Macbeth, you fool!

We discussed Act 4 of Macbeth in class today. This act is arguably the darkest act yet with the murder of Macduff’s wife and son and the weird sisters’ spell song. In the act, we really see a shift in Macbeth’s character. When the apparitions warn him of Macduff’s interference, Macbeth immediately plans to kill him and not only him, but “all unfortunate souls that trace him (Macbeth) in his line.” This is a change from his usual character because now, he is willing to kill anyone and everyone who gets in his way, unlike before, where he was killing just the people who needed to die.

This unnecessary killing of bystanders in Act 4 reminds me very distinctly of Breaking Bad. Like Walt, Macbeth has now begun hiring murderers to do the deed while he sits back and watches from a distance. When he murdered the king, he was nervous, hesitant and almost sick but for the murder of Macduff’s wife and child, he simply orders someone else to do it. In all honesty the death of the wife and child was completely unnecessary; Macbeth just killed them for vengeance on Macduff because he couldn’t find him to kill him.

I compared Act 4 to the “finger of birth-strangled babe ditch-deliver'd by a drab” line in the witches’ “double double toil and trouble” song. Although Macbeth has been traveling this evil slippery slope for quite some time now, this is the first truly evil, doing evil just for the act of doing evil, act we have seen from him. In the song, the witches list all terrible things but the baby finger is by far the worst, making it the climax of the soup, likewise, Act 4 is the climax of the play so far.

In this act, we get a picture of how truly foolish, over confident and just dumb Macbeth’s character is. Just by the way he interacts with the witches in the beginning of this act, praising them when they tell him something he likes and ignoring or cursing them when told something not in his favor; we can conclude that Macbeth’s character is a reflection of humanity’s indulgence in its blissful ignorance mentality. I subconsciously think of Macbeth as a child, with his short temper, foolish childlike way of thinking and his blinded views. The audience clearly has a better understanding of Macbeth’s situation than he himself because he is so blinded by his confidence, pride and ignorance.