The play entitled Macbeth by William Shakespeare portrays Macbeth, a loyal and brave thane to the king. When a prophecy reveals he will become king, Macbeth is overcome with ambition and greed. Convinced of this prophecy and the encouragement from his wife, he is able to kill the king and take the throne. Although Macbeth was able to obtain the throne, he was was overwhelmed by power and guilt leading to internal conflict, which suggests that success is not desirable through cheating and corruption and ultimately cost more than its actually worth,
Greed for power has always been evil and even made a saint turn into a demon. As the quote goes “All power tends to corrupt and an absolute power corrupts absolutely” (unquote), which is true not only in the fictitious stories but also in real life and Shakespeare, th9e greatest writer ever known, has always been in habit of making fictitious character come alive and Macbeth is no exception to the rule. The character of Macbeth has two sides, one which is wholesome while other been dubious. He symbolized great ambition but went overboard and in the process not only became corrupt but also became a killer. Macbeth reflects great strength but within he has his own weakness and thus good over took evil resulting in its downfall and finally his own death. His wife, Lady Macbeth, was the most influential person as far as Macbeth was concerned and any decision of his would have trademark of his wife, Lady Macbeth. The greed of Macbeth for more power led him to commit monstrous acts however
Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, is a play that mainly focuses on one common theme of insanity. Macbeth gradually becomes plagued by intense guilt as his desire for power drives him to attain his goals by any means necessary, including committing murder. He kills Duncan in cold blood in order to become King, has Banquo killed by three murderers because he wishes to maintain his position as King, and finally, he has Macduff’s family slaughtered. Each of these occurrences takes place because of Macbeth’s will to be King, or they are a result of his guilt. Nonetheless, they are all completed of his free will, which is what causes him to deteriorate mentally. After each of these events, Macbeth’s sanity takes a hit and he begins to hallucinate
Shakespeare uses the recurring symbol of blood to emphasize the effect of death and violence on the human psyche. The connotation that Macbeth associates with blood switches from a primary motivator to a guilty reminder. Prior to Duncan’s murder, Macbeth witnessed a floating dagger covered with blood (II.i.33). Macbeth had experienced violence and Blood is also used as a reminder of the guilt and trauma from the murder of King Duncan, the guards and Banquo. Macbeth refers to his hallucination of the ghost of Banquo: “It will have blood, they say. Blood will have blood. (3.4. ?)” The association of blood to his murderous crimes is used to signify his dirty conscious. Blood is messy and can stain clothes similarly to how the repercussions of Macbeth’s actions have a lasting effect of his conscience. He is experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder by reliving the horrors of confronting his actions. By seeing Banquo as a ghost, Macbeth believes that his acts have come to haunt him for revenge. The guests at the dinner party are confused by
Shakespeare’s Macbeth demonstrates how Lady Macbeth becomes less and less bloodthirsty after the murder of Duncan due to her humane qualities that allow her to feel guilt. Lady Macbeth transforms from a selfish murder-focused accomplice to a woman opposed to the murder of innocent people. Ultimately, she becomes a sleepwalker, consumed by her own guilt.
Although introduced as a thoroughly hardened, ambitious woman, Lady Macbeth’s seemingly unbreakable character shatters when she is consumed by the demon of guilt. The guilt of Lady Macbeth seems nonexistent when she persuades Macbeth to kill King Duncan, but the heinous acts she and her husband commit throughout the play strain her slowly. Eventually, the guilt Lady Macbeth harbors emerges from her subconscious and crumbles her. The downfall of Lady Macbeth reveals that even the toughest, strongest, and most powerful people can succumb to guilt.
Guilt is the cause of the destruction of many, particularly in Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Macbeth. As Macbeth and Lady Macbeth continue to murder for the sake of power, they embark on opposite journeys but their guilt ultimately drives them both to insanity. Macbeth goes from being driven mad with guilt, to his instability causing him to murder recklessly. His wife goes from expressing no compassion or guilt to her guilt overcoming her and driving her to madness.
