There are two main thoughts or theories about Macbeth actually being evil, the first one being that “Macbeth was naturally evil”, and the second one being “that Macbeth was pushed into being evil.” Personally upon watching the play, I feel that Macbeth was pushed into being evil. I believe this because Macbeth had to deal with the witches whom were naturally evil and their presence really changed Macbeth for the worse.
The witches in Macbeth have one main aim really and that is to turn all good things to evil. The imagery made up by the witches is one of pure evil. Upon visiting the witches, Macbeth is manipulated by three unusual sightings, in Macbeth’s case ghosts. In the second of these sightings or visions Macbeth is tricked into a false sense of security, this occurred because of the witches telling him that he could not be harmed by anyone woman born, "For none of woman born shall harm Macbeth." obviously Macbeth thought this meant literally everyone in the world. Macbeth then say’s "Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of thee." Macbeth obviously not realising that Macduff technically wasn’t woman born, as his mother was dead when he was ripped from her stomach. Shakespeare uses Dramatic Irony as these words confuse Macbeth. I think that if Macbeth was to know this earlier than when he did, then this would have damaged him in a physiologic way and would have stopped him being so powerful. It is easy to see from these words that Macbeth would feel invincible and that no man could harm him. However, Macbeth fails to see the pattern or meaning between this and the first vision. This is because Macbeth is unaware of Macduff´s birth. Earlier I said that I thought that Macbeth wasn’t naturally evil, however I do think Macbeth’s wife is naturally evil. She often urges Macbeth on to do bad things, really only for her benefit. I noticed over watching the Macbeth, that Shakespeare has made Macbeth’s character as one with a lot of strong morals, however as the play went on I also noticed that Macbeth’s morals became a lot less noticeable.
Another main point that I picked up, in an R.S lesson, is that evil is not natural to the human nature and that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have to sort of persuade or trick themselves in a sort of way, in order to kill Banquo and Duncan, this is obviously because evil is not natural to us.
Thirdly, feelings of paranoia and guilt cause Macbeth characters to make damaging choices. When Macbeth asks the witches to reveal the truth of their prophecies to him, they summon horrible apparitions, each of which offers a prediction to allay Macbeth’s fears. First, a floating head warns him to beware Macduff. Macbeth says that he has already guessed as much. Later when Lennox enters and tells Macbeth that Macduff has fled to England. Macbeth in reply says, “The castle of Macduff I will surprise; / Seize upon Fife; give to th'edge o'th'sword / His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls / That trace him in his line.” (4.1.149-152). As Macbeth descends to madness he becomes obsessed with eliminating any threats to his power. Macbeth orders the murderers to kill Macduff's family and eliminate any threat to him. Ironically, this is the moment that Macbeth seals his own fate, by murdering Macduff's family he ensures Macduff's retaliation against him, which ultimately leads
So McBeth returned to them which is in Act IV Scene I wanting to know if everything he has done so far has protected himself and his spot in royalty, this shows he is being controlled by the witches lies and schemes. MacBeth second encounter of the witches starts out with one of the witches saying “By the pricking of my thumb, something wicked this way comes.”(4.1.1594-1597). This is the first time in the play that MacBeth is recognized as a wicked person, even though no said he was wicked we can tell his personality and demeanor have changed from the first meeting to the next meeting of the witches. This is a great example of how MacBeth is the one who is in control and doing bad deeds to fulfill his prophecies of being king. MacBeth demands them to tell him what is going on, so MacBeth is taking more into his own hands, unlike earlier in the play where Lady MacBeth did all the planning. Though the witches tempt MacBeth when they tell him that No harm will come to MacBeth until Birnam Woods Marches up to Dunsinane castle. MacBeth does not consider the illusion of trees really moving. The witches also say no one born of a woman may harm MacBeth which sounds like no one will hurt him at all but MacDuff had a C-Section at birth. MacBeth thinks all these things are a confidence boost which could sound like fate but this leads MacBeth to his downfall and MacBeth is still in
The second apparition that Macbeth is shown, the bloody child, tells Macbeth that ".none of the woman born shall harm Macbeth"(Shakespeare 4.1.81-82).This apparition brings confidence into Macbeth by giving him this security that he basically should have no fear of men because he cannot be killed. Unfortunately, where the false part comes into play from the false security, is the man not born of a woman turns out to be Macduff, whose mother delivered him by what we now call a C-section. He was born out of a body. Thus, he was not born of a woman.
