Shakespeare's Structuring of His Moral Argument in Macbeth
by
I
have a saying. If God, in a whimsical mood, appeared to someone and
said that he or she could only ever read or see one Shakespearean
tragedy, but could choose which, the choice should be Macbeth.
Of the dramatist’s acknowledged four greatest tragedies – in
alphabetical order Hamlet,
King Lear,
Othello,
and Macbeth
– each of the other three surpasses Macbeth
in one way or another, but Macbeth
is the best all-rounder. If the four plays were football teams, each
of the other three would have one or two brilliant players more
inspirational than any in the Macbeth
team, but the Macbeth
team would win most matches because of its superior spread of talent
and its cohesiveness.
If
Shakespeare had been asked, by someone whose discernment he trusted,
what he thought he had achieved in Macbeth
which was of greatest value, I have little doubt that he would have
replied that he most valued its persuasiveness as a morality play. He
would have affirmed that he wrote the tragedy to demonstrate the
power and dignity of the human conscience by tracing how two very
different, powerful personalities attempt, each in a different but
character-consistent way, to defeat conscience in order to feel good
while being bad, but fail. If the questioner had protested that the
character development, or the dialogue, are surely the most
awe-inspiring features of the play, Shakespeare would have replied
that from his perspective these features ultimately matter only as
means to his schematic end, which is to present convincingly his
moral argument.
In
teaching the play over the years I have developed and fine-tuned a
set of Act-by-Act questions and directions which I think guide
students to see and understand the development of the dramatic
argument by focusing their attentions on the main steps by which
Shakespeare advances it. I invite the present reader to work through
this study-guide, responding in mind preferably with a text of
the play in hand. Although I give line numbers, and although these
vary from edition to edition, I seek to obviate this problem by
quoting the beginning words of the lines to which I am referring
wherever there could be uncertainty. Those who teach the play might
find the questions useful for their students.
ACT
1. The Theme of Temptation
1. What two victories by Macbeth, Thane of Glamis,
move King Duncan in 1.1 to make him also the Thane of Cawdor?
2. What do the witches promise Macbeth?
3. What do the witches promise Banquo?
4. At what point in the action does Macbeth learn
that he is now Thane of Cawdor? Why is it important that he learns it
at just this point, rather than earlier or later?
5. Quote Macbeth's words which reveal when he
first feels tempted to kill Duncan.
6. Quote Macbeth's words which show that he
promptly rejects the temptation.
7. What is the effect on Macbeth of Duncan's
announcement that he has decided to make his son Malcolm his
successor as king, and to make him also the Prince of Cumberland to
signify this? (1.4.35ff.)
8. What does Lady Macbeth's "milk of human
kindness" soliloquy (1.5.1-31) show about both (a) her own
character; and (b) Macbeth's character?
9. In two or three sentences, explain what Macbeth
dreads would be the effects of his murdering Duncan on his own
subsequent reign as King. (1.7.2-12)
10. In one or two sentences, summarise briefly
what Macbeth is saying about Duncan in 1.7.16ff.
Act 2. The Murder of Duncan & Its Aftermath
1. Quote Banquo's words in 2.1 which show that he,
like Macbeth, feels tempted to commit murder to obtain the kingship,
but suppresses the temptation.
2. Quote Banquo's words in 2.1 whereby he makes
clear to Macbeth that he will not collaborate with him in any evil
scheme.
3. Quote Macbeth's words in 2.2 which best show
how he feels about the blood on his hands.
4. What does this show about his moral character?
5. Quote Lady Macbeth's words which best show how
she feels about the blood on their hands.
6. What does this show about her moral character?
ACT 3. The Murder of Banquo & Its Aftermath
1. Quote two references to Macbeth and/or Lady
Macbeth having restless nights:
- one in 3.2;
- one in 3.4.
2. What does Macbeth mean by his words, "Things
bad begun make strong themselves by ill"? (3.2.55)
3. Macbeth had needed his wife's strong insistence
before he could bring himself to murder Duncan; yet he arranges the
murder of Banquo without even telling her. What does this show about
his character development?
4. Explain what Macbeth means when he says:
For mine own good
All
causes shall give way. I am in blood
Stepped
in so far that, should I walk no more,
Returning
were as tedious as go o'er. (3.4.136 39)
5. Explain
what Macbeth means when he says:
Strange
things I have in head which will to hand,
Which
must be acted 'ere they may be scanned*. (3.4.140 41)
[*scanned = thought about]
6. Explain
what Macbeth means when he says,
My strange and self-abuse
Is
the initiate fear that wants* hard use. (3.4.143-44)
[*wants
= lacks]
ACT 4. The Reunion with the Witches and the
Assault on Macduff's Castle
1. Quote the two statements by the Apparition in
4.1 which convince Macbeth that he is indestructible.
2. What does Macbeth mean when he says:
From this moment
The
very firstlings of my heart shall be
The
firstlings of my hand. (4.1.146 48)
3. Explain
the significance of Macbeth's exclamation,
But
no more sights! (4.1.155)
ACT
5. The Catastrophe
2. Quote the words in Lady Macbeth's sleep-talking
which you think best reveal her subconscious torment.
3. What is the bitter truth which Macbeth is
admitting in his soliloquy beginning, "My way of life...”?
(4.3.22ff.)
4. Macbeth says that he has "almost forgot
the taste of fear". (5.5.10ff.) What does he tell in his
relevant speech that he has lost apart from his fear of doing and
encountering evil?
5. In Macbeth's immortal soliloquy in 5.5.17ff.
(“She should have died hereafter...”), what are his expressed or
implied thoughts regarding
• his past;
• his prospects for the future;
• the hopes we all have of life?
Quote his words in your answers.
Of
course, at root Macbeth
is a study in natural law – in how there exist laws of right order
and right behaviour, imprinted in our natures and accessible by right
reason and reason-attuned intuition, the violation of which produces
disorder within and without, psychological and social. However, most
great dramas and novels are just such studies in one way or another,
and are usually great partly because they resonate deeply with our
awarenesses of human nature and natural law. Thus it is how any
particular great literary work satisfies these fundamental
awarenesses, rather than the mere fact that it does so, which gives
it its individual value – as is manifestly the case with Macbeth.
