Counsel in Macbeth
The voices that are heeded and ignored in Macbeth
by
Donald L. Renfrew MD
by
Donald L. Renfrew MD
Counsel
in Macbeth
The
Problem
In
Act 5 Macbeth, despairing of any goodness and purpose in life,
delivers his most memorable speech.
To-morrow, and
to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
The
animating sentiment of this speech is that of the Columbine killers1
and philosopher David Benatar, author of Better
Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence.
A few lines later, Macbeth summarizes his thesis and chooses,
instead of suicide2,
“death by cop” (5,5):
I ‘gin to be
aweary of the sun,
And wish th’
estate o’ th’ world were now undone –
Ring the
alarum-bell! Blow, wind! Come, wrack!
At least we’ll
die with harness on our back.
What
brings the king to such a state, where he agrees with high school
shooters or morbid contemporary philosophers? One key to
understanding Macbeth’s fall is to note that he also agrees with
Goerthe’s Mephistopheles:
I am the spirit who
negates
And rightly so, for
all that comes to be
Deserves to perish,
wretchedly.
It were better
nothing would begin!
Thus everything
that your terms sin,
Destruction, evil
represent –
That is my proper
element.
In
addition to the title character, there’s another fallen character
mentioned in Macbeth. Malcolm, when he is sounding out Macduff’s
faithfulness (4,3), notes:
Angels are still
bright, though the brightest fell.
What
were kings to the Elizabethan audience of Shakespeare? Many rulers
were held in high esteem, and
with good reason.
Properly functioning royal rulers stood in for God, as Shakespeare
illustrates in 4.3 where King Edward heals the sick, has the gift of
prophesy, and possesses additional unspecified “sundry blessings”:
[Citizens are
afflicted with a disease which] ‘Tis called the evil.
A most miraculous
work in this good king,
Which often since
my here-remain in England
I have seen him do.
How he solicits heaven,
Himself best knows,
but strangely visited people,
All swoll’n and
ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
The mere despair of
surgery, he cures,
Hanging a golden
stamp about their necks,
Put on with holy
prayers. And, ‘tis spoken
To the succeeding
royalty he leaves
The healing
benediction. With this strange virtue,
He hath a heavenly
gift of prophecy,
And sundry
blessings hang about his throne,
That speak him full
of grace.
Elizabethans
knew that their rulers were human, but they hoped – and prayed –
that their own royal leader would “channel the Almighty” and act
as God. In Genesis, God brings habitable order into being from
chaos, and pronounces creation “good”, that is, better to
have been than to not
have been.
How
did Macbeth get where he is in Act 5? It is the downstream result of
a hasty decision made not in the heat of battle, but in the
afterglow. Macbeth’s first thought, upon being told by the witches
that he is to be king, is to murder Duncan. We know this because of
Banquo’s observation (1.3):
Good sir, why do
you start; and seem to fear
Things that do
sound so fair?
Macbeth
indicates what he has in mind later in the same scene:
. . .why do I yield
to that suggestion
Whose horrid image
doth unfix my hair [?]
Why
does Macbeth immediately think of murdering Duncan upon hearing that
he will be king? Consider the circumstances: he has just come from
not one but two bouts of brutal hand-to-hand combat (described by the
wounded Captain in 1.2). The survivor of two battles, still hot and
bloody from the fray, would naturally think of murder. Macbeth
himself notes that someone emotionally charged might hastily pursue
violence when he explains why he kills Duncan’s guards3
(2.3):
Who can be wise,
amazed, temp’rate, and furious,
Loyal and neutral,
in a moment? No man.
Th’ expedition of
my violent love
Outrun the pauser,
reason.
While
Macbeth’s first impulse upon hearing the witches’ declaration is
to murder Duncan, he realizes immediately that this may not be
necessary (1,3):
If chance will have
me king, why, chance may crown me
Without my stir
If
Macbeth knows he has at least two options (action and inaction), how
does he choose between the two? It seems he wants to discuss the
issue with his fellow soldier Banquo, as within a few lines of
realizing that he does not necessarily have to kill Duncan to become
king he tells Banquo:
Think upon what has
chanced, and, at more time
The interim having
weighed it, let us speak
Our free hearts to
each other.
