Transforming or Revealing? A Look at Macbeth by Shakespeare

Pressure and persuasion can make a person do something that he or she would not normally do, or something that he or she might regret. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, regrets symbolize transformations in a character, changing them into someone entirely different. Throughout the play, Shakespeare completely reverses the emotions and actions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Through the use of symbolism and differing gender roles, Shakespeare demonstrates transformations and changes within the characters of Macbeth.

In the first Act of Macbeth, Shakespeare uses loose clothing as a symbol of changing times. After Macbeth defeats Macdonwald, a traitor, he becomes the new Thane of Cawdor. Once he accepts his new title, he removes his fighting armor and replaces it with robes. He asks the people present, “Why do you dress me in borrowed robes?” (1.4.108-9). Macbeth infers that the clothes of the previous Thane of Cawdor, the traitor, do not fit him. Shakespeare uses this symbolism throughout the play to show how Macbeth evolves into a greedy and murderous monster. Toward the final scenes of the play, Macbeth realizes what he has become. While Macbeth requests to be put into his armor for his last battle, Angus makes a comment about him to Menteith, Caithness, and Lennox, “Those he commands move only in command, nothing in love. Now does he feel his title hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe upon a dwarfish thief” (5.2.19-22). Angus says that anyone who follows Macbeth does so only out of command to do so, not out of love. He also remarks that the title of “King” does not fit Macbeth, but rather it hangs around him like a dwarf in a giant’s clothing. Shakespeare shows the transformations of Macbeth simply through what he we...

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...umes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!” (5.1.35-6). Lady Macbeth confesses that her hands will never be clean no matter how hard she tries.

By the end of the play, Shakespeare manages to metaphorically switch the gender roles of Macbeth and his wife. Choosing to kill Duncan might have transformed them both into completely different people, or did their decision just give them the little push they needed to show their true colors? All in all, their choice had karma attached to it; they both died by the end, Macbeth in battle and Lady Macbeth by committing suicide. Making a decision can be one of the hardest things to do, especially if one does not know how the ending will turn out.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Adventures in English Literature. Ed. H. Edward Deluzain.

New York, N.Y.: Holt Rinehart Winston, 1996.