Sympathy for Macbeth

Sympathy for Macbeth

1. If the play is to work as a tragedy, we must feel some sympathy for the protagonist through to the close of the play

2. 1) First Impressions

   • Positive attributes are stressed
     • "brave Macbeth," "noble Macbeth," "valour's minon," "Bellona's bridegroom"
     • Lady Macbeth describes her husband as being "full of the milk of human kindness"

3. 2) Any assessment of Macbeth's culpability must take into account of the influence exercised on him by the witches

   • "All hail Macbeth that shalt be king hereafter"
   • They malevolently use his own weaknesses to destroy him

4. 3) Macbeth is a reluctant murderer

   • He realises that as Duncan's kinsman, subject and host, his duty is to protect Duncan
   • "Not bear the knife himself"
   • "Vaulting ambition"
   • "We will proceed no further in this business"

5. 4) Lady Macbeth's role in the build-up to the murder proves critical

   • Powers of persuasion
     • Taunt him, questioning his courage
       • "Art Thou afeard?"
     • Emotional blackmail
   • However, Macbeth has free will and makes his own moral choices

6. 5) It is very significant that the audience does not see Macbeth killing Duncan

   • The focus of the play is on the inner torment of the villain rather than the suffering of his victim
     • Doubts: "He's here in double trust"
     • Guilt: "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand"
     • Regret: "Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!"
     • Horror: " I am afraid to think what I have done. Look on it again I dare not"

7. 6) Troubled conscience

   • Air-drawn dagger
     • "dagger of the mind"
   • voices in Duncan's chamber
     • "Macbeth doth murder sleep"
   • Ghost of Banquo
   • unwilling to fight Macduff
     • "My soul is too much charged with the blood of thine already"

8. 7) His keen and painful awareness of the high price to be paid for achieving his ambition by evil means

   • He will never sleep again
   • Envies the dead Duncan: "nothing can touch him further"
   • Macbeth loses all interest in life : "I have lived long enough. My way of life has fallen into the sere"
   • He will never enjoy "honour, love, obedience, troops of friends"

9. 8) Indifferent to LM's suffering

   • He wishes the doctor could cure her sickness:"Can'st thou not minister to a minds diseased"
   • Miraculously cure Scotland
     • Macbeth's regret at the effect of his tyranny

10. 9) The end

    • "Why should I play the Roman fool and die on mine own sword"