Macbeth loses his last scrap of morality when he orders the murder of innocents to enrage a rival. Shakespeare’s Macbeth shows that humans will do whatever it takes to achieve and maintain power by charting Macbeth’s descent from noble thane to murderous tyrant. Macbeth’s position of thane is already quite powerful but the need for more power overwhelms his loyalties to others. Macbeth believes that the Prince of Cumberland stands in his way to more power. “The Prince of Cumberland!
In William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, the leading motif, ambition, equally serves as the catalyst for Macbeth’s demise. Throughout the play, Shakespeare gradually exposes Macbeth’s weak character and internal darkness as he presents Macbeth with the seductive illusion of power and ambition. Macbeth’s ambition turned him from a noble Thane to a murdering King, encouraged by his wife until his tender character turned ruthless, and eventually led to the final deaths Lady Macbeth and himself. In the beginning of Macbeth, the protagonist possessed respectable qualities. Similar to Oedipus, Macbeth desired to save their kingdoms either from the plague or Scottish traitors.
At the beginning of the play, Macbeth was loyal to King Duncan, a strong military leader, and a respected husband. Throughout the tragedy, Macbeth 's character takes a big, yet gradual change for the worst as ambition starts to completely take over him. Once the three witches give Macbeth his prophecies he transitions from a brave, loyal man to a cold blooded murderer. His power hungry personality leads to a character change from who he was before he knew about the witches prophecies, after he learned of them, and right before he was murdered. In Macbeth, Shakespeare dramatises the damaging physical and mental effects of ambition on those who seek power for their own sake.
It is evident that these factors play a heavy role in Macbeth’s life for these urge him to commit the unthinkable crime, which is to assassinate the king. This then leads to the
I think that William Shakespeare is showing us that Macbeth has been tied to a prophecy and it is now time for them all to be fulfilled. In the beginning, we are told about Macbeth become “king hereafter”, we know that he does become king when he murders king Duncan and says that the “deed is done”. This shows how Macbeth’s mind became a well of damage when he begins hallucinating and saying, “Is this a dagger which I see before me”. I believe that these thoughts are what lead him to kill Duncan, and they act as images that the witches would supernaturally place into Macbeth’s mind. Macbeth did help us test whether or not we could truly trust the witches’ predictions sending out murderers to murder Banquo and his son Fleance, the witches show that they will not release their grip on Macbeth when one of the murderers says “Fleance, is ‘scaped.”This event lets us know that Macbeth cannot impact any outside factors because the witches have already determined the future, by ensuring that Fleance is still an available heir.
In the entirety of the play Macbeth gains power by murdering his enemies and those who suspect him. This also ties into his downfall, if you hear the witches prophecies clearly you might be able to tell that they also predict that happening. Yet Macbeth blinded by power has overlooked this and is only looking to gain more strength and build on what he has already. “Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, As the weird women promised, and I fear Thou played’st most foully for ’t.”(act 3, scene 1, pg 1). Banquo’s suspicion evidently leads to his death as Macbeth has him murdered before the banquet.
In the beginning Macbeth was an honest and good person but after coming to know about his fate, he start killing people to get what he want and avoid what he don’t want to happen. In Act 1, Macbeth didn’t know about the prophecies and only did his job naturally so it didn’t lead to any disaster. When he receive the news he was happy to be thane of “glamis, and thane of cawdor!” (1.3.134) but he believe “the greatest is behind” (1.2.135) if the prophecies from the witches are true. Macbeth win the war and save the kingdom twice in a day so it only right he get promoted. This connected to the thesis because here Macbeth didn’t know about his fate before the war.
On the other hand, Macbeth does not fear any mortal enemy, not even MacDuff though he is warned about him, only the unnatural. He was very confident and did not think he would fail. When the forest came to Macbeth’s castle, Malcolm’s army who camouflaged themselves with trees in order to give the appearance of forest attacked castle. In addition, Macbeth’s worry about dying affected his psychology and he became mad even he disregarded the sisters’ predictions. After the Three Witches have told the truth about his death, he did not believe.
The story of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is no different. The play follows Macbeth through his initial victory on the battlefield as a brave thane, fighting fearlessly and loyally for the king, who then encounters witches who prophecy of his coming kingship. He then feels, as insisted by his wife, that he must fulfill the prophecy by his own means, and kills the king, a fellow thane who suspects him, and plots to kill those who oppose him. Driven mad by the actions he committed, he loses control of both his mental state and kingship, and is consequently executed for treason. However, Macbeth’s immoral actions were not a fault of his own, but instead of the external pressures he faced, just as a gear has no control over its’ rotation.
In the play of Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the main character, Macbeth, is told by three witches that he was to become a king. This information prompts him to murder King Duncan which in turn makes him face constant pressure from multiple sides. His desire to receive and maintain power forces him to make questionable decisions as well as to turn to others in the story, including, for example, the witches and Lady Macbeth. The question that arises as a result is whether Macbeth’s downfall was caused by himself or those around him. What becomes evident as time goes on is that however true it may be that outside influences had played a role in how things would turn out, in the end, Macbeth’s decisions play the largest role in his downfall.