Fear and Cowardice in Shakespeare's Macbeth

Macbeth: Fear and Cowardice

William Shakespeare's great tragedy, Macbeth is a play based more on character than deed. The play is a journey along the life of Macbeth, beginning at the apex of his career and following him to his demise. The cause of this sudden deterioration has been debated for centuries. Some attribute Macbeth's quick degeneration to ambition. Although Macbeth is not lacking in ambition, this is not the essential element that causes his demise. It is fear that permeates Macbeth--utter cowardice drives his will into sinful acts resulting in regression. Cowardice, not ambition, is the main and underlying factor which causes Macbeth to kill Duncan, to murder Banquo and to seek the aid of the witches.

The murder of Duncan is roused more by fearful confusion than by Macbeth's "vaulting ambition" (I.vii.27). After hearing the witches' prophetic greeting, Macbeth is lulled into a "fantastical" state of mind (I.iii.139). He ponders regicide, which "[s]hakes [his] single state of man that function / Is smother'd in surmise" (I.iii.140-41). During the events heralding Duncan's murder, Macbeth undergoes five changes of mind before deciding that "[they] shall proceed no further in [that] business" (I.vii.31). The hesitation to kill Duncan is the first symptom of Macbeth's fearful confusion. What causes Macbeth to suddenly change his mind and kill Duncan? Macbeth is a weak man whose "dearest partner in greatness" is his wife (I.v.10). He values her opinion above all else. After rejecting the murder plan, Macbeth is the victim of a storm of insults from Lady Macbeth:

Art thou afeard/ to be the same in thine own act and valour/ as thou art in desire?

Wouldst thou have that/ which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,/

And live a coward in thine own esteem. (I.vii.39-43)

His fear of her scorn augments the confusion within his "heat-oppressed brain", causing him to hesitantly agree to the conspiracy (II.i.39). (Review MLA format and citations.)

Macbeth, too rapt within his own fear to maintain rational reasoning, becomes a pawn of his fear-born confusion, leaving his mind no other option than killing Duncan. Had the murder been caused by ambition, Macbeth would not have been so hesitant in his actions. He would have had a clear goal and could have seen a crown instead of the "air-drawn dagger" which was the "very painting of [his] fear" (III.iv.62-63). Therefore, Macbeth's regression is spurred by a fearful frenzy, not the over-ambitious plotting of a rational man.