Goodness Knows
the Wickeds’ Lives
Are Lonely…
Feraco
Search for Human Potential
6 December 2011
Genuine Witch Chants*
 Macbeth’s fourth act begins with the
material that earned it a long ban
from its target audience – some
“genuine” witch chants as the Weïrd
Sisters mix up the potion for their
charm.
 The “Double, double” sequence is
probably Macbeth’s most widelyrecognized, but for mostly shallow
reasons (apparently, it’s fun to sing
rhymes while dancing around a
cauldron).
 By this point, you’ve seen Shakespeare
slide extra meaning in around
Macbeth’s edges to recognize that the
“Fair is foul” doubling motif appears
again in the chants.
Unsettling Imagery
 There’s also some very specific, unsettling
imagery here: most of what’s being tossed in
the pot is either swollen with venom,
representative of sin (pieces of blasphemers,
things claimed under cover of darkness or
eclipse, etc.), or dismembered parts of
babies (the owlet’s wing and the finger of a
child who was born in a ditch and
subsequently strangled – how is unclear).
 I point out the specificity of what seems like
babble because, as you can clearly see, the
witches are mixing things that pertain to
Macbeth himself
 Everything from shattered newborns to darkness
and poison (the guard’s drinks, trust as venom,
etc.) reflects him somehow.
Knowledge – Understanding = ?
 But the Sisters can’t finish before Macbeth arrives.
 When he asks them what they’re doing, they reply –
in perfect unison – that their deed has no name.
 (Here, the thing to notice is not merely that Macbeth
himself has committed foul, nameless deeds, but that
the three respond to him in unison; we’ll study this in
far greater detail later.)
 And what follows, of course, must happen: Macbeth
has not learned the lesson Banquo’s fatal mistake
should have taught him, which is that one should be
careful when demanding – wishing for – something.
 He demands knowledge that is not rightfully his,
seeking to gain advantage over a future that’s
much larger and more complicated than he can
understand.
 What he gets is knowledge, but it’s paired with
some truly fatal, bloody misconceptions:
Siddhartha taught us that wisdom only comes from
experience and understanding, not from blindly
following or trusting in the words of others, and
that lesson’s rarely more applicable than it is here.
The Armed Head
 With the addition of a filicidal sow’s blood
(shades of Lady Macbeth’s “baby-dashing”
line here) and the sweat and grease that fell
from hanged murderer’s foreheads, an
“Armed Head” rises from the cauldron.
 “Armed” should not be taken literally here, at least
not in its primary sense: Shakespeare is describing
a head clad in a helmet or armor.
 It tells Macbeth exactly what he expects to
hear: that he must beware Macduff, the
Thane of Fife.
 One should notice that the king, far from his
throne, is powerless during the encounter:
he is told to keep silent, as the apparition can
sense his thoughts, and it ignores his request
for more knowledge (as the first Sister
bluntly tells him, the Head “will not be
commanded”).
The Blood-Covered Child
 And unfortunately for Macbeth, this powerlessness
isn’t a sufficient warning to be on guard against
arrogance (i.e., an unwarranted belief in one’s power
or superiority).
 He hasn’t struck us as a particularly proud person
before – Lady Macbeth’s interactions with him seem to
have guaranteed that – but his hubris (selfdestructive arrogance) gets the better of him here.
 No sooner does the Head finish its spiel than a child,
covered with blood (a chilling image), rises in its
place. When it tells him to be “bloody, bold, and
resolute,” it’s not just repeating SFHP advice.
 It’s telling Macbeth that he can act decisively, for
“none of woman born” (no one born “naturally”) can
hurt him.
 Macbeth, of course, takes this to mean that he can
safely disregard the Head’s warnings – for isn’t
Macduff, like all men, “of woman born”?
 (Actually…)
 Just to be safe, however, Macbeth decides to have him
killed anyway; at that point, he believes, he’ll be so
secure that he’ll be able to “sleep through thunder.”
Hubris and Trust
 Shakespeare does something interesting with his
security examination here.
 It’s trust in others that destroys Duncan and, to a
lesser extent, Banquo.
 But their downfalls also stem from something else.
 The man who’s most vulnerable to a threat is the one
who believes he can’t possibly be harmed by it.
 Duncan foolishly believes that he’s safe, that, with the
revolt crushed and his guards at the ready, no one can
hurt him.
 (After all, isn’t he king?)
 Banquo fails to consider that Macbeth could want to
kill him, even though he’s already killed thanks to the
prophecy – and it’s not like Macbeth wasn’t listening
when Banquo heard his own prophecy.
 But he, too, believes he’s untouchable, at least by his
best friend.
