He wanted to rule his country, a perfectly sane and moral goal. His intentions went sour throughout his journey, however, when he came to the conclusion that in order to control the kingdom, he must kill Duncan, then Banquo along with Fleance, and finally the Macduff family. One would think, if reading just the facts of these murderous plans, that Macbeth is pure of evil intentions and destructive measures. However,
Here Macbeth has lied because he has been to see the weird sisters earlier in the play.This now tells us that his loyalty is deteriorating as he prepares himself for the murder of King Duncan. This is dramatic irony because the audience know that he is going to kill the King however most of the actors on stage don’t know of his plan. As the play goes on you discover that Macbeth becomes less and less loyal to Banquo (ending in his murder) also to his wife Lady Macbeth by showing little regret for her death ‘She should have died hereafter’ this tells the
Structure Intro Paragraph 1 – Macbeth’s desire/ambition for power (triggered by witches) Paragraph 2 – Jack’s desire/ambition for power Paragraph 3 – Macbeth, once power is achieved (corruption) Paragraph 4 – Jack, once power is achieved Paragraph 5 – Summary/Comparision Intro: Power and the desire for power are key themes in both Macbeth and Lord of the Flies. In the beginning of both texts, Macbeth and Jack are introduced by images of darkness and ill omens. In Macbeth in Act I scene i, darkness is presented through the witches and the thunder and lightning. It is as if the natural order is being disrupted by unnatural elements. Macbeth is associated with the witches as they are waiting for him and their riddles mirror his opening remark to Banquo.
While Shakespeare makes Macbeth appear as a loyal and honourable soldier, at the same Macbeth portrays a sense of conflict within himself as he contemplates murdering Duncan in order to become king. This dimension to his character first becomes apparent during his first encounter with the three witches. When they were about to leave, he says ‘Stay, you imperfect speakers. Tell me more’ and ‘Speak, I charge you’. These strong, almost desperate commands suggest that he is intrigued by the prophecy told by the witches and wants to know more.
If they had not told him that he would become king, he would not even imagine that. But since they did tell him, he received new ambition and greed to finally kill the king and become king himself. After he was firmly on the throne, he began to get scared that someone was after him and the throne. He went to the witches and received influence again. He received three apparitions, but of two types: one that stated that he was going to be killed by Macduff, and two that stated that he should not be scared, because he is going to be killed by someone that is not woman born, and before that happens a forest of trees has to walk.
As the play goes on Macbeth becomes greedy after the mysterious visit of the three witches telling him he will become king. Macbeth becomes the bad guy in this situation when bad thoughts of murder came to mind and started to overcome the good in him. Murder was his intention and for that he killed fellow men who once where in close relation to him and his wife. “I have done the deed.” (Macbeth 2.2) The reason for Macbeth to even believe in himself that he could get away with this is because he was so trustworthy in the beginning by being the good guy and helping out the townspeople rather than being the one to make them need help. Good may be evil hidden so well that there would be no determination if they were actually really good.
Macbeth’s greedy emotions to achieve everything without letting anything get in the way would not let this happen. Ultimately, Macbeth orders people to kill Banquo because he fears as well as envies him. He envies him because Banquo has sons who can become future kings and Macbeth does not. So Macbeth would like to have sons. After killing Banquo, Macbeth starts to later see Banquo’s ghost.
“Thou hast it now—King, Cawdor, Glamis, all / As the Wëird Women promised, and I fear / Thou played’st most foully for ‘t. Yet it was said / It should not stand in thy posterity, / But that myself should be the root and father / Of many kings.” (81) Though he knew that something was up, he chose to ignore this instinct for his own personal gain, because, as it was promised, he should bear many Kings of the future. This proved an unwise choice, as the deceitful Macbeth had him murdered by hired hit men to make sure him or his offspring would not attempt to kill him. “O treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!
Let me go. Enough.”(4.1.73-74) It is apparent that he cannot differentiate between good and evil that he creates this “fate” that he is following that seems good to him but evil in others’ eyes. After murdering the king, Macbeth is not satisfied with just being king because the heir to the throne is Banquo’s son so “Instead of watching that happen, [Macbeth] will challenge fate to battle and fight to the death.” (3.1.74-75) This literally shows how he just made an evil decision all by himself (with no outside influences this time)
Next, before Macbeth and Lady Macbeth carry out the act of killing Duncan, Macbeth is weighing the pros and cons of going through with the murder. He has extreme doubt about this and thinks that if fate shall make him king, then there is nothing he has to do. He says to himself, “but only/ Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself/ and falls on th’ other” (I.vii.26-28). The only thing that is motivating him to kill Duncan is his ambition, but as he knows, people rushing ahead of themselves for ambition can prove to be disastrous. He knows that his desire may destroy him, which in fact