We
presume this discussion did not ensue, for Macbeth’s next
discussion of the matter is with Lady Macbeth. In 1.5 she reads a
letter from Macbeth recounting his meeting with the witches, and she
immediately thinks that Macbeth should murder Duncan (“the nearest
way” to become king), but she worries that he will be “too full
of the milk of human kindness” to do the job. Lady Macbeth implores
the “spirits that tend on mortal thoughts” to fill her with
cruelty. Once Macbeth arrives, Lady Macbeth counsels him to kill
Duncan, but Macbeth demurs, saying at the end of 1.5 “We will speak
further.”
In
1.7 Macbeth provides several reasons not
to murder Duncan. When Lady Macbeth interrupts, he tells her “We
will proceed no further in this business.” She then challenges his
honesty, his consistency, his bravery and his manhood (capped by the
image of her pulling a baby from her breast and dashing the baby’s
brains out). She also provides a concrete plan for the murder, at
which point Macbeth (reluctantly?) agrees:
I am settled, and
bend up
Each corporeal
agent to this terrible feat.
Even
though he has committed to this course of action, however, Macbeth
has second thoughts, and in 2.1 asks Banquo for the second time to
speak with him about the witches’ prophecies.
Where
did Macbeth go wrong? Was it in listening to his wife? Was it in
failure to listen to Banquo? He knows he should not listen to her,
and it seems likely that he should have listened to him. But he does
not avail himself of the opportunity to speak with Banquo. Who else
could he have spoken with?
There’s
one Being Macbeth did not consult, as shown in 2.2, immediately after
his second and third murders. Duncan’s guards wake just before
Macbeth kills them, say prayers, and then fall back to sleep.
Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth (1,2):
One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other;
As they had seen me with these hangman's hands.
Listening their fear, I could not say 'Amen,'
When they did say 'God bless us!'
As they had seen me with these hangman's hands.
Listening their fear, I could not say 'Amen,'
When they did say 'God bless us!'
Lady
Macbeth (that font of great advice) tells Macbeth “Consider it not
so deeply.” To emphasize the point, Macbeth continues:
But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'?
I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen'
Stuck in my throat.
I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen'
Stuck in my throat.
Should
Macbeth have prayed before he killed Duncan? Would he have killed
the guards, killed Banquo, killed Macduff’s wife, children, and
servants, and ruined his country if he had prayed beforehand?
Macbeth
does not
seek the counsel of God. He’s still listening to Lady Macbeth when
he despairs of an inability to pray (say “Amen”). And he never
does seek the counsel
of God. Whose council does he seek? In Act 4, he purposefully seeks
out the witches, the personification of malevolence in the universe.
Does
Macbeth talk to anyone else on his road to despair? Who is he
talking to when he gives his most famous speech?
Seyton.
Say it out loud if you don’t get the point.
If
one of the many messages in the play is that Macbeth should have
sought God’s counsel, are there mentions or depictions of prayer in
Macbeth?
There
are 16 occurrences of the words “pray” or “prayer” in the
play. Most of these are the use of the word “pray” as a synonym
for “ask” (for example, in 1.3 where Banquo asks to speak with
Ross and Angus by saying “Cousins, a word, I pray you”). For a
complete list, see the Appendix.
There
are at least four depictions of prayer (seeking counsel of a
superhuman entity) which do not use the word “pray” or “prayer”
in the text. First, in the first scene of Lady Macbeth (1.5, after
she reads Macbeth’s letter and has immediately decided that she
needs to push him into regicide), she implores the witches she has
just learned of in the letter:
Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief!
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief!
Of
course, this sort of prayer is the opposite of what should be done.
Second,
and in distinction to Lady Macbeth, Duncan’s wife is described to
Malcom (her son) by Macduff as (4,3):
Third,
Macbeth follows his wife rather than the queen, when he chooses to
consult the witches in 3,4.
We
will return to the fourth depiction of prayer later.
Macbeth’s
failure is not in having (again, in the afterglow of repeated bloody
hand-to-hand combat) an initial thought of murdering Duncan. It is
in avoiding counsel with Banquo and with choosing instead counsel
with Lady Macbeth (who explicitly prays to evil spirits), and (even
more) his failure to pray to God (rather than the witches). What are
the consequences of this bad decision?
Once
Macbeth has made the decision to murder Duncan, as Macbeth himself
notes in 3.2 “Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill”; in
3.4 “Blood will have blood”, and
By the worse means,
the worst. For mine own good
All causes shall
give way. I am in blood
Stepped in so far
that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as
tedious as go o’er.
