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Macbeth’s self-awareness and grasp of reality deteriorate as the play progresses. How far do you agree?
Notably, the witches have an instant effect on Macbeth’s self-awareness from when he first meets them in Act 1, Scene 3. At the beginning of this scene, Macbeth has a firm grasp on reality and refers to the witches as the “weird sisters”. When he first hears the witches’ prophesy he doesn’t believe them and thinks that what they say is impossible. Even though his grasp on reality is still firm he is curious about what the witches have said and starts to question himself. “Stay you imperfect speakers tell me more” Macbeth has already started to think about the reality of what these “weird sisters” have said. He instantly starts to contradict himself and his grasp on reality is compromised.
Clearly, Macbeth starts to cover his murderous thoughts straight away to try and still act loyal to King Duncan. At the beginning of Act 1, Scene 4 Macbeth is talking to King Duncan and immediately starts over-emphasizing and praising King Duncan. He is covering his true self and telling King Duncan how “loyal” he is and that his “duties are to your throne”. This makes us question him. Is this all an act? In Act 1, Scene 4 we start to see his thoughts get darker as his power increases. He is still self-aware at this point in the play, as revealed by his thoughts. “Stars hide your fires: Let not light see my black and deep desires”. We see his true intentions as he first mentions killing the king. Macbeth is having treacherous thoughts and is trying to conceal them. This quote forms a key part in Macbeth’s grasp on reality because at this point even though he is having “dark and deep” thoughts he says “Stars, hide your fires” in order to still remain loyal in the King's eyes. From this point onward in the play we see a recurring theme of light and dark. “Let not” this quote shows Macbeth’s self-awareness and shows that he knows he is wrong; “deep” shows how absorbed these thoughts are which could mean that it will be challenging for him to hide these thoughts.
In the second act we start to see drastic changes in Macbeth’s self-awareness.” Come let me clutch thee”, he sees a floating dagger which obviously suggests that he is not in a good state of mind. By using “come” he is assuring that he is still powerful by commanding the dagger but he quickly loses this power with “let me” he is asking permission this time, which makes him seem weaker. “On thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,” The dagger now has blood on it which may suggest that Macbeth feels guilty about killing King Duncan. Since the dagger is a hallucination we can assume that Macbeth isn’t in control of his own mind and therefore can’t stop thinking about how he has killed an innocent man for his title and status. Macbeth is unsure if he is hallucinating the dagger or if it is real. He is giving rational explanations to try and keep a sound mind. Macbeth assures himself that the dagger doesn’t exist and he blames it on his “heat-oppressed brain”. By the end of the second act, Macbeth’s self-awareness is still strong since he manages to tell himself that it is just in his mind. We can see Macbeth’s grasp on reality fade at many parts throughout this scene as he questions himself but so far he is always able to reassure himself by telling himself “There’s no such thing”.
At the beginning of Act 3, we see Macbeth and Lady Macbeth planning a banquet. This is Macbeth’s first banquet as a King. In Act 3, Scenes 3 and 4 we see the banquet and we see someone offer Macbeth a seat with the thanes instead of the royal table. This reminds the audience of where Macbeth truly belongs. Macbeth doesn’t sit down as he thinks the seat is occupied. His wife tries to tell him that no one is there. As this person turns around we see that it’s Banquo who Macbeth ordered was to be killed. “Thou canst not say I did it never shake thy gory locks at me” Macbeth’s grasp on reality really takes a toll in this scene as he truly believes that Banquo’s ghost is there. He doesn’t even manage to conceal his visions. For the first time in the play, Macbeth loses control in front of others. He almost lets himself slip us as he talks about “gory locks” which are often associated with a brutal murder. He tries to deny any involvement with Banquo’s disappearance by saying “Thou canst not say I did it”. This is very different behavior from Macbeth at the beginning of the act. In the beginning, he is keeping up his appearance by saying “Were the graced person of our Banquo present” he is able to keep his performance going at the start which really shows how much control Macbeth lost by seeing Banquo’s ghost.
We see Macbeth’s self-awareness deteriorate extremely quickly for the rest of the play but in Act 5, Scene 5 he has a moment of clarity as he finally realizes that he is on “the way to dusty death”. We assume that this is him accepting and facing his reality. He truly thought that he was invincible so he can’t really accept that the prophecy is coming true. Macbeth quickly loses this clarity and is determined to fight back. Macbeth questions this decision and changes his tactics which proves to us that Macbeth is lacking confidence in his choices. This suggests a lack of power and authority. Macbeth uses a lot of commands in his last soliloquy which can make us believe that he is latching on to every last bit of power he has in order to try and save his title as King.
In conclusion, throughout the play Macbeth manages to wear this mask that hides his true self. Occasionally this mask slips and he ends up looking like he is losing his mind. He does a relatively good job of making his exterior personality seem real. This performance of his reassures us that his self-awareness is still in one piece. Eventually, his mask falls and he loses his power. He doesn’t lose his title until the very end when he is killed, but he loses his power to conceal his true self and his true intentions as King. Even though Macbeth’s self-awareness is not always strong, his self-doubt is non-existent as he truly believes that he is invincible. Macbeth’s first loss of authority was when he believed 3 “weird sisters” and decided to base every decision onward on what they said.
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