Macbeth Essay

Is Macbeth evidence that Shakespeare was anti-Christian?

Written in in 1606, the play would have had a very different audience. One, on the whole, lead by superstition and fear, of the understanding that work that even mentioned witches and supernatural forces, was evil in its purest form.

There's no doubt the witches represent evil spirits. From the very first line we are introduced to the play with:

Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.

By introducing the witches amidst the chaos of thunder and lightning, Shakespeare is first telling us that these witches are capable of changing their surroundings and environment. They are able to make the heavens themselves roar, to signify their arrival, and create flashes of lightning to illuminate their greatness. But I believe that even in this very early stage of the play, Shakespeare is already playing down the real power of these spirits. Rather than likening their arrival to the angels of the Lord, from the bible, with bright, burning lights that shone constantly and in most instances were too much for those looking on, the witches are merely punctuated by brief flashes of lighting.

When the witches appear again, Shakespeare identifies at least one of the witches as an evil spirit from the bible itself.

First Witch: Where has thou been, sister?
Second Witch: Killing swine.

This, I believe, is in reference to the evil spirits of the bible, which when faced with Jesus himself, begged to be allowed refuge in nearby swine. When allowed to do this, the swine immediately threw themselves to their death, showing the true nature of the demons to be death and destruction. Which is exactly what the witches bring upon Macbeth.

Mark 5:10-13
10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.
11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.
12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.
13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.

The intent of the witches is again foretold by Shakespeare as, when they appear this second time, they are introduced by thunder alone. The lightning is absent. The thunder alone serves to darken the environment, as Macbeth himself announces:

Macbeth: So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

On this occasion the witches do not want to be illuminated, as their quest is one of deception and temptation. The foul weather, without lightning, symbolizes darkness. Darkness of evil doing.

So, in my opinion the witches are indeed evil spirits. But, is Shakespeare being anti-Christian by including them? Is he being anti-Christian by having Macbeth adhere to the words of these witches, and inflicting murder, deceit and destruction on all around him? I personally don't think so.

I think that although Shakespeare paints a picture of an evil Macbeth, doing the will of the Devil himself, the witches merely played their part in tempting Macbeth. They offered him promises of greatness, fame and glory, and sat back and watched as he sold out everything he'd previously believed in, with the help of his wife (who further tempted him and was indeed tempted herself), in the pursuit of those promises.

But there was no glory in his actions. In fact, through his scurrilous actions, he managed to lose what glory he'd once owned.

While speaking to the King, early in the play, a Captain describes Macbeth as such:

For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name -
Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour's minion carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave -
Which ne'er shook his hands nor bade farewell to him
Till he unseamed him from the nave to the chops,
And fixed his head upon our battlements.

A far cry from the Macbeth near the end of the play, when faced with Macduff:

Macduff: And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripped.

Macbeth: Accursed be that tongue that tells me so;
For it hath cowed my better part of man;
And be these juggling fiends no more believed
That palter with us in a double sense,
That keep the word of promise to our ear
And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee.

Macduff: Then yield thee, coward;
And live to be the show and gaze o'the time.
We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
Painted upon a pole, and underwrit,
'Here may you see the tyrant.'

Macduff refers to the once valiant and brave Macbeth as a coward. Macbeth now presents himself as afraid, upon finding out Macduff is not born of his mothers womb, and not restrained by the promises of the apparitions in the fourth act:

Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn
The power of man; for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.


In the end, Macbeth is slain by Macduff. A man who represents what Macbeth once was. Brave, just and true. Showing that the moral of the tale is that good conquers evil. Macbeth gave into his pride, his lusts for power and glory, but was rewarded with losing all that once made him great. And lost his life to the hands a good man, who was not tempted by such things and who stood for righteousness and justice.

I believe that rather than the play being anti-Christian, it's one that beseeches the audience to adhere to Christian teachings and live by them, because if they don't, this is what will happen to them. It's a story that tells the audience that although giving into the urges for glory and pride, may well offer up some short term rewards, in the end they would pay a hefty and cruel price for them, and gain nothing in the long run. In fact, they would lose everything.

Shakespeare might well have used dark, spiritual beings to puts his point across, and the leading character may well have been an evil-doer, empowered and controlled by those evil spirits, but the message put forth and the consequences served are very much ones of Christian teaching. The only difference is that in the bible the stories were told from the perspective of the good-doers, being visited by angels of the Lord, and empowered by prayer and fasting, in Macbeth the story is told from the perspective of the wrong-doer, showing his downfall and depravities. The outcome is still the same. Good wins over evil.