A man destined to be powerful kills his closest friend, why? Because he knows too much. The story of Macbeth starts with a prophecy pronouncing him as the future king. He will do whatever it takes to be just that, and with his wife and his title, he expects his life to be stupendous. In the Story of Macbeth-- written by Shakespeare—Macbeth and Lady Macbeth struggle for power, through twists and turns they soon realize what they’ve done, but they’re already too far in to back out now. Although Macbeth did awful things, readers can sympathize with Macbeth due to the pressure put upon him by Lady Macbeth, the weird sisters and his own guilt.
At the end of the book, Macbeth ends up losing everything he once held dear. His wife has killed herself,
…show more content…
he killed his own best friend, everyone and everything he knew has disintegrated. The grief and hopelessness he conveyed near the end of the story signified that misery and death were never his intention. After the death of his wife, he falls into a terrible depression, Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. (5*4*?) This quote is essential in understanding that Macbeth only ever killed for the sake of his own guilt or even pride. He knew that in order to be king, he would need to murder, and once he started he couldn’t stop. In AA, a common phenomenon that happens is that once you relapse, you give up and go back to alcohol because you’ve already messed up and your clean slates shattered. I think this is how Macbeth felt after the first murder he committed; you can tell that he didn’t feel right about killing because when he killed the king of Norway and Duncan, he did it himself, but when he killed Banquo he hired people to do it for him. The pressure to be King drove him to do things he never before would have done because of his own greed and his own guilt. In the story of Macbeth, the weird Sisters influenced Macbeth to kill.
The prophecy that he would become king sparked the flame, and their attempts to mess with his mind only added gas to the fire. They made him believe he was invincible and once he had started feeling that way, he would do anything in his power to maintain it. The sisters told Macbeth that Banquo’s sons would be king before him; he killed Banquo consequently. Later at a banquet, Macbeth saw the ghost of Banquo. In a flurry of fear he began talking to it,
Thou canst not say I did it: never shake/thy gory locks at me.(3*4*?)
In Macbeth, blood signifies many effects such as guilt, greed and fear. The use of gory in this context indicates Macbeth’s fear towards the mutilated ghost of Banquo. It becomes unbearable due to the fact that he is the same monster he so fears. The blood shows that since Macbeth is fearful of something caused by him, the outside influence for him to have done so is very apparent. He can’t believe what he has done. This shows a moral ground, he otherwise would had to have lacked for it to have been all his fault.
The last way that Macbeth was manipulated to kill, was by his wife lady Macbeth. She made him feel as though the only way to be a man was through killing to become king. She made him feel weak, so to prove himself, he did whatever she
said. I have given suck, and know How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done to this. In this sentence, Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that if she were in his place she’d kill even her own son. She manipulates him into feeling inferior by implying that she is the man of the relationship and he needs to step his game up. Eventually he agrees—although ever so reluctantly. I am settled, and bend up Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. Macbeth knows that his word is all he has left to prove his manly hood, he’ll stick to it despite knowing what a wrong deed he is doing. Macbeth, like many people let outside sources influence his decisions. He did not want to kill; he was manipulated by the weird sisters, Lady Macbeth and his own guilt. Readers can learn from Macbeth’s mistakes and in turn know to think for themselves thus avoiding a similar fate of grief, misery and loss.
The most important emotions that we see in Macbeth are ambition, remorse, and fear. They are significant because they provoke Macbeth to do evil and cruel things. Ambition takes control of him earlier in the play when the witches tell him he is going to be king. After he already has done the deed, killed Duncan, he is remorseful for his actions. Out of fear for himself, Macbeth murdered Macduff’s family and killed Banquo.
Slowly Lady Macbeth manipulated his mind to think the right thing to do was kill Duncan. Macbeth had decided in order to prove his manhood he must go through with this horrible act.
Macbeth displays the characteristics of an insane character because of his foolish acts and poor mental state when he visualizes the floating dagger, speaks to a ghost, becomes obsessed with killing others and with the idea of being invincible. When Macbeth begins talking to a ghost, his insanity becomes very apparent to the reader. From another one of the witches prophesies, Macbeth is threatened by Banquo because his sons are to be king one day as well. Macbeth begins to see Banquo’s and makes foolish comments. He says, “[Macbeth] The table’s full.
