Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Macbeth’s life and character act 1
DECISION making task
Macbeth’s life and character act 1
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Macbeth’s life and character act 1
One of the biggest problems that people face, whether on a large or small scale, is making decisions. Each decision holds weight, and often reflects ones’ true character and morals. In Act 1 Scene 4 of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in which the namesakes’ character is followed in his eventual quest to become king, Macbeth has an aside in which he is deciding his next plan of action, and in Act 1 Scene 4 he is discussing the same decision with Lady Macbeth. The play revolves around this decision and its consequences. Macbeth’s aside in Act 1 Scene 4 contrasts with his exchange with Lady Macbeth in Act 1 Scene 7, showing his inner struggles throughout the play and decides his true nature.
To start, the play begins with Macbeth meeting the three witches,
…show more content…
Macbeth does not necessarily have to kill King Duncan. In fact, per earlier lines, Macbeth believes the witches’ prophecy without question. He makes a rash decision at the very beginning by automatically taking their words as truth. Believing information that may be false and without evidence is often the start of faulty decision-making. They did not heed him to take his own action. If he truly believed them he would not have to do anything for their prophecy to take its course, he would have done nothing. The stress of the prophecy was too heavy on Macbeth for him to wait for it to come true of its own accord. To believe their prophecy is to believe it is fate, so he could have let fate take its course instead of taking it into his own …show more content…
In truth, Lady Macbeth does not know about the prophecy until after Macbeth seems to make his decision on his own. Lady Macbeth first receives Macbeth’s letter informing of the witches at the beginning of Act I Scene 5. The scene continues to show Lady Macbeth’s desires regarding the prophecy, with her stating in line 61 and 62, “O, never/Shall sun that morrow see!” (1872). Lady Macbeth barely wavers from the decision to kill King Duncan to obtain the throne, going so far as to plead for her to be made more like a man to have a lack of remorse towards the deed. Therefore, before Macbeth and Lady Macbeth confer after his journey, both had resolved to murder the
One’s decision-making abilities are severely impacted by the concept of free will. Macbeth’s free will leading up to and following his murder of King Duncan causes him to make extremely rash d...
...ce to happen and he had the chance to his mind. He could have avoided the whole situation; he could have just accepted the titles that were placed upon him. Greedy Macbeth wanted more power. He let his better judgment be tested by all of the motives that was placed in his way as an obstacle. Crimes were committed and the death of Duncan brought upon many more killings by the hand of Macbeth. Blood was shed over greed and the prophetic word of the three fortune tellers. Macbeth should be guilty in the first degree, and punished with the capital punishment.
It all began when “three strange figures” who later turned out to be three witches “told [Macbeth] he would become king (Nuttall 1). Macbeth at this time was a loyal kinsman to Duncan, the current king. While it was a thought in the back of his mind that Macbeth would eventually like to take the throne, it never occurred to him that he would have the murder Duncan in order to do so. The witches added turmoil to this idea by talking about Banquo as well and stating that Banquo’s sons will become king as well. This prophecy made it inevitable that murder would eventually take place. Although hesitant at first, Macbeth, with the persistent help of Lady Macbeth, followed through with the murder and took the throne as King. Had the witches not told Macbeth his prophecy, Macbeth would more than likely not have resorted to the tactics and actions it took for him to in due course become king. At this point in the story, Macbeth is not a cold-blooded murderer who he is destined to become later. Duncan’s murder was Macbeth’s first time to kill another man; however, this wouldn’t be his last as a cover-up would be needed. “[Macbeth] require[ed] a clearness” so t...
Following the meeting with the witches, Macbeth begins to think about killing Duncan and taking the throne by force. Macbeth becomes concerned with the witches prophesies and wants to learn more, as we can see from what he says after they leave, "Would they have stayed!" (1.3.82). After this, he begins thinking about his desire to be king. We can see that he is thinking about murdering Duncan from his soliloquy, "Stars, hide your fires, /Let not light see my black and deep desires;" (1.5.50-51). Macbeth has begun his path to corruption.
Macbeth is captured by his wild ambition at the opening of the play when he and Banqou meet the three witches. The witches tell Macbeth that he is the Thane of Cawdor, and later will be king. They tell Banquo that his sons will be kings. Instantly Macbeth started to fantasize how he is going to be king. He understood that in order for him to become king he has to kill Duncan. “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical”(Act 1 Sc. 3, p.23). He was pondering about the assassination until the moment that he could no longer control his emotions. “To prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself and falls on the other-“(Act 1 Sc. 7, p.41). Because of his “vaulting ambition” he killed Duncan.
This shows that he really didn't want to kill Duncan, but he did it in order to prove himself to Lady Macbeth, and to become the king. By the end he had no fear, and had killed not only Duncan but also many other people. He now had different views from which he had in the beginning of the play. Macbeth realizes that he is no longer afraid "no, nor more fearful. (Act V, scene vii, l 9). He is now considered a man, but he doesn't like the fact that he has killed all these people.
It was predetermined by fate that Macbeth would believe the witches' words. When Macbeth does in fact become thane of Cawdor, he then believes fully in the witches and is willing to do anything it takes to become king. This willingness to do whatever is necessary to become the king of Scotland is also what causes Macbeth to commit so many murders, the first of which is Duncan. In order for Macbeth to be king, the current king must die and his successors must be unavailable for the throne. Fate plays a huge hand in the way that Duncan's murder plays out.
