Evil is a popular theme in many novels and plays, and there are many factors that contribute to characters becoming evil. Factors such as no interaction with people and the way someone is treated can turn a person to become evil and commit bad acts. The person may start out as a selfless person with good morals, but eventually he will turn evil as a result of outside factors. Some factors might be isolation, the way he is treated by others, and motives. A person’s selfish needs often consume him and he wants nothing but to benefit himself. He will do anything to get what he wants and will eventually commit so many bad acts that he will turn purely evil. In the play Macbeth by Shakespeare and the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the characters …show more content…
Macbeth turns evil because he is so consumed with the idea of power. Dunn explains “People do not choose evil itself but choose a lesser good over a greater one by choosing selfish satisfactions over moral duty” (Dunn 3). Often times a person does not choose evil, but they choose to do something bad over what is morally right because it will benefit him in some way. The person is so overly consumed with himself that he does not care that he is hurting people around him because in the end he will have gained something from it. However, choosing selfish needs over what is morally right, influences a person to continue to do bad things and will eventually turn him evil. Macbeth acknowledges that killing King Duncan is immoral, but his selfish desires overpower the good when he says, “That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur/To prick the sides of my intent, but only/Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself/And falls on th’ other” (Shakespeare 1.7.25-28). Macbeth contemplates whether he should kill King Duncan. Macbeth says that he feels an overbearing sense of loyalty to …show more content…
The monster turns evil because his creator, Victor, rejects him. DeWall explains that the way someone is treated can determine how they act: “Hurt feelings are the core emotional marker of social rejection, but rejection also increases anxiety, anger, sadness, depression, and jealousy” (DeWall 257). Even though hurt feelings are the most common and obvious effect of rejection, it can also greatly affect a person emotionally. It can make them feel depressed or very angry. These feelings can trigger a person to make bad decisions, which they will keep making until they feel accepted again. However, by continuously making bad decisions they are beginning to turn evil. Victor runs away from the monster when it comes to his window one night, leaving the monster alone: “He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and rushed downstairs” (Shelley 44). After the monster is created, Victor becomes repulsed by it and immediately flees after seeing it. He stays away from the monster for days, but it reappears at his window one night. The quote is an example of imagery because it indirectly depicts the monster as a very hideous figure since Victor ran away from it. Victor left it feeling rejected, which tempted the monster to become evil. Macbeth turns evil because he feels
Good vs. Evil in Macbeth The good characters in Macbeth are less interesting than the evil ones. Everybody has an evil seed planted in them. Only the really evil person acts on them and commits something morally wrong. Like a Macbeth. When Macbeth first received the prophecies, he actually considered them.
Society rapidly judges the monster and forms opinions based on his outside appearance rather than his internal intentions. After creating the monster, Victor reflects on his work: “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe...His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath...formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion and straight black lips” (Shelley 55-56). Victor’s description of his monster takes on a negative perspective. He uses words such as “horrid” and “catastrophe” to portray his vengeance towards the monster. After he creates the monster, he flees due to his horridness. Soon after, he returns and he “stepped fearfully in: the apartment was empty, and [his] bedroom was also freed from its hideous guest. [He] could hardly believe that so great a good fortune could have befallen [him]” (Shelley 60). Even the monster’s own creator, Victor Frankenstein, quickly considers him to be villainous. Despite that the monster is his own creation and he does not know the monster’s morals...
Before the murder of King Duncan, Macbeth was a brave, noble warrior. “For brave Macbeth well he deserves that name… Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chop and fixed his head upon our battlements” (Act I, Scene 2, lines 2). He was one of the last people anyone would expect to kill King Duncan. Shakespeare chooses a noble character such as Macbeth, to emphasize how greed and power can alter a person’s good morals. In Act one we start to see Macbeth’s desire for more power rise. “Stars, hide your fires; Let no light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the hond yet let that be which the eye fears, when it is done to see” (Act I, Scene 4, lines 52- 55). His desire for power is at war with his good morals. He wants to become king but does not want to kill Duncan.
Macbeth is swaying between the forces of good and evil. He wants to stop killing but he also wants to become king and in his mind the only way to do that is to kill whoever is in his path, saying “I am in blood/ Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,/ Returning were as tedious as go o'er.” (3.4.168-170). Macbeth is already deep into this situation and if he were to turn back now, it would cause him greater hardship than relief. Macbeth has been dealing with this inner conflict ever since he was told by the weird sisters that he is fated to become king. This conflict ties everything together, between fate versus free will and sane or insane. Macbeth started the play as being a glorified war hero, however as time moved on he transformed into a bloodthirsty tyrant. Macbeth has gone through so much that he has shifted into a guilty man haunted by nightmares and hallucinations but will not stop until he gets what he came for. Macbeth has gone so far into the void of guilt that his name has now fell into infamy, as shown by quote by Young Siward saying “The devil himself could not pronounce a title/ More hateful to mine ear.” (5.7.10-11). Macbeth had already grown a name for himself while he kept his innocence, however with all the killings macbeth has made, he has done nothing but shame his name. Macbeth name to others is more hateful and there is nothing that Siward would rather do than to end Macbeth’s life, thus ending all the guilt and evil inside
The character Macbeth in the story of Shakespeare’s Macbeth faces decisions that affect his morals. He begins as an innocent soul, dedicated to serve his kingdom and its king, Duncan. As time passes and opportunities present themselves combined with the deception of the evil witches, Macbeth begins his descent into madness. Macbeth’s innocence and loyalty are completely corrupted due to his over confidence, guilty conscience, and the inevitability of human nature. Macbeth looses sight of what is morally right to do in life because his logical choices are changed by these factors.
