Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as Evil Murderers in William Shakespeare's Play

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as Evil Murderers in William Shakespeare's Play

At the start of this play Macbeth is mentioned by witches which

doesn’t give him credibility with the audience, whilst soon after

Macbeth is seen as a brave, loyal and trustworthy servant of his king,

Duncan. Almost as soon as the play starts, you hear of Macbeth’s

bravery; “Brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name…Like Valour’s

minion.” But soon after he has his meeting with the witches he is

already scheming; “This supernatural soliciting cannot be ill.”

One of the central points of this play is the question of whether or

not Macbeth would have become so evil if he had not met the witches.

In my opinion Macbeth would have remained as he originally was.

By the end of the play his only redeeming features left are those of

bravery and remorse. He realises that he is about to die and refuses

to surrender to Macduff and face ridicule. This shows his pride, but

he also doesn’t fear his death; “Lay on, Macduff, and damned be him

that first cries, ‘Hold, enough.’”

Macbeth knows that he is about to die as soon as he sees Birnam Forest

on the move, and resigns himself to death, musing on the futility of

life; “Life is but a walking shadow.”

He does however, seem remarkably callous about the death of his wife,

remarking; “She should have died hereafter,” which is a far cry from

the love he holds for her at the start of the play in his letter to

her; “My dearest partner of greatness.” This shows just how much

Macbeth has changed since the beginning of the play.

He realises that as soon as he killed Duncan, he would have started

down an evil road that he would...

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...rers.

However, both possess some evil qualities, as well as their good ones.

On the one side there is murder itself, deceit, cowardice, motivation,

cold-heartedness and evil itself, whilst on the other side there is

bravery, motivation, strength, love, courage, loyalty and guilt. All

these features weigh up and show that there is always more good than

evil in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth himself have redeeming qualities, some

they retain until the end, some that they gradually abandon, and some

that they gain, but I do not think that they are evil murderers, but

were originally good, loyal people who are slowly tainted by the

witches and the emergence of the ambitions. I personally believe that

none of the murders would ever have occurred had the witches not

spurred Macbeth’s ambitions.