Fear in Macbeth

If you were to address your feeling after reading Macbeth by William Shakespeare with an emoji, one of your choices would probably be 😱. This emoji, code-named Face Screaming in Fear, is a perfect expression for the main theme of Macbeth. However, this writing is not about an emoji. Rather, it is about the source of inspiration of this emoji – a painting.

The Scream by Edvard Munch, 1893

This artwork was inspired by emotions and created for evoking emotions. So, what emotions do you feel from this artwork? If your answer is fear, nicely done! Fear is the main theme of Macbeth. If you had read Macbeth, you may disagree with me and tell me that the main theme is violence or ambition or anxiety. So, please continue reading and let me prove my point.

Fear is one of emotions we, the homo sapiens, have had since the beginning of our time – it is a heritage from our ancestors. Because of the fear of darkness, we start a fire; because of the fear of inclement weathers, we build shelters; because of the fear of starvation, we farm; because of the fear of lack of resources, we migrate; because of fear of tiredness, we collaborate; because of fear, we establish civilizations. Therefore, fear is actually our strongest motivation.

Throughout the play, fear affects Macbeth’s decisions. Imagine the person in The Scream is facing something fearful, be it physical or not. So, he (I use the masculine pronoun here because the artist wrote that the person in this painting is himself) screams. What would he do after he finished screaming? He may either turn and run away, or leap forward to eliminate the source of fear. Macbeth is not different. In response to the fear of loss, he chooses to eliminate the source of his fear.

In Act I, when Macbeth is hesitating whether he should murder Duncan or not, his morality and loyalty dissolve his resolution to kill the King. “We will proceed no further in this business,” (Act I Scene VII) Macbeth tells his wife. However, he changes his mind shortly after talking to his wife, because of the fear of losing his wife’s love and respect. Eventually, Macbeth commits the regicide.

After becoming the King of Scotland, Macbeth starts to fear the prophecy of Banquo having decedents as Kings. Macbeth, however, does not have a child. Therefore, there is no point to fear his son not being the King. What he truly fears is the possibility of Banquo taking the crown. He comments on Banquo as having “a wisdom that doth guide his valor to act in safety.” (Act III Scene I). In other words, he fears that Banquo may assassinate him. When Macbeth’s “fears in Banquo stick deep” (Act III Scene I), he summons two murderers to eliminate his friend Banquo, who is his source of fear.

In the production of Macbeth by Rupert Goold, Macbeth loses all his motivation to do anything productive when he believes that he has eliminated all threats. He has no fear. He has been drinking until Malcolm attacks the castle. Even then, he has no will to fight because he is brainwashed by the prophecies and has no fear of losing the battle.

Therefore, it is evident that Macbeth’s actions are almost all driven by fear. You  may want to argue that this does not necessarily mean fear is the main theme of Macbeth, and that main theme can still be something else. I agree. However, I have a much more conclusive piece of evidence – frequency analysis.

I wrote a simple Python script to count the occurrence of words in Macbeth. Due to technical limitations, synonyms and different forms of a word are not taken into consideration. The word “fear” occurred 35 times in the entire play and is the 91st most frequent word (Table 1). However, if you look at the table, you will find that the top 20 of most frequent words don’t actually mean anything, because they are almost all pronouns and prepositions.

To get a more meaningful result, I filtered out all the prepositions, pronouns, articles, conjunctions, the verb “to be” and names. Now the word “fear” is actually on the top 30 of the list. Even after the filtering, most of the words ranked higher on the list still don’t have any significant meaning. The only two emotions on the entire list are “love” and “fear,” with love having only 54% of occurrence of fear. Therefore, it is statistically proven that fear is the main theme of Macbeth.

In conclusion, when it comes to the root, it is not ambition or greed that motivates Macbeth. It is fear–the fear of loss, the fear of the unknown, the fear of death, the fear of fear–that motivates Macbeth, me, you, and everyone. The Scream and its derivation Face Screaming in Fear are so popular because they are expressions of human’s biggest motivation. So is Macbeth. Over centuries, these two artworks have been modified, reproduced, referenced, and imitated repeatedly not only because of their extremely high literary values, but also because of the emotion they express. This emotion, when present, is what alters our perception of the value of an abstract or concrete entity most strongly. When we have hard choices to make, we don’t always choose the best one; however, we always choose the one that is not the worst. Hidden deep inside, fear is what connects The Scream and Macbeth, what motivates us, and what controls us.

