In this act, Macbeth begins to bear the consequences of his actions. Ironically, this occurs while his conscience is less pricked about his ethical decisions in the moment. Still his guilt–manifested through Banquo’s ghost–shows that he cannot hide from himself the sanctions he knows his actions deserve.
- Scene 1 opens with Banquo alone. He suspects that Macbeth gained the crown, but he does not resolve to confront his friend. While this complicates Banquo’s character in the play (in the source, Banquo participates with Macbeth in Duncan’s murder), it also lets us know that while Macbeth does not temporally feel judgment for the murder, his evil has not escaped others’ notice.
- Macbeth contrasts a “gospelled” response to injustice with a manly response as he talks with the men he wants to murder Banquo and Fleance. The “gospelled” response presumably means one that turns the other cheek and forgives enemies while Macbeth asserts the virtue of manly violence. The problem with this juxtaposition as articulated by critics is that it assumes Macbeth’s reading of Christianity is a good one and applies equally to himself, as though Macbeth thinks that the Christian king would be as merciful as he accuses these men of being. Contemporary biblical exegetes would not have seen a tension between a just king who punishes wrongdoing and a faithful king who pledges fealty to Christ. As king, Macbeth is in a position to administer sanctions of reward or punishment, something these men could easily throw back in Macbeth’s face. “If Banquo deserves punishment, why not judge him yourself? Why use subterfuge” Macbeth wouldn’t have a good answer for that because he’s not operating by any real ethical code.
- While Macbeth expressed no compunction about ordering Banquo’s death, he clearly feels guilty for Duncan’s murder. “Scorpions” afflict his mind, and he claims to suffer “terrible dreams.” Part of Macbeth’s powerful imagination is this ability to sense why what he’s done is wrong. An interesting note here is that when Macbeth express envy about Duncan’s rest–i.e. Duncan is dead now and no longer has the burdens of living–he dismisses the “heaven or…hell” that marked his pre-murder rhetoric. Is the true peace that Duncan is in his “grave“? This might confirm a reading of Macbeth as a newer Christian, although his naturalistic reading of death is not one advocated by pagans, who still believed in an afterworld.
- The murderers show that evil is hard to complete. “If it were done when ’tis done,” Macbeth said in Act 1 Scene 5, but the murderers’ bumbling of the Fleance assassination shows that’s a mighty big “if.” Such violence is never done.
- Macbeth’s reaction to Banquo’s ghost again brings up the question of whether or not he believes in the afterlife. He says, “The time has been, / That when the brains were out, the man would die, / And there an end. But now…” He goes on to speak of resurrection. While no one else sees the ghost, it’s clear that Banquo haunts Macbeth’s conscience. Banquo’s eternal resonance highlights the eternal punishment awaiting Macbeth for the crime he has committed.
- The witches appear troubled by Macbeth too. Scene 5 is strange. Macbeth doesn’t love the witches. He only uses them for his own gain, Hecate says. She promises judgment too. Thus, Macbeth is going to receive punishment not only from heaven, but from hell. Macbeth wanted to be “safely thus.” Hecate mocks “security.” If you’re meriting judgment from above and below, you really have no security.
- Lennox and the Lord discuss the odd sanctions in Scotland. If you’re pitied or loved by Macbeth, you die. This, of course, is ironic, and the two speakers know it to be so. Against Macbeth, they pit England’s “pious” king Edward and even God, the “Him above” who will “ratify” the efforts to take Macbeth down. This is the bookend to the Hecate scene.
Experiments in Criticism 