Macbeth, a Buddhist Interpretation

1.

Recently, my wife and I attended a performance of Macbeth at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C.  The South African director stated, as I read in the program, that she, before “tackling a classic," had to find ways to make it relevant to a 21^st century audience.  Her attempt to update Shakespeare's Macbeth for a modern audience included, among other things, re-imagining the three witches as two white men and a white woman in contemporary dress  They were cast as members of the C.I.A.—Hecate, the queen of the witches,  directed them by cellphone while speaking in a Russian accent, a rather obvious contemporary reference.  The director emphasized the play's chaotic political situation, which reminded her of the effects Western imperialism had on her country.

This version of Macbeth didn’t work for me.  Shakespeare is widely acknowledged as the greatest poet in the English language; I think that his foremost achievement, however, was the creation of characters that are truly remarkable for their vividness and psychological complexity.  Shakespeare’s best dramas are studies in the complexity of human personality; the political background, though important, is just that, the background, before which characters reveal their inner nature and conflicts to the audience.

I am much more interested in which aspects of Macbeth’s desires drove him to ruin, rather than in “the personal cost of political chaos or instability” which the director at the Shakespeare Theatre views as central to the play. To aid my psychological analysis of Macbeth, I turn to concepts of that quintessential religion of psychology, Buddhism.

2. Buddhist Terminology of Import for Our Interpretation

Our analysis is Buddhist in a very broad sense.  We will make use of several Buddhist terms, which are quite significant for the understanding of human nature.  

The first concept, perhaps the most important of all, is what Buddhists call dukkha.  It is often translated as “suffering,” but this is misleading.  The basic concept is that of insufficiency, namely that life isn't there to satisfy our desires, especially our inordinate desires.  Egotistical strivings eventually end in disappointment, and, as in the case of Macbeth, often wreak havoc as one attempts to fulfill them. One needs to gain insight and to transcend egotism.  Buddha called for the complete elimination of striving, referred to as tanha.  This is as hard to achieve as always turning the other cheek. One may be unable to reach the summit; however, one can, with the help of a guide, come closer to it.  In this article, the elimination of inordinate desire, not all desire, is viewed as our  best chance at self-transcendence and the resultant happiness which follows, as surely as ripples trail from a boat traveling across a lake.

The second concept is called the Three Poisons, three of the main things responsible for a good deal of the suffering in the world.  This destructive trinity is composed of greed, hate, and delusion.

3. The Summary of Our Interpretation

Macbeth is a great warrior and a good man  at the beginning of the play.  He does, however, have a fatal flaw: he wants everything, he wants immortality.  He has an active imagination, and fantasizes about becoming king and founding a dynasty—the closest thing to immortality he can imagine.  Macbeth is therefore very much bothered by the fact that he has no heirs. He resists realizing his ambition at first, since it would necessitate murder.  Lady Macbeth convinces him to kill Duncan.  Once this is done, Macbeth loses whatever peace of mind he has; one murder leads to another.  The result of Macbeth’s inordinate desire is his having become a murderous tyrant.

4.  The Buddhist Interpretation

Shakespeare begins the play with a masterly exposition; it reveals the greatness of Macbeth, before he is corrupted by evil.  Macbeth has proved himself to be a fearless hero in battle:

For brave Macbeth—well he deserves that name—

Disclaiming Fortune with his brandished steel,

Which smoked with bloody execution,

Like valor’s minion carved out his passage

Till he faced the slave, (This is a reference to the rebel, Macdonald)

Which ne’er shook hands nor bade farewell to him,

Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops,

And fixed his head upon our battlements.

                                                   

                                    1.2 Lines 16-24

The horrible end of the rebel foreshadows the death of the future rebel, Macbeth, who will share the same fate at the end of the play.  It reminds one of the medieval concept of The Wheel of Fortune.  However, in this case it isn’t fate which is driving the wheel; the flaw in Macbeth’s character is what leads him to ruin.  The above speech is related by a captain to King Duncan; the latter now greatly admires Macbeth, and intends to reward him for his bravery.  Thus, Macbeth’s impending betrayal is all the more heinous.

In the next scene, Macbeth and Banquo encounter the “weird sisters,” the three witches.  They are like the Delphic Oracle—they tell the truth, but tell it slant.  They inform Macbeth that he will soon be King.  Macbeth is terrified:

Banquo:  Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear

Things that do sound so fair?

                          1.3 lines 52-53

Macbeth, in our interpretation, has been fantasizing about becoming king for a long time.  He even imagines himself murdering Duncan.  His ambition has been relegated to the realm of daydreams; no one gets hurt.  Now he realizes that he will become king, and recoils at having to murder his benefactor in order to achieve that goal.  His basic nature, that of a good man, objects; Macbeth is full of terror as he realizes that he will have to kill Duncan in reality, not merely in fantasy:

My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,

Shakes so my single state of man

That function is smothered in surmise,

And nothing is but what is not.  

