The Cycle of Decisions

Act 3, Scene 2

LADY MACBETH

Is Banquo gone from court?

SERVANT

Ay, madam, but returns again tonight.

LADY MACBETH

Say to the king I would attend his leisure

For a few words.

SERVANT

Madam, I will.

The SERVANT exits.

LADY MACBETH

Naught’s had, all’s spent,

Where our desire is got without content.

‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy

Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.

MACBETH enters.

LADY MACBETH

How now, my lord! Why do you keep alone,

Of sorriest fancies your companions making,

Using those thoughts which should indeed have died

With them they think on? Things without all remedy

Should be without regard. What’s done is done.

MACBETH

We have scorched the snake, not killed it.

She’ll close and be herself whilst our poor malice

Remains in danger of her former tooth.

But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds

suffer,

Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep

In the affliction of these terrible dreams

That shake us nightly. Better be with the dead,

Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,

Than on the torture of the mind to lie

In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave.

After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well.

Treason has done his worst; nor steel nor poison,

Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing

Can touch him further.

LADY MACBETH

Come on, gentle my lord,

Sleek o’er your rugged looks. Be bright and jovial

Among your guests tonight.

MACBETH

So shall I, love,

And so, I pray, be you. Let your remembrance

Apply to Banquo; present him eminence,

Both with eye and tongue: unsafe the while that we

Must lave our honors in these flattering streams,

And make our faces vizards to our hearts,

Disguising what they are.

LADY MACBETH

You must leave this.

MACBETH

Oh, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!

Thou know’st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.

LADY MACBETH

But in them nature’s copy’s not eterne.

MACBETH

There’s comfort yet; they are assailable.

Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown

His cloistered flight, ere to black Hecate’s summons

The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums

Hath rung night’s yawning peal, there shall be done

A deed of dreadful note.

LADY MACBETH

What’s to be done?

MACBETH

Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,

Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,

Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day

And with thy bloody and invisible hand

Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond

Which keeps me pale. Light thickens, and the crow

Makes wing to th’ rooky wood.

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;

Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.

Thou marvel’st at my words: but hold thee still.

Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.

So, prithee, go with me.

“When you enter deep water, you must swim". 

Actions are irreversible and therefore have to be embraced. This can be observed throughout Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth, a play in which a Scottish peer, Macbeth, is told by three spooky witches that he will soon ascend to the Scottish throne. Compelled to strive for heights so far as this unerring premonition will carry him, Macbeth murders his superior monarch, King Duncan, with the help and prompting of Lady Macbeth to usurp the throne. Contrary to a feeling of achievement, this bloody act of violence propels Macbeth into an abhorrently self-sustaining cycle of violence as he endeavors to retain control. Shakespeare in his play, describes the psychological consequences of any wrongful act in Act 3, Scene 2 in the form of a conversation between Macbeth, who is now the king, and Lady Macbeth, after his coup d'état. This scene in which Macbeth starts hiding from Lady Macbeth shows very well how quickly Macbeth started becoming completely vile and evil as he cries to the dark powers and more violence. Through this passage, Shakespeare demonstrates that as individuals enter the gruesome cycle of violence, the erosion of morality warps perception, fractures psychological stability, and precipitates destructive action.

Firstly, Shakespeare utilizes metaphor, symbolism, and vivid imagery to reveal how the corrosion of morality shatters perception, inherently causing individuals to mistake deception for control for safety. While Macbeth reveals his nefarious plans to Lady Macbeth, he encourages her to deceive their guests by rendering their faces "vizards to [their] hearts". Vizards, or masks, are often used to conceal something. Therefore, the comparison of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's faces to a mask reveals Macbeth's desire to disguise their true emotions and heart by using their faces as masks. This not only highlights Macbeth's distorted perception of reality but also emphasizes the mental condition Macbeth experiences, fostering a multitude of deception and manipulation to survive and maintain innocence. 

At the same time, Macbeth calls upon the "light [to thicken]" and for the night to conceal the "tender eye of pitiful day". This articulates his method of obscuring judgment by calling upon the supernatural world to disguise his actions. The symbolism of night, used to extinguish light, emphasizes Macbeth's belief that his actions lack moral consequences and are easily covered through the natural world, which he himself disrupts. On the other hand, the employment of the word "pitiful" underscores Macbeth's lingering awareness of his dire actions and reveals a trace of his previous traits before the peripeteia of the witch's prophecy. Yet he still persists in fracturing ethical boundaries as his distorted perception of reality entices him to mistake deception as control due to his weakened sense of security. Furthermore, when referring to his childhood best friend Banquo, he requests the bond "cancel[s] and [gets torn] to pieces". The violent imagery, that of ripping a paper, paints Banquo as an abstract obstacle getting in the way of Macbeth's legacy, when he really is Macbeth's best friend. This once again triggers a threatened feeling within Macbeth, which in reality is heightened due to his weakened sense of security. Through the utilization of metaphor, symbolism, and vivid imagery, Shakespeare reveals how the corrosion of morality fractures perception, forcing individuals to mistake deception as control and darkness for safety.