 So Duncan lets his guards drink at the home of the
replacement from his corrupted advisor, and Banquo
rides by torchlight with the figure Macbeth would
most want destroyed.
Anything for…
 Both actions reek of hubris – the choices of
men who foolishly believe that bad things
aren’t going to happen to them, even though
Shakespeare has shown us plenty of reasons
for both men to have their guards up.
 It’s that very same mistake – nothing bad can
happen to me! – that Macbeth makes here.
 By hearing that “none of woman born can
harm him,” he makes a leap (particularly
later in the play) to “I can’t be harmed.”
 This simply isn’t true.
 On some level, he must know this; otherwise,
there’s literally no reason to kill Macduff.
 But Macbeth’s so desperate for comfort – the
real reason he’s sought out the witches, for
there’s obviously security in certainty – that
he’ll happily make that leap.
 Anything for the possibility of sleeping again, of
feeling human again.
The Child, the Crown, and the Tree
 Then – just as he’s started to virtually cackle
with glee over the nearness of his victory – a
child wearing a crown rises from the cauldron.
 It is perhaps the single most powerful image
one could show Macbeth, so he pays attention.
 The child holds a tree for some reason…an
important reason, as it so happens: it tells him
that he cannot be beaten until Birnam Wood (a
forest) marches against him at Dunsinane (the
location of Duncan’s/Macbeth’s castle).
 Somewhat justifiably, Macbeth is a bit
perplexed by the prophecy (walking trees??),
even as it cements his newfound feelings of
certainty: if the only one who can defeat me is
someone who isn’t “of woman born,” and they
can only beat me after a bunch of trees start
walking toward my castle, aren’t you just
telling me I can’t lose?
Seek to Learn No More
 Yet Macbeth, flush with triumph, must know
more still.
 There’s one point the three apparitions didn’t
mention: what will happen with Banquo’s line.
 The witches warn him, unambiguously: Seek to
learn no more.
 And Macbeth, equally unambiguously, replies: I
will be satisfied.
 That’s a demand, not a statement of satisfaction.
 He threatens to curse the witches, which is not
only incredibly foolhardy – these are the people
you plan to antagonize? – but also uncomfortably
reminiscent of Banquo’s words to them as he
finishes his demands
 “[I] neither beg nor fear your favours nor your
hate” – he should have
 The cauldron immediately sinks, and as the air
fills with trumpeters heralding something, the
Sisters say (in unison): Show his eyes, and grieve
his heart; come like shadows, so depart.
When the ____ Come Marching In
 Eight kings appear, with the eighth holding
a mirror.
 They’re clearly not related to Macbeth, who
flies into a rage, screaming at each of the
kings who walks past him, then at the
witches, before the eighth king reaches
him and shows him an even more terrible
sight in the depths of its mirror: a
seemingly endless line that follows the
eight in front of him, with some of the new
ones wearing crowns signifying the
unification of two kingdoms.
 All the while, the bloodied ghost of Banquo
smiles at Macbeth from the back of the line
of eight kings, pointing at them silently:
They’re mine.
Satisfied?
 And as Macbeth gapes, disbelievingly,
at the apparitions, his worst
nightmare given almost fleshy form,
one witch asks him why he looks
surprised.
 Didn’t he always know this was so?
 Didn’t he always know this would be
his fate?
 Have the Sisters ever lied?
 Have they ever been wrong?
 The Sisters dance, laughingly, telling
Macbeth that he can now say they gave
him what he came for.
 Then they disappear, never to return.
A Wounded Animal
 Lennox arrives to tell him of Macduff’s
departure (previously mentioned in Act III,
Scene VI), and in his new state of
disequilibrium, Macbeth lapses into a truly
sick soliloquy: he resolves to arrange an
invasion for Macduff’s castle in Fife and have
everyone inside it murdered, including his
wife and children.
 Macbeth, like any wounded animal, is now
more dangerous than he would otherwise be,
simultaneously convinced that he can’t lose
and terrified that his defeat is inevitable.
 The only course of action for him, then, is to
eliminate every threat he faces, one by one.
 While Lady Macbeth is busy wrestling with
her guilt, Macbeth has resolved to murder
his opponents until there’s no one left to kill;
they’ve essentially swapped moral
compasses, and their needles are spinning
too wildly to save either one of them.
Picking Off the Weakest Ones
 The terrible thing, however, is that Macbeth
keeps killing people a) by proxy, b) attacking
victims when they’re at their most
vulnerable (he’s always had an eye for an
opponent’s soft spot, just as Lady Macbeth
does: Macdonwald’s unzipping starts and
ends at his softest points), and c) picking
people who don’t know he’s coming for them.