One of the most profound and disturbing themes in Shakespeare’s Macbeth involves the changing in morality. Macbeth had changed his whole outlook on life throughout the course of the book, ranging from being reluctant to kill a noble friend to doing anything to it takes to maintain his position as king.
Within Macbeth the tragedy and demise of Macbeth is an important factor in determining his character as a tragic hero. However in order to elucidate on this point we need to define what is a tragedy. Aristotle within ‘Poetics’ highlighted what characteristics he believed to define tragedy these being;
Macbeth now having higher-ranking authority begins to have his ambition act up on him and crave more power. Lady Macbeth organizes King Duncans murder, which increases Macbeth's ambition and enables Macbeth to rise up to the ultimate height. The murder is carried out but not as planned and Macbeth is driven to kill the king himself. Macbeth states after everyone found the dead king," Loyal and neutral, in a moment? no man. The expedition of my violent love..." (2.3.111-112) This was the only done to destroy and thoughts that may have targeted Macbeth that he could have killed the king.
lying to him, or if it is all of his other senses which are deceiving
Shakespeare is able to color the reader’s attitude to be of sympathy to dislike toward Macbeth through his presentation of Macbeth’s various murders in Macbeth.
...stantly tormented him and his wife, finally ending with her life as she commits suicide. As for Macbeth, his kingship soon comes to an end as he is killed as a result of his tyrannical rule over Scotland. His fate became a reality and he reached the goal he pursued, but the inevitable tragic end also came with it and destroyed his newly acquired life.
Sympathy for Lady Macbeth In this essay I am going to answer the question above and I will do this by saying whether or not I feel sympathy for Lady Macbeth. I go through different parts of the play. After reading parts of the play and watching the video I don’t’ feel very much sympathy for Lady Macbeth, although I do feel some sympathy for her in some parts of the play. Over all I think that Lady Macbeth is a fiend as she says stuff that’s not very nice to make Macbeth do the things that she is too scared to do herself.
Blood is perhaps one of the most striking and gruesome recurring image in the play. Blood has both symbolic and literal meaning in Macbeth, therefore it is widely recognised as one of the major motifs throughout the play. The blood that is shed in Macbeth is a reminder of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s guilt, and it acts as a metaphorical stain on the Macbeth’s consciences. These recurring bloody images play a particularly important role in scenes such as Act 2 Scene 2, when Macbeth returns from the scene of the crime carrying bloody daggers, and with his hands drenched in the King Duncan’s blood. Lady Macbeth too has blood stained hands after she goes back to replace the daggers which her husband has brought back to their chamber. Blood also plays a key role in Act 5 scene 1 when guilt consumes Lady Macbeth’s mind and during her sleepwalking,...
for him as we do respect, he appears to us as a noble and valiant
After they hear the prophecies told to them by the evil sisters, Banquo starts to worry about Macbeth and his ambitions to become king. Macbeth is thinking that he may become king without doing anything else, and Banquo thinks Macbeth does not deserve to be thane of Cawdor. At this point, the two friends start growing farther from each other because they do not trust one another. Banquo starts to fear Macbeth because he knows if his prophecy is true than he is a threat to Macbeth's throne. Macbeth realizes he must get rid of Banquo to secure his spot on the throne and make sure his sons will not take his place.
However, this experience is not one that gives him courage or ambition but one that gives him fear, enough to make a man go mad. At the party, Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost which he describes as “a bold one that dare look on that which might appall the devil” (III.vi.63). He begins to act like a madman in front of all those loyal to him and reveals that Banquo is dead. Despite Lady Macbeth’s attempt to cover up his act by blaming it on a childhood illness, Macbeth’s followers begin to lose question their king, lose trust in him, and even wonder if he is the one who murdered Duncan. After the banquet, Macbeth seeks the witches out of their cave so that he can learn more about his future and silence those who are plotting against him despite what the consequences may be. This reveals that Macbeth has completely fallen for the witches prophecy. There, he sees a line of eight kings followed by Banquo’s ghost. The last king holds a mirror to reflect a never-ending line of kings descended from Banquo. When he sees this, he exclaims“ thou art look like the spirits of Banquo: down!” (IV.i.123). This vision confirms that Banquo’s descendants inherit the throne and contributes to Macbeth’s anxiety, fear and to his further loss of control. He becomes even more insecure about his position as king and can no longer make his decisions