The Start of Evil: Lady Macbeth by William Shakespeare

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The Start of Evil
Macbeth is a play written by William Shakespeare in the 1600 century. It is one of Shakespeare’s most well known tragedies, and continues to be studied to this day. It is a dark and gloomy play, as the main character, Macbeth, gets a taste for evil and kills the king of Scotland, King Duncan, in order to become king himself. After this moment there is a rapid increase of evil in him, as he starts to kill more and more people who upset him or are a threat to the throne. One of the play’s most important scenes is when Macbeth murders King Duncan, this scene is essential to the remainder of the play and how it unfolds. This murder scene contributes to the play in terms of plot development, it exposes and develops the major theme of how people can turn evil when confronted with power, and it reveals the true character of Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth.
When Macbeth killed Duncan, this was a turning point in the play in terms of the plot. The plot from that point on became very sinful, creepy, dark and gloomy. Almost directly after the murder of Duncan, the porter hears a knocking at the door and refers to Macbeth’s castle as, “hell[s]-gate” (Shakespeare, II.III.5). Even though the porter does not know the crime that has been committed, he is comparing the castle to hell itself, thus giving the castle a very evil and bad reputation. It seems as the porter senses something off balance happening, setting the rest of the stage in Macbeth as dark and scary. Later on in the play, Ross and an old man are conversing about how now unnatural things are happening. “An owl kills a falcon, horses eat each other, the earth was feverous and did shake, day becomes night” (Spurgeon, 126). These unnatural events that...

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...enes in the play of Macbeth, is the scene where Macbeth murders Duncan. It is a turning point in the plot. Many themes are demonstrated, and one can see the true character revelation of Macbeth and his wife. Shakespeare wrote many magnificent plays, but this one in particular is very fascinating in the way it demonstrates the concepts of losing complete control over ones morals and altering everything about one in a short period of time.

Works Cited
“Principle Topics.” Shakespeares for Students: Book 1. Ed. Mark W. Scott. London:
Gale Research Inc. 1997. 237-238. Print.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Mississauga’s Canadian School Book Exchange,
1996. Print.
Spurgeon, Caroline. “The Imagery of Macbeth.” The Tragedy of Macbeth. Ed. Dom
Salian; Chris Fergusan, Dr. Tim Scott. London: international Thomson
Publishing, 1997. 123-126. Print.

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