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!
Lady Macbeth wants to be a controlling figure in his life and please him rather than herself. It is prone for women to burn-out and become depressed because they are more likely than men to be people pleasers who often ignore their own needs (Cape Times 2013). Although she demonstrates a strong character in the play, sometimes characters lead to their own downfall. With all these troubles that build up, Lady Macbeth deteriorates more and more each time to the point where she visits a doctor. The doctor concerns about her mental health and says, “Look after her./ Remove from her the
Lady Macbeth then verbally attacks her spouse, angrily calling him a coward. She is confident that the two of them will perfectly execute their plan of killing Duncan and then framing his two guards who will purposely be drunk. She manages to reassure Macbeth’s doubts for his mindset transforms from hesitancy at the beginning of the scene to dauntlessness. If Lady Macbeth had not pushed Macbeth commit the murder, Scotland would likely still be under the rule of the leader they thrive under. Macbeth would not have slowly transformed into a selfish, power-hungry “king” who kills to get what he wants.
Importance of control elsewhere in the play • How control is shown • Reasons for control within the play Control is a recurring theme in the play "Macbeth" as it warns the audience of the repercussions of trying to control your fate. The first key event where control features in a significant way is the witches' prophecies. They tell Macbeth that he will become Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland which establishes the importance of fate. Shakespeare conveys the witches as agents of evil that are deceptive and dangerous, "oftentimes to win us to our harm/the instruments of darkness tell us truths," showing that they use truth itself to influence a horrible outcome (Macbeth's tragic demise.) Their message is compelling and attractive and we
By playing on Macbeth’s deepest ambition, it brought forth thoughts of evil and as a result, it leads Macbeth down a violent path. Lady Macbeth also has a part to play as she is the driving force, who plotted and urged Macbeth into committing the hideous act. Lady Macbeth attacked qualities of Macbeth’s manhood, telling him when he commits the murder then he “[is] a man”. Shakespeare suggests that Macbeth lacks the strength of character, but through manipulation of his ambitions, he gains the strength to carry out the act. Straight after the murder of Duncan, Macbeth is shaken by what he has committed and says will all “great Neptune’s ocean, wash this blood/clean from my hands”, reveals that he is now regretting his decision and is making an attempt to get rid of the evidence.
Throughout the play Shakespeare illuminates Macbeth’s escape from reality. His perceptions attribute to his immoral actions, just as Lady Macbeth continually washes her clean hands from the blood she helps to spill. Shakespeare defines these perceptions as the symbols of dark deeds the main characters commit. Consequently, after the murder of Banquo, King Macbeth imagines his presence at the banquet. Macbeth’s blames his paranoia on his dinner guests, shifting blame from himself to them, showing his weak character and inability to take responsibility for his own actions.
Throughout Macbeth, three characters seem to have control of Macbeth’s action and his life. Lady Macbeth, Macbeth, and the We’ird Sisters all have some type of control over the actions of Macbeth. The wife of the play 's tragic hero, Lady Macbeth, pressures her husband into committing regicide so that she can then become queen of Scotland. Throughout the play, Lady Macbeth constantly diminishes her husband 's manhood forcing him to feel less of a man. Unhae Langis, once wrote that, “Lady Macbeth evokes shame in him [Macbeth] to get him back into the contest.” By constantly shaming her husband, Lady Macbeth holds a great amount of control on the way he sees himself.
The first act of cruelty that contributes to Macbeth’s downfall is the murder of Duncan. After contemplating the consequences associated with planning the murder, Macbeth kills Duncan, convinced that it is the only way he can become king. Following the murder, Macbeth becomes overwhelmed with shock and begins to experience auditory hallucinations. Upon experiencing shock, Macbeth is unaware that he brings back the daggers from the crime. Commanded by Lady Macbeth to return the daggers to the scene, he claims, “I am afraid to think what I have done.” Riddled with guilt, Macbeth feels remorse.
Macbeth’s psyche throughout the play begins to develop a very schizophrenic way of functioning, which is simply based off of the surroundings Macbeth experiences. Macbeth’s efforts to achieve and secure his power are committed blindly, and this is simply seen through his ruthless acts of murder. Beginning with the murder of Duncan, Macbeth commits the murder without a second thought, but prior to it he falls into a hallucination where he looks upon a dagger which provokes the murder in the first place. Further on in the play, once he achieves the throne, Macbeth looks back on Banquo’s fortune and recalls that his offspring was alleged to have had the throne in the future. To prevent this, Macbeth orders to have both Banquo and his son murdered.
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. With the question: what is more dangerous, an opportunity or a thought? an opportunity gives you the chance to take it, but a thought makes the action come to life. Macbeth may be partially responsible for the deaths, because he was the one to do them, but without the push and thought given from Lady Macbeth, he would not have followed through with his temptation and killed anyone innocent. Ergo, Lady Macbeth bears most responsibility for the deaths in this play, because without her push, Macbeth would never have gone through will these multiple