 Fleance survived either by chance or by fate, but no
one else is that lucky.
 The people he kills aren’t even the ones who
truly threaten him (Malcolm, Macduff,
perhaps Fleance).
 They’re people related to those threats, and
their deaths – if we’re being realistic – only
serve to harden their opposition to Macbeth.
Never an Accident
 Notice, however, that these “misdirected”
killings aren’t accidental.
 Macbeth knows full well that Macduff isn’t in
his castle.
 The only thing he can accomplish is the
slaughter of Macduff’s family – notably, a
group of people that poses no threat to him,
has never been predicted to pose a threat to
him, and does not stand in the way of his
ambitions.
 One could argue that Macbeth has only killed
at this point because he “must”: Duncan’s
death represented the fulfillment of
prophecy, whereas Banquo’s killing was an
attempt to thwart it.
 These latest murders would be voluntary,
unprovoked, unnecessary.
 Macbeth sends his murderers anyway.
Th’ Primrose Way
 And in one of those “dramatic irony”
sequences that Shakespeare revels in –
the audience knows what’s coming,
but the characters don’t – we’re
introduced to Lady Macduff as she’s
bemoaning her husband’s decision to
leave for England.
 Macbeth listened to his wife; Macduff
overruled his.
 By departing, he’s left his castle – and
his family – defenseless.
 The Porter’s line about admitting
those whose choices lead them to Hell
takes on terrible significance here.
Wrens and an Emptied Nest
 Lady Macduff isn’t stupid: she knows why
Macduff has gone.
 But she also recognizes that Macduff’s made
enemies, powerful ones, and she rightly fears
for her safety.
 In a tragic parallel to Lady Macbeth’s words,
she questions what kind of man her husband
is – not due to his capacity (or lack thereof)
for murder, but for “wanting the natural
touch” (lacking the natural instincts that
should drive every parent).
 Where are his priorities? she wonders.
 “The poor wren, the most diminutive of
birds, will fight, her young ones in her nest,
against the owl.”
 All is the fear and nothing is the love.
 In our time of need, our man has left us alone.
For Your Consideration
 Both Lady Macbeth and Lady
Macduff demand that their
husbands make decisions that not
only take them and their needs
into consideration, but prioritize
them – that the needs of family
outweigh all other demands.
 Macbeth, for better or worse,
comes to see his primary
responsibilities as a) his own
needs and b) his wife’s needs.
 Macduff doesn’t, and he will pay a
terrible price.
Left for Dead
 Ross tells Lady Macduff to be patient –
that the times they live in are
dangerous indeed, but their
unpredictability has caused her
husband to choose his current course.
 Macduff is doing what he does for the
greater good; nothing would make him
happier than simply staying at home
by their side, with the people he’s
most personally devoted to, but others
need him to do more.
 Macduff’s wife will have none of it; she
tells her son that his father’s forsaken
them, and that his father is therefore
dead.
Funny Games
 Shakespeare then lets the son and
mother engage in an odd, witty repartee,
and it’s a truly sick scene: we know
they’re about to be cut down like animals
in their own home, and they’re sitting
there joking with each other.
 We can’t laugh at anything they’re saying
because we’re bracing for the inevitable,
as unable to control the events we’re
watching as Macbeth is to control what
the prophecies spelled out.
 We’re suddenly aware of how the
characters, on so many different levels,
feel: helpless and out of control, with our
dread of what we know amplifying our
fears.
Stabbing Sons
 And as the son makes his last joke – that if
the “liars and swearers” are to be killed by
the honest men, they’re idiots, for there
are far more liars than honest men – a
messenger arrives, frantically urges her to
run far away with her children, and flees.
 Before she can react, the murderers arrive,
and – in one of the most jarring moments
Shakespeare’s ever put on stage – stab her
son to death in front of her.
 The boy pleads with his last breath for his
mother to flee – a reversal of Banquo’s
death (where the parent tries to spare the
child), and a futile attempt, as the
murderers chase his mother offstage and
cut her down there.
One Fell Swoop
 The earlier killings in Macbeth either happened
offstage or under deep cover of darkness.
 With the death of Macduff’s family, Shakespeare’s
shoving the ugliness of murder directly in the
audience’s faces.
 This isn’t entertainment: it’s butchery, loud and
messy and close.
 Don’t underestimate how horrible this crime is.
 It’s not just the murder of an innocent family.
 Macbeth, of all people, should understand what he’s
doing to Macduff: he’s annihilating his entire line.
 The term “one fell swoop” comes from Macduff’s
reaction to the news that Macbeth’s attacked his
castle (“fell” means foul, vile, wicked, tainted, or
evil): with one stroke, Macbeth has killed “all [his]
pretty ones,” the very people he should have
protected, the people who made his life
meaningful.