 

Rank	Word	Occurrence	Rank	Word	Occurrence	Rank	Word	Occurrence
1	the	731	34	we	87	67	well	44
2	and	577	35	are	83	68	who	42
3	to	382	36	do	83	69	if	42
4	of	368	37	which	80	70	should	41
5	i	326	38	will	73	71	her	41
6	macbeth	283	39	they	72	72	did	41
7	a	244	40	banquo	69	73	when	40
8	that	233	41	shall	67	74	like	40
9	in	205	42	no	66	75	say	40
10	you	202	43	by	63	76	there	39
11	my	192	44	upon	61	77	were	39
12	is	188	45	thee	61	78	enter	39
13	not	167	46	on	60	79	make	39
14	with	155	47	malcolm	59	80	lord	38
15	it	153	48	their	59	81	duncan	37
16	his	152	49	yet	57	82	o	36
17	be	135	50	from	56	83	here	36
18	your	127	51	us	55	84	ill	36
19	but	122	52	ross	52	85	tis	36
20	have	122	53	first	52	86	lennox	35
21	for	121	54	now	52	87	man	35
22	our	118	55	or	51	88	may	35
23	he	117	56	time	51	89	done	35
24	me	111	57	at	51	90	must	35
25	macduff	109	58	witch	50	91	fear	35
26	what	103	59	come	50	92	then	35
27	this	102	60	good	50	93	let	35
28	so	100	61	thy	50	94	had	34
29	all	100	62	hath	50	95	murtherer	34
30	lady	98	63	them	50	96	king	33
31	as	95	64	more	49	97	where	33
32	him	89	65	would	47	98	know	33
33	thou	88	66	was	45	99	how	33

Table 1: Most frequent 99 words in Macbeth. For the purpose of analysis, all punctuation marks are removed and all characters converted to lowercase.

 

 

Rank	Word	Occurrence	Rank	Word	Occurrence	Rank	Word	Occurrence
1	not	167	34	king	33	67	death	20
2	have	122	35	where	33	68	has	19
3	lady	98	36	know	33	69	love	19
4	do	83	37	how	33	70	day	18
5	will	73	38	why	32	71	show	18
6	shall	67	39	doctor	31	72	way	18
7	first	52	40	great	31	73	life	18
8	time	51	41	see	31	74	hear	18
9	witch	50	42	son	30	75	ay	18
10	come	50	43	speak	30	76	only	17
11	good	50	44	thane	28	77	exeuntscene	17
12	hath	50	45	sir	28	78	hail	17
13	more	49	46	second	27	79	art	17
14	would	47	47	go	26	80	worthy	17
15	well	44	48	sleep	26	81	own	17
16	should	41	49	too	25	82	take	17
17	did	41	50	siward	24	83	men	16
18	say	40	51	can	24	84	strange	16
19	enter	39	52	look	24	85	put	16
20	make	39	53	give	24	86	poor	16
21	lord	38	54	does	24	87	knocking	16
22	o	36	55	things	23	88	wife	15
23	here	36	56	blood	23	89	old	15
24	ill	36	57	cawdor	22	90	bloody	15
25	tis	36	58	exit	22	91	heaven	15
26	man	35	59	night	22	92	deed	15
27	may	35	60	again	21	93	three	14
28	done	35	61	third	21	94	air	14
29	must	35	62	been	21	95	name	14
30	fear	35	63	heart	21	96	god	14
31	let	35	64	scotland	20	97	thought	14
32	had	34	65	nature	20	98	theres	14
33	murtherer	34	66	cannot	20	99	dead	14

Table 2: Most frequent 99 words of Macbeth, with all names, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, articles and word “to be” removed. For the purpose of analysis, all punctuation marks are removed and all characters converted to lowercase.