Action and Accountability in Shakespeare’s Macbeth
By Cindy Bassalleck
They say that life is what you make of it. Though there is much in the fabric of Shakespeare’s tragedies that complicates the relationship between action and accountability with regard to the tragic heroes, it cannot be assumed, simply because they find themselves in a difficult position, that they are engulfed and rendered powerless by the events that unfold in their midst. Even Iago, Shakespeare’s evil incarnate, remarks, “ ‘Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus…we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts” (1.3:316-326). Circumstance, then, simply does not negate guilt or responsibility. Given reason, we are capable both of the good and the evil behavior that seals our fate. This idea is especially important to a moral reading of Macbeth The true calamity of this and all other tragic Shakespearean plays lies not in the circumstances that Macbeth finds himself in, but what he chooses to make of those circumstances. Ultimately, it is Macbeth himself who serves as the instrument of his downfall. By instilling his character with reason, judgment, consciousness, and at least some degree of morality, Shakespeare proves Macbeth capable of resisting the impulse to carry out his infamous dark deeds, and thus implicitly tells us that despite our circumstances, we must all be held accountable (as Macbeth certainly is) for our own actions.
Macbeth’s moral makeup and reasoning
capabilities play a major role in proving him the author of his own destiny,
rather than a victim of circumstance. The complicated mix of unruly ambition
and reflective morality that co-exist in Macbeth’s character, however,
render those reasoning capabilities at times difficult to discern. He is
described alternately in terms of cunning and kindness. Early in the play,
Macbeth is hailed as “brave Macbeth”, “valiant cousin”, “worthy gentleman”,
and “noble partner”. Indeed, initially, we get only favorable reports of
Macbeth’ s character quality. These praises, however, find themselves very
quickly alongside more questionable references and asides. Banquo, for
example, is quick to observe that his companion is “rapt withal” upon hearing
himself referred to as “king hereafter”. The possibility that Banquo picks
up on Macbeth’s evil scheming this early in the play is re-enforced by
Roman Polansky’s motion picture interpretation of the play, wherein Macbeth
dawns both a shocked and a fiercely contemplative expression upon hearing
the witches speak—an expression that Banquo observes with an air of wary
suspicion. Lady Macbeth also alludes to Macbeth’s moral side when she notes
that, “I do fear thy nature. / It is too full o’ the milk of human
kindness / To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, / Art not without
ambition, but without / The illness should attend it” (1.5:14-18). Though
her ruminations suggest that Macbeth does not have what it takes to achieve
the greatness that he longs for, the reader knows something that Lady Macbeth
does not yet know— namely, that Macbeth has already begun contemplating
the murder himself and that his letter may in fact be designed to put the
same idea into his wife’s head. However, until Duncan’s actual murder,
Macbeth continues to go back and forth between the good and the evil impulses
within him. It is in this back and forth struggle that Macbeth’ s reasoning
capabilities, and thus his accountability for the decision that he ultimately
makes, are witnessed most clearly.
Macbeth’s
many personal musings and his violent internal struggles illustrate the
fact that he is fully aware that he has two choices—he can murder Duncan
and fulfill the witch’s prophecy himself immediately, or he can wait and
let the events play themselves out without his intervention. Macbeth makes
it clear that he fully understands the gravity of what he is considering:
“…why do I yield to that suggestion / Whose horrid image doth unfix my
hair / And make my seated heart knock at my ribs / Against the use of nature”
(1.3:133-36). However, the longer he considers the idea of being king himself,
the more he commits himself mentally to what he is to do—“Stars, hide your
fires, / Let not light see my black and deep desires” (1.5:50-51). In his
monologue at the beginning of Act 1, Scene 7, Macbeth carefully analyzes
his situation in a manner that makes it clear that he is under no false
impressions with regard to the deed: “But in these cases / We still have
judgment here, that we but teach / Bloody instructions which, being taught,
return / To plague the inventor. This even-handed justice / Commends the
ingredients of our poison’d chalice / To our own lips” (1.7:7-12). Here,
Macbeth owns to the fact that he is aware that he could fail and that what
he is about to do is a risk. Just as he seems to have changed his mind
yet again, however, Lady Macbeth comes along to quiet his fears and the
“bloody business” is soon carried out as the resolved Macbeth brandishes
his dagger and slaughters the sleeping Duncan.
