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Now and then character analysis
Now and then character analysis
Now and then character analysis
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People tend to point fingers at people a lot. In this case, the question is “who is to blame for all the killings?” Most say Lady Macbeth because of her disturbing thoughts, words, and actions. But Macbeth is the one who murdered. Macbeth is ambitious in killing and is well enough to make his own decisions, so putting the blame on Lady Macbeth does not make sense. In Macbeth no one is to blame and he is truly the one at fault. Lady Macbeth seems like the right person who the most at fault. It is true that Lady Macbeth is the one who tells Macbeth to murder Duncan, and with her words in her aside, “unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty,” (I.v. 391-392) along with many other horrible scenes Lady Macbeth gives. It gives the audience a purpose to accuse her for all the murders. Lady Macbeth is argued to be in control of Macbeth. John Turner, coauthor of two books on Shakespeare, says, “Until her sense of time dissolves and Macbeth seems crowed already,” (Johnson) which shows that the image of Macbeth being King and having power is driven by Lady Macbeth’s ambitiousness. This is not entirely true. Lady Macbeth does have an ambition for power but not to the extent to be killing everyone. She only wanted Duncan off the throne, she was not aware of the other men in authority, such as Macduff, suspecting her and her husband. She was not paranoid like Macbeth, which is why he killed so many people. It’s reasonable to argue that Lady Macbeth was the influence; therefore she is to be at most at fault. She also was not the one to kill Duncan and the other people, Macbeth did. There is only one other person to blame for the bad things. Macbeth starts out seeming not like a person that could kill his ... ... middle of paper ... ...ow Duncan doesn’t have to worry about anything. This scene clearly shows that Macbeth is very capable of rationing the things he did, to take your sin and justify it to make yourself feel good is not a simple thing. When things are bad, they’re just bad; there’s no justification. Macbeth is at fault not Lady Macbeth. Surroundings don’t influence bad decisions. It gives thought but at the end of the day, it’s up to the person to make the decision regardless of the influence. Lady Macbeth has bad points but did not physically commit any crime nor did she force her husband to do the killings, she just persuaded him well, but Macbeth has the option to refuse his wife, yet instead he killed Duncan and many more. Works Cited Johnson, Vernon Elso, ed. "Shakespeare's Macbeth." Social Issues in Literature: Power in William. San Francisco: Greenhaven, 2009. N. pag. Print.
If anyone is to blame for starting this mess, it should be the Weird Sisters for telling MacBeth prophesies. “They told MacBeth that he would be Thane of Cawdor, and then become king in the future” (Shakespeare 17). After hearing the witches’ prophecy, MacBeth thinks that he must kill the current king, King Duncan, in order to take over the throne. “He writes a letter to his wife saying that he needs to kill Duncan in order to fulfill the witches’ prophesies” (Shakespeare 31). The witches are responsible for introducing the ideas to MacBeth which led to him killing Duncan in order to gain power. The witches had such a strong influence on MacBeth that they became a part of his brain and worked to transform him into this power-hungry monster. It was the killing of King Duncan that caused him to feel the need to kill more people, thinking that they were suspicious. Without the witches there to c...
Everyone is influenced by other people, including leaders or authority, to make the wrong decisions at some point in their lives. In the play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is responsible for the evil doings of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is responsible for this by using his love for her to persuade him into killing King Duncan. Because Macbeth loved and trusted his wife, he was vulnerable to her opinions and suggestions. We also know that she is responsible for these heartless things because she has so much guilt that she commits suicide. Macbeth would never have done any of those horrible things if it were not for the murder of King Duncan, which was forced on by Lady Macbeth.
However, it was Lady Macbeth who convinced him to slay the king so that he could usurp the throne: “Hie thee hither, / That I may pour my spirits in thine ear”. So we can say that Lady Macbeth has more responsibility for Duncan’s murder than Macbeth himself as she used her position as a wife and a woman to induce his husband to commit the sin. She knew the “adoration” Macbeth had for her (“My dearest love” referring to Lady Macbeth) and used her status as a woman to judge Macbeth a coward if he didn’t kill Duncan. Even though Macbeth holds some blame for not being the strong, valiant man he is, in battle with her wife and standing before those childish yet effective arguments she used, Lady Macbeth is the immediate cause for Macbeth’s actions.
Macbeth negates his moral responsibility as a person as well as a king. He doesn’t take into consideration that he will pay for all the evil deeds that he executes. Killing Duncan is the worst crime that is possible to commit since the kings were the closest in hierarchy next to god. It is evident that Macbeth is aware that this is an evil sin when he states, “ I dare do all that may be come a man, who dares do more is none.” (Act I Scene VII, Line 46-47) The previous statement shows that Macbeth believes that killing Duncan will make him nothing more than a beast. Nevertheless he goes against his morals and kills King Duncan. Sin is a prevalent theme in this play, Macbeth shows that he knows he has lived a sinful life, “Seyton I am sick at hearth, when I behold Seyton I have live’d long enough.” (Act V Scene III, Lines 20-22) Ambition takes over Macbeth when he decides to hire assassinators to kill Macduffs wife and children, “The castle of Macduff I will surprise; seize upon Fife; give to the edge of the sword in this line.”
