William Shakespeare's Macbeth In William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, there is no doubt that the “dead butcher and his fiend like queen” (V, 9, 36) are both villainous; however they are villainous to varying degrees. We are first exposed to both of their villainy when Macbeth and Lady Macbeth hear of the witch’s predictions, and their reaction is to murder Duncan. Even though Macbeth is initially portrayed as being courageous and honorable, he eventually becomes more villainous than Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth appears very villainous to begin with, because she encourages and provokes her husband to murder King Duncan. However she has nothing to do with the murders that Macbeth commits later on in the play: Macduff’s family, Banquo, and young Seaward. Upon hearing the three witch’s foretellings, “All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Glamis. All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor. All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter.”(I, 3, 47) Macbeth begins to contemplate the possibility of becoming king, and even thinks about the possibility of murdering Duncan. “My thought, whose murder is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man that function is smother in summise and nothing is, but what is not.”(I, 3, 138) The villainy that Macbeth has already planned as a response to the predictions of three supernatural beings shows his innate villainy. Similar to Macbeth, Lady Macbeth upon reading the letter that explains the witch’s foretellings, and Macbeth’s appointment of thane of Cawdor immediately begins to plot the murder of King Duncan. “All that impedes thee from the golden round, which fate and me... ... middle of paper ... ... After the successful murder of Duncan, Macbeth entered a life of villainy. Ambition was also a clear motive to the murder of his friend Banquo. The witches' predictions sent Macbeth into his own world where he could not be stopped on his way to becoming king. The brave hero from in Act I has metamorphosised in to someone or something that is completely villainous. Although Lady Macbeth at times in the play provided the spark that caused Macbeth to commit murder, and although she may be villainous, Macbeth is ultimately far more villainous. He will do anything and will stop at nothing to preserve the crown in his head and is entirely driven by his greed and ambition. Macbeth’s rise and fall from power in the play, Macbeth relates very closely to the quotation, “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Macbeth began this play with a great future ahead of him: a Thane to the King with a great life and many friends. Shortly after Macbeth is given the title Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth and his companion Banquo encounter a group of witches. The witches are portrayed as wicked and menacing, saying “Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air” (Act 1, Scene 1). This quote shows that what appears to be fair and good, similar to that of Macbeth at the beginning of this play. This quote also applies to the Witches themselves. The Witches’ prophecies to Banquo and Macbeth appear to be fair and very appealing to the men, but are actually very deceiving and leads to Macbeth’s ultimate downfall. Following Macbeth’s visit by the witches, he tells Lady Macbeth of his encounter but says that he does not wish to kill King Duncan to become King. Shakespeare characterizes Lady Macbeth as an evil mastermind, using her powers of seduction to challenge Macbeth’s masculinity. Macbeth may not have murdered for the throne if it was not for the actions of Lady Macbeth, who accuses Macbeth of being too kind hearted to take the closest path to the throne. Macbeth’s downfall begins with the actions that his wife convinces him to take. Shakespeare uses characterization to show that Macbeth is a tragic hero, but these characters’ actions also cause many conflicts that lead to Macbeth’s
William Shakespeare's Macbeth In Act I, King Duncan is at the top of the chart of power, because he has the most power being the king of Scotland, he is good and kind. king, which holds legitimate and referent power. In Act I, Scene 2, he. announces his eldest son, Malcolm, as heir to the throne, after the throne.
Three witches start the villainy in Macbeth’s heart by addressing him as “thane of Cawdor” and “king hereafter.” (Act I, Scene 3, 50-51) Those few words plant the seeds of debauchery that will take the lives of Duncan the King, Banquo his fellow warrior, and the ultimate demise of his wife Lady Macbeth. The peripety occurs with each of these malicious acts during this tragedy. Macbeth knew that Duncan was a good king and fought the urge to kill him, but surrendered to his wife’s verbal lashing and committed the crime. The killing of Banquo was easier to decide, but thoroughly directed his mind on the downward spiral to a collapse of all reason. His mind hit the floor of despair when his wife commits suicide.
In showing that absolute power corrupts absolutely using Macbeth as an example, Shakespeare uses this archetype of the ambitious ruler to signify the importance of balancing power, which results in this play acting as a warning to those that chase power. Macbeth is an excellent example of a character becoming corrupted by the idea of power, so in showing his story, the ability of power to corrupt the actions and thoughts of individuals is shown to allow the audience to apply the lesson to their everyday lives.
Macbeth’s ambition to obtain power convinces him that it is his destiny to become King of Scotland, and that he should do anything to fulfill that destiny, even if it involves him committing tremendously immoral acts such as murder. After Macbeth realizes that the witches may actually speak the truth due to the second prophecy (Thane of Cawdor) becoming true, he begins to have an eerie and frightening thought of him killing his king and friend, Duncan, in order to ac...