When the witches told Macbeth that no man born of a woman could harm him, he would not be defeated until the forest came to his castle, and that his only threat was Macduff, Macbeth felt very secure about his kingship. Little did Macbeth know, that all of these foretellings would bring about his demise. Macduff was born out of a dead woman, so he was the only one who could hurt Macbeth. When Malcolm's army attacked Macbeth's castle, they camouflaged themselves with trees, thus giving the appearance of the forest coming to the castle. Finally, Macduff was the only thing that Macbeth had to worry about, because he was not born of a woman, and could kill Macbeth. Macbeth completely disregarded the Witches' prophecies because he thought of them as rubbish. Had the three witches told Macbeth the real truth that they ticked him out of believing, Macbeth would not have gotten so cocky as a result of his security.
Evil. It is a word that has been used for hundreds of years, yet the
Macbeth turns evil because he is so consumed with the idea of power. Dunn explains “People do not choose evil itself but choose a lesser good over a greater one by choosing selfish satisfactions over moral duty” (Dunn 3). Often times a person does not choose evil, but they choose to do something bad over what is morally right because it will benefit him in some way. The person is so overly consumed with himself that he does not care that he is hurting people around him because in the end he will have gained something from it. However, choosing selfish needs over what is morally right, influences a person to continue to do bad things and will eventually turn him evil. Macbeth acknowledges that killing King Duncan is immoral, but his selfish desires overpower the good when he says, “That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur/To prick the sides of my intent, but only/Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself/And falls on th’ other” (Shakespeare 1.7.25-28). Macbeth contemplates whether he should kill King Duncan. Macbeth says that he feels an overbearing sense of loyalty to
Macbeth is a tragedy written by Shakespeare roughly between the years 1603 and 1606. It was a play written following the death of Queen Elizabeth. The king at the time - James I of England/King James VI of Scotland was known to be a big supporter of theatre, witchcraft and demonology. Shakespeare and his associates soon into their career became known as the King’s men. The Kings ancestry was traced back to Banquo, a character from the play.
In the beginning Macbeth was such a nice guy. That all changed when he met the three witches. When Macbeth first meets the witches they say two things that begin Macbeth's trail of evil. "All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cowdor!" I iii 49, is the first thing that leads to the trail. The second is, "All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter!" I iii 50. These two predictions told by the witches caused great ambition to happen within Macbeth. Lady Macbeth finds out about the predictions, and drives Macbeth's ambition even harder. Lady Macbeth tries to get Macbeth to kill King Duncan, because she wants Macbeth to be king. "He that's coming/ must provided for: and you shall put/ this night's great business into my dispatch;/ which shall to all our nights and days to come/ give solely sovereign sway and mastedom." I v 65-69, this is a quote from Lady Macbeth explaining to Macbeth that when King Duncan come to stay, they will kill him. After Macbeth killed Duncan he killed the King's guards, so no one could question them. All this was just the beginning of a walk down an evil trail.
Macbeth was certainly no villain to begin with. He is introduced to us as a man of great honour, nobility and strength of morals. He is held in high regard by King Duncan, who addresses him as “valiant cousin, worthy gentleman';- so highly, in fact, that Macbeth is granted a promotion over Banquo (who seems to be of an extremely worthy and loyal character). But there is a fatal difference between Macbeth and Banquo- Macbeth’s ambition and lust for power. He is a man with an unsurpassable desire to advance himself. He himself identifies this quality while he contemplates an action that he is wholly repulsed by; “I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting Ambition which o’erleaps itself, And falls on th’ other.'; This “Vaulting Ambition'; is what makes Macbeth vulnerable and leads him to commit possibly the most vile deed he can imagine, setting him on a path of destruction. There is a temptation to use the fact that he could comprehend the vileness of his deed as a reason as to why we should condemn Macbeth as even worse a villain. But this is a simple view that does not take into account Macbeth’s later torment or give credit to Shakespeare’s intention to create a true – to-form tragedy. Macbeth is not a ruthless, callous villain devoid of all pity and humanity, and there are several issues in the play that serve to illustrate this.