Because Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s decision to murder Duncan, Both face the guilt of the power they abused portrays on the shadows that reflect on them as well as the natural consequences they will face.
In conclusion, the idea that Macbeth is a work in which human feelings mix with enigma and mystery should be highlighted. The struggle between good and evil plays a very significant role in the success of Macbeth. In this case, the good would be Macbeth’s thoughts towards the murder of King Duncan, before when he thought as a loyal soldier would. The evil won and he became ambitious and oblivious to his actions just to end up dead, killed by Macduff as revenge for his family. The blood on every page of the play shows the guilt of Macbeth and how it drove him to the end, just for his
William Shakespeare is considered as one of the best play writers in history. One of his most well known plays is Macbeth where a Scottish general named Macbeth has a strong desire to be king which leads him to betray and murder his king, Duncan. He also kills the nobles who have been loyal to him in order to maintain his title as king. Throughout this play, Shakespeare uses the motif of ambition, guilt, and fate to characterize the characters, show the different themes present within the play, and how the motifs are still relevant today.
Macbeth 's decisions to murder changed his whole way of life negatively. His first murder was what changed it all. Duncan the ex king of Scotland, was his first victim. In order to become king, Macbeth’s final decision was that he would have to kill Duncan to become King. Decisions can have a bad or good consequence in your life.
John, a man in prison for life, killed a pregnant mother because he was driving drunk and ran through a red-light, smashing into her car with his Ford F1-50. Now, John must live with that pain and sorrow every day, every hour, and every minute for the rest of his life. A second does not go by where he does not have the heavy guilt of murder hanging over his head. Wishing he could undo his actions, John slowly rots away in a prison cell. He sends countless letters to the lady’s husband and parents, but nothing can expel the pain from his heart. His guilt is indestructible; nothing can quench it. In the quotation above, Macbeth desperately asks the doctor to remove the terrible psychic guilt that is destroying Lady Macbeth. He asks him if he cannot help a diseased and troubled mind, pleading with the doctor to just take one memory from her mind and destroy it with some “sweet oblivious antidote” (89). It is only later, to his dismay, that he discovers there is no fix to her guilt, no antidote, no medication. The doctor explains to Macbeth that a terrible memory cannot be vanquished from a person’s mind; a person must live with what he or she has done.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby and William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth the main women struggle to cope with the circumstances they face in their lives. Both Lady Macbeth and Daisy Buchanan reveal their feelings of disillusionment through the alienation in their relationships, the murders that take place, and through their common desire to be at the top of the social order. Their actions have an impact on others but most importantly have consequences for themselves. This causes difficulty for both women to cope with the circumstances in their lives.
As Erma Bombeck once said, “Guilt: is the gift that keeps on giving” (“A Quote by Erma Bombeck”). In Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, guilt plays an enormous role in the development of Macbeth’s descent into madness. Macbeth is about Macbeth being persuaded by Lady Macbeth into committing heinous crimes, and it all started when Macbeth tells her about premonitions three witches gave him. In pursuit of making those premonitions come true, Macbeth kills King Duncan, which scares his children, Malcolm and Donalbain out of the country, allowing Macbeth to become King. Then from there a lot more murder takes place and the guilt starts to take its toll on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, as Macbeth “succumbs to insanity, while
Blood is something most people see as gruesome and disturbing, and not something ordinary people enjoy to be in the presence of. In the play Macbeth, the playwright William Shakespeare uses the motif of blood to expose a character's thoughts and personality. Blood is an important motif constantly shown throughout the play. Macbeth, the main character, thinks he can advance to the throne without any consequences. Blood exemplifies the guilt he is now stuck with, and due to Macbeth's excessive ambition, and overwhelming guilt, he is now faced with the consequences. The guilt that comes from the presence of blood, helps readers develop who Macbeth and Lady Macbeth really are.