The Path to Self Destruction in Search of Power in Macbeth by William Shakespeare

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The play Macbeth by William Shakespeare shows the change in people when power gets in the way. While he was gaining fame and power Macbeth, also was losing his happiness and satisfaction. According to Macbeth “To be thus is nothing/But to be safety thus”. This shows that he thinks that to be the king is nothing if he is not safe and happy; but the more he is receiving the less he feels. This leads him to commit more immoral acts which obscure the clarity of his thought and does not make him realize the real destruction he is going to cause himself. His feelings get in the way of how he perceives the world around him which is changing rapidly. The power that Macbeth achieves through negative means prevents him from thinking clearly, and puts him on a path of self destruction.
Macbeth throughout the play slowly becomes overtaken by his mental state. One reason for this is the jealousy he gets towards those whom he has been in contact with. After killing Banquo, Macbeth feels as if he wishes he were Banquo. By him being dead it would give him the chance be released from all harm and fears; “But now I am cabined, cribbed, bound in/To saucy doubts and fears- But Banquo’s safe”. This takes over his view on reality and how Macbeth portrays himself. Coming back from the murder of Duncan Macbeth cracks and does not see clearly. His hands “pluck out [his] eyes.” and goes on to say that could “all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/Clean from [his] hand?” (2.2.77-79). To Macbeth if he cleans his hands it would clean the blood and make him closed off to what actually is happening. The magnitude of Macbeth’s actions catch up to him with full force, which leads to him not to make the right decisions about who to trust and what it right.
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...his leads Macbeth to think that he should just kill Macduff and his family just to make sure he is safe.
In the end Macbeth is faced with the death of his wife, close friend, king, and many more. When Macbeth is saying, “Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,/Than on the torture of the mind to lie/In restless ecstasy” (3.2.22-25) he feels like those who are dead he put to rest and are free from suffering. Him being one of the last to live gives him a lifetime of nightmares, which are not good for him. When Macduff kills Macbeth even though. The killing eventually ends up contributing to his demise rather than his benefit. The message that Shakespeare is trying to send through Macbeth is to not let all the chaos get to you, and take a moment to relax. If you change things rapidly without taking a moment, you get stressed and tend to lose your sense of self.

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