Psychological Study of Fear, Mortal Sin or Hunger for Power in Macbeth

Yet ultimately, he has no other choice but to put a good face on the matter and to artificially motivate himself with predictions that appear like his grip for the last straw.

By his own account, Macbeth is free of fear for the first time when he is already surrounded by the enemy forces and his end is near: “I have almost forgot the taste of fears.“ (Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5, l.9. Now there is nothing he could be afraid of anymore since, on the one hand, along with the gradual dying of his ‘conscience’ (or rather his conscience-like concerns) his feeling of fear also drastically decreases1 and, on the other hand, he knows by now from his own experience that death will not change anything and that it is just as absurd as life (Kott, p.123, l.15-16). He can finally accept himself and his role because he realized that any choice is absurd, even more, that there is no choice in the first place (Kott, p.124, l.1-3). This reflects towards the end in his monologue, which he has when one thane after another turn their backs on him and he has just received the news of his wife’s death. By dismissing life as “a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury / Signifying nothing.” (Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5, l.25-27), his now nihilistic worldview becomes clear.

For Macbeth, his soldiership is his way and his self-expression of dealing with fear and he interprets his manner of coping with it as his manliness. He has already internalized his role as a soldier to that extent that it can barely be distinguished from his character. This is underlined by his statement in the end, when he sees no more hope for himself: “Why should I play the Roman fool, and die / On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes / Do better upon them.“ (Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 8, l.1-3). This thesis is also confirmed during the final battle, because even though he fears Macduff when being challenged to a duel by him – since he reveals himself to Macbeth as the ‘chosen one’ who alone will bring doom to him (see Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 8, l.15) – he can, in accordance with his self-conception, only act soldierly and, consequently, leaps fearlessly into the combat of life and death (see Moorthy, p.193, ll.5-21): “Lay on, Macduff, / And damned be him, that first cries, ‘Hold enough.’” (Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 8, l.33-34).

“Fear, therefore, is both the destiny and the fate of Macbeth. […] It is through fear – fear which is the tension between life and death – that Macbeth apprehends life as vividly as he does death. […] Macbeth’s fear is also his measure of sensitivity, his test of being alive. Macbeth needs fear for his conviction of the reality of life and death. It is the peculiar medium of his acute perceptions. To take away fear from him is to take away his taste of both life and death.” (Moorthy, p.193, l.22-24; p.194, l.1-4).

Besides, in contrast to her husband, Lady Macbeth shows outwardly no sign of fear until her last appearance as a rationally thinking, sane character in act three, scene four – when she, still alert, saves the situation during her husband’s schizophrenic fit – since she has already sacrificed her conscience to the forces of evil in the beginning of the drama (see Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5, ll.40-50). Towards the end (see Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 1), however, fear – in the shape of her agonizing conscience – completely robs her of her mind. She breaks under the burden of guilt and finally perishes. The audience thus witnesses that her initial self-violation could not be permanent. As expected, she has ultimately taken on too much on herself and, due to her madness, she is, in a sense, freed by the demonic powers which she has given herself over to, and brought back to her former ‘initial state’.

Thus, “fear is the medium and also the material of the play.” (Moorthy, p.189, l.28-29), but exactly only one medium and one material, among others. Concluding, one therefore cannot universally agree with Lily B.Campbell’s thesis because Macbeth does not exclusively constitute a study of fear, but also of ambition2– which he explicitly describes as the only reason that causes him to commit the treacherous murder of Duncan (see Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7, l.25-28) – the effect of evil on a weak character, and especially of imagination. However, there is a connection between his fear and his ambition, for “what Macbeth is combatting beneath the haze of ambition and moral scruple, is fear – or death that fear symbolises.” (Moorthy, p.190, l.7-8).

The play is only partially a psychological study of fear, mortal sin or hunger for power; as a whole, however, Macbeth is the epitome of modern self-deification (Breuer, p.365, l.30-33), since the protagonist illegally strived for the highest power in the state and – to the later detriment of his new subjects – actually achieved it within a very short time.