He mentions his reasons why he should not kill Duncan. “Macbeth teaches us not only that power corrupts, but also that knowledge corrupts: bad thoughts lead to bad deeds” (Curran 392). . Lady Macbeth acts as Macbeth superior while the murder of Duncan occurs. “After he is crowned, he is driven to protect what he has gained by ordering the deaths of anyone who he considers to be a threat” (Dominic 252). Lady Macbeth and the witches are all influential factors in the committing of Macbeth murdering Duncan. “Lady Macbeth appeals to her husband’s sense of manhood, and in effect, some maintain use seduction and humiliation to convince him to commit the murders” (Dominic 251). She questions Macbeth’s love for her; she questions Macbeth’s masculinity and criticizes his desire to be king. “While violence is an integral part of this warrior society, Macbeth’s use of it off the battlefield to further his personal ambition” (Dominic 252). Macbeth is an extremely violent man and you can see this throughout the play. A quote that exemplifies his violence, “I am in blood stepp’d in so far, that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’ver”( Shakespeare, William 3.4 36-39). Macbeth is stating that there is nowhere left to
Macbeth's conscience overrides Lady Macbeth's power, filling him with regret and sorrow. He fears what could happen to him in the life to come, with thoughts of an uncertain destiny which worries him while all of his dirty deeds may come back to haunt him. Irony takes place especially when the king thinks th...
Typical of Shakespeare’s works, the play Macbeth has a protagonist who ultimately experiences a downfall that lead to his demise. The protagonist or tragic hero of this play is Macbeth, once brave and honorable, who eventually becomes tyrannical and feared by many due to what Abrams describes as his “hamartia” or “error of judgment or, as it is often…translated, his tragic flaw.” In this case, Macbeth’s tragic flaw proves to be ambition; however, he cannot be held solely responsible for his downfall. As a result of many outside influential factors, including the witches’ prophecies and a rather coaxing and persuasive wife, one should not hold Macbeth entirely culpable for his actions and tragic end.
“Present fears are less than horrible imaginings. My thought, whose murder is yet but fantastical, shakes so that my single state of man that function is smoldered I surmise and nothing is but what is not.” Macbeth as you can see is thinking about the witches’ prophecy of him becoming king. Macbeth knows that Duncan must be killed if he wants to acquire the throne, and the thought of Duncan’s murder is very disturbing to him. Macbeth desires to become king, but his ambition is halted when he thinks of the consequences that follow if he were to get his wish. However when Malcolm is chosen to become Prince of Cumberland Macbeth knew that if he did not take any actions then he wouldn’t be king. The reader can see that the ruthlessness that lied in Macbeth is coming out when he says “The Prince of Cumberland – that is a step On which I must fall down or else o’erleap, For in my way it lies. Despite the fact that Macbeth is a ruthless individual Lady Macbeth makes him look like a saint. After Lady Macbeth reads her husband’s letter she sees an opportunity to become queen that she probably never thought about. Lady Macbeth’s desire for her husband to become king is stronger than Macbeth’s own desire for the throne. After Lady Macbeth learns that Duncan is going to visit Inverness she begins plotting to kill him even though her husband does show hesitation to kill Duncan.
Choices are defined by decisions made between multiple possibilities. There are many factors that come into play during the process of making decisions which may affect the choice made. William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth demonstrates how emasculating comments and actions affect choices made by Macbeth and other men in the play. The motif of manhood in The Tragedy of Macbeth exhibits the idea of threats to a man’s masculinity can drastically affect their choices, as indicated as Lady Macbeth questions Macbeth’s manhood before killing Duncan, Macbeth’s threats to the manhood of the two murderers of Banquo, and Lady Macbeth questioning whether Macbeth is even a man while he hallucinates Banquo’s ghost.
When reading William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, it seems that Macbeth was predestined to do the terrible deeds that he did. However, there is also a valid argument that Macbeth exercised his free will and chose to do those things on his own. This discussion leads into many different topics, but it relates most to spirituality. The concept of free will and how it relates to Macbeth and our present lives yields a relevant and interesting topic for further discussion.
A tragic hero is a nobleman who comes to a tragic end as a result of a deliberate choice – not as a result of fate or coincidence (Mrs. Horne). Macbeth is introduced in the play as a brilliant general. Wayne Booth comments that in order for the audience to recognize Macbeth’s fall, he had to be ‘a man worthy of our admiration’ (25). Thus, Macbeth’s loyalty and bravery is emphasized to magnify his tragic end. Lady Macbeth remarks that her husband is “too full o’ the milk of human kindness” (1.5.16) while Duncan is eternally grateful to the “noble Macbeth” (1.2.77). Macbeth is bestowed the Thaneship of Cawdor for his valour in battle. This stirs his dormant ambition or fatal flaw into question. The use of the ‘aside’ in Shakespearean plays ‘indicate a state of intense mental preoccupation’ (Mehl 111) in the character, as well as providing the genuine truth to the audience. In Macbeth’s aside in Act 1, scene 3, this technique is used to induce sympathy in the reader or spectators. We realize that Macbeth is tempted to kill Duncan, but is also horrified at the idea, “why do I yield to that suggesti...
Internal conflict can devastate a person inside overtaking there decision making abilities. Lady Macbeth is decisive with the plan