Macbeth and the Unambiguous Mind

Bill Long 7/17/05

Reflecting on I.3

We don't meet Macbeth in the flesh until I.3.38, when he enters with a line ("So foul and fair a day I have not seen") reminiscent of the words of the Weird Sisters in I.1.11. Yet we are prepared to meet him both in I.1 and I.2. All we know of him in I.1 is that the Sisters plan to meet him later in the day. We learn more in I.2, where the Captain, in discharing his report to King Duncan, describes the heroic antics of Macbeth in battle. As I have mentioned previously, Macbeth is portrayed as a killing machine, breaking through the lines of enemy soldiers to "unseam" Macdonwald, and then inflicting such devastation upon the rebels that he threatens to create a new Golgotha. Such machine-like efficiency and mercilessness is characteristic of a person who sees his duty clearly and unambiguously. I think this first "take" on Macbeth is actually confirmed when we meet him in I.3. He is a man of rather simple mind, not affected much by ambiguity and nuance, who quickly moves from uncomprehending incredulity to being a true believer. Let's see how this takes place.

Macbeth's First Reactions--Ingenuousness

The Weird Sisters hail Macbeth not only as Thane of Glamis (his current title), but also as Thane of Cawdor and King. Macbeth says nothing, but Banquo does, and tells us how Macbeth reacts: "Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear/ Things that do sound so fair?...My noble partner/ You greet with present grace, and great prediction/ Of noble having and of royal hope,/ That he seems rapt withal" (I.3.51-57). When he gathers his wits about him, Macbeth asks for an explanation but the Sisters disappear before they can respond.

But his first reactions both to the Sisters and to Rosse/Angus show his simple credulity. He wants to know how he is to be Thane of Cawdor when "The Thane of Cawdor lives/ A prosperous gentleman" (I.3.72-73; 108). But certainly Macbeth would have had reason to know that Cawdor stood in a very precarious position with the crown--indeed, he had opposed Cawdor's revolt and defeated him. A clever or reasonably insightful person would have to know that Cawdor's treachery would lead immediately to his downfall. Macbeth's continuing to call him "prosperous" can be taken as a sign of Macbeth's calculating temperament but I prefer to see it as ingenousness and simplicity of mind. Until an "official" action is taken and announced, Cadwor still is a "prosperous" man. This is how the "rules" work. But the problem with this kind of mind, which you might also call a binary mind, is that when it becomes convinced of the truth of another way of acting, it plunges itself into the new reality witout equivocation or nuance, also. Hence, the next point.

Trying to Discourage Macbeth

Macbeth clearly is impressed that the Weird Sisters' words are confirmed by Rosse. Once Rosse confirms the words, Macbeth says, "Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor!/ The greatest is behind" (I.3.116-117). Already Macbeth is reorienting his perspective. Completely. "The greatest is behind," means that "the greatest is yet to come." As an indication that he has now "bought in" to the Sisters' words, he asks Banquo: "Do you not hope your children shall be kings,/ When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me/ Promise'd no less to them?" (I.3.118-120). That is, 'don't you want to get in on the goodies, too?' Banquo tries to give him Macbeth some cautionary advice: "That, trusted home (i.e., "that prophecy, if trusted completely")/ "Might yet enkindle you to the crown (i.e., "might give you cause to hope for the crown")." But then he says that the instruments of darkness often tell us truths "to betray's/ In deepest consequence" (1.3.125-126). Banquo thus is taking a more skeptical view of the Sisters' words. Even if they are true, you ought not to run out and embrace them lest they be words that are spoken by evil forces that try to lead people to their destruction. But Macbeth will be troubled by no such ambiguities. Instead of seeking caution, he wants a convert. Already he begins to use the language of "truth": "Two truths are told/ As happy prologues to the swelling act,/ Of the imperial theme" (1.3.127-129). Macbeth continues to be "rapt" (cf. l. 143), taken up as he is in this prediction.

Macbeth's Rush to Judgment

Now that he has changed his perspective so dramatically and so quickly, Macbeth thinks about what he should do. Granted, he seems to lurch back and forth between two ways of looking at the future--either by trying to take it into his own hands or to let things work themselves out naturally ("If chance will have me king, why,/ chance may crown me/ Without my stir"--1.3.143-144). But, the way that he chooses to define the issue of personal action shows that he has an unambiguous mind, a mind not able to tolerate much ambiguity. He feels he may have to "help" the prophecy come true, despite the fact that he didn't wittingly depose the Thane of Cawdor. And, how might he "help" it come true? By the act of murder. "Present fears/ Are less than horrible imaginings:/ My thought, whose murther yet is but fantastical,/ Shakes so my single-state..." (I.3.137-140). That is, he is leaping to the conclusion that if he acts, he must act by murdering the King. Where did this come from? There are lots of ways to become king, ranging from letting nature take its course to encouraging abdication or early naming of him as successor, but Macbeth's mind leaps ahead of all of these and fixes on the act of murder. But, as some commentators have noted, even a hardy warrior who seems to kill without remorse, will have a hard time murdering his sovereign. Hence the references to the heart knocking and the unfixing of his hair.

An Indecisive Ending

So, Macbeth is torn. That is how I.3 ends. He isn't sure what to do, and so he closes his reflections with the noncommittal: "Come what come may,/ Time and the hour run through the roughest day" (I.3.146-147). He may have a mind not used to ambiguity, and not be willing to let the complex plaids of life live in their fulness, but he will be open to suggestions of others, especially his wife, on how he is to deal with his situation. But unless we see him as a person relatively unschooled in and relatively unsympathetic to nuanced thought, we don't really understand why he is seemingly shaped so easily by other forces as the play continues.

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