As it dawns on him that it is only a figment of his imagination, he begins to worry that his guilty conscience and “heat-oppressed brain” (II.I.51) is making him see things. When Macbeth sees “dudgeon gouts of blood” (II.I.58) on the dagger, he decides that the dagger is an omen and that it means he should go along with the plan to kill Duncan. Shakespeare uses ominous and eerie images in the later part of the passage to show how Macbeth is getting seduced by the idea of killing Duncan, saying that “Nature seems dead and wicked dreams abuse the curtain’d sleep” (II.I.62). The allusions to evil people and practices in the passage suggest
3. Diction Words such as “virtues”, “justice” and “trust” are all used to describe Duncan at some point in the soliloquy. Shakespeare purposefully chose these words to convey Duncan as a blameless, virtuous king in which Macbeth knows, but yet have to overcome his conscience and kill. Other words such as “plaque”, “damnation” and “poisoned” are utilized to portray Macbeth’s guilt insinuating that he is not naturally inclined to commit evil
This first person point of view allows the audience to know Macbeth's thoughts that no other character in the play can. It is first seen that Macbeth truly is sensitive about killing the king, and then he shows the mental calamity that is kept hidden after going through with the deed. Banquo, another victim of Macbeth's ambition connects the "unnatural events" to what
While Shakespeare makes Macbeth appear as a loyal and honourable soldier, at the same Macbeth portrays a sense of conflict within himself as he contemplates murdering Duncan in order to become king. This dimension to his character first becomes apparent during his first encounter with the three witches. When they were about to leave, he says ‘Stay, you imperfect speakers. Tell me more’ and ‘Speak, I charge you’. These strong, almost desperate commands suggest that he is intrigued by the prophecy told by the witches and wants to know more.
To begin, Macbeth is livid that Banquo’s prophecy foretells that he will father Kings; all of his sinning and betrayal (killing Duncan) was done for not even his own children’s advantage, but Banquo’s. He then goes on to yell, “Rather than so, come fate into the list,/ And champion me to th’ utterance” (III.i.75-76). Macbeth is saying that he is willing to challenge fate and fight until death. He is prepared to do anything to change the fate given to Banquo, just to stay in power. Next, when Macbeth meets with the murderers, he begins feeding them lies to feed their anger for Banquo.
As the play goes on Macbeth becomes greedy after the mysterious visit of the three witches telling him he will become king. Macbeth becomes the bad guy in this situation when bad thoughts of murder came to mind and started to overcome the good in him. Murder was his intention and for that he killed fellow men who once where in close relation to him and his wife. “I have done the deed.” (Macbeth 2.2) The reason for Macbeth to even believe in himself that he could get away with this is because he was so trustworthy in the beginning by being the good guy and helping out the townspeople rather than being the one to make them need help. Good may be evil hidden so well that there would be no determination if they were actually really good.
Pushed by the idea that he could be king, his growing ambition and misguided confidence in the prophecies makes Macbeth starts to ignore his conscious. After he is crowned king, Macbeth changes for the worse. He would turn into an evil, brutal killing man with no sense of morals. From the beginning to the end, it’s as if Macbeth has changed in character completely. The actions he took from killing Banquo, then having Lady Macduff and her children murdered, shows the insecurity that was present in Macbeth.
Macbeth is an extremly complicated character to portray. His personality changes throughout the play beginning as an honurable war-hero and being praised highly by the King; making him Thane of Cawdor even though he was already Thane of Glamis. He then becomes a hesitant murderer, constantly distressed about his situiation ‘I am afraid to think what I have done’ to actively planning the murder of Banquo and showing little contrition for the death of his wife, Lady Macbeth ‘She should have died hereafter’ and becoming responsible for the massacre of Macduff’s wife and children.it is imperative that the actor playing Macbeth understands the intricacy of his character. He must also be able to show the contrast between Macbeth’s character in Act 2 Scene 1 and Act 5 Scene 5, in order to portray Macbeth, the actor must contemplate the mood and tone of what he is saying, his gestures and actions to match a certain phrase or speech. Also his facial expressions are very important.
Now Macbeth has fear of losing his power so he must act by sending out to murder Banquo and his sons. By this time he has already begun to lose his guilt induced conscious as if killing had just become second nature. Thus is the case when he murders all of Macduff’s family, creating one of his largest flaws thus far. It is not illustrated on how the murders were done, rather Macduff’s reaction is shown which creates a hatred towards
Before the vicious acts and insanity jumps in, Macbeth expresses his moral dilemma and how he is extremely confused. He tries to persuade himself that it is unethical and how he probably shouldn’t go through with it yet, Lady Macbeth encourages him otherwise. Even when Macbeth hallucinates a dagger floating towards him, he still shows that he has a conscience and can tell the difference between right and wrong. “There is no such thing:/ It is the bloodied business which informs/ Thus to mine eyes.” Exaggerating how it is murder which he is about to commit that is the catalyst for his