It seems that most people believe that Macbeth is the real villain of the play, after firstly killing the King but then Banquo and Macduff’s family but through Macbeth’s own ambition and desire for power, Lady Macbeth was able to manipulate and evoke weaknesses in Macbeth’s character to cause his respectable needs as a loyal solider, to turn into evil motivations. In the course of the play Macbeth’s mind changes from thinking logically to thinking unreasonably and acting impulsively on every thought that comes to his mind. The ideas that Lady Macbeth had and the prophesies from the witches came together to lead Macbeth into the conflicted character he become, going from a loyal, respected soldier into a tragic flawed hero. Before Macbeth’s character shifted into villainy he was a loyal and respected thane. His desire for power grew throughout the play and begins when he first encoumis, then they hail him the thane of Cawdor, which he didn’t yet know of, to him soon would be his next, second title.
It fair to say, in addition, that if his betrayal caused this extensive pain that clouded him after he murders Duncan, Banquo and the Macduff’s that it wasn’t a case of fate and was his own doing. However is he to blame? Or does the bulk fall on Lady Macbeth and the three witches. From his very first meeting with the witches, Macbeth's mind became instantly plagued with thoughts of murder and treachery a trait that was instantly noticed by Banquo "Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear; Things that do sound so fair?" showing us that the thought of murder was already at the back of his mind.
The statement “Fair is foul and foul is fair” comes into play, because becoming king sounds fair, but Macbeth doesn’t know that he will have to kill to achieve it. The main betrayal throughout this play is the moment Macbeth decides to kill Duncan, who has never been anything but kind and good. It is because of the supernatural power of the witches that Macbeth decides to kill Duncan, and start his decent into madness. Violence and murder are main themes in Macbeth. Although mostly offstage, the violence is described in great detail.
Shakespeare’s objective is to show how the guilt Is driving her insane. Shakespeare also does this with the semantic field of death; “death and blood” are used through her sleep-walk. This implies that her guilt of killing Duncan is driving her insane this technique is used by Shakespeare to portray Lady Macbeth’s broken state of mind which makes her restless. In Act 2 Scene 2, the witches say "Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep,” this is exactly what has happened to Lady Macbeth as she is unable to sleep.
Macbeth is a tragic hero, a person of high rank who is brought to eventual ruin by a flaw in his character Macbeth`s tragic flaw is his ambition,which leads him to a series of bloody and increasingly indefensible acts. The most apparent flaw, and perhaps the most in Macbeth`s character, is his lack of patience and temperance. These shortcomings haunted Macbeth,causing him to let his overvaulting ambition rush fate, and hasten his doom. Macbeth could not wait for an appointment to a position of more power. Instead , he murdered the king to take his place.
Lady Macbeth In what ways is Lady Macbeth important to the play? Lady Macbeth was important to the play because she provided inspiration to Macbeth to kill Duncan so that he would become king. Her personal life with Macbeth shows us how both Macbeth and her sanity deteriorate throughout the play. During the opening acts Lady Macbeth shows the role of strong women in relationships, with her strength she is able to sway Macbeth to doing what she pleases. In the first scene Lady Macbeth is introduced in (ACT 1 Scene V) she is reading a letter from Macbeth that states how three witches prophesied he would become king.
(Act 1 scene 3 and 4) Macbeth and Banquo meet with the witches and they give two prophecies, that Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor and later on king. When the first prophecy is fulfilled (he is thane of Cawdor), he realises that the king’s son (Malcolm) is in the way for the second prophecy to take place. From then on Macbeth does everything to make sure the witches’ prophecies take place. This puts the witches in a place of power, which is uncharacteristic for women of this time. The relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is very complex.
Lady Macbeth was one Shakespeare’s most courageous female characters. She convinced her husband to cruelly kill Duncan and urged him to be strong in the murder’s aftermath. Fortunately she was eventually scarred by the effect of Macbeth’s animosity towards her. In each case, ambition—helped, of course, by the hurtful predictions of the witches that’s what drove the couple to extreme insanity. The problem, the play suggests, is that once someone decides to use violence to further their quest for power, it is difficult to stop them.
What began as anger mounts to insanity as the plot thickens and one person’s madness spreads abroad to several tragedies within this tragic play. Hamlet kills Claudius. Laertes with the help of Claudius conspires to kill Hamlet after he is driven to madness. In act 4, scene 7, lines 141-149, Laertes tells Claudius of his plan. The madness of Laertes leads to a further plot of murder by poison designed by Claudius and the end result is the death of
As he writes in his introduction to the play: The whole point of Lady Macbeth's invocation is that she intends to murder Duncan herself. She speaks of 'my knife' and of 'my fell purpose.' And the same resolve is implied in everything she says to Macbeth after his entry. She bids him put "This night's great business into my dispatch"...she tells him he need do nothing but look the innocent and kindly host; she dismisses him with the words 'Leave all the rest to me'. All this seems obvious directly it is pointed out, though once again no one appears to have noticed it before, simply because in the end the murder is of course performed by Macbeth himself; and must be, however the drama is shaped.