Theme Of Greed And Betrayal In Macbeth

Now that the tragic hero has risen and fell, he will not give up even if it leads to doom. Macduff and Macbeth battle and Macduff returns to stage with Macbeth’s head in his hand. Now that Macbeth is dead Malcolm will be king. Macbeth is a tragic hero but others may see him as an antagonist.

He tells her, “I am settled, and bend up/ Each corporal agent to this terrible feat” (I.7.79-80). Macbeth end ups murdering the king due to Lady Macbeth pushing his flaw even more. Banquo’s fate, on the other hand, was that his descendants were to become kings. Macbeth's flaw makes him become paranoid about Banquo’s children being king because he wants the throne for his own descendants and not his. This leads to the murder of Banquo and causing Macbeth to go down the wrong path and spiral out of

Macduff went to England to find Malcolm, King Duncan’s son, who fled Scotland so he would not be killed like his father. Macbeth no longer considers Macduff loyal to him and becomes apprehensive. Macbeth consorts with the murderers again to kill Macduff’s family, “give to the edge o’ the sword his wife, babes, and all unfortunate souls that trace him in his line” (Act 4, Scene 1). When a messenger comes to deliver the news to Macduff, he becomes sad but Malcolm tells him “… Let grief convert to anger…” (Act 4, Scene 3).

When Duncan arrives at Macbeth’s castle, Lady Macbeth’s fake attitude towards the king resemble the prophecies of Macbeth’s are corrupting her also. Macbeth wants to kill Duncan, but still feels loyalty to his king and friend as “his kinsman and his subject (I.vii.13).” A deadly illusion is created, “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle towards my hand? Come, let me clutch thee (II.ii.32-33)” to make sure he does not move away from his ambition of becoming king. Macbeth, under the urgings of his wife, murders Duncan in the dead of night, blaming Duncan’s two servants.

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.

Since Macbeth was told he would be king, that thought consumed his life and drove him to murdering King Duncan. King Duncan was a very well respected and loved king. Macbeth was selfish and only thought of himself when he murdered King Duncan. Macbeth's ambition for greed and power was not caused by fate. He had a one track mind for becoming king.

Instead of going from good to evil like Macbeth, she went from evil to somewhat good. Lady Macbeth proves to be evil from the start by the way she initiated Macbeth’s killing spree. Lady Macbeth wanted her husband to, “Hie thee hither / That I may pour my spirits in thine ear / And chastise with the valor of my tongue / All that impedes thee from the golden round” (1.5.15-18). She was speaking to herself saying how she hoped for her husband to hurry home so that she could sway him into murdering King Duncan for the throne.

Therefore, Macbeths desire to become King grew deep in his heart. He desperately wanted the Crown and also the power to rule over the people of Scotland. Macbeth however suppressed his feelings; unfortunately Lady Macbeth’s greediness and the three Witches’ prophecies contribute lot to Macbeth’s downfall. Since Witches predicted that no man born from a woman could kill him, he would not be defeated until the forest of move to his castle.

At the beginning of the play, Macbeth was a noble and loyal person, but by the end of the play, his “vaulting ambition” had taken over him. This caused him to become malicious and nihilistic and above all murderous, Macbeth portrays a tragic hero. Shakespeare portrays a tragic hero as someone who is noble and valiant but turns out to have a tragic flaw and Macbeth portrays this by fighting for his country and king but then murdering the king because of his hamartia, “his vaulting ambition”. Macbeth is greatly responsible for his downfall, but the witches have an impact on Macbeth’s actions. In Greek tragedies characters face a point in which they turn towards death, almost all plays have someone die and, in the end, justice prevails.

Agamemnon is the complete opposite to Hamlet’s character as he murders Clytemnestra’s husband to marry her,

If’t be so, / For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind; / For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered,” (3.1, 65-71). Shakespeare shows the fear of Macbeth’s character. Macbeth goes on to try and kill Banquo’s son because his fears led him to. As a result, Macbeth kills his best friend and tried to kill his sons because of his insecurities.

Macbeth needed power, he craved it, so after the prediction by the witches to become Thane of Cawdor, he was pronounced just that. ”By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.” The desire to be king overtook him. Killing king Duncan and his wife with their servants daggers; who Macbeth then killed after, Macbeth received the kingly title.

Though the encouragements of the three witches and Lady Macbeth, Macbeth is entirely accountable for his downfall. Throughout the play Macbeth, Macbeth is a tragic hero who abolishes himself by his own wicked and selfish determinations. During the start of the play, Macbeth is shown as a brave, noble hero of Scotland who has fearlessly won the war. As the story progresses, Macbeth soon transforms into a dictator who is willing to kill anyone that becomes a danger to his monarchy. Although Macbeth is influenced by a number of factors that lead him to his downfall, his deep desire and character persuades his ambition in the end.

Frantic, he orders a group of murderers to kill Macduff’s family. Consequently, when the time comes for Macbeth to encounter Macduff on the battlefield, he exhibits a moment of hesitation before proceeding to the duel. Feeling remorse for having Macduff’s entire family violently killed, Macbeth admits that he has a guilty conscience that he does not want to kill Macduff as well. “Of all men else I have avoided thee: / But get thee back; my soul is too much charged / With blood of thine already,” (Shakespeare 5. VIII.

When fate is brought into question, one thing people often ponder upon is what is the point of no return? There were many times throughout Macbeth by Shakespeare that Macbeth had the opportunity to change his serendipity. If Macbeth would have swallowed his pride when he received the three prophecies from the three witches, what was destined for him could have immensely been altered. Macbeth’s first encounter with the witches in Act 1 Scene 3 was the moment at which his entire world took a turn for the worst. In this scene the witches appear with a clap of thunder and soon stumble upon Macbeth and Banquo.