There is a lot of internal and external conflict in the 5th act. Lady Macbeth was obviously having a problem with guilt and couldn't handle it anymore. Lady Macbeth was having such problems that she ended up killing herself. This caused Macbeth to seriously contemplate suicide himself. When he finally decided against it, everything started falling apart. When the forest started to come closer, Macbeth still was not afraid because he had to be killed by a man not born by a woman. He went up against a whole army by himself because he was so cocky. He didn't believe anyone could kill him. When he fought Macduff the first time, he had a chance to kill him, but felt too guilty. Then he foundout that Macduff had a C section and that means he was not born from a woman. Macduff ended up killing Macbeth, but I wonder if Macbeth couldn't fight him well because he lost his courage. I just feel like the curse got in his head. So it was a psychological loss as well as physical.
Excellent post. I do disagree on one of your points however. I believe Macbeth didn't kill Mcduff because of his overconfidence and not because he felt guilty. If he had known Mcduff wasn't born a women he would have killed him right away.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mike, he was basically showing off by letting Macduff live. If he had known he was going to decapitate him in a few minutes he probably would have done something. Maybe the curse was all psychological, maybe he was never actually safe from all those other men, maybe the prophecy just instilled such a confidence in him that he was able to take on that many opponents at once. Then again, at the beginning of the play they talk about how he spent all day gutting people, so it sounds like he was more or less an experienced killer to begin with. But it's interesting to think about.
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