Act Four Scene One Macbeth.
This scene escalates the grotesque and nightmarish powers of the supernatural beings in the play through the very visual representation of their transcendent evil on stage. The wicked effect of the witches has been proved through the murder of King Duncan and the assassination of Banquo. The audience at this stage of the play is only too aware of the contamination of the witches’ subversive mantra ‘fair is foul’ which has wrought destruction upon Scotland. The original antisocial ‘barren heath’ in Act One with the three outcasts, the ‘unnatural’ witches ambushing Macbeth (and Banquo) has become transformed into the ‘Pit of Acheron’ or Hades’ entrance and parade ground for macabre horrors such as the ‘armed head’ and the ‘bloody child.’ Such visions on stage emphasise the horrifying connection between the desperate Macbeth and the supernatural world. This explicit depiction of their powers unnerves the audience and underlines Macbeth’s macabre dependency on their malign reassurances. Such reliance appears dangerously irrational and is manipulated by the witches through their intimate promises and cryptic reassurances that unravel in Act Five finally destroying Macbeth’s despotic belief in his invincibility and returning him to human fear.
The stage direction announcing ‘thunder’ draws the audience’s attention once again to the disruptive intentions and effects of the witches. The pathetic fallacy also applies to the agitated Macbeth whose political and personal isolation makes him seek out the horrifying intimacy and ‘advice’ of these demonic creatures.
The ambivalent symbolism of the ‘Armed Head’ perhaps reminds the audience of the bloody decapitation of the ‘traitor MacDonwald by Macbeth in Act One when the latter is celebrated as ‘brave’ and ‘noble’ by his King and colleagues. Such deception becomes evident as the brutality of Macbeth shifts to his interest in regicide and is endorsed by the hallucinatory deception of the ‘dagger’ significantly with the ‘handle turned towards my hand’ as if in confirmation of his decision to murder his king and cousin.
In this extract, the machinations of the visible agents of evil are credited to the invisible authority of the mysterious ‘he’ whose pronoun precedes mention of preternatural powers: ‘ he knows thy thought.’ The audience would sense the chilling and sinister presence of Satan instigating the final downfall of the desperate Macbeth. The explicit admission of the witches’ subjugation to ultimate evil creates a terrible atmosphere on stage and the witches’ derisory chant ‘ Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!’ Revels in their degradation of any holy trinity and affects a warning about ‘Macduff… the Thane of Fife’ whilst secretly acting as a malicious form of suggestion that results in the murder of Lady Macduff and her family and ultimately Macbeth himself as Macduff seeks to avenge the loss of his family.
This cunning use of anxiety-inducing deception was witnessed by the audience in Act One when the witches promised Banquo’s heirs shall ‘get kings’ thus ensuring Banquo’s assassins in Act Three.
This deception also takes the form of some desperation submission to the witches’ power when Macbeth thanks the evil creature ‘for thy good caution.’ Such an oxymoronic combination of the witches’ alleged ‘good’ with their apparently worthy ‘caution’ vividly reveals the moral degradation of Macbeth and even his possible mental instability.
His self deceiving attempt to claim ‘one word more’ communicates how out of depth this desperate, petty human tyrant is. The derision is again clear: ‘he will not be commanded’ and the ‘potent’ symbol of the ‘bloody child’ again disturbingly compresses several episodes in the play: we think of Lady Macbeth’s dead ’babe’ which has evidently severely harmed her mental health and marriage; we also think of the attempt on Fleance’s life and then finally we await the brutal slaughter of Lady Macduff before Macbeth himself is executed by a man ‘none of woman born.’ Such a lurid and resonant symbol functions as a dramatic conjoining of different aspects of the play and underline the supernatural powers Macbeth deludedly thinks he can control for his own ends. His arrogance is all the more ironic( and futile) when we witness the apparitions descending into the ground demonstrating their natural habitat is hell and that their powers far exceed anything Macbeth can imagine. The Jacobean audience would have been appalled by these hell-bound creatures on stage associating with the human world.
The extract ends with Macbeth’s erratic mental state being represented in his changing thoughts about Macduff. ‘Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of thee?’ Yet such a rational pronouncement is immediately undermined by his next thought: ‘ thou shalt not live’ revealing his recklessness has become excessive and his self-control destroyed resulting in his needless and most inhuman slaughter of defenceless Lady Macduff and her family. Such a vicious and unprovoked attack guarantees the enmity of Macduff and his desire for revenge on Macbeth at the end of the play. Thus, the witches’ malign intentions are fulfilled; as tired of their human toy, Macbeth, they destroy him to seek new objects to corrupt. Little wonder that the audience may feel little joy at the prospect of Malcolm attaining the throne after he has voiced the violent views on masculinity previously spoken by Lady Macbeth. The deceiving and contaminating effects of the witches do not end with the play, in fact, we suspect they simply and diabolically transfer their attentions elsewhere, perpetuating the inescapable darkness of human sin.