The
role of circumstance must finally be examined in order to conclusively
determine the full extent of Macbeth’s guilt and accountability. It is
clear, firstly, that Macbeth is convinced that the witches speak the truth,
since he is named Thane of Cawdor almost immediately after they address
him as such. However, he is not willing to accept this proof that what
is to be will be. In his internal debate, Macbeth reveals his desperate
desire to ensure that the entire prophecy is fulfilled. In this sense,
it could be argued that Macbeth simply uses the witch’ s declarations to
support and justify the dark ambitions that he already harbored. Though
their presence cannot be denied as having a profound impact on the story,
it is never suggested that they do anything but predict the future. The
witches “look into the seeds of time”—they do not encourage or force anyone
to do anything. It is Macbeth’s own “vaulting ambition” that takes their
words and runs wild with them. The suggestion that their prophecy put the
idea into Macbeth’s head into the first place is unlikely, considering
how quickly he begins thinking about murder with no suggestion of it whatsoever
in the witch’s words. Polansky’s Macbeth does a particularly good job of
communicating to the audience his “black and deep desires” through his
facial expressions— a crucial element of the play that we miss by only
reading the text. The capacity for violence on the level that Macbeth carries
it out is such that it must have existed beforehand—it could not be founded
simply by the words of the witches or the prodding of his wife—another
key figure in the ‘circumstances’ that Macbeth finds himself in. It has
been argued that the title of this play should in fact be Lady Macbeth,
as many readers see her as the driving force behind Duncan’s murder. While
it is true that Lady Macbeth plays on Macbeth’ s weaknesses and encourages
the crime, in the end it is not she who makes the decision. It is highly
unlikely that, given the role of women in the time during which this play
was written and the time period in which it is set, that the Lady could
hold so much power over her husband. The murder is committed not by Lady
Macbeth, but by Macbeth himself. In fact, she admits that she could not
have done it herself: Had he not resembled / My father as he slept,
I had done’t” (2.2:12-13). Furthermore, Macbeth’s remorse is such that
he blames only himself: “I am afraid to think what I have done” (2.2:48).
He does not say, “I am afraid to think what Lady Macbeth and/or the witches
have made me do” Had Lady Macbeth been ultimately responsible, it
is unlikely that Macbeth would have refrained, as he does, from shifting
some of the blame from himself to his wife. Despite all of the extenuating
circumstances in this play, it all boils down to one thing—it is Macbeth
and only Macbeth who stands guilty of murdering Duncan.
Macbeth stands apart from
tragedies like
Othello in that unlike Othello, Macbeth has no real
reason to kill Duncan other than vague envy. Macbeth does not express the
same anguished jealousy and feelings of betrayal like Othello, nor does
he seem to be mentally unstable. We hear of his ambition, but he never
really communicates why or how badly he wants what Duncan has. We know
only that he wants it, and that he will kill anyone and everyone that threatens
to take it from him. This is perhaps what is so disturbing about this play—
we are left without any satisfactory reason why Macbeth begins the blood
bath that characterizes his brief rein. We know only that he makes a conscious
and deliberate decision to do so and that even when he has it, he does
not particularly enjoy it. This, however, may be at the heart of what is
so tragic about this story— for all the blood that Macbeth spills, he does
not even enjoy the prize. It is a very short-lived kingship, in fact, and
when Macbeth’s head is finally paraded around on a stake, we can only blame
him for his own gruesome demise.
Works Cited:
Othello, Macbeth—Norton editions. Stephen Greenblatt, ed. The Norton Shakespeare. London, W.W. Norton & Co. 1997.