 He may still be alive, but Macbeth, in his cowardice,
has gone behind his back and robbed him of all that
once made him whole.
Vacuum
 I’ve mentioned the role isolation plays
in the play, and how terrible people
feel – and how terribly they act and
decide – when they’re alone.
 Yes, it’s true that we only get a sense
of who Macbeth “really” is when he’s
in soliloquy mode.
 But how lonely is that existence?
 To have absolutely nobody who truly
understands you?
 Nobody who you truly understand?
 Nature abhors a vacuum, and
involuntary isolation is a roaring
vacuum for the soul
 Human beings will often go to desperate
lengths to fill that vacuum.
The Unholy Trinity
 I asked you to notice that Shakespeare
unifies the witches, giving them the very
power Macbeth lacks: the power of numbers,
the support of multiplicity.
 Entire schools of religious thought center
themselves around polytheism – a god for
every cause.
 Even the monotheistic Christianity attests to
the power of the Holy Trinity.
 Societies, families, relationships – all stem
from the fundamental belief in power and
improvement via company.
 So while a single witch can be a memorable
character in a play – we’ve seen soothsayers
and oracles sharing prophecies since the
Greek plays hit the stage – we remember
Shakespeare’s bizarre, disfigured Unholy
Trinity because their impact on us does
uneasy things to our psyches.
Beyond All Limits
 For it’s not simply that the witches seem to know
the future, but that they seem somehow more
than human – not better, yet still more powerful,
transcending our limitations.
 In their numbers, their synchronicity of purpose
and word, this nameless pack of cackling hags
seems representative of something so powerful
as to be alien to us, impossible to understand.
 They are recognizable – women? – and yet not.
 It’s almost as though our minds, being baffled by
their true nature, perceives them in a way that
kind of makes sense – like trying to capture a
concept like Fate or God with a three-or-fourletter word – but ultimately fails to represent
them.
 We can’t fully understand them, and when we try
– especially when we try to make them serve us –
the attempt leaves us feeling powerless, grasping
onto anything we can to feel some control.
The Butcher
 Contrast this with Macbeth, who’s either killing
off his friends or fighting with his wife, the
holder of a barren scepter and an empty line,
under threat from the sons of both his victims –
in other words, impossibly, irreversibly alone.
 It is the power of numbers that threatens him,
the lone, solitary figure screaming impotently as
the specter of Banquo’s endless line marches
before him, dooming him and his family with
every silent, solemn step.
 It is the power of numbers that threatens him, as
Malcolm’s and Siward’s soldiers begin
overwhelming his defenses in Act V.
 And it is the power of numbers that threatens
him, in the form of the dangers he provokes
through his crimes.
 There are too many threats to combat, and while
he knows they’re out there, he doesn’t really see
them – just as the numberless, now-invisible
stars above him quietly and dispassionately spin
his fate.
Salvation, Invasion
 So Macbeth, true to form, reacts
desperately when facing the
possibility of lost control.
 He kills Macduff’s entire family in one
fell swoop.
 He’s sowing the seeds of his own
destruction, but he’s taking a whole
bunch of people with him.
 And in the meantime, Scotland is
falling apart: a nation that began the
play fending off a foreign invasion now
finds itself praying for one in order to
find some degree of salvation.
The Cipher
 That’s predicated, however, on the alternative to
Macbeth being an improvement on the current ruler.
 It’s not until the final scene of Act Four, however, that
we realize we’ve been baited into the same “trust
mistake” yet again.
 We automatically believed that Duncan was a good
king, ignoring the fact that the play begins with him
beating back a revolution.
 Now we assume that his oldest son, Malcolm, is a
better option than Macbeth, because…why, exactly?
 Because he didn’t kill his way to the throne, which
would have involved murdering his father?
 We know virtually nothing about him, save that he’s
Duncan’s son.
 We haven’t seen him do anything that marks him as
worthy of the throne.
 We’ve barely seen him more than Fleance, who’s being
intentionally sidelined; the only thing we can really
remember him doing is running away after Duncan’s
been murdered.
 He’s a cipher.
A Hollywood Ending, Part I
 Yet when we hear that Macduff’s gone
out to meet him, we expect the scene
to play out in a familiar way.
 Macduff will meet the noble prince
and his new ally, Siward; together,
they’ll lead an army against Macbeth,
conquering and taking back what’s
rightfully theirs.
 The wise and gentle Malcolm will be
placed on the throne, as he should
have been following his father’s death.
 Donalbain will come home.
