Evil stands for profoundly immoral and malevolent which is exactly what the character Macbeth represents in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. Macbeth is a warrior who gains the title Thane of Cawdor for killing the rebel Macdonwald and the previous Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth confronts three witches who foretell Macbeth’s ascension to the throne of Scotland. Unbeknownst to Macbeth, the witches actually will “drain him dry as hay. Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his penthouse lid. He shall live a man forbid” (1.3.15-27). The witches’ prophesy says that Macbeth will be unable to sleep, which will drive any person mad. Macbeth ultimately turns toward murder and treachery to feed his ambition to become King of Scotland. Macbeth’s behavior in the play also proves that evil actions are worse than evil thoughts. Macbeth also shows exponential growth of evil actions throughout the play because of Macbeth’s progressively worse actions. The readers of Macbeth can learn to not allow unbridled ambition to possess one’s mind. Macbeth as a character proves how unchecked ambition can compel someone to commit egregious atrocities. Macbeth is the ultimate root of evil throughout the play. Macbeth plays an integral role in almost all the evil committed in Macbeth. Macbeth contemplates killing his king when he …show more content…
Macbeth starts his murder spree with the murder of Duncan. Macbeth has extreme hesitance in the scenes preceding Duncan’s demise. Macbeth worries that “in these cases We still have judgment here, that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague th' inventor” (1.7.7-10). After Macbeth commits his first treasonous murder, each act of murder becomes easier to him thereafter. As previously quoted, Macbeth shows a manic glee to the thought of murdering his friend Banquo. One who murders women and children clearly has a severely broken moral
Betrayal is an act of intentional disloyalty and unfaithfulness. In the play Macbeth, Macbeth commits extreme felony and betrayal by murdering his king, who wholeheartedly trusted him, in order to take the crown. Similarly, Lord of the Flies demonstrates the act of betrayal through Jack, the novel’s antagonist. Jack angrily abandons Ralph and forms his own violent tribe, whose ultimate goal becomes killing Ralph. As shown through Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, and Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, betrayal leads to the consequential destruction of an individual rather than his/her desired success.
The play Macbeth involves a lot of ambition and negation. Macbeth was a great Scottish general. Macbeth comes along three witches and they tell him that he will be king. He listens to him and his strong leads him to wanting to become king. He will kill anyone that gets in his way.
From the beginning of Macbeth to the end, the influences of evil have tremendous effects on the characters of the play. Some characters such as Banquo recognize and are terrified by the the dangers of these evil influences and keep away from them, while others give into the evil’s supposed, promising rewards and lead themselves down a path of villainy. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth exhibit characteristics of villainy, however one proves worse through murderous actions and internal state of heart prior to death.
At the end of Act 1, Lady Macbeth manipulates him into committing regicide on Duncan by questioning his masculinity, telling him to “be so much more the man” (1.7.51). By associating masculinity with violence, Lady Macbeth convinces him that murder is the right thing to do. Initially, this clicks in his mind, justifying his murder with fulfillment of his destiny, saying, “I have no spur / to prick the sides of my intent, but only / vaulting ambition” (1.7.25-27). However, once he ascends the throne, he becomes paranoid that he will be found out and orders the murder of Banquo and his son, Fleance. He continues this paranoia until his ultimate murder, as what initially seemed like simply following his masculinity led him to a heap of
evil is represented through Macduff, whom represents the ‘good’ and Macbeth, who has been completely consumed by his evil counterpart. Macduff has fled to England to plot against Macbeth, therefore, in retaliation Macbeth sends murderers to Macduff’s estate to slaughter his family and staff all-the-while claiming treason as a means of justification. Macbeth says,” The castle of Macduff I will surprise; seize upon Fife; give to th’ edge o’ th’ sword his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls…” (Act IV,scn i, ln 150-153) Macbeth no longer cares if he kills the innocent.
These are not considered evil until he caves into the temptation of power (Gimelli Martin 165). His weakness is shown when he makes the decision to murder King Duncan and secures the position as king. He even goes as far to murder his friend, Banquo, because he feels uneasy about his suspicions (182-183). At this point in the story he is even comparable to Satan, “Like Satan, Macbeth becomes the chief equivocator in his own hell, unwittingly uttering objective truths to his subjects even while telling subjective lies.” (183).
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.
Because of his dangerous mentality, he became reckless, paranoid, and boastfully insane. Macbeth soon began to not trust anyone This is especially illustrated in Act 3, Scene 3, where the murderers were waiting to kill Banquo and Fleance. In the scene Macbeth had a third murderer join the two that he had already hired. As one of the original murderers stated, “He needs not our mistrust; since he delivers our offices, and what we have to do.” (3.3.3) Macbeth's disposition led to the defeat of himself and losing his place in the throne.
Macbeth’s character development plays a big role in the unraveling of the plot. Macbeth is known by his kinsmen as loyal, trustworthy, and brave. He has a good reputation, and a strong relationship with the king. It comes as a shock when he even considers killing Duncan, as he is aware that this is wrong, and that he may become king anyways. “It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness, To catch the nearest way.”
Macbeth is extremely paranoid and guilty. He doesn’t believe he will be able to sleep after committing this
Therefore, anyone can be susceptible of being either both good or evil. This ties into another recurring theme of the search for power. Throughout Macbeth, he is trying to gain power by killing the King, and begins to get greedy and power driven to his fate. A lesson to be learned from the play is how you should never let power control you. Having power can be a good thing for you and the people around you, for instance, Duncan was a powerful King and very worthy and respected by his people.
Jaylin Wilson Ms. Morris English 12- 1st Period 5 December 2016 The Good and Evil in Macbeth In the tragedy, Macbeth, the good and evil shows a relation between the killing of characters throughout the story. It was evil that the characters are being killed, but it was good for the other characters that did the killing.
Macbeth easily tempted into murder to fulfill his ambitions to the throne, and once he commits his first crime and is crowned king of Scotland, he had to kill other people to keep his secret safe and to secure his throne and the moment of awful guilt when Banquo’s ghost appears and also his lady’s death seems to give away the misery. These reflect the tragic tension to Macbeth. Macbeth cannot maintain his power because his increasingly brutal actions make him hated as a
The internal conflict between good and evil has jeopardized the human condition since the beginning of time. Adam and Eve dealt with this when the serpent pressed Eve to eat the forbidden fruit and people still continue to struggle with this problem to this day. Every human struggles with good and evil actions because humans have the potential to be malicious and do evil deeds given the opportunity and motivation. In the play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, the protagonist, Macbeth, wrestles with kind and evil thoughts due to the constant pressuring of his wife and witches. The witches symbolize Macbeth’s subconscious mind while his wife represents his true identity.
In the writer 's opinion Macbeth is a good guy and is not capable of the bad things he is doing. He is just getting pressured into doing wrong. For most of the time villains are always evil and are doing wrong without other people making them do it. Macbeth is being convinced to do all of these things and he is not coming up with the ideas on his own. He is a puppet in his own life.