Foremost, humans are afraid to admit their desire for power, and once they are given the opportunity to gain power, the desire grows and feeds off of itself. During the first encounter with the weird sisters, the prophecy is shared that Macbeth will be king. However, Banquo is confused with Macbeth's reaction to the prophecy, asking ". . .why do you start and seem to fear/ Things that sound so fair?" (1.3.54-55). Macbeth is fearful of how the witches know his deepest desires to be king. If word were to get out about Macbeth's sinful thoughts and his desire for power, he believes that we would be ruined. Banquo notes the fear in Macbeth right away, showing how Macbeth is fighting against his ambitions the instant he hears the prophecy. Due to his fear, Macbeth tries to use force and aggressive words to convince the witches to speak: "Say from whence/ You owe this strange intelligence, . …show more content…
. Speak, I charge you" (1.3.78-81). After people learn about the desire for power one has, the fear of what they think of them may be translated into rage. Desire for power can also bring out a fearful confusion between right and wrong. After receiving the prophecy from the witches, Macbeth is dragged into a "fantastical" frame of mind (1.3.152). In order to be King of Scotland, Duncan cannot continue to rule, and the fastest way for this to happen is to kill him. Macbeth shifts between committing murder and letting the king live multiple times, however the mere thought of murdering Duncan "Shakes so [his] single state of man / That function is smothered in surmise,.
(2.3.165-166) After seeing their father killed, the sons fear they are the next targets. Macbeth selfishly makes everyone in the palace feel in danger. He puts others at risk to reach his goal, making his greed a negative trait. Also, Macbeth puts the three murderers in danger when he chooses to kill Banquo and his son. Macbeth tells the murderers to “know banquo [is] your enemy” (3.1.130), making them long for revenge.
Our fears in Banquo stick deep, and in his royalty of nature” (Act 3. Scene1. Lines 47-49. Page44). To Macbeth, becoming king is worthless unless his position as king is safe. He fears that Banquo’s murder will be revenged by his own murder, and it may reveal the hidden knowledge of his guilt.
Macbeth's fears about Banquo run deep, and he sees him as a threat to his position as king. He describes Banquo's "royalty of nature," which he sees as something to be feared. Macbeth acknowledges
Shakespeare has written numerous famous plays, MacBeth being one of his darkest plays, touching up on the topic of the thought that power sometimes leads to corruption, and how it can manipulate someone’s thoughts and actions, bringing them to do things they thought they never would. In MacBeth, there are many examples of MacBeth trying anything to gain power, even if the guilt will eat him alive. In the beginning, the Three Weird Sisters know of a prophecy allegedly saying that MacBeth will one day be King. After they tell MacBeth, he, over time, starts to obsess over becoming the highest positioned person in the hierarchy.
Corruption, it’s something that can destroy a nation, a country, a family, a friendship. It can obtain many forms, and it can happen in many ways. It could happen to anyone, including a loyal and brave soldier. Macbeth being a respectable soldier and friend had let power corrupt him, but what ensures us that power is what corrupted him.
In fact, Macbeth becomes fascinated by them, "would they had stayed." Banquo serves as his conscience, perhaps representing the period audience who would have also thought the witches to be evil and unnatural, and warns him of the dangers of trusting such supernatural messengers; a warning that goes unheeded. After hearing the prophecy, Macbeth already thinks about, "murder," and becomes preoccupied with thoughts of becoming king showing the powerful hold they have over him with only one meeting, scaring the audience who would have believed in Witches. Macbeth believes the Witches as there first prophecy came true and ignores the fact that they’re evil beings whereas Banquo recognizes them for what they are. He even informs his most beloved, Lady Macbeth, who also shares his ambition.
It is human nature to want power, to be at the top of the pyramid, to be king/queen, but that comes at a price as shown in Macbeth. In the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth will do anything to have absolute power and nothing stands in their way. From killing to going completely mad, they will become the next king and queen at all costs. The ambition and the want for power is so high that they kill many, they do whatever they can to be one step closer, and they go completely insane, all because they want that absolute power.
