Essay On The Use Of Power In Macbeth

Kaya Randall

Ms. Dunbar

Honors English 10

March, 13, 2013

Power and tactics

William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy Macbeth is driven by goals and ambition. When one is working towards the achievement of power, a different mindset is developed, sometimes for the worse. Once Macbeth disregarded his conscience, he could achieve his goal by whatever means necessary. Though Lady Macbeth also wanted to gain power, she took a different approach. Rather than physically removing people from the picture, she implemented tactics of manipulation. Though Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are both working towards a common goal together, they go about it in different ways.

When Macbeth is trying to gain power, one would notice that he uses violence to get what he wants. Though he felt guilt leading up to the decision of killing King Duncan, he was able to overcome his fear with a bit of encouragement from his gluttonous wife Lady Macbeth. From than on Macbeth realized what he was capable of and no longer needed the guidance from his wife. He took the power into his own hands and went over the deep end. The reader could see this as a prime example of when the influence of others (Lady Macbeth) and power change Macbeth for the worse. “There is no peace in the play. Lurking behind every scene, every dialogue, every fantastic appearance or event, is the spectre of violence with death following.” (Cohen 56). Cohen makes a point that William Shakespeare constantly mentions the subject of violence throughout the play, it begins to be an ongoing theme in almost every event and conversation. The reader begins to notice the use of violence turns into a normal routine for Macbeth, in any case Cohen stated violence was a part of most dialogue and events in...

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...key component to the plan. The gender roles of Macbeth and his wife seem to go hand in hand, the operation would not succeed with only one of the individuals. This shows that a woman’s psychological actions are just as powerful as a man’s manual work.

Working towards a specific goal such as power can easily ruin someone without the right mindset and morals. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth had been working together to achieve rulership but for all the wrong reasons. Though they refused to play by the rules, they both had their advantages that would work together to achieve the main goal. The elements of violence and psychological warfare were combined to (temporarily) crown Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as King and Queen of Scotland. Although the two characters started off as polar opposites, they still shared the same goal and blended their diverse tactics into one.