Macbeth's Secret

When Macbeth is in discussion with the murderers, he explains why he cannot kill Banquo himself.

... though I could

With barefaced power sweep him from my sight
And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not,
For certain friends that are both his and mine,
Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall
Who I myself struck down; and thence it is,
That I to your assistance do make love,
Masking the business from the common eye
For sundry weighty reasons.

It is a paltry explanation, based on no more than ‘sundry weighty reasons’.  But at its heart is an implicit belief that the act must be kept secret.  Secrecy is vital in Macbeth’s mind.

But why?

We know that in Duncan’s Scotland there was a constant threat to all kings and leaders from those who would-be king.  These threats – as in the start of the play – were effected and acted out through combat and a physical fight for supremacy.

Macbeth, it would seem, is fantastic at fights for supremacy – he is fearless and strong; a fantastic soldier and fighter.

So what’s with the secrecy?

Perhaps Lady Macbeth encourages secrecy because she understands that her husband is not going to have enough popular support if he tries to make himself King by open means.  Perhaps she believes that no-one will accept him as king unless he appears to be crowned by divine providence and that, since this is a lie, he must keep the truth secret.

But for Macbeth to give in to fear is a flaw; as a soldier, he should stand up for what he believes in.  And he says as much when he recognises that ‘against the murderer I should bar the door, not bear the knife myself.  Yet still he goes ahead with a secretive murder instead of either an honest defence of the king or an open coup d’etat.

Macbeth WANTS to be king.  But he is afraid of doing the necessary thing to make him King.  He is afraid of taking control and challenging the status quo as a soldier and a leader.  So he tries to avoid conflict by taking the crown secretly so that no-one realises he has taken it.

It is not only foolish, it is the act of a coward; Macbeth, the Thane of Cawdor, is a coward.  The anagram fits, and it fits because - ironically - the soldier has sought to avoid the battlefield.

Left to his own devices Macbeth would have to decide whether to overthrow Duncan in battle or stay loyal to him in peace; either would be courageous for a soldier.

His wife, however, presents him with a third way.  A doomed way.  A way that destroys him.

The path of secrecy is not one that comes naturally to Macbeth, the great soldier; it is a path that he is not comfortable with – at any stage.  However great he might be as King - and there is much evidence that he might not be too poor in the role if he stood up and claimed it openly - it is the secrecy which destroys him, not the crown.

By taking the path of secrecy he undermines everything he is.  And only in the final moments of the play does he reclaim his proper self by throwing his armour on and standing up to be counted on the battlefield.  Only in the final moments of the play does he eschew secrecy and walk out into the light.

There are many keys to understanding The Tragedy of Macbeth.  Secrecy is one of them.