Change In Macbeth

In his play, Shakespeare defines the meaning of humanity and shows its varying degrees and extremes, and he primarily illustrates the worst humanity has to offer through his own creation, Macbeth. Macbeth is a character that goes through significant change throughout the novel as a result of his own actions and, perhaps, fate. In his tale of witchery, madness, and war, Shakespeare illustrates how Macbeth changes from an ambitious man to one that has gone made as a result of his wrongdoing to finally a person that is sorrowful yet indifferent to the world around him. To begin, Macbeth is first portrayed as an ambitious individual. In the scene directly following the encounter with the witches, Macbeth displays his hunger for power. After he

In the scene following Duncan’s murder, Macbeth first displays beginning signs of insanity. Directly following the murder, Macbeth believes that he “heard a voice cry “Sleep no more!” (2.2.34), and the fact that he is hearing voices that aren’t there as well as hearing phrases that sound like punishments, shows how Macbeth is losing his sanity as a result of committing a dreadful deed. “In murdering Duncan, [Macbeth] also murdered his peaceful soul” (Langis), and Macbeth will never regain peace and his sanity ever again. Then, Shakespeare further portrays Macbeth’s lunacy during the banquet following Banquo’s murder. After seeing Banquo’s ghost, Macbeth wonders how Lady Macbeth “can behold such sights, / And keep the natural ruby of [her] cheeks, / while [his] is blanched with fear” (3.4.115-117), and the fact that he is covered in fear after seeing something that isn’t there as a consequence of doing awful things, shows how crazy Macbeth has truly gone. Banquo’s ghost is “referent to the deed that is metonymically inscribed upon the murderer’s bloody face” (Coddon). In addition, Macbeth further delves into madness when he believes that his hallucinations are a result of him being “but young in deed” (2.3.145), showing how psychopathic he has become as believes that he must kill more in order to rid himself of his fears. Then, in the scene where Macbeth learns about Macduff fleeing to England,

Macbeth first portrays his misery in the speech where he calls out to Seyton. As Macbeth calls out to Seyton three times, he says in between, “My way of life/ Is fall’n into sear,...And that which should accompany old age...I must not look to have; but, in their stead, / Curses” (5.3.23-27), and this shows how Macbeth has fallen into unhappiness as he now says that he has nothing to look forward to in life and that his life is essentially over from here on. “Perhaps each cry mingles Macbeth’s growing awareness of damnation with the world weariness…; perhaps he wants to get on with the inevitable” (Coursen 385). Later on, as Macbeth is talking with the doctor, he further displays his despondency. Macbeth asks the doctor if he can’t “pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow” for Lady Macbeth, and it becomes quite apparent that Macbeth is also asking if there is anyway for him to get rid of his troubles that plague him everyday. He asks if there is anyway to cleanse him of what he has done. Then, Macbeth asks the doctor to “cast / The water of my land, find her disease / And purge it to a sound and pristine health” (5.3.50-52), and this desire to fix his kingdom shows how distressful he is for what he has done not only to Duncan, but to his subjects as well. Finally, Macbeth demonstrates indifference to the planet he lives on in the scene where a woman cries