Macbeth: Act III
Episode 41
This week, Professor Pipes hits the midpoint of the play that shall not be named. Will Macbeth (oops) fulfill his kingly duties or will madness take him to the brink of war?
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Death, Murder, Mental Illness
Transcript
Introduction:
Hello and welcome to Piper’s Paraphrases. I’m Professor Pipes and this week we’re passing the midway point of Shakespeare’s Macbeth… Meaning we’re in act three, it’s act three. Let’s get started by reviewing the past two acts.
Previously:
Previously in Macbeth, that titular character, Macbeth, got a prophecy from some major witches that he would be king and his best buddy, Banquo, got a prophecy that his descendants would be kings. Macbeth’s wife was suuuuper into this news and naturally got all hyped up about Macbeth murdering the current king, Duncan. After a bit of pro-ing and con-ing and a brief hallucination of a floating knife, Macbeth eventually does murder the king and frames his servants, whom he conveniently kills under a pretense of revenge once everyone finds out about the murder. Duncan’s sons flee the country, afraid for their lives, which then makes everyone assume that they are the real murderers. Macbeth is then named king. Sooo… yay!
Summary:
In Act 3, scene 1, Banquo seems a bit worried, and for good reason. He’s not entirely convinced that Macbeth’s prophecy just happened to come true without some… help… from Macbeth. He then starts to think about the witches’ other prophecy: that his descendants would ascend the throne after Macbeth. Speak of the actual devil, Macbeth enters with his wife and new entourage, since he’s now king. He speaks all suuuper nice to Banquo, calling him his most honored guest and assuring him that he absolutely must talk to him tomorrow about politics and stuff, including Duncan’s murderous sons, who have fled. Banquo mentions that he’s going riding with his son, you know, the one that might end up being king, and Macbeth tells him to head on out. Once everyone else has left, Macbeth talks about how he’s more afraid of Banquo than anyone else. Then a couple of characters, literally just called Murderers enter, and Macbeth talks to them about how Banquo betrayed them and ruined their lives. He gets them all riled up until they agree to murder both Banquo and his innocent son, Fleance. Well dang. I thought they were friends.
In scene 2, Lady Macbeth seems to be feeling guilty and worried about what she and her husband have done. Awww, pre-meditated triple murder not sitting so well with you? How sad. When her husband comes in, also apparently looking upset and worried, she reassures him, conveniently forgetting about her own concerns. Macbeth mentions that he’s worried that they have only “scorched the snake, not killed it,” meaning that there are still threats to the crown and, thus, to their power. Like his wife, he laments that the REAL victims here are not the dead, murder victims, since they get to sleep peacefully, but themselves, the murderers, since they are full of anxiety and have trouble sleeping. Macbeth then says he’s got a plan in motion that will make him feel better, though, because even though Banquo and Fleance are alive, they can be killed. He asks his wife to be suuuper nice to Banquo, so he doesn’t get suspicious about what Macbeth has planned. He then tells his wife that he won’t actually tell her what the plan is. As if it weren’t insanely obvious.
Scene 3 begins with the two murderers, joined by some new third murderer, waiting for Banquo and Fleance. Pretty soon they arrive, and the murderers immediately attack Banquo. As he dies, Banquo warns his son to run away, which he does. The murderers then realize they can’t kill Fleance now, so they head out to tell Macbeth.
In scene 4, things get cray. There’s a big ol’ feast, with most of the lords there. As Macbeth welcomes his guests, one of the murderers enters, so he talks to him secretly and finds out that while Banquo has been killed, Fleance got away, something that definitely worries him. Lady Macbeth tells him to get back to his guests, which he does, but suddenly the ghost of Banquo appears, sitting in Macbeth’s throne, and freaking the heck out of Macbeth, but no one else, since he’s the only one who sees the ghost. When he starts to talk to this invisible guest, the lords are like, Whaaaaaaat? But Lady Macbeth assures them that it’s just some totally normal problem he’s had ever since he was a child. “Ah yes, seeing invisible people again, no big deal.” Eventually the ghost of Banquo leaves, but so do the guests. And also maybe whatever little was left of Macbeth’s grasp on reality. Macbeth mentions to his wife that he’s heard Macduff plans to steer clear of his royal castle - probably a good idea, to be honest - and he’s pretty annoyed by this. He also says he plans to go see the witches again.
