State of Mind Affects Macbeth

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In court, a criminal will commonly make the statement that they were in the wrong state of mind when they committed the crime, to lessen their punishment. In fact, a person’s state of mind can affect their actions, and the actions of others towards them. Authors commonly use a persons state of mind to embellish actions of a character or to better explain changes in the character. William Shakespeare uses state of mind to assist in the degeneration of the protagonist Macbeth in the tragedy Macbeth. Macbeth is a brave, loyal and strong Scottish general in the Middle Ages, more specifically the eleventh century, who despite his power on the battlefield was swayed easily to the tragic life of a murderer by the three predictions of three witches. Macbeth originally disbelieved the predictions, but after two predictions became true he was convinced the third prediction was meant to be. The third prediction being that Macbeth would become the sovereign of Scotland. After a some convincing from Lady Macbeth, Macbeth’s ambition for power lead him to kill King Duncan when he came to stay the night at Inverness, Macbeth’s castle. After killing King Duncan. Macbeth embarks on further atrocities with increasing ease. William Shakespeare uses the changes in Macbeth’s state of mind to assist in Macbeth’s degeneration from loyal solider to evil tyrant.

The degeneration of Macbeth’s character begins in the transition from the introduction of the play to the rising action, when he goes from a loyal solider to a traitorous murderer by killing King Duncan. At the end of the first act Macbeth is contemplating the advantages and disadvantages to killing Duncan. At this point in the play Macbeth is still loyal to the king; “First, as I am his kinsman ...

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...s to the witches a second time and he is warned to beware of Macduff. This is a fair warning because Macduff is one of the only characters who is suspicious of Macbeth being the cause of both Ducan’s and Banquo’s deaths. Macduff fleas to England to pursued King Duncan’s son Malcom to come back the Scottland and take back the throne. While Macduff is gone Macbeth orders Macduff’s Family dead. Macbeth’s character has changed a great deal from Banquo’s murder, Macbeth now does not even worry that he is killing a whole family, he feels no guilt. His wanting to remain king has drove him to become an evil tyrant who rules Scottland by killing who ever he feels oppose him.

In the falling action and conclusion of the tragedy, Macduff approaches Macbeth’s caste with an army from England, in Macbeth’s final soliloquies Shakespeare shows Macbeth in a pessimistic state of mind.

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