When the perception of reality becomes deranged, the disarray that exists externally begins to seep into the internal world, thus creating instability within. Shakespeare expertly blends alliteration, juxtaposition, and personification to underscore how the entrapment within violence dismantles psychological stability, replacing reason with compulsion. Once Macbeth reveals his destructive intentions of murdering Banquo to Lady Macbeth, he refers to it as a "deed of dreadful note". The alliteration and playful tone utilized by Macbeth frame the murder of Banquo as a performative act rather than the violent act it is. The unseriousness Macbeth emanates emphasizes the insanity within him as murders and violent acts are reduced to games through his perspective. He maintains this view as he tells Lady Macbeth not to be involved until she "applaud[s] the deed". The juxtaposition and rigid dichotomy between the joyful connotation of the word applaud and the violent deed that Macbeth plans to carry out emphasize his insanity, especially the fact that he views this as a playful game. His planned betrayal of Banquo completely decimates the boundary of necessity and atrocity as Banquo's death is solely so that Macbeth can have a legacy on the throne. 

Moreover, Macbeth's insanity can also be seen when he calls upon the supernatural world to "scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day". Macbeth’s intentions have transcended the boundary from sanity to insanity, revealing how he can no longer consult a human being about his destructive intentions and, ergo, is forced to turn to the supernatural world. This includes Lady Macbeth, the person who initially pressured Macbeth into violent actions, as she is dismayed by Macbeth's inhumane plans. Therefore, by personifying the night, Macbeth requests the supernatural world for guidance and support. At the same time, Macbeth's actions are so dire that human beings can no longer cover up his innocence; subsequently, his desperation pushes him into begging the supernatural world to conceal his actions. This emphasizes Macbeth's psychological instability as no human being can connect and understand his intentions, meaning he is on a completely different level. Fundamentally, through the usage of alliteration, juxtaposition, and personification, Shakespeare emphasizes how the entrapment within violence dismantles psychological stability, replacing reason with compulsion.

The union between the distorted understanding of reality and the disrupted internal stability brings about many forms of chaos, leading to destruction. Shakespeare interlaces mythological allusion, tone, and diction to reveal how moral decay precipitates destructive actions, framing violence as a necessity. While describing his intentions to murder Banquo, Macbeth alludes to the "black Hecate", which is the goddess of witchcraft. Macbeth's destructive actions can no longer be compared with those of fellow human beings, as Hecate brings them to a whole new level. This emphasizes the extremity of Macbeth's actions. By alluding to Hecate, it shows the severe influence of the demons of the supernatural world on Macbeth's actions. Additionally, Macbeth shifts from a calculated tone to an ominous tone filled with insanity. He uses aggressive verbs when referring to his actions, such as "cancel" and "tear" to emphasize the multitude of chaos he plans to carry out. This also symbolizes the takeover of the devil in Macbeth's mind due to the extent of his dire actions.  Macbeth is fueled by more violence and murders, which inevitably causes him to create more chaos and precipitate increasingly destructive action. 

In addition, he states that Banquo and Fleance are "assailable," which reveals his sole route to maintaining power and status. The casual cruelty of assailable emphasizes the insanity along with the transcendence of moral boundaries. At the same time, this also highlights how Macbeth views everyone as pawns, easy to get rid of with no repercussions. He sadistically enjoys the violence to the extent that he frames it as a necessity rather than a one-time occurrence or something that is drastically needed. This further shows and highlights the contradiction between Macbeth's previous values of honor and valor with his newfound beliefs of betrayal and violence. This is heavily influenced by his fractured internal state and his distorted perception of reality, which entice him to precipitate destructive action at a level that can only connect to the supernatural world. Ultimately, through the employment of mythological allusion, tone, and diction, Shakespeare reveals how moral decay precipitates destructive actions, framing violence as a necessity.

Shakespeare demonstrates, through this passage, that as individuals enter the gruesome cycle of violence, the erosion of morality warps perception, fractures psychological stability, and precipitates destructive action. Following Macbeth's entrapment within the gruesome cycle of violence, the corrosion of his morality entices him to foster secrecy and manipulation to survive and maintain his status. After all, it was said that "when you enter deep water, you must swim". When Macbeth murdered King Duncan, he entered the deep water and couldn’t turn back, which eventually trapped him in a sanguinary cycle of murders and violence, which ultimately took a massive psychological toll. 

This theme is seen even within society in the way that people get trapped by their own actions all the time. It could be the politician who is exercising their power over others, or the business person trying to protect their name, or even the normal student covering up for their wrongdoings, but at the end of the day, it's always the same idea of unethical behavior being justified. However, similar to Macbeth, the primary mistake rarely remains isolated. Instead, one unethical lack traps individuals into chaotic cycles of unethical behavior, inevitably causing escape to become increasingly difficult. As individuals continuously transcend moral boundaries, the severity of actions escalates dramatically.

For these reasons, Shakespeare’s warning extends far beyond the world of seventeenth-century Scotland and into modern society, where a vast multitude of scandals, conflicts and tragedies can be traced back to a similar pattern in which the pursuit of power or status overrides moral judgment and eventually takes over the individual. Very similar to how Macbeth’s distorted perception causes him to mistake violence for a solution to his problems, individuals present in modern society may justify unethical or harmful actions in pursuit of their goals, only to wreak more havoc in society. In Macbeth’s tragic downfall, Shakespeare demonstrates that the erosion of morality does not simply remain static in individual choices. It reshapes one’s perception of reality, fractures psychological stability, and stimulates a destructive cycle consuming the individual and the society they live in.