Scene 5 is short and spooooky! The witches are back, this time with Hecate, the Greek goddess of magic. Wait - this story takes place in Scotland, not Greece. Meh. Whatever. Anyway, Hecate is super annoyed at the witches for telling Macbeth of his future, especially since he’s kind of totally a jerk. She’s got a plan to trick Macbeth by having the witches tell him prophecies that will make him think he can't be defeated, making him overconfident, and therefore vulnerable.
In Scene 6, we see Lennox talking to another lord about the strange things that have been going on lately. He seems a little suss as he talks about Malcolm killing his father Duncan and then fleeing and then the exact same thing happening again with Fleance and his father, Banquo. Then they talk about what’s been going on with Malcolm since he fled. He’s been living with the English court, and Macduff has recently gone there, too, to ask King Edward to help bring peace - and murder-less nights - back to Scotland, so they can be rid of the tyrant Macbeth! What does this mean for Macbeth? It’s time to prepare for war! And on this ominous note, the act ends!
Characterization:
Before we head into themes, I thought I’d take a minute to talk about some pretty major character development, or, really, de-development. Unvelopment? Anyway, Macbeth has crossed over from murdering in order to achieve his ambitious desire to follow his “destiny” and be king all the way to plotting the murder of his close friend and an innocent child just to maintain his power. Talk about power corrupting… Nothing seems too low or too foul for him now. Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth, who was arguably the more conniving and evil character in the previous acts, now shows signs of guilt and discontent at their actions. Macbeth even refuses to tell her about his plan to kill Banquo and Fleance and then points out that she seems surprised by his ominous speech. So while their villainy has sent Macbeth spiraling into more and more evil, it seems to have had the opposite effect on his wife.
Analysis:
As we dive into the themes and motifs in this Act, let’s begin with Power and Ambition and their close connection to evil. Ambition drove Macbeth to murder Duncan, but now that he has what he wanted, power, he finds that it’s not enough. He wants more. It’s not enough to be king - he must be king forever! He can’t let someone else’s kid take the throne after he dies and instead has to murder that child. Macbeth’s power has made him paranoid, and he assumes that everyone else is as ambitious and evil as he is. Therefore, he assumes that Banquo and Fleance must be plotting HIS murder, so he needs to take care of them first. His ambition has driven him further and further into this evil path, where one crime, one death, leads to another and another and another, and it’s now all leading up to Macbeth preparing for war. After all, as Macbeth himself said, “things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.”
Next up, let’s talk Gender. So far in the play there’s been a lot of talk about how male-ness equals evil-ness, and yet Shakespeare made a point to have Lady Macbeth come up with the murderous plot and set it in motion, demonstrating that the “rules” of gender may actually be more like guidelines. If that. In this act, the qualities of manhood are discussed again. When it comes to Lady Macbeth, the qualities of a man are clear: he must be a brave leader and show no weakness. When her husband freaks out after seeing a ghost, Lady Macbeth literally asks him, “Are you a man?” and then later says that he has been “unmanned in folly” meaning that his foolishness has made him less of a man, since he’s paralyzed by fear. Macbeth definitely feels the effects of these burns, saying that, “what man dare, I dare” and saying “I am a man again” when the ghost leaves and he is once again his normal, brave, and therefore manly self. However, it may not be as simple as that. Earlier in the act, when Macbeth asks the murderers if they’re just going to stand by and let Banquo wrong them, they respond, “We are men” to which Macbeth responds that, yeah, they may be men, in the same way that terriers and rottweilers are both dogs. Yes, corgis too, Cooper. Basically, he’s saying that being a man is different than being a man… ok… So all people are people, but they have different qualities that define them. That makes more sense. However, yet again, it seems that Macbeth sees bravery and a desire to stand up for oneself as necessary qualities in a good man.
