Power can be a tool used to achieve a man’s heartfelt desire. Such is the case for the protagonist, Macbeth, in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. After three crones inform him of three prophecies: thane of Glamis and Cawdor, king hereafter, and Banquo’s children will become king, Macbeth is not content with allowing fate to run its course. Soon enough, he joins with his wife to commit murder and ensure that the most sought after prophecy is fulfilled, a kingship. As Macbeth attempts to protect his ambition, his actions go from that of being a noble thane to a man of paranoia, suspicion, and inner turmoil. Macbeth struggles with the notion of killing his king; however, once he engages in such evil behavior, additional violence does not cause him …show more content…
After a lot of persuading from Lady Macbeth, her husband finally felt comfortable with the subject of killing Duncan. Throughout the play, Macbeth begins to think less and less of his murders. When planning to kill Duncan, he is very hesitant and processed the murder a great deal. The reader sees a change in Macbeth’s reasoning when planning each murder. During the murder of Macduff’s family, Macbeth has no just reason to murder the family, he entirely killed them just for the sake of killing. Macbeth also becomes less sympathetic of his victim as the play progresses. He began to process the harm he has done after each murder less and less. Initially, Lady Macbeth was the sole planner of the murder. As the play advances, Macbeth takes the lead role in the murders, as Lady Macbeth takes back wheel in the crime. Macbeth’s entire mindset changes by the end of the play. During the conversation between Macbeth and his wife, Macbeth states, “if th’ assassination could trammel up the consequence and catch with his surcease success, that but this blow might be the be-all and the end-all here, but here, upon this band and shoal of time, we’d jump the life to come”(1.7.2-7). Macbeth reveals to his Wife, Lady Macbeth, that he fears the consequences succeeding the murder. As Macbeth develops into a new person, he no longer has the trepidation of murdering people close to him. Macbeth has a greater fear of the effect to his …show more content…
Each individual murder, adds to how Macbeth begins to spiral out of control. Due to the change of his mental state, Macbeth starts to lose sight of what is reality really is. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth was able to control his feelings and decisions when dealing with these murders; However, it became hard for him to cope with the guilt and power to where he just began to kill for no reason. He lost sight of what was just and okay because he became obsessed with power. He murdered vulnerable people just for the sake of murdering them. In his head, Macbeth made these murders seem okay, even though he had no concrete reason for them. For example, Macbeth murdered Macduff’s family. He had not had a well founded reason to murder them, he just believed he needed to murder them because he saw Macduff as a threat. Macbeth exclaims, “I will not be afraid of death and bane”(5.4.73). As he is about to be in contact with Malcolm and Macduff, Macbeth claims that he is not afraid of death. He also felt that he was fully prepared to fight and win the battle. He was not aware of how much power Malcolm and Macduff really obtained because he was overconfident in himself and his power. His overconfidence led to him being in a state where he could be overcome by enemies. He lost sight of the power of other people due to his selfishness. Macduff ends up leaving the battle with Macbeth’s
Macbeth feels that the only way to make his anxiety and shame disappear is to kill anyone who threatens his kingship, so his conscience begins to believe that killing people is ethical. Near the end, Macbeth realizes that he has "almost forgot the taste of fear" (IV.iv.9). By murdering so
Lady Macbeth is worried about Macbeth’s will and ability to do the things they set out to do, which is murder those who stand in the way of their goals. She says, “how easy it is then! Your constancy hath left you unattended” (2.2.89-90). She informs Macbeth that she does not believe he will be able to complete the tasks and also comments about how courage is no longer a prominent trait she sees within Macbeth. After the murders and seizing the throne, the Macbeth’s are not happy with how they came to be.
In this piece of writing I will be exploring and analyzing how Shakespeare presents aspects of power in Act 1, of the play Macbeth. Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare that was first performed back in 1606. The book deals with a brave Scottish general named Macbeth who receives prophecy from three witches who tell him that one day he will become the king of Scotland. The book all together dramatises the damaging and physiological effects of political ambitions on those who seek power for its own sake.
Further, we focused on important parts of scenes, including where someone was killed, planning to kill, or someone’s personality changing. Throughout most of these scenes, Macbeth is the one planning to kill as well as the one in power, along with lady Macbeth. The play shows how Macbeth did anything he could to get power and try and secure his place and how Lady Macbeth was a main factor in his decisions to act as he did. In the kids book we showed that while Macbeth was very hesitant to kill someone, Lady Macbeth was very intent on him committing the murder so she could become queen. Lady Macbeth is so insistent that she even says to Macbeth, “ Leave all the rest to me(I:VI, 86).”