Almost everybody wants to have a lot of power, but when a person gets told that they are going to be something they want to make that something come by even faster so that they do not have to wait. In the story Macbeth by Shakespeare it shows how two men will achieve their destinies, but one of them is told that he will be king and the other is told that his descendants will be king. It shows how one man will do anything just cause he wants him and his wife to be king and queen, plus they will not let fate make them king and queen they will make themselves do that. Early on in the play Macbeth starts off as an honest, honorable, loyal subject of the king, but towards the end of Act one he changes to greedy and dishonorable. In this quote it says, “New honors come upon him, Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mold But with the aid of use”(Act 1 Scene 3 Page 6 Lines 149-151 Banquo).
Anxiety, a state of nervousness in response to uncertainty, can disclose information that would previously be unknown in a calmer condition. With his tragedy Macbeth, playwright William Shakespeare explores the interaction between anxiety versus ambition in a balance of power. At the beginning of the play, title character, war general, and Thane of Glamis Macbeth is told by three witch sisters of fate that he will also become the Thane of Cawdor and the King of Scotland. He murders the previous king Duncan from persuasion by his wife and his own ambition, and from this begins to experience a sense of regret about the situation, one that will frequently appear in his future endeavors to secure his crown. In his Act III soliloquy, Macbeth expresses anxiety about Banquo, his lack of a successor, and his personal safety, revealing
Fear is something that controls people, it keeps them up at night looking for the tiny shroud of light peeking through their windows, it keeps them in bed snuggled up under the blankets but most importantly it keeps them in check. Macbeth, a Shakespearean tragedy, goes over the great rise and fall of the tragic hero Macbeth, tempted by power and led astray by greed as he plummets the state of his home country Scotland into a nightmare. Through his rise to king, Macbeth uses fear to climb his way over his opponents and take the throne. Was his ascension through fear the best way he could have done it so he could immediately impose a sense of rule among the people, or could a more gradual and loving rise have been a better suit for a ruler coming
In Macbeth’s soliloquy, he talks about Banquo’s “hath of wisdom” and how Banquo acts safely(58). This illustrates that Macbeth is afraid of what Banquo might do. This illustrates Macbeth’s ambition because he is not going to give up until he finds what he is looking for if he gets suspicious with Macbeth. This makes Macbeth very scared of Banquo because if Banquo finds out that Macbeth killed Duncan, Macbeth’s life is going to be hell and Banquo is immediately going to tell everybody in Scotland. Macbeth fears Banquo so much that he will “champion his utterance” and will battle anybody to keep his crown(77).
Being that Banquo seemed suspicious of Macbeth subsequently the night of the king 's death. Apprehensive of his throne Macbeth would do anything in his power to prevent even the slightest chance for anyone to take the throne from him.
However, when she begins to tell Macbeth her ideas he attempts to be steadfast in his loyalty to King Duncan. Macbeth states that “We will proceed no further in this business:/he hath honoured me of late;” (1.7.507-508). Macbeth’s only issue with murdering King Duncan is that he just got honored by him and that would be rude. Again it does not take much time for Macbeth’s ambition to take control due to his wife stating how much more of a man he could be if he just went through with it. Despite these influences Macbeth is in control of his own actions.
After killing Banquo Macbeth evokes fear from the audience. Yet at a banquet thrown in honor of Macbeth’s new title of King, Macbeth begins hallucinating about the ghost of Banquo haunting him, this not only ruins the evening, but causes the audience to question the mental deterioration of Macbeth. Yes he is to be feared for his actions taken against Banquo, but the audience is left to question if Macbeth’s actions are not still reactions from the prophecies the witches gave him. They played on his ambitious tendencies and clearly manipulated him, which draws pity, although Macbeth is acting on his own, not under the constructs of any direction which causes fear of what he is capable of. 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.
Macbeth is a brilliant solider and patriotic to King Duncan. The king refers to Macbeth as, “Valiant Cousin,” thus showing that the two have a very close relationship. Macbeth is faced with a moral crisis that he should kill King Duncan and take to the throne or leave him and carry on being the Thane of Cawdor. Lady Macbeth entices him to commit the murder because she is just as ambitious as her husband and she persuades him by questioning his manhood. She even calls upon the dark spirits to take away her soft womanliness.