There’s a whole lot of talk about what makes a person seem like a man, which kind of leads us to our next theme: Appearance. It’s been clear throughout the play that appearance plays a big role in our decision-making, but perhaps it shouldn’t, and that is evident in this act, as well. Macbeth mentions in scene 4 that he “keep[s] a servant fee’d” in the house of every one of his lords. In other words, he’s got spies all over his kingdom. Because Macbeth’s appearance is not to be trusted, he suspects the same of all his subjects. However, some people are starting to see Macbeth for who he is, since Macduff is plotting against him and Lennox supports that plot. Even Banquo says he thinks that Macbeth “played’st most foully” in order to become king, even though Macbeth shows nothing but kindness to him. At least to his face. But then, minutes later, Macbeth literally plots Banquo’s murder. Oh! I smell smoke! Maybe that’s because he’s a liar liar pants on fire! Macbeth even tells his wife that they must “make our faces vizards to our hearts, Disguising what they are.” This disconnect between appearance and reality is physically shown through Banquo’s ghost. Macbeth is the only character who sees this vision, which demonstrates his continued descent into madness, his disconnection from reality. He can no longer trust what he sees, just as no one should trust what they see in him.
Next, let’s move this trust talk over to Fate. It seems that this whole destiny versus self-determination thing has gotten reeeeeal complicated. Hecate is quite annoyed that the witches have given prophecies to Macbeth, since she doesn’t think he deserves them. This would suggest that fate is real - that the prophecies are bound to come true. However, she then says that she’s going to come up with illusions that will trick Macbeth. Now these are also prophecies, bound to come true, but they are going to confuse Macbeth and make him think that he’s above “wisdom, grace, and fear.” Hecate plans to do this, since she knows that Macbeth’s hubris, his overconfidence, will be his undoing. But wait - wouldn’t that mean that he IS in charge of his destiny? Why bother to trick him if what’s going to happen is bound to happen by fate? So we’re left wondering: are the witches revealing prophecies or are they really just trying to mess with people?
Finally, let’s talk about that bloody motif. And I do mean Blood. I’m not just UK cussin’ over here. Blood is used throughout the play as a reminder of the evil deeds that are done, and sometimes as evidence of guilt. For instance, Macbeth points out that there’s blood on the face of the murderer. Later, when Macbeth is faced with Banquo’s ghost, he tries to justify his evil behavior, to lessen his guilt, by saying that, “Blood hath been shed ere now, i' th' olden time” and those dead guys just stayed dead, but now, they come back to haunt people, and that’s even worse than the murder! Hmmm… suuuuure… However, he’s not going back to innocent ways now. In fact, Macbeth admits that, “I am in blood Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er” meaning that he’s gone so deep into this evil, into these bloody deeds, that he might as well keep going with murder, as it is just as easy as stopping. The visual of Macbeth wading deeper and deeper into blood is meant to be disturbing, to show how evil he has become, especially given how unphased he is by the idea of continuing to murder people. But the bloody imagery should feel ominous as well. After all, even Macbeth admits that the dead will have their revenge; that “blood will have blood.”
Food for Thought:
Now that we’ve analyzed this act, I invite you to consider this food for thought as you reflect on Act Three of the play that shall not be named.
First, what do you think Shakespeare is suggesting about fate, given the events of this act and the discussion of the witches?
Second, Macbeth laments that he bears a “fruitless crown” in this act, meaning he has no child. Meanwhile, there are multiple people being accused of murdering their fathers. What do you think is the significance of these parent / child dynamics? Of all this parent talk?
Third, what do you think the ghost of Banquo represents? What is its significance and what is the significance of Macbeth’s response to it?
Fourth, Macbeth demonstrates a great deal of paranoia in this act. However, in what ways have his fears been justified and to what extent is he to blame for this?
Finally, Lord Acton famously said that “power tends to corrupt,” but in what ways does it corrupt Macbeth? How have his increasing power and his fear of losing that power corrupted his personality, his morality, and his mental health?
Thanks for watching this episode of Piper’s Paraphrases. Now go forth, read a bunch, and be a much better person than Macbeth.
