Macbeth Act 5
I was quite interested in the way Lady Macbeth is portrayed in Act 5, Scene 1. Her guilt and regret is manifested in her sleepwalking, which is a complete reversal from her cruel, cold-hearted self back in Acts 1 and 2. The way I interpreted this scene is that the “spirits / that tend[ed] on mortal thoughts” (1,5,47-48) she called upon in Act 1 represented her heartlessness and willingness to commit murder. Now that that willingness is no longer there (the spirits have left her), all that is left is guilt and remorse. This guilt forces her to confess her sins in another apparently unnatural way (sleepwalking) while also giving us readers one of the best lines in the play: “Out, damned spot, out, I say!” (5,1,37). Ultimately, it causes her to commit suicide off-stage (“Who, as ’tis thought, by self and violent hands, / Took off her life” (5,8,83-84)).
Macbeth’s mental state also unravels in the last act of the play. He is paranoid that he will be overthrown, so he constantly comforts himself with the witches’ prophesy (for example, he does this the moment he appears in Act 5: “Bring me no more reports. Let them fly all. / Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane / I cannot taint with fear” (5,3,1-3)). However, as the prophesies fail him, Macbeth becomes more and more paranoid (“Liar and slave!” (5,5,40)) while also resigning himself to his death (“Why should I play the Roman fool and die / On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes / Do better upon them” (5,8,1-3)). In a way, I feel a bit sorry for him. He may have been a murderer and also generally a terrible person, but having his final hope snatched from him when he faces Macduff was slightly painful to read. He was initially hesitant to commit the murder that caused all of these events to happen (and one could argue that if he had never met the witches, none of this would have happened), and now with his wife dead (and whose death he did even have time to properly process or mourn) and his subjects all turned against him, he is completely alone in the world. His sense of pride and dignity would not allow him to surrender and let himself be mocked at, so he chooses to fight, knowing that he will die. This is a decision he makes himself, with no influence from the witches or his wife, so I thought that his death was somewhat fitting for him.
Macbeth’s mental state also unravels in the last act of the play. He is paranoid that he will be overthrown, so he constantly comforts himself with the witches’ prophesy (for example, he does this the moment he appears in Act 5: “Bring me no more reports. Let them fly all. / Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane / I cannot taint with fear” (5,3,1-3)). However, as the prophesies fail him, Macbeth becomes more and more paranoid (“Liar and slave!” (5,5,40)) while also resigning himself to his death (“Why should I play the Roman fool and die / On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes / Do better upon them” (5,8,1-3)). In a way, I feel a bit sorry for him. He may have been a murderer and also generally a terrible person, but having his final hope snatched from him when he faces Macduff was slightly painful to read. He was initially hesitant to commit the murder that caused all of these events to happen (and one could argue that if he had never met the witches, none of this would have happened), and now with his wife dead (and whose death he did even have time to properly process or mourn) and his subjects all turned against him, he is completely alone in the world. His sense of pride and dignity would not allow him to surrender and let himself be mocked at, so he chooses to fight, knowing that he will die. This is a decision he makes himself, with no influence from the witches or his wife, so I thought that his death was somewhat fitting for him.
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