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Macbeth the third murderer
Macbeth - advanced analysis
Macbeth's murder
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William Shakespeare’s most tragic play, named Macbeth has been the most read play by high school students. It has been understood differently by every reader, but everyone knows the themes are ambition, fate, deception and treachery. Where we mostly see ambition by Macbeth is in the first act (Macbeth I.I.II). The chant "fair is foul, and foul is fair" is indeed the theme of the play Macbeth. I believe the entire play revolves around this chant. That may be the reason Shakespeare introduces this in the very beginning of the play. It simply means that whatever is fair to the common man is foul to the witches and to the people related to them. We have to recall from the story that Macbeth does whatever he formerly considered as foul. This is in contact with the above chant. Macbeth does things that he shouldn’t have because of the conditions he was put in. therefore he is guilty of first degree murder because of King Duncan’s murder. In this play like I mentioned before there were three witches, they take a very important part in the play because they are part of the reason why Macbeth murders the king. They state he will become king soon, “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. iii. 48-50). He does not believe so because he does not yet know that the Thane of Cawdor is already dead and that he has been the thane of Cawdor. He lets that get into his head and lets his wife Lady Macbeth interferes so he can become the king as soon as possible. That’s the mistake he made when he decided to do what his wife said and kill the King. That’s why he is now guilty for first degree murder which is a death that was made being pla... ... middle of paper ... ... lost conscience. Soon deteriorated to nothing, and his killings are numerous. We know that at the beginning he saw three witches but we do not know if that could be Macbeth hallucinating, that he has been seeing things since then because he was that ambitious of a man. We may not know if it was real therefore I will name Macbeth charged for First degree murder because Macbeth's change from human to killer is his own doing. He allowed the evil that is within everyone to overwhelm him. His ambition and need for power put him through a transformation from hero to killer. Macbeth's conscience and feelings seemed to leave him. At first he needed Lady Macbeth to coax him into killing, and at the end he kills on impulse. After a number of mental breakdowns, Macbeth just loses it. At this point he stops representing anything human, and displays no human characteristics.
...n is a great man and he did not want to kill him. He even mentions this to Lady Macbeth later. Once Macbeth kills Duncan the greed from his ambition overwhelms him. He is only worried about his well being and does not love his wife anymore. “She should have died hereafter” (Shakespeare, Macbeth 5.5 line 17). In this line he shows no emotion to his wife having died. He even said that he forgot his sense of fear. “I have almost forgot the taste of fears…my senses would have cooled to hear a night-shriek, and fell my hair would at dismal treatise rouse and stir as life were in ‘t”(Shakespeare Macbeth 5.5 9-13). Macbeth explains how he would react when he used to be scarred in certain situations. Overall at the start of the drama readers see Macbeth as a hero and someone they could look up to. Towards the end of the drama Macbeth is a tyrant and has antihero qualities.
Our main character Macbeth is very driven by his need for what he believes to be the truth. The play starts out with the quote “Fair is foul, and foul is fair,” (1.1.6) meaning nothing is, as it seems. This quote was from all three witches, who decided they were going to seek out Macbeth who at the time was Thane of Glamis and a prized solider on the battlefield. Macbeth at this time was looking for more in his life. The witches then gave him and his friend Banquo three prophecies. They were that he would become Tha...
MACBETH's affirmation of this is reciprocated in Act I, Scene III, when he echoes the witches words, "So fair and foul a day I have not seen."
Gather round my brothers, a call to arms. I am Malcolm, the son of King Duncan. Before we embark on bringing justice back into this kingdom, let me offer you some words of advocacy. We come here not as individuals, rather a single force for justice and truth. Macbeth is no match for this brave hearted army. Today this turmoil ends, today we fight!
This is a change that shows his decisions’ motive being desire for power, not honor. The gruesome homicidal decision drives him to accept murder as a solution and pusts a hit out on two men, causing the death of Banquo and attempted murder of Fleance. These decisions even lead to his own death. Tied to the loss of his emotional well being, Macbeth also loses his sight on the life he used to have and the man he used to be. Not only do these action drive Macbeth to the ground, they greatly affect Lady Macbeth. After expressing her sorrow for the crimes, she commits suicide. Macbeth learns this and rambles of how there is no purpose in life. He
Macbeth’s choice to put his trust in the witches, rather than take heed like Banquo, leads to his own destruction. Macbeth first encounters the three witches after his victory over the Norwegians. When Macbeth passes the three witches on the road, the greet him with, “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!” All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis! All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” (I,iii,49-51). Macbeth doubts these claims until Ross and Angus soon tell him of his newly acquired title, the Thane of Cawdor. He starts to believe the sisters to be true and that he just might become king. Macbeth jumps to the conclusion that the three sisters are of the supernatural and decides to trust them. He does so despite Banquo’s warning, “ But ’tis strange. And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s in deepest consequence...
In the beginning of the play, Macbeth’s loyalty towards the king has been overthrown by the prophecies. Macbeth has replaced loyalty with greed for power and betrayal. In doing so, murderous deeds have been put into action. Lady Macbeth and the witches fill Macbeth with such ambition, which lead to the death of him. The impact of Macbeth’s ambition reflect death and guilt upon himself and others. Regarding Macbeth’s loss of loyalty, he fools many around him, being devious and cunning. Being against divine right, Macbeth commits a dreadful sin that throws Scotland in an unnatural state. Easily persuaded, Macbeth’s ambition was the success and fall of him.
