Macbeth first takes this in a joking manner, but soon begins to take it very seriously. When he came home to his wife, he shared the witches’ prediction with her and she encourages Macbeth to quicken the process by murdering the current king, King Duncan. After murdering the king, Macbeth soon finds himself needing to kill many more in order to keep his secret. His kingship comes into jeopardy when he hears of someone named Macduff who is foretold to have the power to defeat him. Macbeth hears some juxtapose news that gives him a reckless attitude.
Macbeth is more to be condemned than pitied, when faced with his heinous crimes. A single regicide would have been enough to denounce him beyond any hope of acquittal, yet it was not just one murder that so condemns him. Not only did Macbeth murder his king, but Young Siward, Macduff’s family and his own friend Banquo, in addition to the attempted murder of Banquo’s son Fleance. During the course of the play, his actions are inhumane and morally wrong, and while it can be argued that it was the influences of both Lady Macbeth and the Witches led to King Duncan’s murder at Macbeth’s hands, it was he who performed the act. It was his fatal flaw, ambition, that ultimately led to his downfall.
Both characters show signs of guilty conscience later in the play and eventually die for their tragic flaws. Brutus and Macbeth have similar situations; however, there is much difference in the characteristics and personality of the characters. Brutus’s intention is reasonable and straightforward while Macbeth commits the crime because of his ambitious and corrupt characteristics. Brutus murders Caesar for his country and well being of the people whereas Macbeth does it for his own self gain. Brutus is a Roman nobleman who loves his country greatly.
Persuasion is a powerful and threatening tool used against those who are too weak. It can be used to manipulate others, and sway ones decision between right and wrong. Persuasion is an invisible danger in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Although Macbeth falls victim to persuasion and its powers many times in the play, he is also very adroit, using it to his own benefit. In this particular scene, Macbeth attempts to persuade the two murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance.
They are both selfish men, led by irrational motives. Macbeth killed a good king; he speaks greatly of Duncan when he reconsiders murdering Duncan due to his good heart; “Besides, this Duncan hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great office that his virtues shall plead trumpet-tongued against the deep damnation of his taking off. "(1.7.16-20) Macbeth also happened to be related to Duncan but that still didn’t stop him from murdering him and fulfilling his prophecy. Under Macbeth’s rule, people were in constant worry due to the numerous assassinations and experienced food shortages. The narrator in ATTH, killed because he claimed the old man’s eyes resembled that of a vulture’s and that he felt uncomfortable because he also claimed that whenever they fell on him, his “blood ran cold”.
Macbeth says to himself, “If good, why do I yield to that suggestion/ Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair/ And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,/ Against the use of nature?” (1.3.135-138). This quotation tells us that Macbeth’s strong ambition tells him to want more because he feels unsatisfied. He thinks of murdering King Duncan and fulfilling the last prophecy because consciously, Macbeth knows that it is the only way to satisfy his ambition for things he does not have and that is by becoming the King of Scotland. This will eventually lead to his downfall and death, as karma exists. We know that it isn’t right for Macbeth to become the king, as Malcolm is the heir to the throne.
Although Macbeth desires to be King he still has his doubts about the murder. Shakespeare shows that Lady Macbeth serves as a foil to Macbeth because her static character shows strong and evil strategies that bring out Macbeths cowardly actions and apprehensive conscience for becoming King, making Macbeth look as if he is weak. Macbeth is seen as a very brave and determined character at the beginning of the play after winning the battle at Norway. Even though Macbeth is seen to be a positive role model, he is naïve and easily fooled into doing things his original character would not intend on doing. In the play Macbeth is persuaded by Lady Macbeth to kill Duncan in order to get the “ornament of life,” which would be taking the thrown.
How does Lady Macbeth persuade Macbeth to kill King Duncan? At the start of the play Macbeth starts of as a brave and loyal man who had a lot of respect for his king, Duncan. He won the battle between the old king of Cawdor and the Norwegian king which shows he was a strong warrior. By winning this, King Duncan makes Macbeth the thane of Cawdor which boosts his position up in the social hierarchy. At the moment a lot of people seem to be fond of Macbeth and look up to him.
“You do unbend your noble strength, to think / So brainsickly of things.” She comments on how he has become more worried and thinks feverishly of things. Macbeth says that he would “go no more / [he] is afraid of what [he[ has done” indicating his fear of his own actions and the following consequences. After being swayed by his wife, Macbeth seems to think rather illogically and impulsively. He becomes more ‘evil’ as he pursues the goal of being King at the expense of all other considerations. Once he was crowned King, he became paranoid and ceased trusting anyone which had led him to killing several other lives.
The similarity is that Macbeth who the king hails and shows great respect for will later in the story commit the ultimate act of treason and murder his king. There is also a literary device used which is irony. The irony is that Duncan praises Macbeth for being a trust worthy general and a great one. Duncan praises Macbeth for fighting diligently in the civil war. The irony is that Macbeth kills Duncan for power later in the story.