Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth is one that has been a huge part of literature since it was written. It is a play about cowardice, lies and power lust involving the main character: Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth. Shakespeare uses multiple literature techniques to portray the main motives of the play and in turn is filling the play with, what could be called, ‘direst cruelty’ meaning preempted disaster or wrong doing . This overall theme can be seen being portrayed in the multiple soliloquies spoken by the two main characters. These soliloquies always represent a crucial part of the play and really display how they are feeling and what emotions they have bottled up inside.

Chronologically, the first major soliloquy by one of the two main characters is the ‘the raven himself is hoarse’ passage spoken by lady Macbeth in Act 1 Scene 5. In this soliloquy she is allowing the spirits to enter her body and fill her up with direst cruelty and sin. She exclaims “That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty!” These three lines are shouted by Lady Macbeth as she is commanding the spirits to enter her body. It is as if she is not afraid of being turned evil or her womanliness taken away from her as she tells the spirits to “unsex me here”. Lady Macbeth is willing to lose a lot to become the next to the throne and her allowing the spirits to take control is her committing to killing Duncan and following through with her word. In this soliloquy the idea of direst cruelty is very blatant and obvious as Lady Macbeth straight out says it. She is describing direst cruelty as a fluid or a substance to fill her up with as if it is a curse. Next Lady Macbeth shouts “Stop up the access and passage to remorse,” this further supports the point that she is committed to killing Duncan as she is commanding the spirits to block out remorse from wrong doings and nullifying herself to murder. Finally Lady Macbeth exclaims ” You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark…” here she wants hell to envelop her evil actions in a thick cloud of smoke to hide them from God and heaven. She even wants the knife to know not of what it has done. Lady Macbeth’s ambitions and her cruelty are what keeps her going through the whole play and even being denied access to heaven is a good trade off for becoming the Queen of Scotland in her eyes. The sentence “… Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark…” is a great metaphor to portray the way she wants hell to cover her wrong doings as she doesn’t want heaven seeing through the blanket of the dark as much as she doesn’t want the people of Scotland knowing of her actions. This whole soliloquy relates back to the theme of direst cruelty as it is about Lady Macbeth preparing herself to kill Duncan by ‘filling’ herself with wrong doings and preempted disaster and is foreshadowing the death of her as well as the eventual corruption of Scotland.

The soliloquy “If it were done when ’tis done” spoken by Macbeth in Act 1 Scene 7 just before the murder of Duncan is about Macbeth talking about how he wishes that when he kills Duncan there is no consequences; but he knows that there will be. Macbeth knows what he is doing is going to lead him on a path of woe as he says ” Besides, this Duncan hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great office, that his virtues will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against the deep damnation of his taking-off…” here he is basically saying that Duncan has been a great leader and has been a humble one of no corruption and that his virtuous legacy will be remembered. As he dies angels will play their trumpets for him against the injustice of his murder. Macbeth knows this is an act of direst cruelty as he recognizes that Duncan would probably be a better king than him but he is selfish and doesn’t care for the future of Scotland nor for the people. Next he says “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other.”. Here Macbeth is explaining that he has no drive or desire for action and that the only thing motivating him is his ambition. He describes it as a metaphor as if it is pricking his sides like something keeping him moving or motivating him like he is being poked by a needle, driving him to keep going. Macbeth knows that the only thing that is going to make him murder Duncan is ambition as it is almost prodding him in the direction he is going to take. In the second section of this verse Macbeth says “…which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other.”, here he believes that ambition is what causes people to rush ahead of themselves, forgetting the consequences of what their ambition may cause them to do and putting them on a path towards disaster or what could be called direst cruelty. Macbeth is being put on a path towards disaster as his ambitions are prodding him in the direction of killing Duncan and leading him towards a breakdown of his mental state and eventual death. It seems as if everything Macbeth decides to do in this play could be linked to the theme of direst cruelty as his ambitions and lust for power force him on a path of preempted disaster.

Macbeth, being a huge part of literature today, has been analysed and examined to its bare bones and in turn the underlying themes that the play contains have been brought up and made apparent. I believe the idea of direst cruelty is very important for the play’s plot and especially to do with Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. Direst cruelty in its most simple form means wrong doing but can mean a lot more. Macbeth’s direst cruelty led him a path where his ambitions took a hold of him and caused him to become a corrupted, twisted King and Lady Macbeth was ‘filled’ with direst cruelty which eventually took a huge toll on her and caused her untimely death. Without this theme of direst cruelty and ambition the play would be simple and directionless.