Modern Age - Spring 2016 - 43

VIRTUE IS NOT BORING

Hecate says that "security / Is mortals' chiefest enemy" [3.5.32-33]),
which requires more and more murders.
His trafficking with the supernatural for his own benefit increases
his and his wife's isolation from other human beings: Lady Macbeth in her sleepwalking speaks the eloquent incoherence of
guilt, and for a personal attendant Macbeth must rely on one
whose name is "Seyton." At the beginning of the play Macbeth
has as much virtu-virtue as military prowess-as anyone could
desire, but the question after that is whether he can achieve the
more comprehensive virtus of a good human being. It is one of
Shakespeare's own virtues in this play to make searching distinctions between spontaneous battlefield courage and the patient
manliness required for domestic life.
Particularly vivid and dramatic illustrations of such distinctions
are found in the discussions between Macbeth and his wife over
the qualities necessary for him to become king of Scotland.
In the beginning the almost-indomitable Lady Macbeth asks
her ambivalent husband to do what it takes to become king-
that is, to commit murder. When Macbeth tells her that he would
"dare do all that may become a man; / Who dares do more is
none" (1.7.47-8), his wife is unimpressed: when you informed me
of the witches' prophesy that you would become king, she says,
"then you were a man; / And, to be more than what you were,
you would / Be so much more the man." The time is right to act,
she continues, for the king, Duncan, is coming to stay the night
at their castle. But the "fitness" of the opportunity "does unmake
you," she tells her husband (1.7.49-52, 54-55).
Shakespeare makes the particular murder being contemplated
here especially foul. The prospective victim is a good ruler, beloved
by all. He has just granted Macbeth a promotion, from Thane of
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Modern Age - Spring 2016

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