"Fair is foul, and foul is fair" (I.i.12) illustrates the ultimate view of appearance versus reality. William Shakespeare captures the suspense of foreshowing opening the beginning of the play. The quote interpreted is "foul", ideally bad, yet "fair" which is good. The witches foul and fair quote, simply state bad is good and good is bad, which is just like Macbeth’s character. Macbeth is both foul and fair throughout the play. Many explanations come from the quote, a world where nothing is what it seems. A world where you are never sure whether something is what it actually seems. Macbeth’s character is not who he seems, yet he is. What one thinks is good, it is actually foul, and what one believes to be foul is indeed good. Shakespeare uses characterization, soliloquy, and archetype to show the destruction of over-ambition in Macbeth's
By attacking Macbeth she convinces him to murder Duncan as part of a plan to become king. This becomes one of the first steps to Macbeth’s path to destruction. The prophecies show him the path of where he is headed, but Macbeth carried out bad deeds to achieve that prophecy. Macbeth goes into Duncan's chamber and murdered Duncan. This became the first evil deed that Macbeth committed. Macbeth kills Duncan against his nature and afterward become guilt-ridden and paranoid. After the murder of Duncan, Macbeth started to hallucinate, as in floating dagger and people laughing at him. He talks about the blood stain that was on his hand. Macbeth was paranoid that he also killed Duncan’s servant, “Th’ expedition of my violent love/ Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan” (II.iii.104-105). Macbeth claims that his emotions overpowered his reasoning, which made him pause to think before he killed Duncan’s servants. Not only did Macbeth kill Duncan, to cover up his track, he also framed the murder of the king to the two servants that guarded Duncan. Macbeth’s evil deed causes him to suffer. Toward the end of the play, Macbeth’s ambition became extreme. After Macbeth became king, he wanted more and more to ensure his
The witches have a strong effect on Macbeth's character; they highly influence him in his accomplishments and awake his ambitions. They give Macbeth a false sense of security with their apparitions of truths. Instead they prove to be harmful for Macbeth who takes too much comfort and confidence in his interpretation of the truths. They are the ones who plant the actual idea of killing Duncan into Macbeth's mind. But if it were only the witches prophecies, then Macbeth surely would not have murdered the king. 'When you durst to do it, then you were a man,' (Macbeth, Shakespeare Act 1 Scene 7) Lady Macbeth's constant harassment pushed Macbeth and made him commit all this evil. When you reason things out by yourself you tend to now what is right and what is wrong, a conscience. But with the outside influence from the witches he thinks that that is his destiny and he must do everything to fulfill it. One can wonder if Macbeth ever had a chance of doing what was right after he met with the witches. He is overthrown and killed. Through his own ambitions, the ambition of his wife and the witches' prophesies, Macbeth has caused his own destruction and downfall. We can now clearly see that ambition not achieved through our own ability leads to destruction. 'Hail Thane of Glamis and of Cawdor and shalt be King hereafter'. (Act 1 Scene 3) These prophecies from three strangers are taken without question and probably without good judgment. Just the thought that he may be King clouds his thoughts and ambition takes over. The witches can predict the future, they can add temptation, and influence Macbeth, but they cannot control his destiny.
The quoted phrase, “fair is foul and foul is fair” is used frequently, the phrase itself is an oxymoron. Early in the play the reader sees Macbeth as the hero because he has saved all of Scotland from the Norwegians. Duncan, honoring Macbeth, says, “More is thy due than more than all can pay.” (Act 1, Scene ) Towards the middle of the play the reader suddenly begins to pity Macbeth, slowly realizing his encroaching insanity for what it is, a downward spiral of death and increased mistakes. Finally, at the end of the play, the reader's opinion of Macbeth moves more towards hate and a feeling that Macbeth is unmistakably evil. As the second witch said:
When Macbeth did his foul deeds the outcome for him became fair which he did not deserve. The pain he caused, the heartbreak and the deaths he constricted to get what he wanted was not fair but in fact the exact opposite. Macbeth is set in the eleventh century England when the rules were completely different. Macbeth makes the reader wonder about what is to come and spoils what happens at the ending. The Play Macbeth is written by William Shakespeare in sixteen-ohsix. His thought was a excessive ambition will have terrible consequences, which in the end it did. Macbeth messed up with all the actions he took to become king. He did not deserve the right to be king. Fair is foul, Foul is fair supports the idea that appearances can be deceiving and this play has a lot of deceiving and back stabbing to support the cause.
Macbeth’s own personality suffers a downfall as well. When Lady Macbeth dies, Macbeth is not emotionally distraught as one would expect, he simply states that “Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more” (5.5.24-26). Macbeth does not mourn his wife’s death, he simply accepts it and moves forward. The kingdom of Scotland is greatly affected by the acts that the ambitious Macbeth committed. Before his ambition was turned into a negative, he was a prosperous nobleman who was loved and highly respected by many.
Towards the end of the play, Macbeth becomes ruthless and completely dependent upon the prophesies of the witches. He feels invincible while he is under their influence. People begin to speculate about what really happened concerning the murders. Macbeth becomes a merciless tyrant who will kill anybody who gets in the way of what he wants.
Macbeth has become deeply involved with murder, and eventually kills several others. This is proof that Lady Macbeth has transformed Macbeth into being a greedy, coldhearted human being, by saying things such as "Are you a man?" She undermines his masculinity, to make him feel at fault, and have it her way. Eventually, Lady Macbeth is driven to Madness by the guilt she holds on her shoulders, and ends up committing suicide. If it werent for Lady Macbeth, Macbeth would have never killed anyone.