Macbeth Essay Example for Free

Macbeth Essay Since the Mesopotamian era of 3000 B. C. numbers have been an essential part of life and are easily found throughout society, imbedded in religion, intertwined in mythology and commonly related with superstitions. Even in the twenty-first century people still believe in ancient numerical superstitions, such as the lucky number seven, or the unlucky number thirteen. During the seventeenth century William Shakespeare uses societal superstitions in his famous tragedy, â€Å"Macbeth†, by writing in a threefold literary pattern. Shakespeare reinvents the number three by relating in to evil and darkness throughout the play, providing it with a new superstitious meaning. â€Å"Macbeth† follows the transformation of the title character from thane to king, sane to evil. After putting down two rebellions against the King of Scotland, Macbeth is awarded title and favor with the gracious King Duncan. When greeted by three mysterious witches, they prophesy that Macbeth will be made Thane of Cawdor and eventually King of Scotland. They also prophesize that Banquo will beget a long line of Scottish kings but will never be king himself. Macbeth and Banquo treat their prophecies sceptically until some of King Duncan’s men come to thank the two generals for their victories in battle and to tell Macbeth that he has indeed been named thane of Cawdor. In attempt to aid the prophecy, Macbeth murders the good Duncan and is crowned King of Scotland, but once his great goal to be king is achieved he begins to fear the prophecy brought forth to Banquo. In fear of being overthrown from the throne Macbeth goes on a psychotic rampage attempting to protect his future while ruining his sanity and brings upon himself his own demise. While entangling the threefold literary pattern into a tragic plot, William Shakespeare presents the appearance of three apparitions, the three murders, and the character choice of three witches to precipitate evil at the presence of the number three. Shakespeare turns the conventional and traditional meaning of three’s upside down in act one, scene one when he begins to relate the number to evil. Threes are commonly related to stability and completeness; in religion there is God omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent, in time there are three divisions, past, present and future, and three grammatical persons- me, myself and I. In a dark and ominous meeting, Shakespeare introduces his audience to three women who will continue to haunt Macbeth throughout the play: the three weird sisters. As the first characters the audience has the pleasure of meeting, the witches set the mood for the entire play with a sense supernatural as â€Å"instruments of darkness† (I. iii. 136). In the opening scene of the play each witch speaks three times within the first eleven lines, the first two being â€Å"When shall we three meet again / In thunder, lightning, or in rain? coupling three undesirable and threatening circumstances, suggesting constrictions and limitations as these three things generally happen at the same time. The triplet pattern begins with this, giving a false sense of stability until to the audience until the witches state that what is â€Å"fair is foul, and foul is fair† (I. i. 12). This suggests that the stability of threes is actually a farce and will bring instability and chaos. Before t heir meeting with Macbeth, the fist witch informs her sisters that she has planned revenge against a sailor whose wife refused to share her chestnuts. Through her description of her plan, Shakespeare reveals to his audience that they posses great power but with limits unlike an instrument of fate would have. She plans to transport through a â€Å"sieve† (I. iii. 9) to curse him but she is not powerful enough to have him shipwrecked, only to have his ship â€Å"tempest-tossed† (I. iii. 26), showing their limits. As the first witch explains her plan she speaks in triplets, â€Å"I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do† (I. iii. 11), to emphasize her evil intentions. When Macbeth and Banquo present themselves to the witches just moments later, they greet Macbeth â€Å"All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! / All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! / All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter! † (I. iii. 51-53). Three greetings that seem so fair â€Å"of noble having and of royal hope† (I. iii. 59) are sure to turn foul. The greetings mimic the common greeting of the New Testament, â€Å"All Hail† (Matthew 28. 9). In Matthew 26. 49, Judas prepares to betray Jesus to the Sanhedrin and Roman soldiers. His plan is to identify Jesus by greeting him with a kiss so that the soldiers will know which man to arrest. Judas approaches Jesus, saying, Hail Master. The witches greet Macbeth in a similar fashion, and, as Judas betrayed Jesus, so do the witches betray Macbeth. This mirroring comparison shows Shakespeare cutting all biblical and holy beliefs in the number three, using religious evidence to eliminate the idea that three is a number of stability. Shakespeare even has his three witches speak in contradictions to create moral confusion and increase the presence of evil, such as when the witches characterize Banquo as â€Å"lesser than Macbeth, and greater† (I. iii. 68). After stirring up quite a bit of trouble, the witches vanquish, not to be seen again until the first scene of the fourth act. The signal to begin their evil incantations is brought to the witches by three meows of a â€Å"brinded cat† (IV. i. 1). Again, the witches take turns, speaking in a threefold pattern, taking their turns and presenting a rhyming, triple statement to open the act; â€Å"Thrice the brinded cat hath mewd. / Thrice, and once the hedge-pig whined. / Harpier cries â€Å"‘Tis time, ‘tis time† (IV. i. 1-3). While working on concocting brew the witches chant around a cauldron, throwing in various items, taking turns to add their contributions, dividing the ingredients into three separate groups. When Macbeth arrives to the cavern he greets the witches as â€Å"secret, black, and midnight hags† (IV. i. 48), three negative descriptions dripping with evil connotations. The â€Å"weird sisters† (III. iv. 165) conclude the evil presence within triplet patterns by presenting three mysterious visions or apparitions to Macbeth, in order to provide him with the same sense of false security that the audience had felt initially. With thunder roaring in the background, Shakespeare thrusts his main character into various situations that would terrify any person â€Å"milk of human kindness† (I. v. 7). When Macbeth is faced with the three apparitions they bring him fair sounding news that is doomed to be destructive and â€Å"foul† (IV. iii. 28) because of the threefold predictable pattern. When the first of the three mystical spirits appears to Macbeth in the form of a floating warhead, warning him to â€Å"beware Macduff† (IV. i. 81), Macbeth shrugs it off, already knowing this. When the second apparition appears as a bloody child, it tells Macbeth that no man born of a woman can do him harm. This gives Macbeth great confidence: Then live Macduff: what need I fear of thee (IV. . 