Ambition: Everyone has a desire to pertain a goal and the extent and steps you're willing to take can show how driven you really are. Slow down there, Macbeth, because these ladies haven't said a word about murder. The fact that his first thought is about killing the king is mighty suspicious—almost as though they've just awoken a murderous ambition that's been there all along. Macbeth describes his ambition as being "black and deep desires," which makes it sound very wrong. Is ambition okay in any context, or are we all supposed to let fate and chance toss us around?
MACBETH
My thought,
whose murder yet is but
fantastical,
Shakes so my single state
of man
That function is smother'd
in surmise,
and nothing is but
what is not. (1.3.52-55)
MACBETH [aside]
The Prince of Cumberland!
That is a step
On which I must fall down,
or else o'erleap,
For in my way it lies.
Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black
and deep desires.
The eye wink at the hand;
yet let that be
Which the eye fears,
when it is done, to see.
(1.4.55-60)
Fate and Free Will: The
extent to which we control our own destinies. Basically,
the captain says here that Macbeth should have died in battle—but he was
stronger than his fate. If this is true, then Macbeth has no one to blame but
himself. But notice that the captain calls Macbeth "rebels whore":
Macbeth may escape fortune this time, but that "rebel's whore" will
get him in the end. Once he learns that
King Duncan has named Malcolm the Prince of Cumberland and heir to the crown of
Scotland, Macbeth isn't content to wait around for "chance" to
intervene. He decides that he must take action, or "o'erleap" the
obstacles in his path to the throne. By murder. Well, this seems pretty willful.
CAPTAIN
And Fortune,
on his damnèd quarrel smiling,
Show'd like a
rebel's whore. But all's too weak;
For brave
Macbeth (well he deserves that name)
Disdaining
Fortune, with his brandished steel,
Which smoked
with bloody execution, (1.2.16-20)
MACBETH
[Aside]
The Prince of
Cumberland!
That is a
step
On which I
must fall down, or else o'erleap,
For in my way
it lies.
Stars, hide
your fires;
Let not light
see my black and deep desires:
The eye wink
at the hand; yet let that be,
Which the eye
fears, when it is done, to see. (1.4.55-60)
Appearance
and Reality: Clearly, Shakespeare's talking about pollution, the
witches set us up here to mistrust everything. In the fog, it's hard to tell
what's really there. Next quote sounds familiar. Didn't the weird sisters
just say almost the exact same thing? Has Macbeth seen this play before, or
does he already have some kind of psychic connection with the weird sisters?
ALL
Fair is foul, and foul is
fair;
Hover through the fog and filthy air. (1.1.12-13)
MACBETH
So foul and fair a day I
have not seen. (1.3.39)
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