Tuesday, January 17, 2017

What quotes show Macbeth is a villain?

Once he's back at home, Macbeth eventually decides that he doesn't want to move forward with Duncan's murder. However, his wife talks him back into it. At this point, he joins in her plotting, asking,

Will it not be received,When we have marked with blood those sleepy twoOf his own chamber and used their very daggers,That they have done 't? (1.7.85–88)

In other words, he asks who would possibly fail to believe them when they've used the daggers belonging to Duncan's chamberlains to kill the king as well as smeared the chamberlains with Duncan's blood. The implication is that none will question them, the great Macbeths. Who would possibly believe that these heretofore loyal subjects, who have just received such honors from the king, would do anything other than their best to keep him safe? None. It is villainous thinking from a newly-villainous man. To this same end, he says,

I am settled and bend upEach corporal agent to this terrible feat.Away, and mock the time with fairest show.False face must hide what the false heart doth know. (1.7.91–94)

Macbeth is resolved and knows he must deceive others, people he loves and respects, from now on. He has a "false heart" and so he must wear a "false face" in order to hide it. This admission and deception are certainly villainous.
Likewise, in Macbeth's scene with the murderers, he makes many such villainous statements. He tells them

That it was [Banquo], in the times past, which held youSo under fortune, which you thought had been Our innocent self. This I made good to youIn our last conference, passed in probation with youHow you were borne in hand, how crossed, the instruments,Who wrought with them, and all things else that mightTo half a soul and to a notion crazedSay "Thus did Banquo" (3.1.84–91).

He lies to them, telling that the Banquo is to blame for the terrible misfortunes they have endured in their lives. He manipulates and exploits these victims of poverty and social ills in order to accomplish the death of the innocent Banquo and his young son. If such double dealing doesn't prove Macbeth's villainy, what does?


There are several good quotes that could be used to help illustrate that Macbeth is a villain. Some of the best ones come near the end of the play after it has become clear to everybody that Macbeth is a tyrant and getting worse by the day. His methods of keeping power are far from admirable, and in Act 4, Scene 3, Malcolm has the following to say about Macbeth. 

This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,
Was once thought honest.

A bit later in the same scene, Macduff expresses his own thoughts about the villainous Macbeth.  


Not in the legions
Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned
In evils to top Macbeth.



By this point in the play, it's clear that Macbeth is a villain and a horrible person. His actions have proved it time and time again, but audiences are alerted early on in the play that Macbeth has great potential for vile acts. In Act 1, Macbeth is already presented with the possibility of being king. He is surprised that he would consider murder, and he tries to put the thought out of his mind; however, by Act 1, Scene 4, Macbeth is convinced that the throne is his for the taking, and the end justifies the means. 


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.
 

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