The
sequence of actions Macbeth undertakes escalate from reluctant murder
of Duncan performed after being talked into it by Lady Macbeth, to
murder of Banquo done without prior knowledge of Lady Macbeth, to
placing informants in all the households of the kingdom, to murdering
Macduff’s wife, children, and household servants. Macduff says,
even before
he finds out about his personal catastrophe (4,3),
Each new morn
New widows howl,
new orphans cry, new sorrows
Strike heaven on
the face, that it resounds
As if it felt with
Scotland and yelled out
Like syllable of
dolour.
The
country itself suffers from Macbeth’s sins (4,3)
I think our country
sinks beneath the yoke.
It weeps, it
bleeds, and each new day a gash
Is added to her
wounds.
Meanwhile,
Macbeth, who once had his hair unfixed at the thought of his murder
of Duncan (1,3), forgets “the taste of fears” (5,5):
The time has been
my senses would have cooled
To hear a
night-shriek, and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal
treatise rouse and stir
As life were in ‘t.
I have supped full with horrors.
Direness, familiar
to my slaughterous thoughts
Cannot once start
me.
Only
after the fact do we learn that the shriek is that of Lady Macbeth,
dying.
As
noted above, by Act 5, Macbeth contemplates suicide, feels that all
is senseless, and that the universe would have been better off to
have never been.
The
Solution
We
can all see that Macbeth makes a series of bad decisions resulting in
his tragedy, and that these decisions are brought about in large part
by failure to consult with those he should, and consulting with those
he should not. Is there a better model to follow in the story?
While
it might be thought that Duncan or Duncan’s son Malcolm are the
antithesis of Macbeth, this is not the case: Duncan and Malcolm are
rightful Kings, and Macbeth is not. The true antithesis of Macbeth
is Macduff.
The
names are virtually the same: “Mac” followed by a voiced stop and
an unvoiced fricative, both formed in the front of the mouth. They
are both Thanes. The first scene with their wives (neither named as
other than “Lady Mac[]”) finds them absent: Lady Macbeth awaits
Macbeth’s arrival; Lady Macduff learns Macduff has fled the
country. Lady Macbeth finds her husband lacking: he is “too full
of the milk of human kindness” and insufficiently masculine. Lady
Macduff finds her husband lacking: he “wants the natural touch”
and is insufficiently masculine. We first encounter Macbeth (with
Banquo) when he speaks with the witches (the interface between our
world and hell); we first encounter Macduff (with Lennox) when he
speaks with the Porter (in comic relief, acting the part of the
porter of hell-gate). Macbeth is the last man to see Duncan alive,
while Macduff is the first one to see him dead4.
If
Macbeth takes counsel with the witches and his wife, where does
Macduff take counsel? Is the counsel Macduff receives better than
that received by Macbeth?
Macduff
asks the Porter whether he was up late, and then, in response to the
Porters answer that he was up late drinking and that drinking
provokes three things, what those are5.
Macduff
then asks Macbeth “Is the king stirring, worthy thane?” and
Macbeth lies to him, saying “Not yet” which implies that Duncan
is still alive, although Macbeth has already killed him.
Later
in the scene, after Macbeth kills the guards before they can be
questioned, Macduff asks of Macbeth is “Wherefore did you so?”
and Macbeth lies again:
Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,
Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:
The expedition my violent love
Outrun the pauser, reason.
Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:
The expedition my violent love
Outrun the pauser, reason.
We
next see Macduff in 4.3, where he seeks the counsel of Malcolm.
Malcolm lies to him repeatedly regarding his own nature, to test
Macduff’s loyalty. Macduff proves his honesty by listening to all
of Malcolm’s lies and then telling him that he’s not only not fit
to be king, but that he is not fit to live. A doctor enters and
Macduff learns of King Edward’s holy status (see above).
Next,
Macduff seeks the counsel of Ross, who lies to him repeatedly
regarding his family’s murder:
Ross
later tells him Macduff the truth: that Macbeth has murdered his
family. Macduff makes Ross confirm, repeatedly, that this is the
truth (and little wonder, since Macduff is having a hard time getting
the truth from anyone). Ross tells Macduff to “dispute it [his
family’s murder] like a man”, that is, to take vengeance upon
Macbeth, to which Macduff agrees but adds “But I must also feel it
like a man.” These lines recall the multiple times Macbeth’s
manhood is alluded to by Lady Macbeth, including when challenging
Macbeth’s back-tracking regarding their agreed upon murder of King
Duncan, and, later, when Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost at the banquet
after arranging for his murder. One point of this recall is to
emphasize that both Macbeth and Macduff are men, although they react
in contrasting ways to their plights.
