This last act of Macbeth is a particularly devastating one, considering the type of person he was at the very beginning of the play, and what kind of person he turns into after the pressures of being in power overtake him. One particular scene in this act I found to be quite striking was when in scene five, Macbeth seems to become immune to human feelings and emotions. At line 9, he states, “I have almost forgot the taste of fears: The time has been my senses would have cooled to hear a night-shriek and my fell of hair would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir.” He even cannot feel fear as he realizes they are about to be invaded.
He further shows how he is immune to human emotion in the following moment, when he is told that Lady Macbeth has died. Macbeth reacts coldly, by saying “She should have died hereafter,” and continues to say how life itself seems to have no meaning. This is especially seen when he says “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” I think these brief, yet profound moments shows how Macbeth has been dehumanized. He no longer has any room to feel, and react to anything around him, and only holds disdain for life, a view that seems to be irreversible for him
It seems as if Macbeth was doomed for failure from the start of the play. He is definitely an easy person to persuade and convince.
Since the moment the three witches gave him his prophecies, Macbeth’s character changed gradually over the course of the play. He became obsessed with making sure that the prophecies came true as well as having a strong desire for power as king. After he was named Thane of Cawdor, he pursued to make the others come true: He killed Duncan so that he can become king and attempted to have Banquo and Fleance murdered so that Banquo’s sons will not succeed the throne. Macbeth later received another prophecy from the witches that no man born of woman can harm him. Because of this, Macbeth does not fear Malcolm or the war itself.
But at the beginning of the play, Macbeth was a man full of fear. He was not yet a man because it took his wife to question his manhood just to convince him to kill Duncan. Since Duncan’s death, the prophecies took over Macbeth’s mind and he became obsessed with them. He became emotionless (except when Banquo’s ghost stopped by for a quick visit) and guiltless. Even when he was told of his wife’s death, he did not react much but except to say, as Miriam has quoted, “It is a tale told by an idiot… signifying nothing” (5.5.26-28).
Macbeth’s quest and desire for power caused him to become a man of no emotions. He sends murderers to kill Macduff and his family but for what reason? To maintain kingship power? Macbeth’s emotionless journey has definitely led him into madness and as if realizing this, he goes straight onto the battlefield, stating that he will at least die fighting. It’s almost as if he knew his reign was about to be up and might as well die fighting.