Macbeth Act 3 Scene 4 Notes - Sir Thomas Boughey High School

Macbeth himself is a secret man of blood, and the bloody Ghost confronted him. His
guilt was almost "brought forth" in front of his guests. None of this makes him feel
remorse, or anything but a determination to see things through to the bitter end. He
immediately starts thinking of what must be done next, and asks his wife what she
thinks of the fact that Macduff has refused to come to their banquet. She asks if he has
sent for Macduff, to get an explanation. He answers that he will send for him, and
besides, "There's not a one of them but in his house / I keep a servant fee'd" (3.4130-
131). A "servant fee'd" is a spy, and "them" almost certainly refers to his banquet guests
and all the other noblemen who are supposed to be his loyal subjects. He trusts no one.
In addition to dealing with Macduff, Macbeth will speak again with the witches:
More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know,
By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good,
All causes shall give way: I am in blood
Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er:
Strange things I have in head, that will to hand;
Which must be acted ere they may be scann'd. (3.4.133-139)
He knows that the witches are "the worst means," and he expects they will tell him "the
worst" that can happen to him, but he's going to speak to them anyway, because his
"own good" is the only thing he cares about. He is in the middle of a river of blood, and
he might as well go over to the other side. That means that he will have to do "strange"
(and bloody) things right away, before he has "scanned" them. This is implies that if he
did scan them, look at them, think about them, he might not do them. All in all, he
doesn't seem to have much hope of happiness from doing the evil he feels he must do.
Now, at the very end of the scene, Lady Macbeth seems to be in a gentler mood. She
tells her husband that he needs to sleep. He replies, "Come, we'll to sleep. My strange
and self-abuse / Is the initiate fear that wants hard use: / We are yet but young in deed"
(3.4.141-143). Without changing his mind about what he's going to do, he's trying to
put the best face on things. His "strange and self-abuse" is his reaction to the Ghost of
Banquo, but now he sees that it was only the result of beginner's nerves, "intiate fear."
That fear can be cured by "hard use," by doing more, by wading more deeply into the
river of blood.
[There's an unconscious irony in Macbeth's final statement. He has killed King Duncan,
his grooms, and Banquo, so he is hardly "young in deed," but he believes that more
such deeds will solve his problems.