Not only does Macbeth portray his inhumane quality through his lack of inner voice, but also through his cruel actions. Later in the Act, Macbeth is told by Apparitions that he should beware of Macduff. Because of this warning, Macbeth thinks he needs to kill all the members of Macduff’s family (4.1.171-175). When Macbeth killed Macduff’s wife and sons, he did not stop to think about them as humans. The wife and children of Macduff were innocent people with lives that were taken away just because Macbeth received a warning from ghost-like images.
Lady Macbeth thinks that Macbeth does not have what it takes and thinks that he will back out of the murder. "Only look up clear./ To alter favor ever is to fear./ Leave all the rest to me" (1.6.70-73) he could not handle the murder, so she told him to just worry about clearing his conscience. Lady Macbeth is a very forceful character toward
Macbeth is a tragedy that plays out a savage dichotomy between the head and the heart. Throughout the course of the play, Macbeth the dichotomy within Macbeth’s character by falling from the lofty hearts of a pure and loyal warrior to a murderous savage determined to fulfil the prophecy delivered to him by supernatural powers. The witches influence on how Macbeth made his decisions played a crucial part in contributing to his eventual destruction. They planted the seed of evil in Macbeth’s head that grew to dominate his mind. “Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor: The greatest is behind.”
Macbeth experienced both guilt over the immorality of his intentions and fear over potential consequences. Both of these tortured Macbeth’s decisioning making and when it was over and done with they still bombarded his thoughts. Even after committing the murder he still doesn’t know if he made the right decision or not. He was ultimately swayed by the witches prophecy and by his wife on what to do. He wouldn’t have ever considered murdering the King if he had never talked to either of them on this
Macbeth’s murder of the king shows that the more power you acquire dishonestly, the more evil one
In addition, this shows how much Macbeth has changed through the course of the play. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth was hesitant about killing Duncan and felt extremely guilty after doing so. However, after deciding to kill Macduff’s family, Macbeth doesn’t feel hesitant regarding his decision and doesn’t feel guilty at all. This act of cruelty is ironic because originally this act is committed in order for Macbeth to maintain his power, but instead, it is the final straw that causes his death and downfall. Overall,
Further into the play, Macbeth was kind of reluctant about going through with killing Duncan
This leads to Macbeth becoming a tyrant, a murderer, a liar, and eventually being killed (by Macduff) in an attempt to restore order and balance to Scotland. Whilst being one who doesn't give up, he does anything in order to fulfil his ambition for becoming the King of Scotland. Macbeth's traits demonstrate the potential destructiveness of power and ambition throughout the entire play as they become the force behind Macbeth, allowing him to perform the evil acts that he
At the beginning of William Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ the protagonist Macbeth is described as ‘brave’, ‘noble’ and ‘honourable’, however Lady Macbeth’s and Macbeths desire for power consumes them. Macbeth’s ambition overrides his conscience and transformed his greatest strength into his greatest weakness. Macbeth’s inability to resist temptations that led him to be greedy for power, Macbeth’s easily manipulative nature which allowed his mind to be swayed, Macbeth having no self control and his excessive pride was what allowed him to renew his previously honourable and celebrated title into one of an evil ‘tyrant’. Macbeth is led by the prophecies of the witches after they foretell he will become the Thane of Cawdor. Not only the witches, but also his wife easily manipulate Macbeth as she attacks his manhood in order to provoke him to act on his desires.
His easily impressionable nature causes him to not form his own thoughts, but rather listen to the words of Lady Macbeth and the three witches. At the point of this play the audience can note the change in Macbeth's character. Macbeth's first murder was a trying experience for him, however after the first murder; killing seemed to be the only solution to maintain his reign of the people of Scotland. Through this ambition Macbeth is able to organize these murders without a drop of remorse. This lack of remorse is his shrill that pushes him to continue with his evil conspiracies.
When Macbeth murders King Duncan it changes the entire atmosphere of the story. King Duncan’s murder, which was influenced by Lady Macbeth, changed Macbeth’s character for the rest of the play. Next was Banquo’s murder which seemed much easier for Macbeth even though Banquo was completely innocent like King Duncan. The last murder was Macduff’s family which started to make the reader question Macbeth’s morality considering Macduff’s family was also innocent. The murder of innocent people in Macbeth was important to show Macbeth’s inner conflict when he killed King Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff’s family.