While ambition may not necessarily be bad, his blindness to the consequences caused it to become a pernicious trait. In the beginning of the play, Shakespeare introduces three witches who give Macbeth three prophecies about his future. Up until this point Macbeth is the town hero who killed the King’s traitor. It wasn’t until the witches said “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter” (1.3.50) that Macbeth thought of betraying his king. This prophecy is the catalyst of Macbeth’s blind ambition.
. . ‘Macbeth shall sleep no more’” (2.2.33-41). The motif of guilt is present because Macbeth is haunted by his murdering Duncan. He feels remorseful for committing such a crime and he tells himself that he will not be able to sleep anymore because of his guilt.
At first, he second guessed the bloody murder of his king. However, his wife, Lady Macbeth, talked him into this by calling him a coward and asking if he was a man. To prove to her that he was a strong individual, he followed through with the act of killing King Duncan. This confirms that the pressure of others persuaded Macbeth’s actions. Macbeth wanted the blame to be placed on someone other than himself so the people showed loyalty to him as the new king.
Macbeth is one of the tragedy plays written by William Shakespeare. It is about the tragedy of greed, ambition, and wish of power. Macbeth is a complex play and filled with symbols that progress the plot and theme. Symbolical motifs play an important role in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth throughout the play. Shakespeare uses symbolisms so that the reader may gain a deeper understanding and aware of this tragedy.
She believes that since the witches have prophesied that he would become Thane of Cawdor, and king, that only the first half of the prophecy has come true so far, and that with his “stir” they will acquire the title promised. She puts Macbeth’s hamartia: ambition, against him, and try to play him into doing what she believes will get him the crown. Macbeth may be a man, and as a man he should take responsibility for his actions overall. However without the cause of Lady Macbeth to test him and push him towards doing the deed, there would be no effect of him killing innocent men. Throughout the play we see Macbeth question his manhood and bravery, his wife adds onto that doubt by calling him a coward and showing him a way he could fix his problems overall.
The captain assumes that he would be dead in the battlefield. “And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, showed like a rebel’s whore,but all’s too weak: For brave Macbeth well he deserves that name. Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel, which smoked with bloody executions”(I.II.8-12). The captain says that Macbeth should have died in the battle, but Macbeth escaped his own death. Once he hears that the witches have predicted that he will become the Thane of Cawdor, which came true, Macbeth believess their second prediction that he is going to become the king.
When Macbeth commands whether the murderers could handle Banquo to his death, they reply, "we are men, my liege" (III i 92). But Macbeth was not satisfy with the responses, who titles them as less-than-worthy standards of men. The same as early in this tragedy, Lady Macbeth uses goading methods on Macbeth; forcing him to kill Duncan. But to “be a man” what does that exactly mean? Macbeth and his Lady show to have a definite idea of masculinity.
Although he has second thoughts about killing Duncan, Macbeth chooses to go through with it. Lady Macbeth’s influence is a huge part of his choice, but he still is not under anyone’s control. It is his free will that helps him decide to speed up his fate of becoming king. When he murders Duncan, I feel that this is when Macbeth unleashes the monster in him.
Banquo’s suspicion evidently leads to his death as Macbeth has him murdered before the banquet. He is also killed for the reason that the prophecy of the witches made it clear that Banquo’s children would be future kings. “But that myself should be the root and father of many kings”(act 3, scene 1, pg 1). Many suspect the king Macbeth but do not dare open their mouths out of fear that them to would be killed. The power the witches predicted Macbeth would have came true and as fate would have it Macbeth’s power grew and so did his influence across the nation so much so that England had started to keep an eye on him and this would lead to his eventual
In this moment with the apparition of Banquo the audience has to question the confounds of Macbeth’s sanity, it is easy to fear Macbeth because of what he is doing, but circumstances such as these and the encounters with the Weird Sisters make it difficult for the audience to despise Macbeth, instead they take pity on what they view as a delusional mind. This debate between the pity found in Macbeth’s mental state and the fear he evokes through his actions continues as Macbeth becomes a vicious tyrant. Not only does he kill off more of those around him, including the family of MacDuff, all for the sake of proving his power over those around him, but he rains famine and tragedy across the land. Macbeth’s inhumane actions easily draw fear from the audience as it expresses how uncontrollable and deranged, he has become; Macbeth is truly far from the hero first introduced. Extensively Macbeth begins to trust fewer and fewer individuals, he becomes more paranoid about the things going on around him.