Macbeth: The Deterioration of a Great and Honorable Man
...but is manipulated back onto the course through his wife. Thus, we see Macbeth’s essential goodness through his indecisiveness before the murder. After the crime is committed, Macbeth’s torment of his mind becomes apparent through a reference of sleep: “Me thought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more!’”(II.ii.32). Sleep seems to be a factor of sanity in Macbeth; he is not able to sleep so he begins to go insane. “If he must sell his eternal jewel to gain an earthly crown, he thereby is frustrating any hope his soul might have of gaining a heavenly crown (Swisher 92).” Macbeth is selling his soul to gain the title of king, but he is also selling his ticket to heaven by the deeds he has to do to gain that “earthly crown.” Macbeth does not have “heavenly hope”, so does not have the right to reach the figurative crown (Swisher 92). Macbeth is even more despaired when he realizes the crown he wears is “fruitless” and his scepter is “barren” (Swisher 94-94). Macbeth is not able to show his true self to the people, he is forced to “wear a mask”, or hide his true emotions and his true inner being (Swisher 91). Macbeth does not want the people knowing that his heart is full of hatred, in fear that they will know that he is the one who has committed the murders. Like the crown, the “kingly” robes that Macbeth wears after Act II are symbols of his position as king (Swisher 92). He wants to feel that he is kingly, and great, and the clothes he wears do have that affect on him. They appear to participate in keeping the sanity of Macbeth, and the “office which he represents” (Swisher 92). Macbeth has come to the frantic conclusion that “Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player, / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, / And then is heard no more (V.v.28-30).” He feels that his life is meaning less and that after he dies, no one will remember him. His life is devoid of all meaning. Macbeth has destroyed all of his moral values and no longer had a conscience. Macbeth is dominated by his wife. Lady Macbeth wills to do more evil, even more than Macbeth (Swisher 134). She believes that Macbeth is weak, and will not be able to do the deeds necessary for him to become king: Yet do I 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. What thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win… (I.iv.17-23) Lady Macbeth sees Macbeth as a kind gentle man, and believes that he will not be able to perform the deeds necessary to become king, because he is too pure at heart and weak in the mind. It is Lady Macbeth who plans the murder of Duncan, the drunken chamberlains, and is the one who talks Macbeth into killing him. Macbeth is set against killing Duncan, “We will proceed no further in this business (I.vi.31)”, but Lady Macbeth’s “eloquence” is too much for Macbeth. Because she has a strong will, and actions are directed by passion and not by reason, her punishment is more terrible than that of Macbeth, and causes her “self-destruction” (Swisher 134). Swisher says that the “final devilish state of Macbeth’s soul is not to be judged from his beginning, which appears to be good, but from his end.” During the fifth act, Macbeth no longer has a conscience and has no ...