        1.4 lines 141-144

The witches also prophesy that Banquo, not Macbeth, will be the father of many generations of kings.  This rankles the childless Macbeth, as we shall see.

Macbeth has reached an equilibrium by achieving his inordinate desire in his imagination.  Now, however, imagination is on the verge of becoming reality, to be achieved not by an imaginary murder but by a real one.  He has been a good man, and decides to keep it that way.  He replies to Lady Macbeth, who goads him to kill Duncan:

We will proceed no further in this business.

He hath honored me of late, and I have bought (won)

Golden opinions from all sorts of people,

Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,

Nor cast aside so soon.

2.1 lines 31-34

Lady Macbeth convinces him to murder by attacking his manhood—Macbeth, a great worrier who has the fantasy of becoming an immortal god, is acutely sensitive to the cowardice implied by Lady Macbeth’s attack.  He now admires her steely, manly resolve.  She has helped him overcome what now appears to him to be a weakness.  He feels the joy that one feels when an inner conflict is resolved.  His reply to her at this point is very important to our interpretation:

Bring forth men-children only,

For thy undaunted mettle should compose

Nothing but males.

2.1 lines 72-74

He is delighted since the last hindrance to immortality has been overcome—in his mind.  He will produce male heirs and found a dynasty after all.  He will have no reason to be murderously jealous of Banquo, who is already a father.  Greed, hate, delusion and dukkha are all illustrated here.

Macbeth apparently has had occasional hallucinations all this life.  Is this a seizure disorder or an overactive imagination that occasionally “sees” what Macbeth is thinking?  Shakespeare informs us about this infirmity with two lines, spoken in defense of his odd behavior at the banquet.  Macbeth confesses, “I have a strange infirmity” in attempt to reassure the guests.  Lady Macbeth attempts to do the same by saying, “My lord is oft like this…” These lines are easily glossed over, but provide much insight into Macbeth’s character.

Before he kills Duncan, Macbeth has a hallucination, one of several to come: he “sees” what he has hitherto only fantasized: the dagger with which he will kill Duncan:

Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

To feeling as to sight? Or art thous but

A dagger of the mind, a false creation,

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

I see thee yet in form as palpable

As this which now I draw.

2.1 lines 32-41

A dagger of the mind—what a wonderfully profound image!  Macbeth is still in touch enough with reality to doubt whether he actually sees the imagined dagger or not.  Later, after his conscience uses this dagger of the mind to wound him into madness, he will believe that Banquo’s ghost is as real as the food on the banquet table.  The good qualities of Macbeth, bravery and loyalty, once betrayed by Macbeth’s deed, are transformed into furies wielding the daggers of a guilty conscience.  Once the murder is accomplished, Macbeth’s first words are in reference to a more ominous hallucination:

Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more!

Macbeth does murder sleep.

2.3 39-40

Now that Macbeth has given into his basest desires, he loses all restraint; one murder follows another.  His immortality was secure as long as he merely daydreamed about it; now it is threatened by reality.  He has no heirs; Banquo has a son.  The witches have predicted that Banquo’s son will eventually become a king.  No longer restrained by morality, Macbeth attempts to relieve his insecurity by murdering Banquo.  (He will indeed murder Banquo; the latter's son, however, will escape).  Planning Banquo’s murder, Machbeth says the following:

He (Banquo) chid the sisters

When first they put the name of king upon me,

And bade them speak to him; then, prophet-like,

They hailed him father to a line of kings.

Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown,

And put a barren scepter in my grip,

Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand,

For Banquo’s issue have I (de)filed my mind,

For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered.

3.1 57-66

After the murder of Banquo comes the famous banquet scene, the third act climax of the play.  Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo sitting in his chair, and is terrified.  He is the only one who sees it.  This is the point when Macbeth’s madness spills over from inner thoughts to behavior that is apparent to all.  He regains his composure, but much damage is done.

Macbeth then makes the worst possible decision—he wants to visit the three witches once more to get a clearer picture of what lies in store for him.  As before, they give some encouragement, and follow it with devastating prophecy.  Macbeth is delighted to learn that he has nothing to fear until Burnam Woods approach and he is confronted by one who was not of woman born—we all know how that turns out. 

Macbeth insists that the weird sisters answer this question: “Shall Banquo’s issue ever/Reign in this kingdom?”

The witches’ reply is just one more illustration of Shakespeare’s supreme genius:

All Witches: Show his eyes, and grieve his heart;

Come like shadows and depart.