All things considered, Macbeth remains accountable for the events in the play rather than the minimal influence Lady Macbeth presents. Within Scotland, Macbeth plays a substantial role as his tyrannical influence drags the country into the ground. The actions of Macbeth overcome the words of Lady Macbeth. Specifically, Macbeth murders King Duncan while Lady Macbeth only subtly influences him. Afterwards, his own ambition drives him insane which then leads him to plot the murder of Banquo and Fleance. Lastly, Macbeth remains responsible for the murder of the family of Macduff as he tries to secure his power as the king. All in all, Macbeth turns to the wrong people for guidance when he needs it and his unchecked ambition leads to his collapse. People who strictly follow their ambitions wish to face a series of unfortunate events.
Lady Macbeth's Responsibility as for the Actions of Her Husband. Lady Macbeth's responsibility lay in persuading Macbeth to carry out her plans, whilst Macbeth's responsibility was in his actions (the murders). They were both equal in the responsibility of the murders, but they both showed this in different ways. In this essay I will explain the key points showing each of their actions, and I will explain my opinion, of Lady Macbeth and her responsibility.
Macbeth can not blame anyone else, nor can the witches or Lady Macbeth be to blame when he has the ultimate power to do as he wishes. Another example is that the witches never say anything to Macbeth about murdering Duncan or anyone else. When Macbeth first hears the prophecy about being King, his thoughts turn to “murder” all on their own. This tells readers that somewhere along the line he had thought about it or had an idea as he turned to it immediately. He didn’t even wait and see what would happen, instead he becomes brutal and kill the noble king.
Shakespeare's "Macbeth" holds many hidden themes within its already exuberant plot. The first of these surrounds the murder of Duncan and the role that both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth himself played. However, the true guilt of the murder can fall on either character. Although Macbeth physically committed the crime, it was Lady Macbeth that pushed him to his limits of rational thought and essentially made fun of him to lower his esteem. With Macbeth's defenses down, it was an easy task for Lady Macbeth to influence Duncan's murder and make up an excuse as to why she could not do it herself. The guilt of Duncan's murder can be placed firmly on the head on Lady Macbeth.
Responsibility for the Tragic Events in Macbeth by William Shakespeare Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's four great tragedies. The witches, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth were all responsible for the tragic events that occurred, to some extent. The witches were the ones to start the evil. as they drilled the prophecies into Macbeth. His vaulting ambition drove him to perform not only the murder of Duncan but of many others.
In the play there are many evil deeds that Macbeth committed. These include the murders of Duncan and Banquo, Lady Macduff and her son. Macbeth is also responsible for Scotland's disorder. Macbeth plays the main role in each incident, with the other characters being only minor and undeveloped; acting as vehicles for Macbeth's actions. It is possible that it is not entirely Macbeth's fault for the evil deeds in the play.
Macbeth did not have to kill all of the innocent people he had murdered. Instead, he could have turned himself in and said he killed the king. Like most people he didn’t want to die, so he decided to keep this as a secret and tried to live life as best as he could. In order for this to stay a secret he needed to murder a few people. He first had murderers go out and kill Banquo and Fleance. The murderers were able to kill Banquo, but Fleance escaped. Macbeth felt better that Banquo was dead since Banquo knew about the witches rules in order for Macbeth to become king. Therefore, Banquo would assume that Macbeth murdered the king. Now, there would be no assumption from Banquo that Macbeth killed Duncan. Macbeth wanted Fleance to be dead, since the witches said that Banquo’s sons will become the next kings after Macbeth, but Macbeth wanted his family to be the royal family forever. The next person that gets murdered by Macbeth is: Macduff’s family. Macbeth had people hired to kill Macduff’s family. This led Macduff and ten thousand soldiers from England to defeat Macbeth and ultimately kill the villain. All of the murders and the stress that people had to go through because of Macbeth made him a
Lady Macbeth is responsible for the death of King Duncan. In the play “The Tragedy of Macbeth” the main character Macbeth and Lady Macbeth make a plan to kill King Duncan so Macbeth can become King. Who is really responsible for King Duncan’s death. I think Lady Macbeth is responsible for his death. My first point is that Lady Macbeth is not affected by the murder as she says in the book “these deeds must not be thought of these ways so, it will make us mad” (Line 32-33 pg. 330).
This women held the power to stop this madness from ever happening but instead she acted upon her own selfish interests and pushed Macbeth to commit these crimes. Not only did she push Macbeth but it was her guile plan that was used in the murder of King Duncan. Macbeth himself was having second thoughts before he killed Duncan, in Act one, Macbeth had a beautiful soliloquy in which he stated “... The king trusts me in two ways. First of all, I am his kinsman and his subject, so I should always try to protect him. Second, I am his host, so I should be closing the door in his murderer’s face, not trying to murder him myself...” (Act 1, Scene 7). All the points that are brought up are valid but in the end, however, it was not up to Macbeth to make the decision for it was Lady Macbeth who was truly in charge. When Macbeth sought the comfort of his loving wife in his time of need, all he got was a shrewd woman who emasculated him and manipulated him into killing Duncan just so she could have a taste of power. In the text Lady Macbeth's exact words were “Coward!... Only children are afraid of scary
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th ed. New York: Longman, 1999.
There were many wrongs committed in "MacBeth." But who should bear the major responsibility for these actions? The witches' prophesising? Lady MacBeth's scheming and persuasion? Or should MacBeth himself be held responsible? No doubt the witches and lady MacBeth influenced MacBeth in the course of action he took in his rise to power, but ultimately he must bear the major responsibility for his fate.