Upon committing his first murder, Macbeth’s nervous imaginings expose his feelings of guilt while his immoral and greedy urges remain dormant. As he gains confidence and plots for his second murder, these avaricious daydreams mitigate any remorse Macbeth had experienced before. Macbeth’s proleptic imagination allows him to see the benefits and consequences of the immoral acts he is committing, however as his greedy urges begin to dominate his guilty thoughts; his insanity becomes increasingly evident.
Soon after his first murder, Macbeth displays signs of guilt for the immoral act he had committed as his imagination dwells on all the negative repercussions that await him. Macbeth prophesizes, Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more. Sleep represents the innocent Duncan and morality. Macbeth blames himself as the thane of Glamis for executing the innocent king and tainting any honor he might possesses in the future as the thane of Cawdor. Macbeths preoccupation with his sleepless future, demonstrates his guilt-ridden conscious after having murdered Duncan in cold blood.
He asks Will all great Neptunes ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine Making the green one red. Blood not only symbolizes the literal liquid that stains his hands, but also the sinful and immoral murder. All of the endless oceans in the world could not clean his tainted soul. Macbeth feels his murder has polluted the purity of all of society, just as the blood has incarnadined the oceans. Macbeths preoccupation with the future consequences of his acts focuses on the guilt of his stained soul for the last time in this scene. His greedy urges begin to arise as the new King gains power, and his insanity becomes more obvious as Macbeths imagination intensifies and assumes control over his actions.
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After becoming more comfortable with his kingship, Macbeth exposes his avaricious desires by plotting a second murder to his favor. He recalls the prophecy of the witches that foresaw Banquos sons to be future kings. Macbeth considers,
Upon my head, they placed a fruitless crown
And put a barren scepter in my gripe
Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand
No son of mine succeeding.
Ift be so For Banquos issue have I filed my mind;
For them the gracious Duncan I have murdered.
This passage demonstrates Macbeths jealousy of Banquo and his family. After going through the trouble of murdering Duncan and losing his honor for the sake of the crown, if his own son does not become king, Macbeth will have committed these acts in vain. Now when Macbeth ponders murder and looks to the future, he does not notice the sleepless nights he will suffer or the dignity he has squandered, but rather the unlineal hand that will wrench away his fruitless and crown [and] barren scepter. Macbeths greed for the crown overcomes the morality he had displayed previously and his proleptic imagination exhibit his new immoral preoccupations.
Upon murdering Banquo, Macbeths imaginative projections propel him towards insanity. During a dinner party, Macbeth imagines the ghost of Banquo who has come to haunt him and loses the grasp of reality as his imagination and the real world collide. He begs the ghost to Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves Shall never tremble. Or be alive again And dare me to the desert with thy sword; If trembling I inhabit then, protest me. Macbeth, the great warrior and King, shakes with fear at an image that is present in his mind alone. He challenges this figment to a duel in the desert with thy sword, and displays his insanity because he can not separate his imagination from reality in this scene.
Macbeth travels to speak with the Weird Sisters, and they show him three apparitions of babies that each convey an equivocated truth to him. These apparitions are projections of his imagination, and he perceives their meanings literally without searching to uncover an unhidden truth in their message. He declares to the third apparition, That will never be; who can impress a forest, bid the tree Unfix his earth-bound root? Macbeth disregards the warning he has been given and arrogantly continues on his path of murders. For the first time, he has not been able to manipulate his imagination, and it is evident that his thoughts have taken over his sense of reason. Later in this scene, Macbeth decides to himself, from this moment The very firstlings of my hear shall be The firstlings of my hand. In this declaration, Macbeth admits that from this point forward he will only follow what his imagination, represented by his heart, bids him to do. He no longer feels the restraints of hiding his thoughts and actions, as he did in Act I. In this way, Macbeths fictitious world has taken over his reality, and Macbeth has given in to his insanity.
The gradual changes that occur in Macbeths character throughout the end of Macbeth, are demonstrated through his daydreams of future repercussions of his murders. He begins as a morally preoccupied thane, who feels guilty for the murder he committed, and grows to be a greedy king, who plots a new murder for the sake of retaining his crown. The deterioration of Macbeths character throughout these acts is significant in that it displays the nervous confusion and desperation which lead him to the murders. He is no longer in control of his actions, for he is urgently trying to clear himself of his sins, and is overtaken with greed for power and retention of the crown. The transformation of Macbeth from one who is preoccupied with the future ramifications of his murder, to a greedy king determined to retain his crown at all costs illustrates the steady deterioration as a character as he his imagination propels him towards insanity.