William Shakespeare's Macbeth In the tragic play "Macbeth", by William Shakespeare, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth decide, to kill King Duncan. In the play, we see the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth transform in their personality after murdering the King. Macbeth begins the play as a noble soldier, gradually changing into an ambitious murdering man. Similarly, Lady Macbeth is ambitious but she begins as a rebellious woman who dominates her husband, gradually changing into a guilt ridden, and weak woman.
Shakespeare pays much regard as to what it is to be a man and to
In William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, many characters moods change throughout. However, the one character whose mood changes most throughout the play is Lady Macbeth. In the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is the one that drives Macbeth into the killing of the king Duncan. She seems confident and determined in the beginning of the play until she is overwhelmed by guilt. Along with this, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s relationship change after the many murders they have performed. Finally, after all the deaths that Lady Macbeth and Macbeth performed, she finally can’t sleep knowing what she finished.
Macbeth chooses the wrong path to accomplish his ambition. Killing Duncan is wrong and he knows it but can’t help himself. An example for dominance of power in addition to Macbeth can be presented in Brian De Palma’s movie Scarface. Al Pacino as Tony Montana creates excessive wealth from distributing cocaine because he thrives for power. As the movie progresses, the drugs make him crazy and he kills more and more people who die in violence followed by the main character. Similarly, Macbeth’s ambition for power becomes his weakness which finally brings tragedy to his character. He is a tragic hero because he can’t seem to help himself even though in the beginning he was good and was a hero in Scotland. Similarly to Dr. Mathur, Faith Nostbakken argues that “The witches do not completely determine Macbeth’s actions. If they did, Macbeth would simply be a victim rather than a tragic figure who suffers the consequences of his own choices. As he wades deeper and deeper into his own darkness, pulling the kingdom down with him, the weird sisters spur Macbeth to his own corruption…In the service of evil rather than good, they equivocate in their prophecies, encouraging destructive behavior.” (Understanding Macbeth
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
Perhaps the most fundamental theme of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is the inherent corruptibility of even a seemingly good man when ambition turns to greed, and Macbeth himself exemplifies this concept throughout the play. While at the outset he is seen to be loyal to his king, generally considered trustworthy, and displaying numerous other laudable qualities, Macbeth ultimately succumbs to the influence of those around him and becomes unequivocally evil, setting aside all his previously held morals and coming to be driven only by his lust for power. This transition is brought about by a wide variety of factors and plays an integral role in the development of the plot. In his tragedy Macbeth, William Shakespeare employs
Macbeth, whom initially was a very reasonable and moral man, could not hold off the lure of ambition. This idea is stated in the following passage: "One of the most significant reasons for the enduring critical interest in Macbeth's character is that he represents humankind's universal propensity to temptation and sin. Macbeth's excessive ambition motivates him to murder Duncan, and once the evil act is accomplished, he sets into motion a series of sinister events that ultimately lead to his downfall." (Scott; 236). Macbeth is told by three witches, in a seemingly random and isolated area, that he will become Thank of Cawdor and eventually king. Only before his ambition overpowers his reasoning does he question their motives. One place this questioning takes place is in the following passage:
Lady Macbeth is the first to strategize a way to kill Duncan. As a character foil to Macbeth she juxtaposes their possession of guilt and ruthlessness, which creates irony and excitement to the play. Originally, she is very power hungry and wants to utilize her husband’s position in status to become queen. Macbeth objects to the plan to kill Duncan because he believes Duncan is Macbeth’s kinsman, host, and an overall virtuous ruler (Act. 1 Scene. 7) and thus feels very guilty for taking advantage of Duncan’s trusting quality towards the Macbeth family. She refers to Macbeth as weak and rebukes his manhood (Act 1. Scene 7.) . As the play progresses, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have a character role reversal of their possession of guilt and ruthlessness. The character foil is extant, however Macbeth’s ruthlessness overcomes his guilt, and Lady Macbeth’s guilt vanquishes her drive for power. In addition to an alteration in character foils, Shakespeare introduces situational irony because now Lady Macbeth succumbs to the weakness Macbeth once possessed and Macbeth is the one who is formidable and ambitious. Macbeth’s ability to transcend his guilt exemplifies his struggle for power and reinforces the theme of evil ambition because Macbeth is able to secure the throne and power only by mass
In the play she constantly refers to her husband, Macbeth, as a “coward” and puts his masculinity into question, which leads to Macbeth having to prove himself to his wife. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is seen as a protagonist soldier fighting for his king, until The Three Witches foretells his future of being King by saying “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane to Glamis! All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane Cawdor! All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!”
Macbeth, the main character in the tragedy of Macbeth, undergoes a series of character changes throughout the play. His transformation occurs in three major stages. First comes his attitude at the beginning of Macbeth where it is very positive and powerful. Subsequently he endures a change with the murder of king Duncan that reduces him from his moral and good status. Finally, he becomes wicked in his ways and develops into a tyrant and a butcher. This series of changes are evident as one reads the tragic play of Macbeth.