Wicked desires cause people to go to any extreme to get what they want and often cause destruction. In the play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, this is the case for the main characters and evil is a predominant theme. Throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare leads the plot into dark scenes with the copious amounts of murder, witchcraft and evil desires of the characters. In the play, the character, Lady Macbeth hears the prophecy from three witches that her husband will be king. Quickly, she decided to take matters into her own hands; however, it ends up leading her husband, Macbeth, down an immoral path of destruction.
The witch has placed a curse on him that will prevent him from sleeping. 2. Quotation and speaker. Macbeth: My dearest love, Duncan comes here tonight.
She shows her first bit of insanity when she says, “Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t” (2.2.13). Lady MacBeth was so willing to kill Duncan for her husband to become king. Her insanity continues affects her so bad that she says, “...all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand” (5.1.39). She has so much bad and kept it in that nothing can fix her causing her to go mentally insane.
At the start of Act 1 Scene 3 in Macbeth,the Witches prepare for their first encounter with Macbeth. As they do so, they plot revenge against those who they believe have insulted them. *Scheming . Sooner on, the witches predict that Macbeth will be the future king.
What, quite unmanned in folly?” Macbeth’s erratic behavior in the Banquet Scene, is a sign of his growing paranoia. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s relationship has begun to deteriorate as they attempt to overcome the constant fear that has begun to consume them. By the last act of the play, all equality and love between the two is lost and replaced with mania.
Unfortunately, Lady Macbeth herself lacks the capability to kill Duncan. While she sincerely wishes she was able to complete the act, she asks the spirits if they could “unsex” her so that she would be capable of killing King Duncan (Shakespeare 32). As Lady Macbeth becomes aware of the witches’ prophecy, her ambition prompts her to develop a plan involving Macbeth murdering the king. However, she also suspects that her husband is “too full of the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way” (Shakespeare 30), and therefore too civil to be able to seize the throne. Throughout her soliloquy that follows, Lady Macbeth finds that the only way to accomplish her goal is to manipulate her husband and convince him to go through with the murder.
Many writers try to write about a villainous protagonist and fail. Shakespeare failed to fail, and produced “Macbeth”. Macbeth is a masterpiece of writing displaying the corruption of Macbeth and the chain events that he set off after making the decision to murder Duncan. The consequences first become apparent to Macbeth after the deed is done when he states: “Methought, I heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep’ the innocent sleep, sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care” (2.2.47-49).
This line also mentions that the root is dug up at night which adds an evil aspect to the scene, and suggests the witches are up to no good. Another example is when the soldiers cut down trees and carry them into battle. The messenger gives this news to Macbeth and he retells the prophecy, “‘Fear not, till Birnam Wood/ Do come to Dunsinane’, and now a wood/ Comes toward Dunsinane.” (V.v.43). After so much death in this play, the trees represent a new beginning that will come with the defeat of Macbeth.
1, when Macbeth’s wife, Lady Macbeth, is found sleep walking in the night while speaking out of her unconscious mind. After Lady Macbeth slips away from the main plotline, having just murdered King Duncan, she plummets into deep feelings of guilt. This scene allowed Shakespeare to show how guilt truly affected Lady Macbeth, which sent a strong message to the audience that guilt will ultimately lead to destruction. Freud also states “He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore” (Article Freud).
There are many different aspects of this play that could have contributed to Macbeth’s tragic end, including characters. The three witches in the play could be to blame for this. They predicted his future which influenced him greatly. However, the main person to blame for Macbeth’s downfall is Lady Macbeth for three reasons: her insult on his manhood, her her manipulative tricks, and her influential qualities. The first reason Lady Macbeth is to blame for Macbeth’s downfall is her insult to his manhood.
It becomes hard to recognize her as the story progresses, sleepwalking through the castle and constantly rubbing her hands as she attempts to remove the innocent blood shed on her hands driven by her guilt-ridden mind. Lady Macbeth is unable to surpass the evil she has set on herself and in the end; the guilt she prayed against became her worst enemies. She was beyond repair and it lead to her suicide. Furthermore, in the yellow wallpaper the protagonist becomes mentally ill for being locked in a room deprived of life. The majority of the story takes place in a room which only induces pain deep within herself evoking negative mental thoughts.
Oh, Oh, Oh!” (V.i line 42-43). Then again in the beginning of the play she thought washing her hands would erase the murder, but now her conscience keeps remaining her of the sin she committed and the murder is permanently
He compromises his honor and negates moral responsibility to attain power and position which results in his tragic end. From the beginning, Macbeth was faced with choices and he continuously kept on making bad ones. The witches vision for the future of him becoming king together with his ambition drove Macbeth to commit a crime, make a choice that would then continue to haunt him forever. With significant influence from Lady Macbeth, he decided to take action and murder King Duncan. We see him consider his choice to kill Duncan in soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 7 “If it were done”.
Throughout the first two acts of Macbeth, the motif of sleep is portrayed through several opposing perspectives. We are first introduced to this recurring idea in the first scene, when the witches elect to meet Macbeth on the heath during the battle’s aftermath. The First Witch says that she will punish a woman by preventing her husband from sleeping on his voyage, declaring that “I will drain him dry as hay: Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his pent-house lid;” (I.ii.18-20). The phenomenon in this scene is presented as an basic item that is to always be taken for granted, like clean water and shelter. If someone were to be denied the right to sleep, it would constitute torture.
Macbeth fears he can not live with himself for murdering Duncan and the servants. The word “night” is used to describe the terrible dreams he had throughout the night. Also, “night” is referred to something scary and dark and that was how Macbeth’s dreams were. In the beginning, Macbeth did not use the word “night” as often as Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth pressured Macbeth to kill Duncan in order to become king and gain more power for themselves.