ACT 1 Scene 7 Macbeth’s Soliloquy

Macbeth’s second major soliloquy explicates his conflicting feelings about the consequences of
murder with remarkable subtlety .He has withdrawn from the banquet that he is giving for
Duncan, and is involved in an anguished soliloquy whether to proceed with the murder or not.
The insistent repetition of individual words — if, were, done, be, but,  and here — each repeated
two or three times within the first few lines reveals the workings of a mind still very much in
confusion.  It is clear that he has become partially used to the image of murder. All that he is
afraid of at present is the retribution of the crime - Nemesis haunting the evil doer. So he tries to
silence his conscience.

Macbeth says that the deed would be easy if he could be certain that it would not set in motion
a series of terrible consequences.  He wants the act of murder to hold up the consequences
‘trammel up’, and secure success for which it is done. If murder promises him success, he
would have done it quickly and also he would not have been deterred by moral scruples. But he
knows that a crime cannot be killed, it rather moves in a vicious circle, and perpetuates itself in
a series of complications. He wants the punishment of the crime to be the final on this earth.

It is the thought of something after death that puzzles Macbeth.  Metaphor ‘upon this bank
and shoal of time’ shows the impermanence of victory in this world; it is no more reliable than
a sandbank in the sea of eternity- ‘the life to come’. Here he recognizes the insignificance of
materialistic achievements in this world. Through the ‘sandbank’ image, Shakespeare points
to the temporal world as opposed to the spiritual world. These thoughts reveal that Macbeth
really knows that it is eternal spiritual values that matter. So he gives a second thought whether
to embrace the transitory earthly success. This metaphor can be considered as an ‘eye opener'
of his sinful passions, and his reasons to lift the thoughts from ‘darkness to light’.

Macbeth is afraid of the material consequence of the murder. He declares his willingness to risk
eternal damnation but realizes that even on earth bloody actions will have their repercussions
on the doer. He does not want to set an example for others because he is sure the consequences
will always torment the creator, ‘that we teach Bloody instructions, which being taught return,
To plague the inventor.’ He knows that justice deals equally with all. He is experienced enough
to think that each one of us will be rewarded for what he has done in this very world. So the
cup of poison which a man offers to another is ultimately offered to his own lips. Macbeth’s
introspective and analytical nature is evident here.

Through the rest of the soliloquy his spiritual insight becomes more explicit. Macbeth is
fully aware of his threefold obligation to Duncan- as subject, kinsman, and host; and is
conscious of Duncan’s virtues ‘So clear in his great office’. So it is his duty to keep an aversion
to this murder. Further concern to Macbeth is the disparity between his own reputation and the
world's perception of Duncan as a good and virtuous king. If Duncan is murdered, his virtues
 ACT 1 Scene 7 Macbeth’s Soliloquy

will rise up in protest against it like angels, speaking through the trumpet, and Macbeth will be
condemned to ‘deep damnation’. The final section of the speech contains an apocalyptic vision
in which he imagines Duncan's virtue and pity proclaimed as if by angels and cherubim from a
storm-filled sky. This doom-laden vision, whose imagery (for example, "trumpet-tongued")
reflects that of the biblical Day of Judgment, gives way in turn to a nagging self-doubt. Images
of heaven and the reaction of angels are used to show righteousness of Duncan.

Macbeth personifies pity and compares it to a naked new – born baby. He believes that pity
is like heaven’s angels and it will ride the wind like winged angels on the invisible runners and
proclaims the horrible crime from one end of the earth to the other, so that there will be a
universal lamentation. Images and metaphor used here give an impression of Macbeth’s
downfall.

Towards the end of the soliloquy Macbeth admits that it is his ‘vaulting ambition’ that drives
him to this immoral act. He faces the fact that there is no reason to kill the king other than his
own ambition. He compares this ambition to a horse rider who tries to vault too hastily onto
horse’s back and finishes up falling on the other side. Even though he has recognized the
insignificance of vaulting ambition, his hunger for power has converted him to a wild beast of
earth.