Macbeth’s visions and the prophecies of the witches cause Macbeth to make poor decisions, which lead him to his eventual downfall. Macbeth started off as a noble, virtuous man, he was loyal to the king and was well respected by the other noblemen. The prophecies and hallucinations corrupted Macbeth’s intentions and as a result, Macbeth became power hungry and overzealous. A combination of Macbeth’s ambition and paranoia lead to many senseless murders.
Macbeth, like any other man, had succumbed to some form of temptation. Shakespeare utilizes him as a model, to show how no matter how strong you may be; even the strongest man can be taken in by evil. When Macbeth came across three witches [I.iii], was tempted by evil, then fell for it. His character, being a solid and heroic one, becomes severed off from his men and his creator [God] for the point that he reached out to evil. Macbeth saw how the only way he could become king, was alternatively taking his own path away from that of God [betraying God, who wrote that his destiny was not to become a king], with the help of Satanic or evil forces to accomplish his inner most desire. The audience sees how a devilish Macbeth is automatically broken off the path of God, as the witches discussed his position as the bearer of the throne.
In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth must be evil in order to advance the plot. The strong love and bond between herself and Macbeth enables her to influence him and spur him to action. They are separate embodiments of the same lust for power: her strong will and determination are the perfect match for his ability to perform horrible and bloody acts...
There are two main thoughts or theories about Macbeth actually being evil, the first one being that “Macbeth was naturally evil”, and the second one being “that Macbeth was pushed into being evil.” Personally upon watching the play, I feel that Macbeth was pushed into being evil. I believe this because Macbeth had to deal with the witches whom were naturally evil and their presence really changed Macbeth for the worse.
Macbeth was a character who fell a long way from his state of mind and morality. He was tempted by the witches, and from this temptation, he began his evil reign of terror by murdering Duncan, his king and friend; spawning a doomed change of events that tempered Macbeth to the point where he became more willing to murder. From this, we saw that Macbeth was no longer able to function as an honorable and virtuous king by the end of the play. He had given up his noble state to reach his desire, and by doing so lost his ability to do Good; Evil corrupted his very nature.
“Besides, this Duncan, Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been/ So clear in his great office, that his virtues/ Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against, The deep damnation of his taking-off” (1.7.16-20). Despite the fact that Macbeth acknowledges that Duncan was indeed a terrific ruler, he puts himself first. His selfishness and pride gets in the way of what is for the greater good of his country. The potential to be in power moves him so much so that he kills what he believes to be a very good man. Another example of this lust of blood is the killing of his good friend Banquo.
In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the theme of power plays a vital role in how the characters are portrayed. There are many examples of how the pursuit of power can destroy a person and cause them to have cruel intentions. One character who exhibits this is Macbeth, who kills his cousin Duncan in order for him to be king. In a soliloquy he exclaims, “ I am Thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs, against the use of nature?” (1.3.37-41). Macbeth is having thoughts of killing King Duncan because of the prophecies the witches had previously told him. The witches didn’t even mention the act of murder, but just that he will be king, proving
Macbeth is without a doubt a play about evil. The play revolves around the bad and wicked qualities in human nature, but Shakespeare also contrasts this evil with the power of good. In this essay I will explore the ways in which Shakespeare contrasted good and evil in Macbeth.
Evil is a destructive force; it causes harm to those who embrace it and their victims. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the protagonist Macbeth and Lady Macbeth fall into the hands of evil. Evil is what drives people to commit unnatural actions of destruction. Macbeth succumbs to evil through his fatal flaw, greed, and it causes him to disrupt the chain of being. When Macbeth willingly murders, massacres, lies and deceives, he loses his heath and sanity. Evil corrupts everything it touches, and Macbeth decides to be evil's servant. But, when Macbeth embraces evil, it corrupts him, and it ultimately destroys him as well. Lady Macbeth is a victim of Macbeth's fatal flaw, since she is drawn in, and becomes greedy for power herself. She pushes Macbeth into destruction when she adds the small touch that plunges Macbeth into a chain of murder, destruction, and lying followed by the loss of their sanity and health. After Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are well into the depths of corruption and greed, it is clearly seen that their guilt will haunt them for the rest of their lives. The harm they have caused others will be returned to them as revenge and they have lost their sanity in order to gain power. The fate of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth clearly illustrates that to embrace evil is to negate our own need for order and well being.
In the rancorous play Macbeth, Shakespeare imbued various ongoing themes, along with certain motifs to attribute to them. Many of such were dark and foreboding, one of the most prominent being a theme of evil. Evil presents itself not only through the nature of a malevolent character, but with the actions that would follow and haunt them. It would reveal itself through a more palpable form. Evil is manifested through each character's ties to blood, along with the wrong-doings that caused it.