Shakespeare presents the flaws in Macbeth’s character using prophecies from the witches, juxtaposition in his soliloquys, and Lady Macbeth slowly manipulating him to do deeds that in the end lead to his demise. In Act 1 Scene 2 Shakespeare uses 2 characters talking about Macbeth to portray the idea that Macbeth is a loyal, brave and tenacious character and he uses imagery to show this. The sergeant tells us that Macbeth “with smok’d with bloody execution, like valour’s minion carv’d out his passage.” The imagery of “valour’s minion” is used to suggest that Macbeth is Valour’s favourite person and that he is the bravest person other than Valour himself. The imagery used to suggest that he is also a very violent person, able to commit acts that were perhaps disturbed is “smok’d with bloody execution.” This quote tells us that Macbeth is perhaps considered a violent person, but it is acceptable because it is for the King, therefore it is the right reason. In Act 2 Scene 1, just before Macbeth kills the King, we see signs of his psychological destruction when he hallucinates about the dagger.
Ashley Demerac August 24th, 2015 01.07: Macbeth – Character Disintegration Topic Choice #2: Explore how Macbeth changes over the course of the play. Macbeth changes quite significantly during the course of the play. In the beginning, Macbeth is a valued general, a dear husband, and an ardent subject of the king. When the first revelations are made by the witches, Macbeth shows his more aggressive side, leading to his murder of the king. Since Lady Macbeth set him up to this by insulting his manhood, Macbeth took a turn for the worst when he started experiencing fear and guilt.
One of them being his fatalism described the witches. The witches informed Macbeth’s of him becoming Thane and afterwards the King; however, Banquo’s son was prophesized to become the king after Macbeth. Macbeth feared that part of the prophecy and it was an additional explanation for his downfall. He became paranoid and he reacted only how a threatened individual would: by eliminating the threat. His paranoia reached the point to where he was mentally unstable.
He can report,/ As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt/ The newest state.” (1.2.1-3), to which blood indicates the open wounds Macbeth had caused to him. Shakespeare’s use of blood in this scene represents the loyalty and honor as Macbeth killed Macdonwald in defense of the king. After the battle, Macbeth was rewarded with a new title as the Thane of Cawdor yet he was not completely satisfied as he became greedy. Shakespeare also uses bloody images to foreshadow future events associated with Macbeth’s power. Aside from symbolizing blood as honor, he uses it to demonstrate the character of Macbeth and his drastic personality change as the play progresses.
One of the main messages he is trying to deliver to us is to always weigh what you achieve to what the consequences will be. This especially holds true for Macbeth, as when first contemplating if he should kill Duncan, not once did he think of how he could be punished. Also, when Macbeth first hears the witch’s prophecy of him being a king, he jumps directly to the idea of murder. This kind of thinking is exhibited in Macbeth’s monologue in scene 5 act 5, where he discus’s the uselessness of living, and this attitude towards life made him go mad. This also points to how unintelligent Macbeth really was.
Here Hamlet enters with a dilemma: “To be or not to be”. Hamlet outlines a long list of the miseries, and asks who would choose to bear those miseries if he could choose to die. Hamlet goes on to describe miseries, specifically his disgust at his mother’s marriage. He thinks for a while that death may end all the troubles of life. But then he is unsure o the consequences of death.
In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth guilt strongly affects Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as it is shown through the emotions, the murder and the suicide. The changes of Macbeth’s emotions demonstrates how guilt develop within him. Through Macbeth aggressiveness he demonstrates the cause of his guilt. Macbeth, no longer acts like his past self, and violently kills Duncan. This betrayal that he demonstrates,
Again Macbeth’s conscience comes into play when he says, “We still have judgement here; that we but teach / Bloody instruction, which being taught return / To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice,” (I, vii, 8-10). He knows what he is doing wrong and that there will be consequences even before he murders Duncan. Macbeth is a weak man however, and ignores his conscience; he instead gives in to his power-hungry wife’s greed and allows his ambition to lead him on a dastardly journey. Although it may seem as though Duncan’s murder was not only Macbeth’s doing, he had a
Francisco’s unexplained phrase of ‘I am sick a heart’ further generates a sense of anxiety, and it spreads amongst the audience. We fear the unknown and soon the supernatural also. It too - the ghost - appears ambiguous, in one instant seeming ‘majestical’ and the next ‘like a guilty thing’. Audience’s of the time believed ghosts to be ‘agents of the afterlife’ and therefore suspect that the ghost, who appears in the dead king’s armour, has some unfinished business to attend to. In contrast, the opening scene of Revenger’s Tragedy appears much more focused and accessible in comparison with Shakespeare's complex opening scene.
We learn of his heroic actions in defence of the kingdom. We see Macbeth change from the valour character to an sinister blood thirsty murderer. Although, some might argue that Macbeth did not have evil intentions. In the play, when Macbeth has his first encounter with the Witches, he is with his good friend Banquo. At first Macbeth is taken back by the Witches’ appearances but when they finish their apparition, Macbeth yearns to know more about his future.