At the start of the play, Macbeth was known as a respectable and honest soldier. He worked under the King of Scotland, Duncan. Multiple characters spoke very highly of him. In the beginning, a battle took place involving an honorable and hardworking soldier, Macbeth. Macbeth and his fellow soldiers were victorious in this battle.
At the beginning of the play, Macbeth was a noble and loyal person, but by the end of the play, his “vaulting ambition” had taken over him. This caused him to become malicious and nihilistic and above all murderous, Macbeth portrays a tragic hero. Shakespeare portrays a tragic hero as someone who is noble and valiant but turns out to have a tragic flaw and Macbeth portrays this by fighting for his country and king but then murdering the king because of his hamartia, “his vaulting ambition”. Macbeth is greatly responsible for his downfall, but the witches have an impact on Macbeth’s actions. In Greek tragedies characters face a point in which they turn towards death, almost all plays have someone die and, in the end, justice prevails.
Instead of adversity being directly presented in the play, it is created by the actions of the title character. Following a prophecy in which he becomes King of Scotland, Macbeth commits numerous atrocities, including regicide, to fulfill his supposed destiny. Adversity, when viewed as misfortune, can be applied to both the trials that Macbeth endures and the overarching theme of fate and free will. While influenced by the prophecy, Macbeth ultimately decides his own fate, and carves a path that traps both himself and other characters in a cataclysm. Before murdering Duncan, Macbeth expresses doubt about killing his king through numerous soliloquies.
These two things don’t control Macbeth 's mental state because, they can’t. His ego and superego don 't have an impact because he has very small amounts of common sense and morality. WE can see that Macbeth has no morality when he kills the king, his best friend, his best friends son, Macduff 's family, and more. We can also see he has no common sense when he brings to not think things through towards the end of the play, causing him to be a tyrant. According to CommonLit, “the id ‘knows no judgments of value: no good and evil, no morality’” (CommonLit Staff).
The namesake of the play, “Macbeth” is a man who faced a decision between his own personal passion and his moral obligations and duties. The two choices pulled at him and seemed to torment him even after he made a decision. Through the conflict that Macbeth felt because of his decisions, the reader can better empathize with him, and can obtain a more profound lesson from the story concerning decisions between personal passions and moral obligations. Macbeth is not what one would call “perfect.” He is neither a hero nor an absolute villain. The fact that he feels the stress or tension between his choices and desires helps to create a more human like, accessible character.
Before the first prophecy Macbeth was a faithful soldier, but very passive. Lady Macbeth, although loved Macbeth, is more violent, and wishes for Macbeth to act more recklessly and violent in order to gain more power. After being informed of the first prophecy, Macbeth shows his humanity on multiple
Following the format of a tragic hero, Macbeth suffers from a tragic flaw. He has multiple flaws in character, the most prominent being his vaulting ambition and his impressionability. After the witches told Macbeth about his bright future of nobility in Scotland, his honorable nature seemed to fade, and was soon replaced by a “by any means necessary” attitude. His lust for power, along with persuasive words from Lady Macbeth, led to him murdering King Duncan in his sleep. Macbeth was crowned King of Scotland, which led to extreme paranoia, fearing anyone with a noble bloodline as a threat to his power.
The more he deceives, the deeper the trauma embeds itself in his mind” (Evans). Lastly, Macbeth is so far gone that he is incapable of being helped by anyone to calm him down or help him through his thought process. Lady Macbeth tries to help him but in a very ineffective way. We see this a lot with people who are trying to help others traumatized by guilt by telling them not to be emotional, and that they are being childish which only makes the situation worse. Guilt and trauma are things that each and every person can experience and it can have an impact on us all.
Despite the influences of Lady Macbeth and the three Weird Sisters, Macbeth is mostly responsible for his own downfall. He is the one who makes the decisions throughout the entire play even though he is influenced by others. He also uses the prophecies in a negative way and loses his relationship with his wife by leaving her out of decisions later on in the play. Throughout the play Macbeth overthrows his guilt and continues to kill people to protect his crown. His confidence and desire for power fuels his ambition to become king.
This character’s first scene of the play is him after killing a traitor to King Duncan. This good side of Macbeth eventually deteriorates, however, as he fights for power and kingship by killing not only King Duncan, but many others. He ends up as a much hated king who is eventually killed. The character of Macbeth shifts from a favourable, loyal person to one that is destructive and consumed by power. This idea is analysed by Shakespeare by the way of his power in his marriage, how he involved himself with the witches, and how willing he was to do things.