Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, a "dealike butcher" and a "fiend"?
Uploaded by clarabelle on Mar 22, 2001
"This dead like butcher and his fiend like queen" is this a fair description of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth?
Malcolm made the remark "This dead like butcher and his fiend like queen," when he was crowned as the king of Scotland, after Macbeth's reign of terror. It becomes questionable upon the fairness of this justification, whether or not Macbeth was really a "butcher" and whether or not Lady Macbeth was a "fiend."
In some ways, Macbeth would have fit the description of being a "butcher," after all, he had taken the lives of many people, some of them were even close associates of Macbeth. He assassinated Duncan, the king, in order to gain the throne, as he says,
"I have done the deed"
He also murdered Banquo, who was his best friend, due to two different reasons. The first is the witches' prophecies, which predicted that Banquo's son is to become king, and secondly, there is a sense that Banquo has his suspicions on the assassinator of the king. Acting under the name of fear, he slaughtered Lady Macduff and her son, due to the prophecies made by the witches,
"Beware the thane of Fife"
Macbeth only resolved himself into a far more stereotypical villain when he felt that he had gone to far, as he says,
"I am in blood stepped I do far."
His ambition of staying king now begins to spur him toward further horrifying deeds, and he starts to disregard and even challenge fate and fortune.
Each successive murder reduces his human characteristics still further, until he appears to be the more dominant partner in the marriage. Nevertheless, the new-found resolve, which causes Macbeth to "wade" onward into his self-created river of blood, is persistently alarmed by supernatural events, the ghost of Banquo, an evidence suggesting Macbeth isn't at the right state of mind, that his guilt has affected him deeply.
Macbeth was also seen as a ruthless tyrannical king, as he is referred to by Malcolm and Macduff, as "tyrant," and "a devil." In order to protect his title, Macbeth had to murder those who get in his way, and he even planted spies in every household in Scotland. Near to the end, Macbeth has even,
"Forgot the taste of fears"
It's as if he had overcome fear, which had made him able to be ruthless, and murderous.
On the other hand the justification of Macbeth as a butcher could not be reasonable, after all,...