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.
After a protracted discussion of the topic of who is to blame for the demise of Macbeth, the blame has come to rest upon the Three Witches. Within the play Macbeth, the Witches have done numerous things to cause the demise of Macbeth; influenced him through prophecies and apparitions, spurred his killing spree and manipulated him. From the outset, the Witches show Macbeth prophecies which lead to his downfall. These prophecies are the root of Macbeth’s misfortunes and evil doings, push Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to act upon their evil thoughts, and alter Macbeth from a loyal soldier to a traitor. First and foremost, the Witches were the root of Macbeth’s misfortunes and evil doings.
Macbeth hears some juxtapose news that gives him a reckless attitude. In the end, he is defeated by Macduff. Keeping in mind what the witches first said to Macbeth, this truly was the start to his journey of evolving into a cruel tyrant. When Macbeth tells his wife, she encourages him to take action, and the reader gets a snowball effect until Macbeth has finally gone full tyrant by murdering Macduff’s wife and children. Macbeth possibly never would have killed King Duncan to begin with if it wasn’t for the three witches’
He now sets himself up to become to become the king, because the witches told him he would become king. After Macbeth slays the current king, Duncan, Macbeth is named the king of Scotland (Shakespeare 75). This event is truly significant because it demonstrates the power of the witches to see the fate of Macbeth and how his actions fall into place to make his fate a reality. Although the witches
Through these techniques and motifs, Shakespeare shows how the once valiant and noble Macbeth turns into a guilty and ruined man due to letting his ambitious ways ruin him. In this essay I will examine the theme of ambition, motifs and techniques used in Macbeth to show how Macbeth’s actions lead to his ultimate downfall. After hearing the enticing prophecies of the witches we begin to see glimpses of Macbeth’s burgeoning ambition. The reader sees the idea of murder and tyranny enters his mind soon after Malcolm is crowned Prince of Cumberland: ‘The Prince of Cumberland: that is a step/ on which I must fall down, or else o’er-leap/, for in my way it lies.’ This quotation begins to forebode the series of bad and dark ideas that will enter Macbeth’s mind, the ideas which will make him turn to murder. This is the starting point of Macbeth wanting to push every inch of morality aside.
There are an abundant amount of accounts in Shakespeare’s poem, Macbeth, which depict Macbeth as being morally ambiguous. Throughout the story, Macbeth is seen as heroic, evil, and misfortunate. Ultimately, Macbeth is tragic hero insofar as he was once a hero; however, he allowed for his ambition to get the best of him and lead him to his downfall. First of all, the beginning of the poem, the Sergeant glorifies Macbeth by notifying King Duncan of his heroic actions in battle. “For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name) disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel, which smoked with bloody execution, like Valour’s minion carved out his passage, till he faced the slave, which never shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, till he unseamed
A hero, a soldier, a noble man - we are first introduced to Macbeth at the start of the play and it becomes apparent that he is these three things. As the play advances he begins to shine through as revenge seeking, devious and an evil murderer? But why; what makes Macbeth change character and to perform lifes most gruesome act, murder? Of course Macbeth himself had reasons and influences that allowed him to become this way, including his wife Lady Macbeth, the witches prophecies, his need for power and of course his 'fatal flaw'. Lady Macbeth - cold hearted, power, witch-like - is the most reasonable for turning Macbeth into an evil murderer.
Shakespeare further cultivates Macbeths quickly changing character through soliloquy and dramatic irony. His success in doing so is disclosed as the once ‘noble’ Macbeth goes against all odds to convey his idea of fulfilling the witches’ prophecies: to kill King Duncan. Macbeth also notifies us that to even anticipate slaughtering the sacred King is an act of treachery and betrayal nonetheless he delivers himself as quite motivated and determined to do so. The “horrid image”, “doth unfix” his hair and make his “seated heart knock”; his lust for ultimate power poisons his loyalty and decays at his integrity. As the play moves on, the audience observe the hasty crumbling of his devotion to God and the King.
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.
In the opening of the play, a loyal Macbeth is approached by three witches who entice him with their claim that “[he] shalt be king thereafter.” (1-3-50). This information stimulates his hidden thirst for power and willingness to keep the throne for himself. He plots to murder the king and takes the liberty of killing Banquo, and anyone else who poses a threat to his reign to aid his own insecurity. Macbeth begins to lose trust in those around him and becomes unstable. Shakespeare shows through Duncan, who carries a legitimate power, that only direct threats to the kingdom are punished accordingly.