Macbeth: Swordsman or Savage?

“When shall we three meet again?” This is the first sentence of the first act of Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth”, which talks about a man who gets the Scottish throne murdering people and loses it in a very bloody way. These words are spoken by a witch, a very important character for the story because it relates to one of the most important themes of the play and an actual topic for that time: the supernatural. At Shakespeare’s time, the king himself believed and even published a book on witchcraft. Everything starts from the witches too: they predict Macbeth that he will be king. In my opinion, at the beginning of the story he is a very interesting character because he is extremely ambitious and brave, but by the end, he becomes a coward and he suffers from a guilty conscience.
 

I think Macbeth is an ambitious man, but at the end of the story, he loses this quality. At the beginning he’s still determinate because the king’s son is in his way, and he wants to push him away, as he says in the play in act 1 scene 4 “The prince of Cumberland: That is a step / On which I must fall down, or else o'er-leap”. He also knows exactly what he wants, and doesn’t want anyone to see him as the monster he became, as it is said in act one scene 4 “Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires”. In the end, he says that “We will proceed no further in this business” (act 1 scene 7). He says these words when he doesn’t want to kill the king anymore. These are the reasons why I think Macbeth isn’t ambitious anymore.

I believe Macbeth initially is a very brave man, but finally, he becomes a coward. I think it because he comes back to the witches and takes as guaranteed that Macduff can’t kill him, so he’s not brave anymore, but he’s too confident. This is proved by the text in act 5 scene 8: “I bear a charmèd life, which must not yield/To one of woman born.” He does the same thing in act 5 scene 3 when he believes that his castle can’t be attacked by Malcolm's army: “Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane/I cannot taint with fear.” Lastly, he also shows to not be brave when he orders Banquo to be killed for his suspects. He also isn’t enough brave to do it himself. To convince the murderers to kill his friend, he makes them believe that everything wrong in their life was Banquo’s fault and not his, as he says in act 3 scene 1, “Know That it was he, in the times past, which held you/So under fortune, which you thought had been/Our innocent self. This I made good to you”. These are the pieces of evidence that make me understand that Macbeth isn’t brave by the end of the play.

In my opinion, Macbeth has a very guilty conscience, because before killing Duncan he says (act 1 scene 7) “his even-handed justice/ Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice”, which means that justice is equal to everyone, so if he kills the king, someone will do the same to him. Secondly, “O, full of scorpions is in my mind” (scene 2 act 3), which expresses his guilty conscience using the image of scorpions, very unpleasant animals. The Thane of Cawdor is also referring at the king as a snake and he says that they didn’t actually kill him. In fact, they couldn’t kill his sons (act 3 scene 2). Finally, in act 5 scene 8, he admits his guilt saying to Macduff “But get thee back. My soul is too much charged with blood of thine already.” These are the reasons why I believe that Macbeth has a very guilty conscience.
 

Macbeth changes exponentially his character during the evolution of the story. At the opening of the play he was brave and ambitious, but eventually, he has a guilty conscience and he becomes a coward. He doesn’t have any principle anymore and he becomes too self-confident. For this reason, he firmly believes that he can’t be killed or either harmed, and this is the reason why of his murder. I think that in the end, Macbeth reveals his real self.