Texts have the power to challenge societal beliefs and values in order to bring about change to our world and individuals. Significantly, power in modern society has become a revolutionary tool, valued beyond fame and money, and enabling certain individuals to achieve greater levels of success. William Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ examines the toxic effect of unchecked desire for power, and the disturbing outcome this has for the human psyche. Although additional factors are to blame for the Macbeth’s performance within the play, it is the actions which the character takes in attempt to achieve ultimate power that eventually lead to his downfall. The composer highlights the controlling force that power possesses over an individual, and depicts how immorally obtained power has a severe consequence on oneself and of those around him. Shakespeare utilises many types of powers in different contexts, such as domestic power, supernatural power and the power of the natural order within Elizabethan society. The composer employs these powers within the text to highlight their controlling and possessive influence on the central figures within the text.
Pathetic fallacy is a key theme relating to the natural order and abuse of power portrayed in Macbeth. Shakespeare utilises pathetic fallacy to communicate the inversion of natural order by which has been disrupted through corruption of the great chain of being; a strict social hierarchy thought in Medieval Christianity, to have been enforced by God. by which determined mans place in the world. The opening of the play takes place in the middle of a thunderstorm. Shakespeare may have employed this imagery of harsh weather to foreshadow the unruly events to come. A further storm rages on the night of Duncan’s murder and many highly unnatural occurrences are reported in Act 2 Scene 4. Moments before the announcement of Duncan’s murder, Lennox talks about events that were occurring while the murder was taking place. These include ‘strong winds’, ‘ghostly cries in the night’, ‘an owl screeching’ and even an ‘earthquake’. The natural world has been disturbed and disrupted following the unnatural killing of a king and the ensuing chaos is at the hands of Macbeths overwhelming desire for power.
Shakespeare shows Lady Macbeth as an exceedingly powerful figure in Macbeth’s life. One way Macbeth communicates this is through the form of her dialogue. Lady Macbeth speaks in iambic pentameter; this immediately shows her to be dominant as she is given a more developed and sophisticated form to show her power in society. In Act 2, Scene 2, Shakespeare further develops this by giving her a soliloquy as it consolidates her as a powerful influence in relation to Macbeths prerogatives. We as the audience, also see how powerful Lady Macbeth is from the violent and shocking imagery and language used throughout the extract. The matter she is talking about, regicide, would be considered unthinkable for the majority of the Shakespearean audience. And this combined with words such as ‘cruelty’, ‘blood’ and ‘murd’ring’, would shock an audience at the time and subvert their usual, likely prejudiced, views of women, portraying Lady Macbeth to be brave, belligerent, and due to the fact that she is discussing regicide with no apparent fear of reprisal, powerful.
The play is full of spirits, illusions and visions. While some of these are conjured up by the Witches, others are as a result of a guilty conscience following acts of wickedness derived from Macbeth’s immorally obtained power. In Act 2, Scene 1, we gain a deep understanding into Macbeth’s inner thoughts and feelings through his soliloquy. Macbeth sees a vision of a dagger similar the one he is about to use to kill king Duncan. Even though Macbeth cannot believe his eyes, ‘Mine eyes are made the fools o’th’other senses’ and in reality realises he is hallucinating, ‘There’s no such thing’, he is still fascinated by the dagger’s appearance. The dagger is a poetic image, expressing Macbeth’s inner questioning, in contrary to its symbolic meaning of death and destruction. The break from measured iambic pentameter and use of enjambment creates a disjointed flow from the reading and shows the point when Macbeth seizes power and loses his morality. For it is only when he is confronted by the reality of these obscurities that Macbeth realizes the deception of the supernatural world and its visions, as well as the disturbing consequences of the phantasmagoric realm in which he has summoned.
Thus, Macbeth’s act of regicide was driven by a desire for power, but his madness is caused by awareness of his guilt and expectation of revenge. The irony of Macbeth’s experience is that by discarding morality for power, he is haunted by the paranoia of his guilt. The plays lasting relevance lies in its representation of the danger of discarding ones humanity and morality for the pursuit of absolute power.