Macbeth quotes, “will it not be received/ When we have mark’d with blood those sleepy two/ Of his own chamber and used their very daggers/ That they have done’t? (1.7.75-79), stating that blood is beginning to literally represent guilt, rather then symbolically. By killing Duncan with the guard’s weapons and then smearing blood all over them, Macbeth is framing them, making them guilty by using Duncan’s blood. This quote also depicts Macbeth’s transition from a morally correct ruler to a corrupt and vicious murderer. Before hearing the witch’s prophecy, he was a virtuous and ethical person, but after hearing that he is destined for kingship, he goes on a murderous rampage to gain political power, completely disregarding his previous decency.
Nevertheless one murder didn't comfort him, he thinks he needs to secure his position. So he goes off and hires hit men to kill who he thinks is his enemy, the one who can take his power, Banqo. Soon enough he finds himself ordering the slaughter of a traitors family, which is when remorse never enters his thoughts. Macbeth’s greed and ambitions are the sheer motivators of his killings and that is evident throughout the journey of the play. As Shakespeare once wrote , “Fair is foul and foul is fair” (Act I, Sc.I, Line
Upon hearing of his families’ death, Macduff returns to Scotland to confront Macbeth, who is slain. The horrid acts performed by Macbeth were brought to justice through his death, and power was restored with the crowning of King Malcolm. Lady Macbeth was the driving force that kept pushing Macbeth to his terrible crimes. One crucial statement she made to her husband directly insulted Macbeth’s manhood, and manipulated him into committing heinous crimes, “What beast was't then, When you durst do it then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man..."(Shakespeare, 1.7, 47-49). In this statement Lady Macbeth resorted to
Macbeth himself was always yearning for power. It is first shown when he is made thane of Cawdor, and is jealous of Malcolm for becoming heir of the throne. “As Macbeth hears the title given to Malcolm, he shows again the conflict within him between ambition and fear.” (Campbell 216) His greed and ambition for more gets the better of him, as he plots with Lady Macbeth to kill King Duncan and become the heir to the throne. This was a very selfish act in his position; by killing Duncan and becoming king, Macbeth disrupted the chain of being and doomed all of society as a whole. “The Great Chain of Being was supposed to keep the Earth in a stable condition and order.
He can report,/ As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt/ The newest state.” (1.2.1-3), to which blood indicates the open wounds Macbeth had caused to him. Shakespeare’s use of blood in this scene represents the loyalty and honor as Macbeth killed Macdonwald in defense of the king. After the battle, Macbeth was rewarded with a new title as the Thane of Cawdor yet he was not completely satisfied as he became greedy. Shakespeare also uses bloody images to foreshadow future events associated with Macbeth’s power. Aside from symbolizing blood as honor, he uses it to demonstrate the character of Macbeth and his drastic personality change as the play progresses.
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 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.
One of the main messages he is trying to deliver to us is to always weigh what you achieve to what the consequences will be. This especially holds true for Macbeth, as when first contemplating if he should kill Duncan, not once did he think of how he could be punished. Also, when Macbeth first hears the witch’s prophecy of him being a king, he jumps directly to the idea of murder. This kind of thinking is exhibited in Macbeth’s monologue in scene 5 act 5, where he discus’s the uselessness of living, and this attitude towards life made him go mad. This also points to how unintelligent Macbeth really was.
Dangers of Absolute Power According to Aristotle, a tragic hero should experience a rising action due to his exceptional characteristics; and suffer a falling action due to his fatal flaw, which eventually results in his death. However, he should still be able to gain sympathy and pity from the audience. The story of Macbeth truly represents elements of a tragic hero, a brave loyal knight whose fatal flaw is his ambition for power which leads him to betray his friends and king and finally killed by his other fatal flaw, overconfidence. In William Shakespeare, the play The Tragedy of Macbeth, the author uses Macbeth’s ambitious characteristic, evoking pity for Macbeth and finally the danger of absolute power to show Macbeth’s tragic story.
He has resolved himself not only to kill the king, but to also remove Malcolm. The king is Macbeth's cousin, and has recently given him much honor. Macbeth should be protecting the king with his own life, but despite all these things, he kills the king. MacBeth then becomes self-centered. He refuses to take any more reports.