First and foremost, the Witches were the root of Macbeth’s misfortunes and evil doings. The Witches show Macbeth three prophecies regarding his past, present and future “All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis!”, “All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!”, “All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter.”(Shakespeare, Act 1, Scene 3, lines 49-51).
First, their early predictions stating that he will be king, and then the predictions of the apparitions saying that he only could be murdered by someone that was not born of a woman. After hearing these predictions of power and invincibility, Macbeth cannot get them out of his mind. The witches also predict that Macbeth’s friend Banquo’s sons will be kings. Banquo does not care much on the fact that his sons are going to be kings, unlike Macbeth who becomes obsessed upon hearing such predictions. Banquo states, “That, trusted home, might yet enkindle you unto the crown, besides the Thane of Cawdor.
The witches were the driving force of Macbeth’s guilty ambition and were the prophecies that would play on his mind continually. “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter,” (Act One, Scene 3, Line 53). Following this, readers are introduced to Lady Macbeth, another character that encounters an ambitious discourse. The audience witnesses Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s ambitious discourse being ruined when they conclude that the only way to be on the throne is to commit the murder of the loyal King Duncan. The murderous actions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth lead to their guilty ambition influencing each other to commit deeds that would not only ruin their clean conscience, but also their cultural assumptions.
No one to blame but Macbeth Decisions can be impacted by a number of factors; but in the end we have to be the ones to take responsibility for our actions. This is demonstrated when we see Macbeth transform from a brave soldier to a power-hungry murderer, feared by all his subjects. Macbeth is the one to blame for his own descent into cruelty and murder because he let his ambition, arrogance and greed take over his mind. While some may claim that Macbeth is to blame for his actions, others argue that it is the force of the supernatural that leads to his demise. Early on the witches reveal prophecies to Macbeth suggesting his rise to power.
. .] It is this synchronizing of nature and fortune that soothsayers study, and that the witches in Macbeth know something about. We call it fate, which over-simplifies it. (88-89) In his book, On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy, H. S. Wilson explains the stand taken by Macbeth in his relationship with fate: He pits himself no merely against the threat of hell but also against the enmity of "Fate" (as represented in the prophecies of the Weird Sisters): come, Fate, into the list, And champion me to th' utterance.
They were the driving force behind Banquo and King Duncan's killing. The witches prophesised that his life would completely change, by becoming thane of Cawdor, then king of Scotland. At first, Macbeth dismissed their prophecies, but after he was promoted to Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth wondered if he will be King, too. "If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me without my stir." Another prophecy made by the witches was that Banquo's son will be king.
He now sets himself up to become to become the king, because the witches told him he would become king. After Macbeth slays the current king, Duncan, Macbeth is named the king of Scotland (Shakespeare 75). This event is truly significant because it demonstrates the power of the witches to see the fate of Macbeth and how his actions fall into place to make his fate a reality. Although the witches
“Take away order from all things, what should then remain? Certes, nothing finally, except some man would imagine eftsoons chaos.” This essay will delve into essence of Macbeth by exploring the important ideology of the Elizabethan people known as the Chain of Being; the cause that lead Macbeth to commit the sacrilegious murder, and how the Murder of the honourable King Duncan by Macbeth was an act exclusively reserved to the unnatural world resulting in the inversion of the natural order and turmoil in nature as well as in the mind of Macbeth. The Chain of Being was an idea that mapped out God's natural hierarchy to the world and all its living creatures. Minerals and other inanimate things in nature were at the bottom of the chain, below plants, insects, and other "less noble" creatures. In the animal kingdom, mighty beasts like lions, bears, and wolves reigned supreme.
Shakespeare further cultivates Macbeths quickly changing character through soliloquy and dramatic irony. His success in doing so is disclosed as the once ‘noble’ Macbeth goes against all odds to convey his idea of fulfilling the witches’ prophecies: to kill King Duncan. Macbeth also notifies us that to even anticipate slaughtering the sacred King is an act of treachery and betrayal nonetheless he delivers himself as quite motivated and determined to do so. The “horrid image”, “doth unfix” his hair and make his “seated heart knock”; his lust for ultimate power poisons his loyalty and decays at his integrity. As the play moves on, the audience observe the hasty crumbling of his devotion to God and the King.
The devices make a suspenseful, shocking, spine-chilling play. This book is nothing short of ironic; Shakespeare uses the rhetorical device irony all threw Macbeth. For example the thane of Cawdor is killed over committing treason and treachery against the king, only to give the title to Macbeth who plans to commit worst things to the king. The king even goes on to state after killing the thane of Cawdor that “There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust” (I.IV.15). To then put his trust in Macbeth only to be betrayed by him.