Macbeth Act Five – “I have almost forgot the taste of fears.”

Macbeth Act Five  –  “I have almost forgot the taste of fears.”

As I read the final act of ‘Macbeth’, I suppose I need to ask myself why do I like this play so much. It’s probably not just because I studied it at high school and played the part straight out of acting school with a wonderful small theatre company called 'Sugar and Spite'. It’s probably not because of seeing the amazing Polanski’s film version and the great Orson Well’s film version a number of times. When I think about it, it is probably the fact that at many points in the play, Macbeth could go either way. He is pushed by Lady Macbeth but eventually embraces the dark side. She cracks under the guilt and pressure of what they have done, whereas he soldiers on and even when nearly all his charms are proven worthless, he still 'tries the last' and challenges fate with the words “Lay on Macduff, and damned be he that first cries ‘Hold enough’.”  

Another reason probably goes more to the heart of most of Shakespeare’s plays and especially ‘Macbeth’. It is what Harold Bloom (the American critic) expresses in ‘Shakespeare – The Invention of the Human’ when he says that Shakespeare ‘invents’ personality in drama. All the characters in ‘Macbeth’ from Seyton to the Doctor to each of the witches to Macduff to Lady Macbeth and Macbeth seem to have a personality, an intention, an inner and an outer life that seaps through the play at every moment. My last reason probably is that the rhythm and pace of Act Five of ‘Macbeth’ is unified in the final one metaphor of the forest moving toward macbeth in his castle. In Act Five, the final eight short fast-paced scenes shift and move towards the climax just like Birnam Wood moves towards Dunsinane. And now, Act Five of 'Macbeth'.

It is late at night at Dunsinane Castle as we enter Act Five. Macbeth has moved his court away from Duncan’s castle in Forres to his own castle on high Dunsinane Hill. A doctor and a gentlewoman talk in low tones about the strange behaviour of the queen, the former Lady Macbeth. Then, Lady Macbeth enters in a sleepwalking trance carrying a candle (a motif used much in Act Five). She speaks in prose and is distraught about the deaths of Banquo and Macduff’s wife and literally, psychologically and metaphorically sees that she has blood on her hands. She seems to see blood on her hands and claims that nothing will ever wash it off.

“Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why,

then, 'tis time to do't.--Hell is murky!--Fie, my

lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we

fear who knows it, when none can call our power to

account?--Yet who would have thought the old man

to have had so much blood in him…

The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?--

What, will these hands ne'er be clean?--No more o'

that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with

this starting… Here's the smell of the blood still: all the

perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little

hand. Oh, oh, oh!

Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so

pale.--I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he

cannot come out on's grave…

To bed, to bed! there's knocking at the gate:

come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What's

done cannot be undone.--To bed, to bed, to bed!”

Lady Macbeth goes back to bed and the doctor marvels at what he has heard and asks the gentlewoman to take care of the queen fearing that she will harm herself.

“Foul whisperings are abroad: unnatural deeds

Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds

To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets:

More needs she the divine than the physician.

God, God forgive us all! Look after her;

Remove from her the means of all annoyance,

And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night:

My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight.

I think, but dare not speak.”

A little way off, a group of Scottish thanes and soldiers discuss where they should join Malcolm’s forces that approach with the English army. They decide that they will join them near Birnam Wood. Even Lennox has turned against Macbeth and it is revealed that Macbeth is fortifying Dunsinane Castle and that the only people who he commands now are those who  “move only in command; nothing in love”.

Finally we see Macbeth again, this time in the great halls of Dunsinane. He is boastful as he comes before the doctor and his dwindling number of attendants and seems to treat all bad news with distain.

“Bring me no more reports; let them fly all:

Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,

I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm?

Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know

All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:

'Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman

Shall e'er have power upon thee.' Then fly,

false thanes,

And mingle with the English epicures:

The mind I sway by and the heart I bear

Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.”

Macbeth does seem a little disturbed when he hears that an army of ten thousand English forces approaches and he asks for Seyton to bring his armour even though the invading forces are still a fair way off. Macbeth asks the Doctor about his wife’s sickness and the Doctor underplays what he knows and says that she has “thick-coming fancies”. Macbeth asks for the doctor to cure the queen. When Macbeth exits to make preparations, the Doctor reveals to the audience that he intends to flee quickly from Dunsinane castle.

Malcolm, the English forces and a growing number Scottish soldiers and thanes who oppose Macbeth, gather before Birnam Wood. Malcolm sets forth commands for their approach:

“Let every soldier hew him down a bough

And bear't before him: thereby shall we shadow

The numbers of our host and make discovery

Err in report of us.”

