Tuesday, February 28, 2012

How has Macbeth changed since the murder of Duncan? Could you provide quotes to support your answers?

Well, Macbeth changes more or less as soon as he has done the deed. He comes back in to tell his wife that he has killed Duncan, but seems unsettled, maddened, unsure of where he is:

Whence is that knocking?
How is't with me, when every noise appals me?
What hands are here? Ha, they pluck out mine eyes!

Macbeth seems similarly unsettled by the murder in the next scene, in which he reveals he has - impulsively, without checking with his wife - murdered Duncan's grooms, so terrified he is of being discovered.

And then we learn in Act 2, Scene 4 that he has been crowned. And here is where, I think, there is a real change in Macbeth. His language becomes more muscular, and, though he is still hugely neurotic, he now is also hugely powerful. He orders Banquo's murder, and, though he is maddened again at the banqu-et (thinking that he sees Banqu-o's ghost) he regains his resolve after the apparition scene enough to order the murder of Macduff's children (though we don't see him do this).

Perhaps the best answer though, would be to look at the Macbeth at the end of the play. He is drained, weary, cynical and completely sure that his life is worthless. He knows, too, what he has missed out on:

...My way of life
Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf,
And that which should accompany old age,
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have.

The murder of Duncan is a mistake that costs Macbeth his life - and his quality of life.

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