Å"serpent†, a scheming and manipulative woman. â€Å"Look like th’flower but be the serpent under’t†. When Lady Macbeth finds out about the witches her determined ambition and her cold nature leads Macbeth astray. Lady Macbeth is so determined to succeed that she calls to the evil spirits to make herself more evil, â€Å"fill me from crown to the toe-top, full of the direst cruelty! Make thick my blood.† On the other hand Lady Macbeth can be seen to be a lonely and frustrated character. She is an ambitious woman in a man’s world where the men have all the power and control. She is often portrayed as being on her own, for instance when reading the letter as Macbeth is at battle and she misses him. She has a driven will with much energy and very little to do. She shows vulnerability and an inwards sense of horror at what she has done but at the same time she is denying these qualities incase she shows a weakness. â€Å"These deeds must not be thought after these ways; so it will make us mad.† In her sleepwalking, Lady Macbeth’s conscience tortures her and she imagines her hands covered in blood. â€Å"The thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now? What, will these hands ne’er be clean? No more o’that my Lord, no more o’that.† She committed suicide. In conclusion I feel that Shakespeare’s message to his audience is that revolution should be created slowly as the characters at the top of the Chain of Being are not sympathetic to others. This was one of his strong beliefs as Shakespeare was a secret Catholic who supported the pope and was a sympathizer to Guy Fawkes. He also tells the audience that committing evil acts and affecting the Chain of Being ends up corrupting the system. If you are one of the people who committed the acts then, Shakespeare tells us it is hard to clear a guilty conscience. In Macbeth’s search for power, he ends up killing Duncan which leads to several more murders. He started off by being known as â€Å"Brave Macbeth† but once the king was murdered he was corrupted by power. He was defeated by his constant search for more authority and control. Macbeth was only meant to be Thane Of Cawdor and when he managed to become king, he abused his power. Shakespeare’s sends us the message that some people were made to have more control because they could handle it and had the personality trait to control themselves with the amount of power they have. He also sends us the message that too much power corrupts. Many people would say that ambition in the key to success but in Macbeth it is a downfall. Macbeth has the three witches and Lady Macbeth constantly pushing his ambition. Shakespeare gives us that message that having ambition is good but you should go out of your own ability because it may lead to your death, like Macbeth. The relationship between good and evil is very clear to see. The main theme of the play is showing the audience how an honest, regular man can be changed into evil and be dehumanized. He is not evil but instead is surrounded by evil influences such as his wife and the witches. However, goodness does win as Macbeth is killed and the evil dies away with him.