At
the end of Act 4, we have the fourth depiction of prayer (mentioned
above):
I shall do so;
But I must also feel it as a man:
I cannot but remember such things were,
That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on,
And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,
They were all struck for thee! naught that I am,
Not for their own demerits, but for mine,
Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now!
But I must also feel it as a man:
I cannot but remember such things were,
That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on,
And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,
They were all struck for thee! naught that I am,
Not for their own demerits, but for mine,
Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now!
O, I could play the
woman with mine eyes
And braggart with my tongue! But, gentle heavens,
Cut short all intermission; front to front
Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself;
Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape,
Heaven forgive him too!
And braggart with my tongue! But, gentle heavens,
Cut short all intermission; front to front
Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself;
Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape,
Heaven forgive him too!
This tune goes manly.
Come, go we to the king; our power is ready;
Our lack is nothing but our leave; Macbeth
Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above
Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may:
The night is long that never finds the day.
Come, go we to the king; our power is ready;
Our lack is nothing but our leave; Macbeth
Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above
Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may:
The night is long that never finds the day.
In
this passage, Macduff uses the word “heaven” four times in twelve
lines, and explicitly notes that he is fallen (“sinful Macduff”).
Substituting the word “God” for “heaven” makes it clear that
this is a prayer.
Macduff
acknowledges his own fallen state and indeed blames his problems
(loss of castle, title, and family) on his own sin and not on Macbeth
(or God). He calls for his family’s rest, in an explicit Christian
fashion. He asks God for the opportunity to directly challenge
Macbeth, but, in what must be one of the most remarkable yet
overlooked lines of the play, Macduff (despite his complete
justification and desire to kill Macbeth) acknowledges that God is in
charge: “. . . if he [Macbeth] escape, Heaven forgive him too.”
In other words, Macduff says “Your will be done, O Lord.”
Malcolm seconds Macduff’s prayer and also asks for divine
assistance (“the powers above/Put on their instruments”).
Macduff’s
few lines between his discussions with Malcolm and Ross and his
encounter with Macbeth has him telling Malcolm and Siward it’s time
to stop talking and get to work as soldiers (5.4) and calling all to
battle (5.6).
The
encounter between Macbeth and Macduff must have been much more
dramatic for those who were wondering how Macduff was going to kill
Macbeth given the witches’ promises and not yet knowing that
Macduff was delivered by caesarian section. Macduff is not
interested in talking to Macbeth, only in killing him. Macduff’s
final words, as he holds the severed head of Macbeth in front of the
new King Malcolm, are those of a servant of the king, not the king
himself:
Hail, king! for so thou art: behold, where stands
The usurper's cursed head: the time is free:
I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl,
That speak my salutation in their minds;
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine:
Hail, King of Scotland!
The usurper's cursed head: the time is free:
I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl,
That speak my salutation in their minds;
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine:
Hail, King of Scotland!
Summary
On
one hand, we have Macbeth, who makes a hasty decision after battle to
kill the king and take his crown, and who takes counsel from those he
should not (Lady Macbeth, the witches) and not from those he should
(Banquo, God). He goes from careful consideration of his acts, to
acting first and thinking about it later in 3.4:
Macbeth
has chosen to follow his own first impulses and work in his
self-interest.
On
the other hand, we have Macduff, who gets worse counsel than Macbeth,
being repeatedly lied to by everyone (the porter, Macbeth, Malcolm,
and Ross). He turns to heaven for the appropriate course and follows
St. Paul’s advice to “pray without ceasing” (Thessalonians
5:17). Unlike Macbeth, who by the end of the play is acting on
instinct, Macduff is a soldier doing a soldier’s duty (directly to
his king, indirectly to God). While Macduff has sacrificed much in
the process, he is in the end a hero who has delivered Scotland from
the evil Macbeth.
APPENDIX
1
As noted by Jordan Peterson in 12 Rules for Life, one of the
duo says: “Nothing means anything anymore” and “I say ‘KILL
ALL MANKIND’. No one should survive.”
2
He contemplates “the Roman option” a few scenes later, and
rejects it.
3 The
fact that he is lying as to his motivations by this point does not
belie the truth of what he says or of the acceptance of his
assertion by those who hear it.
4
Of course, the first person to see the King dead after Macbeth is
Lady Macbeth, but to her the dead are “but as pictures”.
5
The answer is nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Three predictions
that parallel the witches’ that Macbeth will be Thane of Cawdor,
that Macbeth will be king, and that Banquo will sire kings?
