Guilt is constantly seen throughout the play Macbeth driving the characters to question their morals. To the responder it appears that Lady Macbeth is the driving force behind the initial killing of King Duncan influencing her husband Macbeth to commit the evil deeds by threatening him with his man hood by saying “when you do it, then you are a man”. Her tone portrays her dominant nature and her hunger for authority and demonstrates to the responder her strength as a character. However her over confident traits and clear and concise thinking is diminished once the guilt of the crime poisons her conscience. This is demonstrated by her imagining her hands stained by blood and her constantly trying to clean the “damned spot” away and rid her sole of the guilt.
With the witches’ prophecies mulling over in his mind, and knowing that he was not the successor of the throne, he knew he had to take matters into his own hands. With the support and persuasion of Lady Macbeth, he kills King Duncan and gains his kingship. When Banquo makes his vow to find out who killed Duncan, Macbeth knew he had to silence him. After Macbeth is named king, he seeks out hired murderers to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance. Macbeth does this because he is afraid that Banquo will get in the way of his new title and Fleance, because he is prophesied to be king.
The descriptive label given to Macbeth is very deserving. It is to be notified that Macbeth’s evil intentions arose very early in the play as he contemplated the murder of King Duncan. This thought is seen in Act 1, scene 4 as Macbeth says, “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man that function is smothered in surmise, and nothing is but what it is not. Macbeth continually developed unworthy thoughts as he drifted from an impressive and an ambitious warrior to an unjust and overly ambitious ruler. Many may argue that this title given to Macbeth seems very harsh and many may use examples such as in Act 1, scene 4 for justification of his feelings of trepidation.” The prince of Cumberland!
Instead , he murdered the king to take his place. Opting not to wait to see if Banquo would be loyal to him, Macbeth had his companion murdered. His impatience led Macbeth to listen to his wife, the witches , and his darker side. He again informed people what a good man was not. In the end, Macbeth did regain a shred of his previous distinction when he faced his adversaries like a true warrior.
Macbeth seems like an even worse person after he kills Macduff’s family for no apparent reason. Macduff has some real hatred for Macbeth, on 143 he says “Not in the legions of horrid hell can come a devil more damned in evils to top Macbeth.” Macduff is not bloodthirsty, he just wants revenge. Because of Macduff there is a strong protagonist to fight against Macbeth. Duncan and Banquo are killed so Macduff takes their place as “the good guy”. Another comparison that is made to Macbeth is with Duncan, the old king.
He says “why do I yield to that suggestion, whose horrid image doth unfix my hair, and make my seated heart knock at my ribs.” He is revolted by his actions, and still can’t believe what he has done. Even the thought of King Duncan’s death, makes his hair stand on end and makes his heart pound. After Macbeth is crowned King, he is determined to keep the throne, and keep his reputation clean. He clearly regretted slaughtering King Duncan, displayed in the quote “to know my deed t’were best not know myself,” but once he got crowned King, he needed to make sure that no one
Shakespeare does a magnificent job by using Macbeth to show the terrible consequences that can result from an unchecked ambition and a guilty conscience. Those elements, combined with a lack of strong character, distinguish Macbeth from Shakespeare's other tragic heroes, such as King Lear and Richard III, both of whom are strong enough to overcome their guilty conscience. Before Macbeth murders Duncan, he is plagued with anxiety and almost does not go along with the plan. It takes his wife, Lady Macbeth's persuasion in order to complete the plot. When is about to kill Duncan, Macbeth sees a dagger covered in blood floating in the air, representing the bloody course he is about to take.
Macbeth responds, in brief, as a loyal thane to the Scottish king, but the prospect unnerves him. * The audience could see Macbeth’s ambition leading him to cursed thoughts which has been greatly *enforced and twisted* by the* malicious* witches. *The caution from the first apparition causes Macbeth to start a bloody massacre across England, killing families of people who may threaten his position. After this point in the play, we see *that *Macbeth* has* turn*ed* into a ruthless tyrant* in the hope of avoiding fate*, so desensitized to humanity that even the suicide of his wife *could not arouse grief from him. * All he could muster was* “She should have died hereafter”.
It seems that most people believe that Macbeth is the real villain of the play, after firstly killing the King but then Banquo and Macduff’s family but through Macbeth’s own ambition and desire for power, Lady Macbeth was able to manipulate and evoke weaknesses in Macbeth’s character to cause his respectable needs as a loyal solider, to turn into evil motivations. In the course of the play Macbeth’s mind changes from thinking logically to thinking unreasonably and acting impulsively on every thought that comes to his mind. The ideas that Lady Macbeth had and the prophesies from the witches came together to lead Macbeth into the conflicted character he become, going from a loyal, respected soldier into a tragic flawed hero. Before Macbeth’s character shifted into villainy he was a loyal and respected thane. His desire for power grew throughout the play and begins when he first encoumis, then they hail him the thane of Cawdor, which he didn’t yet know of, to him soon would be his next, second title.
"Boyce talks of the jealousy and hate that drives Iago to deceive the moor to "show how a noble man can lose faith and go in a frenzy caused by the loss of trust." (Boyce 570). Othello is tricked into believing all the wrong things which causes him to lose his sanity. Over his web article critic Christopher Baker says that Iago's only reason for all of his evil plans to infect Othellos mind with lies were because he wanted revenge for not being promoted. He thinks that all the tragedy that takes place "shows the true means of physcological derangement."