(A show of eight kings, and Banquo last; the eighth king with a glass (mirror) in his hand)

While observing this spectacle, the shattered Macbeth says the following:

Thou are too like the spirit of Banquo.  Down!

Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs!  And thy heir,

Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first.

A third is like the former. –Filthy hags,

Why do you show me this?—A fourth! Start, eyes!

What, will the line stretch out to th’ crack of doom?

Another yet? A seventh! I’ll see no more.

And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass

Which shows me many more; and some I see

That two-fold balls and treble scepters carry.

Horrible sight!  Now, I see ’tis true,

For the blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me,

And points at them for his.

4.1. lines 109-123

What a marvelous moment of theater as the royal apparitions proceed across the stage! It also proves that our interpretation is correct: Macbeth’s quest for immortality has been crushed. Banquo and his infinite heirs— virtually infinite, for the eighth holds a mirror indicating that many more will follow. What Macbeth desires inordinately for himself will not come to pass; the immortality will be Banquo’s and not Macbeth’s. This is Macbeth's worst nightmare.  A lesser author might have shown one or two kings—Shakespeare gives us eight with indications of an endless progression.  Macbeth wanted one thing, immortality, anything less would be completely unsatisfactory.  (The production I saw projected a few shadows of future king onto the wall of the stage, no procession.  This to me indicates a gross misunderstanding of Shakespeare’s intentions.)  Macbeth’s ambitions have been reduced to ash; from this point on, he is in despair.

An important scene soon follows.  Macduff, who will soon defeat Macbeth, had fled to England.  In the meanwhile, the monster Macbeth has killed his wife and all his children. When Macduff is informed of this, a poignant scene follows:

Macduff: My children too?

Ross: Wife, children, servants—

All that could be found.

Macduff: My wife killed too?

Ross: As I have said.  Be comforted.

Malcolm: Let’s make us med’cines of our great revenge

To cure this deadly grief.

Macduff: He has no children. All my pretty ones?

Did you say all?  Oh, hell-kite!  All?

What, all my pretty chickens and their dam

At one fell swoop?

4:3 211-219

This scene, which depicts a father’s grief at the death of his family, is quite moving.  But as so often in Shakespeare, it is more than that.  One character’s behavior is often used to illustrate a flaw in the tragic hero.  In Shakespeare’s tragedies, the flaw of the principal character becomes all the more apparent when contrasted with the behavior of others.  Notice that Macduff, when informed of his loss, mentions his children first.  He is obviously a very loving father. Macbeth, in contrast, has no interest in children, except for the fact that he imagines them as necessary to achieve his inordinate desire for immortality.  Viewing children merely as a means to an end all but ensures one's failure as a father. Macduff apparently loves his wife deeply as well.  There is very little love expressed between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth; they strive for power to replace the hole in their lives due to lack of love.

When Macbeth discovers that Burnam Wood is indeed approaching his castle, all hope is lost. When he is informed that his wife is dead, he hardly reacts, since he already has lost everything.  He then proceeds to say the following lines, among the best in all of Shakespeare’s plays:

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time,

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death.  Out, out, brief candle.

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more.  It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

5.519-28

This is perhaps the best poem of despair in the English language.

Now that his ambitions have been destroyed, he automatically resumes his old virtue of being a brave soldier. Although all is lost, he doesn’t retreat, but faces death while fighting valiantly.  Macduff kills him, takes his body offstage and soon returns with his severed head.

The Wheel of Fortune has turned a full circle: Macbeth had killed the traitor, Macdonald, as reported at the very beginning of the play.  This thrust Macbeth into good fortune.  But it didn’t last; the wheel continued to turn and brought the same fate to Macbeth, who had become a traitor as well.

One might view the Wheel of Fortune as fate, but for Shakespeare the fate of his tragic heroes is not inevitable.  Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies are personal tragedies.  In this case, the tragic hero is destroyed by demanding something from life which life is unable to give.  This, combined with the three Buddhist poisons of greed, hate, and delusion, assure the downfall of a once great man.  Emphasizing chaos from without—in the production I saw the villain was none other than Western imperialism—doesn’t work.  The source of the chaos in this play comes from the dagger in Macbeth’s mind.  The catharsis occurs as the audience realizes that inordinate desire leads to ruin.  

Both Shakespeare and Buddha concerned themselves first and foremost with the greatest mystery of the universe of which we are aware, namely, consciousness, the ineffable mystery of personality. Why do people do what they do?  Shakespeare's tragedies are aesthetic illustrations of what happens when one is guided by delusion. What Shakespeare  teaches is very similar to what Buddha taught.  With their help, we can be inspired to examine our own motivations, our own delusions, and with their help discover ways to return to a happier path. The lesson is simple: in order to prevent personal tragedy, stop being selfish; accept your limitations, and, despite flaws, love, and be wise.