Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter! [Freeze] (I, iii, pg 47) Enter ROSS ROSS For an earnest of a greater honor, The king bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor; In which addition, hail, most worthy Thane, For it is thine. (I, iii, pg 49) MACBETH [Aside] Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor; The greatest is behind. 1 (II, ii, pg 121-123) MACBETH holds a dagger and hesitates to kill KING DUNCAN.
“The raven himself is hoarse/ That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan” (Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 41-42.) This foreshadows Duncan’s death because the raven was believed to be the messenger of evil tidings. Lady Macbeth had just received word that Macbeth was Thane of Cawdor and would become king of Scotland. She believes Macbeth is not capable of direct action and was determined to convince her husband to murder Duncan who was the present king. Shakespeare foreshadows the downfall of Scotland by including the unusual actions by animals.
In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth feels guilty after slaughtering King Duncan whereas Lady Macbeth is unfazed. To begin with, Macbeth feels that he is not honorable enough to have the title of Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth hears a voice cry “‘Glamis hath murder’d sleep’, and therefore Cawdor/Shall sleep no more” (2.2.46, 46). Here, Macbeth does not think that he deserves the title because he dishonoured the king who gave him the opportunity to succeed. It is quite ironic how the original Thane of Cawdor was a traitor and now Macbeth follows down the same path.
I am no fool to think all is well here, Denmark is falling to discord assur’d Thine husband sits too proud upon the throne ‘Tis true he is overly fond of drink, Yet he knows not the threat of Fortinbras Too caught up in his web of lies to care Perhaps, he is not spiderlike, instead Lying in wait like a trapp’d moth in shade. Alas, I should not speak so ill of him, Indeed, ‘tis not just to think so evil. Let me now look to myself for blame, which Dear Hamlet seems to heed upon first glance. No longer gentle in ways, in nature, Trapp’d in mind, fixated on death’s vile touch My eyes glance over his change in spirit Locate instead the loss, the grief he bares. And now, he turns to look upon my soul Hope is lost for his gaze can shatter ice The frozen wastelands of my heart, my head Replaced with control and infused with grace Does Hamlet find things others cannot see?
Shannon Firkins Ambition is a common downfall for those who seek and gain power. In literature, authors portray the harmful effects of ambition through their characters. In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare the main character Macbeth changes from a kind-hearted warrior to an egotistical ruler because of his ambition. The poem “Ozymandias,” by Percy Bysshe Shelley, tells the story of a traveler who comes across an old ruined statue. The inscription on the statue says “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, Look on my Works ye Mighty and Despair.” This is ironic because everything around the statue, or the “works” are in ruins.
Hamlet swears revenge on his uncle King Claudius by saying, “Haste me to know ’t, that I, with wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love, may sweep to my revenge” (1.5. ). King Hamlet departs from the scene and a bewildered Horatio and Marcellus return. Hamlet makes these two men swear secrecy to what they have just seen and the scene closes. This one scene seems to take a large toll on Hamlet’s state of mind.
/I held the sword, and he did run on it” (Shakespeare, V, v, 64-65,912). Similar to Antigone, Brutus’s tragedy that occurs due to his breaking of the law to do what is right is sealed when he commits suicide as he sees that Antony and Octavius’s forces defeat his and Cassius’s.
What soldiers, whey-face?” (V.iii.16-19) Scene eight takes place in the midst of the battle. Here we see a new kind of dignity in Macbeth. “Why should I play the Roman fool and die/On mine own sword?” (V.viii.1). In this first line of the scene Macbeth contemplates suicide but his ego won’t let him, he has too much dignity. Later in the scene when Macbeth finally meets with MacDuff and learns that MacDuff was not born of a
One of the revengers is Malcolm. His role was that he was supposed to inherit the throne from King Duncan, by being his son and named Prince of Cumberland, confirming his next in line status of the throne. After this announcement Macbeth decided he had to get past this to gain the throne. After he killed Duncan, Malcolm and Donalbain(Duncan’s sons) both left Scotland out of fear for their own lives. When they left the one next in line for the throne was Macbeth.
Macbeth’s ambition to become king, which is a position of great control over scotland’s affairs, causes him to lose control in his own life. In order to attain the throne, Macbeth commits murder, and the resulting guilt overwhelms and takes over his life. He becomes paranoid, and as he attempts to secure his throne by removing anyone whom he suspects to be a threat, he neglects Lady Macbeth, who had ultimate control over him so that he lost control in his life when Lady Macbeth distanced from him and died. Even at the beginning of the play, Macbeth had become submissive to the fate that the witches had prophesized for him, such that he did not account for the choices that he makes in life anymore and lost control. Macbeth becomes victim to guilt when he kills Duncan for the throne, and guilt then takes over his life, leaving him without control of his own behaviors.