Fortified in his castle, Macbeth shouts orders and makes preparations to:

“Hang out our banners on the outward walls;

The cry is still 'They come:' our castle's strength

Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie

Till famine and the ague eat them up…” 
Suddenly, preparations are paused when, after the cry of women is heard, it is revealed by Seyton that the queen is dead. Macbeth is shocked his wife's death causes him to contemplate death and the purpose and meaning of life itself:

“She should have died hereafter;

There would have been a time for such a word.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time,

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.”

A messenger enters and he finally tells what seems like unbelievable news. Birnam Wood seems to be advancing towards Dunsinane. Enraged and terrified, Macbeth recalls the prophecy that said he could not die till Birnam Wood moved to Dunsinane. Macbeth initially accuses the messenger of lying but then rallies himself to fight even though the charm that he could not be defeated until Birnam Wood moves to Dunsinane seems to have lost its power for him:

“If thou speak'st false,

Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,

Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth,

I care not if thou dost for me as much.

I pull in resolution, and begin

To doubt the equivocation of the fiend

That lies like truth: 'Fear not, till Birnam wood

Do come to Dunsinane:' and now a wood

Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out!

If this which he avouches does appear,

There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here.

I gin to be aweary of the sun,

And wish the estate o' the world were now undone.

Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack!

At least we'll die with harness on our back.”

With drums and colours, Malcolm and his army arrive before the walls of Dunsinane Castle. Malcolm orders that they throw down their “leafy screens” and take up their swords. He then decides that Young Siward should lead the first assault while Macduff and the others shall handle what else needs to be done.

Macbeth enters and indicates that he still holds onto the second charm that he cannot be killed by any that is born of woman. His words and charm seem true when he kills Young Siward and utters the triumphant and challenging words:

“Thou wast born of woman

But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,

Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born.”

As Macbeth leaves, Macduff enters and he asks for fate and fortune to bring Macbeth before him. Chaos seems to reign and Malcolm and Siward enter the fray.

Macbeth reenters declaring that he will not commit suicide like a “Roman fool” and die on his own sword.

Enter Macduff who has revenge, fate and fortune on his side. They fight, their voices in their swords and Macbeth seems to be arrogant, unbeatable and immortal due to the witches charms. Macbeth boastfully says to Macduff:

“Thou losest labour:

As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air

With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed:

Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;

I bear a charmed life, which must not yield,

To one of woman born.”

It is then that Fortune’s wheel finally turns on Macbeth when Macduff reveals that he, Macduff, was not ‘borne’ of woman but came into the world from a caesarean birth.

“Despair thy charm;

And let the angel whom thou still hast served

Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb

Untimely ripp'd.”

Macbeth suddenly realises that the witches have juggled and played with him and he decides momentarily that he will not fight with Macduff: 
“Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,

For it hath cow'd my better part of man!

And be these juggling fiends no more believed,

That palter with us in a double sense;

That keep the word of promise to our ear,

And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee.”

But Macduff’s threats, along with the thought that he, Macbeth, would have to surrender and kiss the ground before Malcolm, leads Macbeth to fight to the death with Macduff:

“I will not yield,

To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,

And to be baited with the rabble's curse.

Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,

And thou opposed, being of no woman born,

Yet I will try the last. Before my body

I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,

And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'”

As Macbeth and Macduff exit fighting, Malcolm and Old Siward enter Dunsinane Castle which they have taken over. Ross reveals to Siward that his son is dead but has paid a soldier’s debt and although Siward seems upset, he seems to find some solace in the thought that his son died in battle. Enter Macduff with Macbeth’s head in his hand as he hails Malcolm King of Scotland. Then Malcolm meekly declares:

“We shall not spend a large expense of time

Before we reckon with your several loves,

And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen,

Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland

In such an honour named. What's more to do,

Which would be planted newly with the time,

As calling home our exiled friends abroad

That fled the snares of watchful tyranny;

Producing forth the cruel ministers

Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,

Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands

Took off her life; this, and what needful else

That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace,

We will perform in measure, time and place:

So, thanks to all at once and to each one,

Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.”

As King James I himself started a thunderous applause for the King’s Men at the end of probably the first performance of Macbeth, Shakespeare knew that he had warmed his way back into the heart of an English regent with flattery, allusions to witchcraft and a play which is driven by characters who amongst the most loved and hated of all his creations.