Debbie Shagalow

There are very few things in this world that one can count on. One of those few things is Macbeth. No matter what school you go to, you will eventually read and learn the epic tale of Macbeth. Something you can’t count on is man. One minute he is on the straight and narrow and the next he is speeding down the highway to hell. Yet, no matter how far man strays he always has something, a small strand of rope, connecting him to good. Whenever he wants, he can pull himself up, and away from the evil. Man will never be completely lost to evil.

When you read the first scene of Macbeth you have no idea what’s flying. Who are these witches? And what are they saying? Never mind, go to scene two. Here we find that a king named Duncan is hearing lots of good stuff about Macbeth, and gives him the title of the Thane of Cawdor. Very nice, Macbeth seems like a really good guy right? Well read on. In scene three, Macbeth is told by the witches that he will be Thane of Cawdor and king. Whoa! This is a set up. Oak good guy gets good reward, nothing fishy about that. Scene four is where they should play the freaky music that tells you that something bad is going to happen. Why you ask? After all Macbeth has only invited Duncan over for the night. Scene five we see something new. Evil, with a capital E.

“Unsex me here,
and fill me from the crown to the toe top full
of direct cruelty; make thick my blood,
stop up the access and passage to remorse,”

This is Lady Macbeth speaking. She gets a letter from her husband and is already planning the murder of Duncan. She is begging the forces of evil to take her soul and replace it with a block of ice.

“O! Never shall the sun that morrow see.”

This woman is really jumping the gun, and Macbeth sees this and says “we will speak further”. Macbeth is not the type of guy to make a rash decision. He’s not so sure he wants to kill Duncan, besides he’s really afraid.

“Let not the light see my black and deep desires”
(further)

“my thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical;
shakes so my single state of man the function.”

In scene seven Macbeth comes to his senses and tells Lady Macbeth

“We will proceed no further in this business.”

After all Duncan is Macbeth’s cousin, friend and king, how can Macbeth kill him when the man trusts him so much? To this, Lady Macbeth says pull yourself together. You are a coward and if you really loved me you would do this for me. Macbeth gets the ‘ole guilt trip. Macbeth goes for it and by the next morning Duncan is dead.

Act two, scene two; Macbeth is now worried. He hears a voice saying

“Glamis hath murder’d sleep and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more.”

Macbeth is not suspected for the murder of Duncan and is crowned king. But Macbeth has become very insecure and worries that Banquo knows. Poor Banquo, he never had a chance. On the night of Banquo’s murder, Macbeth throws a party. Suddenly in the middle of the banquet Macbeth has a fit. Banquo’s ghost appears; these feelings of guilt will disappear. After this Macbeth becomes very nervous and whoever is suspected of disliking Macbeth is killed. Then Lady Macbeth’s guilt catches up to her and she becomes insane and kills herself. Macbeth’s kingdom is falling apart and at last he is cornered. Macduff tells Macbeth that he is not born of a woman and Macbeth realizes it’s over. Yet he doesn’t just surrender, rather he says,

“to kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet…
I will not yield, lay on Macduff.”

Even though Macbeth knows that his is evil and that he will die, he is courageous. Some of his deteriorated values are still strong and he wants to go down fighting, like a soldier or a hero would. And he does. He still held on to a part of his past life, the one where he would have died for his country if necessary. Macbeth was a good man, until the witches decided to use his vulnerability to spread evil.

He was naïve and didn’t realize that the witches were befriending him to destroy him. How can you blame him for being so trusting? He was so good that he could not even imagine such evil, let alone believe that he would become that evil.

In conclusion we see that Macbeth could not have been so truly bad even though on the surface he seemed that way. So when you’ve finished reading Macbeth, don’t think of him as an evil, twisted and demented man but rather a poor innocent man who was shamelessly used to create havoc and disorder in the world.

Debbie is a remarkable young woman! Technically still in high school, Debbie is in independent study at Los Angeles Unified School District in the 12th grade. She is currently enrolled in Philosophy 05, her first course here at SMC.