Throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare presents ideas about honour and reputation that greatly contribute to Macbeth’s struggle with good and evil. As a tragic hero, Macbeth is subject to outer conflict with characters whose actions awaken his ‘vaulting ambition’ - which ultimately becomes his hamartia. It is clear that ideas about appearances trouble Macbeth and fuel his struggle to make moral choices. He prizes validation from others so ‘highly’ that his pride causes him to justify regicide. Shakespeare sought to remind his audience and James I of the importance of employing violence sparingly and only for selfless reasons in defence of the integrity of the Great Chain of Being.
In Act 5, Scene 8, Macbeth seizes the opportunity to die like a man in battle and pledges to fight to the end; ‘Damned be him that first cries ‘Hold! Enough!’ It appears that he has taken up Macduff’s final challenge to ‘Turn’ and the ‘hellhound’ resolves to face his inevitable tragic death like a man of honour. Shakespeare has given Macduff the same justification for regicide as Macbeth took for himself: the best interests of Scotland. However, Macbeth becomes a selfish tyrant and his Machiavellian actions to keep the crown on his head (and his head on his shoulders) ‘for his own ends’ doubles up Macduff’s legitimacy as his executioner.
In 1606, Shakespeare was literally writing for his life. As a man whose family had close links to the families of The Gunpowder Plotters (John Shakespeare was a personal friend of Robert Catesby’s father) and a devout Catholic background, he was keen to plead temperance and mercy to King James, who had proven he could be mercilessly ruthless when he felt threatened. Through Macbeth, he conveys his conviction that violence was only a means to an end when it was in the interests of serving his people.
For his final moments, Macbeth puts on the armour of virtue that marked him out as ‘valiant’ and ‘worthy’ at the beginning. The audience would have been relieved to experience the catharsis of seeing him once again represent his true virtue before exiting life and going on the ‘primrose way’ to Hell - honour intact. ‘All’s too weak’ at this stage however because, honour for death or glory is one thing, but the reputation of the name of Macbeth lies in tatters. Dunsinane will forever be unconsecrated ground as the scene of regicide and Lady Macbeth’s sinful, ignominious suicide before a surviving heir is born means that the legacy of their family will become a shameful footnote in history.
Macduff now ‘has no children’ either but his unfailing loyalty to Scotland compels him to adopt and nurture the ‘young’ Malcolm to become the king his father should have been and Macbeth never could be. Macbeth expounds his justification for killing Duncan in his continued disdain for the legitimacy of Malcolm’s claim. He will not ‘yield’ and lower himself to ‘kiss the ground’ or grovel for forgiveness from one who he believes has neither the right, nor the temperament to rule. But Malcolm has matured co since Duncan’s regicide and is humble and intelligent enough to choose his Council wisely. He has learned from the naive mistake his father had and places his ‘absolute trust’ in people he has tested and who have proven themselves motivated by service and duty. He has found a new father in Macduff and Macduff has a new son in Malcolm and their family will be ‘Scotland’.
Ideas about honour being inextricably linked to family pervade the play and Macbeth is replete with images of honour being linked to fecundity. All of the virtuous males in the play have sons. By contrast, the Macbeths are barren and this appears to mark them out as separate and vulnerable to temptation and immorality. They do not have the reputation of their name to defend with the same vigour and have suffered loss which frustrates and thwarts them and makes them reckless. While Banquo, Macduff, Duncan and Siward have their legacies to nurture and maintain, Macbeth can only dwell on his own and this infuriates him; For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind!’. His petulant resentment of defending Scotland for the sake of the bloodlines of others is the very thing that makes him ‘turn’ away from the path of righteousness and demonstrates his unfitness for the crown unlike Macduff, who does not think twice before adopting a new son who will do right by his country.
Siward’s reaction to his son’s death betrays a similar noble mindset. Doubtless personally destroyed by the news that his own heir is dead, he is nonetheless content that his honourable death ‘with his wounds on the front’ makes him ‘God’s soldier’. He is comforted by the knowledge that his son will go to heaven and his family name is secure. The brief scene where a ‘boy’ bravely faces down Macbeth’s ‘confident tyrant’ has a twin purpose - to remind the audience that Macbeth no longer fights fair and that Macduff’s retribution cannot come quickly enough to put an end to Scotland’s suffering because Macbeth is beyond redemption.
