How Macbeth Becomes Evil

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How Macbeth Becomes Evil William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth shows how a person is not born evil but rather becomes evil through various influences in one’s life. At the beginning Macbeth is an honorable and trustworthy man who is also a war hero with absolutely no intention of harming anybody. However, upon stumbling on a fascinating prophecy that predicts he will be king, Macbeth has no choice but to sit there and go over what happened in his head and try to make a decision. As the witches come back with more prophecies, all of his doubt is gone, and without knowing it he is following the fate that he has created. The witches’ prophecies make Macbeth think he is following fate when in fact the many murders committed by Macbeth…show more content…
He does not notice his change but others like Banquo are completely aware of the fact that Macbeth “ [has] it all: [he’s] the king, the thane of Cawdor, and the thane of Glamis, just like the weird women promised [him]. And [Banquo] suspect [he] cheated to win these titles.” (3.1.1) The witches know exactly how everything will turn out and manipulate him in such a way that he does not know that he is becoming evil. They do this by giving him the illusion that the things he is doing are done in order to protect himself when in fact they just pull him deeper into the pit of evil and arise second thoughts about Macbeth’s greatness among others. The complete change can easily be seen by Act 4 as the First Apparition cries“Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff. Beware the thane of Fife. Let me go. Enough.”(4.1.73-74) It is apparent that he cannot differentiate between good and evil that he creates this “fate” that he is following that seems good to him but evil in others’ eyes. After murdering the king, Macbeth is not satisfied with just being king because the heir to the throne is Banquo’s son so “Instead of watching that happen, [Macbeth] will challenge fate to battle and fight to the death.” (3.1.74-75) This literally shows how he just made an evil decision all by himself (with no outside influences this time)

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