Examples Of But All's Too Weak In Macbeth

At the start of the play Macbeth is described as an honourable soldier and a nobleman, his positive qualities are introduced through the captain’s speech in Act 1 scene 2. Macbeth is shown as an unbeatable soldier in the captain’s lines “But all’s too weak, For brave Macbeth”. The captain reports the extent of Macdonwald’s treachery, not to mention the enormity of his army, and even luck wasn’t on Macbeth’s side yet the use of ‘all’ suggests that these factors were not enough to overthrow Macbeth informing us of the degree of his military prowess. The juxtaposition of ‘weak’ used to describe the opposition and ‘brave’ to describe Macbeth, heighten his courage. Macbeth’s valor is reiterated by the line- “yes, as sparrows, eagles, or the hare,

the lion”, the captain’s ironic speech compares Macbeth’s fear to an eagle’s fear of a sparrow or a lion’s fear of a hare. The irony being that eagles and lions wouldn’t fear animals as small as the sparrows or as vulnerable as the hare. The animal imagery is used highlight how they felt no fear at all.

Shakespeare relates his character to  ‘lions’ and ‘eagles’ whereas the opposition are called ‘sparrows’ and ‘hares’. The contrast between the animals can suggest their enemy’s weakness or possibly defenseless. And the connotations of ‘lion’ and ‘eagle’ signify strength and dominance explaining how their bravery was overpowering. Another inference could be that ‘lions’ are also known as the ‘king of the jungle’, seemingly the battlefield has been personified into a ‘jungle’ expressing the intensity of the fight then again Macbeth’s military excellence allows him to dominate upon the front lines. The destruction caused by Macbeth’s strength is exhibited through “As cannons overcharged with double cracks”. Comparing his character to a weapon such as ‘cannons’ resembling a weapon of mass destruction, echoing how powerful and lethal Macbeth is and the metaphor may suggest that Macbeth is seen as a weapon himself. The words ‘overcharged with double cracks’ exaggerates how fiercely they fought, almost as if their rage towards the traitor made them fight twice as hard exposing his raw loyalty towards

Scotland. In continuation the captain speak about how “they meant to bathe in reeking wounds or memorise another Golgotha” explaining how Macbeth intended to ‘bathe’ in his enemy’s blood to make the battlefield as infamous as the biblical allusion of Golgotha (where christ was crucified) creates an ominous setting, perhaps to intensify Macbeth’s actions and add tension to the scene where Macbeth is introduced.

Macbeth seems to ‘bathe in reeking wounds’, the use of blood imagery creates a rather gruesome image of Macbeth being physically drenched or ‘bathing’ in the opponent’s blood. The metaphor of ‘reeking wounds’ suggests that you could smell their defeat and agony in the common air. Towards the end of the scene Macbeth is called “Bellona’s Bridegroom”,’Bellona according to roman mythology was an ancient Roman Goddess of war. She possessed brave, strong and valiant qualities and the fact that he is Bellona’s ‘bridegroom’ makes him the god of war (in roman mythology Mars, the god of war was Bellona’s husband). Shakespeare uses her image to draw parallels between Macbeth and such a god-like figure to perhaps show the ‘good’ in

him. The alliteration of plosives in a sense mimics Macbeth’s approach on the battlefield, the harsh yet loud ‘b’ sound makes it seem almost as if the title itself is seeping with rage, destruction and explosions of power again showing how he is worthy of this heavenly title. In Shakespeare’s time ‘Gods’ were highly respected therefore for Macbeth to be called a god himself tells us that he is a respected figure in the Scottish community.