It could be stated that evil comes hand in hand with dishonor, as the latter is almost intrinsic to wickedness. This statement can be observed in the drama Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare. This tragedy tells the tale of one ambitious man, Macbeth, and his wife who commit horrible, immoral acts to gain their place as rulers of Scotland. Lady Macbeth, while arguably sinister, pales in comparison to her husband, Macbeth, as he is more dishonorable and evil than her by far.
Macbeth is more dishonorable than his wife, Lady Macbeth, because of many reasons. Dishonor is one of the most prominent features of the man. Macbeth holds the title of thane, which implies that he had sworn allegiance to the king of Scotland, Duncan. A thane is responsible
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A king is to rule fairly over those he commands, this is proven as fact. However, Macbeth does quite the opposite once he obtains the throne of Scotland. He becomes a tyrant very quickly, his ambition rising to the point that he conspires with and helps two murderers hunt down and kill Banquo, his closest friend. He tells the men that he, “will advise you where to plant yourselves / Acquaint you with the perfect spy o’th’time / The moment on’t for’t must be done to-night” (3.1.128-130). Macbeth’s tyranny does not end with his murder of Duncan, but continues on to include his best friend and fellow thane, Banquo, merely because he shows suspicion towards Macbeth. Furthermore, his tyranny does not end here, either. Macbeth goes on to kill Macduff’s family and children as well, and says “Seize upon Fife, give to th’edge o’th’sword / His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls / that trace him in his line” (4.1.151-153). Not only does he murder his best friend, but he murders innocent citizens of Scotland as well. His wife, Lady Macbeth does not take the dagger into her own hands one time throughout the entirety of the play. Yet, Macbeth continues to kill mercilessly, proving that he is more evil than Lady
In the Tragedy of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth exhibits a greater capacity for evil than Macbeth. For example when Lady Macbeth is speaking to Macbeth after he starts to reconsider the plan, she says, “Art thou afeard/ To be the same thine own act and valor/As thou art in desire” (I,vii,39-41). In this scene Lady Macbeth tries to manipulate her husband to kill Duncan by calling him a coward. As a man, Macbeth takes her comments very harshly and gets manipulated to continue the assasination plot.
Evil comes in many different forms; sometimes there is a clear line between good and evil, but there are times where evil can overcome good. The two stories that represents these two forms are Macbeth and Beowulf. In Macbeth, the story starts out with Macbeth who is a loyal servant to King Duncan. His wife convinces Macbeth to kill King Duncan to gain power and become the new king. After hesitating, he murders King Duncan and this starts transforming him into a paranoid person.
After murdering King Duncan he realizes that he is just one step closer to the crown. As a result, he has the desire to kill anyone who stands in his way of him getting the throne. Banquo stands in his way as he knows that King Duncan needed to killed. In this case, Macbeth hires murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. He tells the murderers, “To leave no rubs nor botches in the work /
Macbeth’s love for his wife deteriorated, alongside their relationship to the point where Macbeth does not even care about his wife’s death. Moving forward, Macbeth is not the only person who has undergone a major change. Lady Macbeth has also transitioned from a ruthless, power hungry individual, to someone riddled with guilt, which is shown when she states: “The thane of Fife has a wife. Where is she now? — / What, will these hands ne’er be clean?”
When the story begins, Macbeth truly is a “peerless kinsman” to the king (1.4.66); however, as the story progresses others refer to him in this way only because they are oblivious to his true desire” (Balwan 3). As Balwan states, Macbeth has as significant change due to the so call “power” of being king. While Macbeth transitions to a new form of character, he isolates himself from Lady Macbeth. As the power increases, Macbeth is determined to kill.
William Shakespeare in the play, Macbeth, asserts that man can easily succumb to evil. Shakespeare supports his assertions by illustrating the conflicting nature of man through the images of light and dark. The author's purpose is to show a weakness in man so that the audiences sees the inner battle that every man must face between good and evil and how it interacts with their goals and aspirations. In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses imagery of light and dark to establish this unseen battle within and helps set the suspending tone for the play.
In the beginning Macbeth was a skilled General who would willingly risk his own life to protect his king. Not only was he loyal to his king but he showed respect to his wife, which was not common during that time. Macbeth demonstrates consideration for his wife in Act 1, when he sent a message to his wife before
The witches, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and other characters seem to act one way, whether it be good or evil, but their intentions are usually impure and meant to harm others in order to benefit themselves. Macbeth’s guilt is caused by the foul play the witches involve themselves in. If not for their prophecy, Macbeth would have never known of his fate and would have gained the kingship without involving murder, leading to his guilty conscious. The use of Supernatural elements is added to the plot of the play in order to show readers what led to Macbeth’s downfall, and what contributed to his guilt. His guilt arose from the
This shows that lady Macbeth emotionally abused Macbeth, which lead Macbeth to see his wife as very manipulating and threatening. Therefore, she is the true murderer. Even though Macbeth took action and murdered the king, her manipulation of him made it such that she might as well have been holding the knife
Macbeth’s murder of the king shows that the more power you acquire dishonestly, the more evil one
His capricious and malicious acts prove how naive and vile he is as a person. Macbeth even attempts to kill Banquo to prevent any trace of his nature from making him, a “fruitless crown.” Macbeth states, “Must lave or honors in the flattering streams, and make our face vizards to our heart, disguising who we are,”(3.2.45). With such desperation, Macbeth is willing to include other people in his premeditated murder. By having Lady Macbeth be part of his plot to kill Banquo, Macbeth reveals two things about himself: That he does not value those around him, even if they are his loved ones, and that he places his personal success over all aspects of his life.
Macbeth feels his destiny is to murder King Duncan and become the King of Scotland, which is why Macbeth promises Lady Macbeth achieve his destiny. Therefore, Macbeth’s ambition for power leads to the death of King Duncan. Moreover, Macbeth’s ambition for power triggers the massacre the ones who impede him from his pathway to the Scottish Throne. First, Macbeth has murderers kill Banquo to avoid obstructions in his plan to become the King of Scotland. Macbeth tells the three murderers hired: “…
(Cooper) Shakespeare treats Lady Macbeth as no less of a villain than any of his male villains. She, like most of Shakespeare’s villains gets what’s coming to her. She takes her own life out of guilt and fear. Lady Macbeth is a strong independent woman who murdered then paid the
Throughout Shakespeare play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth was regarded as ruthless, cruel and manipulative, although it was suggested there was more to her character. Lady Macbeth is not as evil as she was portrayed to be. Lady Macbeth had a strong relationship with her husband, they trusted each other and were loyal to one another. Through her words and actions she showed humanity that others didn’t expect from her. A wicked person wouldn’t feel the slightest guilt for something wrong they have done, yet Lady Macbeth felt culpability that lead her to her downfall.
Lady Macbeth was clearly the more responsible for the murder of king Duncan but overall, Macbeth’s murderous reign has made the cold-blooded character the more evil character in the play. Lady Macbeth may have been more responsible for king Duncan’s death, but she had never expected Macbeth to kill countless of other people just to keep his throne. “I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none.” - Macbeth - Act 1 Scene 7 Line 47 to Line