 Peace and harmony will be restored to
the land.
 It’s all very simple, really.
On Guard, En Garde
 Except that’s not what we get at all.
 Instead, Macduff meets a young man who’s
very frightened and deeply suspicious of
others, almost to a paranoid degree.
 He subjects Macduff to not one but two tests,
both involving naked deception.
 In the first, he tries to bait Macduff into
“selling him out” – betraying him to
Macbeth, to whom Macduff is supposedly
secretly loyal.
 He, too, questions why Macduff would leave
his family so alone, and would do so in such
an abrupt fashion.
 And even as he’s back-pedaling from that –
Oh, don’t mind what I say, I’m just suspicious
of others after my father’s death – he quickly
pivots to a disturbing self-portrayal,
excoriating himself for his sinfulness and
venality.
Corruption
 If I were to be king, he continues, Scotland
would burn: “Black Macbeth will seem as
pure as snow” by comparison.
 If there’s an appetite or weakness in the
book, Malcolm lays claim to it.
 Avarice? Check.
 Unbridled sexual appetite? Check.
 A lust for power? Check.
 A willingness to murder rivals? Check.
 Plotting to take the nobles’ lands after
murdering them? Check.
 A complete and utter lack of any redeeming
virtues?
 Malcolm swears that nothing about him can be
redeemed.
 He is without respect for justice, devotion,
patience, or courage.
Escalation
 As he goes down the list, Macduff desperately
tries to tell him that he’s being too hard on
himself, or that the sin he describes is
understandable (or less dire than he believes).
 But with each protestation, Malcolm worsens
his self-criticism.
 There’s a clear pattern of escalation on his
part, and he goes on and on until finally
Macduff throws up his hands, weeping for his
helpless nation – now doomed to suffer under a
tyrant’s rule, whether or not Macbeth occupies
the throne – and verbally tears into Malcolm
with a fury we’ve never seen him display
before.
 Your father was a good, gentle king; your
mother was a devout, caring woman. That they
could have produced something as wicked as
you just proves that God has forsaken my
country, and thus I must forsake it too.
Reversal
 And as Macduff turns from him, angry and
despairing, Malcolm suddenly “breaks
character” and shows his true face.
 It was all a test!
 He just wanted to test Macduff’s loyalty to
Scotland.
 If he had stayed steadfastly loyal to
Malcolm in the face of all those terrible
confessions, it would have been evidence
that Macduff could be tempted to do
terrible things.
 Someone who mourns for their country, on
the other hand, must be loyal to it.
 It’s a complete reversal of character, and
it’s incredibly jarring when experienced
live.
Deceptive Shapeshifting Things
 Following Malcolm’s monologue –
during which he professes to be all of
the things we’d want a king to be –
Macduff points out that “such
welcome and unwelcome things at
once [are] hard to reconcile.”
 And if they’re difficult for Macduff to
process, how are we supposed to feel?
 This is our first real exposure to
Malcolm, and it tastes sour: this is the
new king?
 This is the vessel into which the
Scottish people should place their
hopes?
 This deceptive, shapeshifting thing?
The Pressure and the Damage Done
 When Ross shows up to deliver the news of
Macbeth’s attack on Fife, Macduff can join
forces with Malcolm without any qualms:
uncertainty’s easy to banish in the face of
searing rage.
 Malcolm even compliments him on how
“manly” his expressed desire for vengeance
sounds.
 (There’s the masculinity issue again…)
 And to his credit, Malcolm doesn’t do or say
anything negative for the rest of the play.
 But the damage, as Susan Snyder points out,
has already been done: Malcolm’s left such a
negative first impression that it proves
impossible to shake entirely.
Mysterious Sisters
 Act Four ends with seemingly all of
the pieces arranged as they should be:
Malcolm and Macduff have united in
order to gain revenge, Macbeth is
actively seeking to cement his power,
and a clash seems imminent.
 Fleance is off wandering around
somewhere, and we still don’t
understand why the Sisters do what
they do – do they have a choice?
 Are they mouthpieces of fate?
 Hecate’s presence indicates a plan, but
the plan’s motivations are too murky
to make out.
Nothing Sacred, Nothing Pure
 No matter.
 The audience has spent four acts waiting
for the inevitable clash between good and
evil, and now it looks like we’ll get it.
 We want Macbeth to pay for what he’s
done.
 We want Macduff, Malcolm, or Fleance to
seek some sort of retribution for the
people that they’ve lost.
 But Shakespeare’s damaged his “good”
characters – Malcolm’s “fake” sinfulness,
Macduff’s “abandonment” of his family –
and worsened his “bad” ones.
 Can there be any winners here?
 Fair is foul…