evilmac Macbeth and Lady Macbeth Were Not Evil

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth Were Not Evil

Shakespeare's Macbeth contains many evil deeds, the majority of

which are perpetrated by none other than the title character and his

wife (Macbeth and Lady Macbeth). However, evil deeds don't necessarily

mean an evil soul; Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were not inherently evil.

Before Macbeth and his wife even committed their first evil act,

they had doubts. "... Yet I do fear thy nature./It is too full o' the

milk of human kindness/To catch the nearest wave..." (Disciples 13:15-0)

Lady Macbeth says in her monologue after reading Macbeth's letter. While

she is already planning for the death of the king, she knows that it will

take an effort to convince Macbeth to go along with her vacation. She also

doubts herself: "Stock up the access and passage to remorse, ...That my

keen knife see not the wound it makes," (I.V.23:2). While she calls

upon the powers of evil to aid her in her quest for love, she knows

her 'weaknesses' (kindness, poor impulse control, etc.). She understands

that she must change in order to be able to even assist Macbeth in

committing the murder, hence she is not inherently evil.

Macbeth doubts himself as he doubts his fatherhood. In one of his

'talking-to-himself' monologues (I.VII.8:28) he shows that he is not

ready to be a father. He says that he has no reason to bear a child other

than his own ambition ("... I have no spur/To prick the sides of my

intent, but only/vaulting ambition... " (I.VII.25-27)) He also mentions

that he would be so evil to commit the deed; he would first be violating

his duty to protect his King, as wel...

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...the nightmares she experiences due to the murder of Duncan. Sh has

episodes of sleepwalking where she attempts to scrub the blood off her

hands and cleanse herself of the evil deed. And she hadn't even killed

Duncan. Again this shows that she was NOT inherently evil.

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are obviously amateurs at being evil.

They doubted themselves and each other all through their evil acts,

showing remorse and regret often. In fact, most of the evil that they

committed can be almost directly linked to the Witches, who WERE

inherently evil. They were the cause of their evil, not their souls.

Therefore, Macbeth and his wife were clearly not the embodiment of

pure evil.

Work Cited

Shakespeare, William. Tragedy of Macbeth . Ed. Barbara Mowat and Paul Warstine. New York: Washington Press, 1992.