Macbeth’s villainy is shown when he kills Macduffs family and consorts with the witches but Macbeth is also a man of action, brave and daring. Macbeth killed Macduffs family because Macduff fled to England “His wife his babes, and all unfortunate souls”. Macbeth also consorts with witches in this scene to find out what will happen to him and his kingdom “Even till destruction sicken-answer me / To what I ask you.”. Macbeth is not all bad just because he does this he is also a brave and daring man of action.
Perhaps the most fundamental theme of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is the inherent corruptibility of even a seemingly good man when ambition turns to greed, and Macbeth himself exemplifies this concept throughout the play. While at the outset he is seen to be loyal to his king, generally considered trustworthy, and displaying numerous other laudable qualities, Macbeth ultimately succumbs to the influence of those around him and becomes unequivocally evil, setting aside all his previously held morals and coming to be driven only by his lust for power. This transition is brought about by a wide variety of factors and plays an integral role in the development of the plot. In his tragedy Macbeth, William Shakespeare employs
In Shakespeare?s play Macbeth, Macbeth is motivated to commit his evil acts by three forces. For example, the witches in the play give him the first idea that he will be king. In addition, his own ambition starts to take over later in the play. Lastly, Lady Macbeth pushed and forced him constantly to commit these evil acts. By listening to these evil forces, Macbeth commits evil acts which make him evil.
Macbeth was not evil he was just a man struggling with his identity and trying to be something he was not. He new nothing other than how to be a soldier and he was good at it. In the end he realised it was the only way he could win his battle. “I’ll fight till from me bones me flesh be hacked. Give me my armour.” 5:3:33. Even though Macbeth had become hated and thought of as a tyrant to others he had won his own battle. This becomes clear when at the end of the play Macbeth feels proud to say “My name’s Macbeth.” 5:8:6.
...e murdered. When king Duncan thanks Macbeth for his heroic service in the battle he replies “Your highness a king cares for his people as a father cares for his children and the people represent the loyal children to the father (I, iv, 23-25). Later in the scene, Lady Macbeth shames her husband so he can continue with the plan of killing Duncan. To shame Macbeth, she calls him a coward, questions his manhood, and tells him that he should be as tough as she is, (1.7.54-59). The second apparition is a bloody child which shows Macbeth "The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth" (4.1.81). This shows that no man can harm Macbeth because everyman is born of a women except Macduff. He says that Macduff was born untimely and was ripped out of his womb . This was abnormal because being ripped out of your mothers womb is being born.
Evil is a destructive force; it causes harm to those who embrace it and their victims. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the protagonist Macbeth and Lady Macbeth fall into the hands of evil. Evil is what drives people to commit unnatural actions of destruction. Macbeth succumbs to evil through his fatal flaw, greed, and it causes him to disrupt the chain of being. When Macbeth willingly murders, massacres, lies and deceives, he loses his heath and sanity. Evil corrupts everything it touches, and Macbeth decides to be evil's servant. But, when Macbeth embraces evil, it corrupts him, and it ultimately destroys him as well. Lady Macbeth is a victim of Macbeth's fatal flaw, since she is drawn in, and becomes greedy for power herself. She pushes Macbeth into destruction when she adds the small touch that plunges Macbeth into a chain of murder, destruction, and lying followed by the loss of their sanity and health. After Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are well into the depths of corruption and greed, it is clearly seen that their guilt will haunt them for the rest of their lives. The harm they have caused others will be returned to them as revenge and they have lost their sanity in order to gain power. The fate of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth clearly illustrates that to embrace evil is to negate our own need for order and well being.