93). Finally, the third ghost appears as a child wearing a crown with holding a tree in hand. This phantom is the one to stir Macbeth’s blood and spook him and has him demanding to know the meaning of the final vision. The child tells Macbeth that he â€Å"shall never be vanquished [†¦] until/ Great Birnam Wood [comes] to high Dunsinane Hill† (IV. i. 105-106), a seemingly impossible task, but in the Shakespearean world of three’s, things are not as they seem. This, giving Macbeth false security, is followed by a procession of eight crowned kings all similar to the one before. The final king carries a mirror, showing a seemingly endless lineage of kings, frightening Macbeth into overbold, unthinking irrationality, contrary to his previous semi-thoughtful behaviour. The three apparitions all in still a false sense of self-assurance in Macbeth but after Shakespeare’s triplet patterns have caused nothing but grief during the play, the audience is able to see through the prophetic ghouls that act as symbols, foreshadowing the way the prophecies will be fulfilled. The warhead suggests a third rebellion, the first two put down by Macbeth while the third is caused by his treacherous ways in a turn of events that can only suggest that if Macbeth hasn’t died the first two times, then the third time’s the charm. The bloody child of the second vision is the image of Macduff as a babe â€Å"from his mother’s womb / untimely rippd† (V. viii. 19-20), delivered through caesarean section. This minor technicality that evades Macbeth is the key to his downfall, and thanks to his ignorance he believes he is invincible. The line of kings, thrust in Macbeth’s face is his last hope, the finishing blow. With the knowledge that there will be men who â€Å"are too like the spirit of Banquo† (IV. i. 127) Macbeth subconsciously knows that all hope is lost to him, but he clings to the second apparitions speech, claiming that he cannot be harmed by any person born of a woman. The terrible three’s that Shakespeare entangles into the apparition’s doom-filled messages not only anticipate the death of Macbeth, but also lead him to it. It is by his self-assurance, pride and ambition that Macbeth believes he will survive, hearing only what he wishes from the prophecies. Since the prophecies suggest he will be fine, Macbeth takes it to heart and believes so without watching out for himself; he does not attempt to prevent the rebellion, nor does he stay in the castle when he knows he is a target because â€Å"none of woman born [can] harm Macbeth† (IV. i. 91-92). By presenting these ghoulish visions, the witches lead Macbeth to his death by power of suggestion and lack of a complete digestion of the situation on the title characters part. The witches’ prophetic ways also lead Macbeth to far worse things than pride. Macbeth is urged by the third prophecy of being king to kill Duncan, King of Scotland. Although his wife is the â€Å"spur† (I. vi. 25) who pricks the horse of intent, the intent is spawn from the prospect of his hopes coming true. The third prophecy leads him to murder, using trickery to make the fair prospect of being King derive from such a foul act as unjust murder against the â€Å"gracious Duncan† (III. vi. 3-4). If Macbeth had stayed content with the first murder he could have lived a happier life, but troubled by the prophecy presented to Banquo, Macbeth fears for his throne and sets out to murder his best friend in a foolish attempt to disprove the prophecy. Macbeth performs his second murder. While this time, instead of doing it himself, Macbeth hires two murders, but as the fates have it a third joins the informal party. With the third murderer present, a seemingly easy kill has become a challenge and struggle because three is a crowd. If the third murderer was Macbeth, unable to stay away from the murder of his self-sworn enemy, it is no doubt that he tagged along to fulfill the destruction of a prophecy, only intensifying its after effects. Macbeth becomes miserable and his mind is unclear; the second murder had haunted him and caused him great fear. If not for the prophecies and initial trickery, Macbeth would have not stopped to rage against a friend that had been so dear to him and would have not killed Banquo in an attempt to save his own life, that was previously not in danger. The first two murders written by Shakespeare mainly show cause, but the third and final brings a big effect. With Macbeth murdering the innocent wife and children of Macduff, just because he fears Macduff knows the truth about Duncan’s murderer, the intent of murder changes. The first two were intended to attain and keep a powerful position, but when his pride and fear get the better of him, Macbeth hires men to commit the third murder with no sense of regret, as he had after murdering Duncan (â€Å"I am afraid to think what I have done† (II. ii. 66)). Nor is Macbeth mentally disturbed, as he had been after murdering Banquo, seeing ghosts. After the third murder, Macbeth is a well-seasoned professional and becomes emotionally detached from his victims as they become but another dead. The third murder backfires and works against Macbeth, only spurring the intent of Macduff to slaughter him more savagely than before. Shakespeare pushes the idea that there needs to be a third murder in order for symmetry and regulation, but by adding in a third murder, Shakespeare is able to, again, shatter all former pretences about the stability of the number three, changing its relationship to represent evil. While using triplet speaking patterns, triplet events and groups of three people, Shakespeare uses three savage murders, three frightening apparitions and three ugly, diabolical and manipulative witches to present the number three as a superstition, dragging along evil wherever it goes. While Shakespeare uses the number three to predict and present evil throughout the tragedy â€Å"Macbeth†, he strives toward changing societal views of the number. With a simple beheading, Macbeth’s tragic downfall is complete and caused entirely by the three prophecies foretold by the three witches who showed Macbeth the three apparitions and encouraged him to commit three murders. By introducing the three witches first, Shakespeare relates the number three to the hags immediately and through their chaotic destruction of people’s lives by influencing their sins, the witches represent all the evil of the prophecy.