The Isolation of Macbeth

In Shakespeare's famous play Macbeth, Shakespeare wrote Macbeth's character to undergo a series of downward spirals into isolation. There are many factors that contribute to someone feeling alone or isolated. Isolation is often a state of being separated from others, or the feeling of being alone. Isolation is created by a person's actions or wrong doings, which is progressive in Macbeth's character. Macbeth demonstrates an increase of isolation throughout the play when he isolates his own thoughts, as he beings to make his own decisions, and when an entire nation, Scotland, turns against him.

Macbeth's own thoughts prevented him from fully enjoying his cheated titles as he dwindled himself into isolation. At the beginning of the play, Shakespeare portrayed Macbeth as a hero, and someone who was admired for his bravery. The king and all of his associates were loud in his praise, “Hail, brave friend! Say to the king the knowledge of the broil as thou didst leave it,”(1iil5). Macbeth had fought against his traitor and secured. As the play developed it was clear that he began to isolate himself from others to be in his own thoughts. The witches have a big role in creating Macbeth's isolation. They had made three prophecies, in particular “All hail, Macbeth! That shalt be King hereafter,” (1iiil50). This awakened Macbeth's strong yearning to become king and started his journey towards isolation. The thought of being king was joyous but also carried along terrible thoughts of murder, “my thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical” (1iiil139). Macbeth began to wonder whether the reign would simply fall to him, “if chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir,” or whether he would have to perform a dark deed i...

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...le Macbeth tells them that ‘every man be master of his time’ so that he can ‘keep alone’. By choosing to isolate himself and not inform Lady Macbeth of his plans to murder Banquo we see how Macbeth feels as if he can’t even trust his closest companions. After turning his back on Lady Macbeth, Macbeth becomes fixated not only on the prophecies of the witches but when he hints to Lady Macbeth that ‘a deed of dreadful note’ will fall upon Banquo and his son he talks like the witches. This shows how Macbeth has turned his back on seeking council from his lords and advisors and begins to act as a king who instead of rationally thinking things out, he chooses to justify his reasons on prophetic predictions from a world of sorcery.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1915. Google Books. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.