15/2/07 - English Literature - Shakespeare: Macbeth

Here we will discuss:

• Macbeth and the moralisation of politics (distinguishes good from evil and friend from foe)
• The moment of Macbeth (historical context: a highly charged time with accusations against James I, and the gunpowder plot)
• Equivocation (verbal of the part of the conspirators of the gunpowder plot, which is reflected in Macbeth)
• The language of Macbeth.

So Macbeth is a play aware of the values and ideas of the Jacobean period, but it is not necessarily in agreement with them in its language.

"Macbeth is Shakespeare’s ‘most profound and mature vision of evil’; ‘the whole play may be writ down as a wrestling of destruction with creation’; it is ‘a statement of evil’; ‘it is a picture of a special battle in a universal war, and the battleground is in the souls of Macbeth and his wife’ . . . the contrast between light and darkness is part of a general antithesis between good and evil, devils and angels, evil and grace, hell and heaven."
[Muir, Kenneth. Ed. Macbeth. London: Methuen, 1951, p. xlv]

Macbeth shows tragic power in that evil turns on the good. The play shows both moral and metaphysical expression. Political disobedience is considered to be sinful and evil, not just criminal. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth destroy others and themselves in a ritualistic way. Ritual is accrued around Macbeth. There is opposition also between the natural and the unnatural: "I begin to grow aweary of the sun." Macbeth's and Lady Macbeth's bodies turn against them in the form of insomnia and madness. Mature itself expels them from the world.

Old Man: 'Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that's done . . .

ROSS: And Duncan's horses--a thing most strange, and certain--
Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,
Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,
Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make
War with mankind.

Old Man: 'Tis said they ate each other.

ROSS: They did so, to th’ amazement of mine eyes
That look'd upon't.
[Shakespeare, William, Macbeth. Ed. Nicholas Brooke. Oxford: University Press, 1990. 2.4.10-19]

What does Macbeth stand for?

"Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued against
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or Heaven's cherubim, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind."
[1.7.16-25]

Here is a rhetorical expression of Duncan's kingship, the antithetical being to Macbeth. It enlightens us as to how the universe would react if Duncan was violated, and it praises his virtue. Spoken by Macbeth, which is somewhat equivocal. Is Macbeth condemning himself? He is ambitious and is bitter about being overlooked for accession to the throne. Duncan's kingship is based on generosity and beneficence towards others and the world. Macbeth's kingship is based on rage and ambition, violence and terror. Duncan has the same friends throughout the play, and his enemies are those who betray him; Macbeth has no friends and many enemies: Macduff, Banquo's children, Ross, Malcolm, etc.

At the time Macbeth was written, James I of Scotland was acceding to the English throne in 1603. Shakespeare's company changed its name from Chamberlain's Men to the King's Men, showing their royal patronage. Now they became interested in the king's interests, and performances changed because they were written for the king. So Scotland and witches became the basis of Macbeth's plot. Also the gunpowder plot had traumatised London and the royal family, as it was an attempt to destroy James VI of England and his family.

"Kings are in the word of God it selfe called Gods, as being his Lieutenants and Vice-gerents on earth, and so adorned and furnished with some sparkles of the Divinitie . . . a destruction prepared not for me alone, but for you all that here present, and wherein no ranke, age, not sexe should have bene spared; This was not a crying sinne of blood . . . but it may well be called a roaring, nay a thundering sinne of fire and brimstone, from the which GOD hath so miraculously delivered us all."
[James VI and I, ‘Speech to Parliament, 9 November 1605.’ In Political Writings. Ed. Johann P. Sommerville. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. p. 147; pp. 148-49]

This speech was written four days after the revelation. Macbeth was written synchronistically with this. Macbeth has no sons, so he sees that his sovereignty will disappear in the future. The form as well as the content of Macbeth was considerate of the events of that year. There is fluidity between the scenes, yet no sub-plot and no room for sceptical thought: it is the kind of form that suggests there is a message to give.

Now on to the subject of equivocation. The speeches in Macbeth about the multiplying villainies of nature hint that there is something in nature that is unnatural; perhaps a little stumble in the natural order of Macbeth? In Latin the word 'equivocation' means 'equally to call'. It means there are conflicting but co-existing ways of reading something. This means there is an uncertainty of response. The gunpowder conspirators learned to speak equivocally even under oath. It entails 1) disclosing one part of the mind which when spoken sounds true, but withholding more information so you are speaking only partially truthfully. It is used only to protect oneself or others. 2) One is entitled to use uncertain, ambiguous speeches, i.e. can be read more than one way. To people of the time, equivocation was the language of traitors, of deceitful and false people.

Shakespeare was curious about the language of equivocation. The porter's speech is unequivocated - he captures the Jacobean view of equivocation as the language of traitors. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are continually caught out in equivocation and deceit, e.g. in Lady Macbeth's welcoming speech to Duncan she must practise private reservation. For Macbeth, the only way he can speak to others is in equivocation and he becomes susceptible to it in others, such as the witches; he becomes distanced from human natural speech.

Doubtful equivocations extend beyond the evil characters. Equivocation can also mean exceeding truth.

but all's too weak:
For brave Macbeth--well he deserves that name--
Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like Valour's minion carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave-
Which ne'er shook hands nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops,
And fixed his head upon our battlements.

Duncan: O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman.
[1.2.15-23]

Duncan recognises Macbeth's actions but is perhaps out of context. Duncan's sovereignty is also one through violence, shown in his praising of Macbeth's bloody triumph over Macdonald.

Mythic language in the play turns against itself. The definition of treason is questioned; Ross admits that they are all traitors. Lady Banquo says that a traitor is one who swears and lies. Macduff says to Malcolm that he is a traitor. Unlike states are in fact similar. Malcolm and Macbeth are similar, not different.