At the beginning of the play, the audience is taught that honour is inextricably linked with violence. Duncan, on hearing of Macbeth’s ‘unseam[ing]’ of the traitor Macdonwald, is thrilled with his ‘minion’s’ loyalty and courage; ‘Valiant cousin! Worthy Gentleman!’ confirming that Macbeth’s bravery in battle is synonymous with his reputation for brutality.
Cawdor’s execution is more befitting of his station (as a Thane) and still naïve Malcolm’s perplexed response is to wonder that Cawdor died ‘as one that had been studied in his death. To throw away the dearest thing he owed, As 'twere a careless trifle’. This reveals that Malcolm is not yet ready to rule since he cannot appreciate that Cawdor died honourably facing his executioner with dignity. Macbeth (as a soldier) would understand Cawdor’s attitude and this further rouses his dormant ambition, as he now perceives ‘the boy’ Malcolm to be ‘an obstacle’ - and a weak one at that. Duncan is too ‘meek’ to be an effective ruler and, it appears, Malcolm is no better which he uses as part justification for regicide because Scotland shouldn’t be ruled by someone who cannot appreciate the honour in dying like a man.
Macbeth respects Cawdor’s ‘study’ of death. He is affronted by his elevation to Thane of Cawdor demanding to know ‘Why have you dressed me in borrowed robes?’ This confirms that Macbeth’s initial virtue is as strong as the dying Captain suggests and is the first instance of Shakespeare’s use of the motif of clothing to connote the legitimacy of status. Macbeth wears his armour to defend The Divine Right of Kings and respects others that fight for what they believe in, even if they are on the other side. He tells the witches that Cawdor is a ‘prosperous gentleman’ which connotes deference. He acknowledges that ‘borrow’d robes’ (or reputation) are the property of the wearer and are sacred to the dignity of a man. When Lady Macbeth tries to persuade him to kill, his first objection is that his service to Duncan has won him ‘golden opinions…which would be worn now in their newest gloss.’ This emphasises how Macbeth cares about how he is perceived because he wants to enjoy the celebration of people who genuinely ‘honour’ him for his faithfulness and courage.
Lady Macbeth thinks this is a weakness. He is ‘too full’ of mercy and ‘kindness’ to realise his ambition and she emasculates him so that he can attain what he has been ‘promis’d’ but is too nice to ‘catch’. At the end of the play, we are told that she ‘took off her own life’. This euphemism for suicide implies her acceptance that she was wrong to goad him to kill for a ‘barren sceptre’ by attacking his dignity. That she ‘took off’ her life also implies that she cheated justice. Malcolm’s scathing reference to her as a ‘fiend-like Queen’ confirms to the audience that she was to blame for tempting Macbeth into taking a crown he did not own. Alluding to the story of Original Sin, Shakespeare issues a stern warning to the audience that when women fail in their duty to their patriarch or are allowed to subvert the Great Chain of Being, chaos and retribution will surely follow. When she manipulates his pride to kill for the sake of a ‘fruitless crown’ she brings shame on them both. Once Duncan is dead, she becomes obsolete and he ‘casts [her] aside’ and his selfishness subsumes any good he might have done - spoiling a potentially great legacy.
As his power dwindles in the falling action of the play, Angus remarks to Monteith; ‘now does he feel his title Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe Upon a dwarfish thief’. This proves the illusion of Macbeth’s Divine Right to rule is so ill-fitting that, by the end of the play, ‘Bellona’s bridegroom’ has fallen fully out of favour with Scotland and the Gods, Hecate steps in to punish his hubris and the tragic hero is even deprived of the dignity of a name. Malcolm labels him a ‘dead butcher’ which connotes a common criminal - as does ‘dwarfish thief’. Macbeth’s glory was only ever valid while he served a master. Shakespeare’s intention is to reiterate to King James, in the wake of the failed 5th of November plot, that taking the Jesuit insurrection personally and meting out retribution to his Catholic population would be an affront to the God who anointed him and unworthy of his family name - which was at risk of becoming as bloody as the Tudors only three years into his new reign.
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