Outline Introduction: * Betrayal and deception play a big role in the play Macbeth, it tells us that you never know who you can trust or not. * The Three Witches, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth show us how someone that you once could trust, turns into someone you don’t recognize in a second. . First Main Point: The Witches * display evil power * change Macbeth into an evil man * not trusted Second Main Point: Macbeth * he betrays Duncan * betrays Banquo * became a murderer Third Main Point: Lady Macbeth * plans to kill Duncan to take over the throne for Macbeth * talking in her sleep, expressing the murder * deceives her king Conclusion: * good turns to evil, trust turn to betrayal
One of them being his fatalism described the witches. The witches informed Macbeth’s of him becoming Thane and afterwards the King; however, Banquo’s son was prophesized to become the king after Macbeth. Macbeth feared that part of the prophecy and it was an additional explanation for his downfall. He became paranoid and he reacted only how a threatened individual would: by eliminating the threat. His paranoia reached the point to where he was mentally unstable.
Macbeth further condones this in his action to the witches’ prophecy that he will become king. Once made Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth realizes the truth in the witches’ predictions, and immediately begins to contemplate the other part of their prophecy. “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,” (Act 1, sc. 3, line 151-152) he thinks, bringing murder to the front of his mind almost as soon as the witches are proven correct. Later in the play, Macbeth’s yearning for power, encouraged by the weird sisters, convinces him to kill the king and assume the throne.
Decisions and actions can also influence the outcome. In this case, Macbeth is to a large extent responsible for his own downfall. However the fault is not Macbeth’s alone as the text illustrates that the witches and Lady Macbeth were also partly responsible for Macbeth’s downfall. Lady Macbeth encouraged and pushed Macbeth in the direction of his destruction, and the witches’ implanted the idea in Macbeth’s head. Although Lady Macbeth and the witches’ certainly played a role in Macbeth’s downfall, ultimately Macbeth is to blame for his own demise, as it was his own decisions and actions that led to his downfall.
Macbeth betrays King Duncan because the witches told him he will become king. He also betrays his friend Banquo because the witches gave him predictions that can affect Macbeth. The three weird sisters betray Macbeth because he wants things to go his way. In “Macbeth”, Shakespeare demonstrates that betrayal is lead by unreasonable decisions that cause bad consequences. Macbeth
Discuss how the characters of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and Duncan are established in Act I by using textual evidence to support your points. Macbeth: “return to plague the inventor” Macbeth is a person that knows what he must do but is doubtful of it. He is the war hero and got news of his promotion by the witches, who also said he would be promoted further. To make their prophecy come true he must kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth: “unsex me here, and fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full of direst cruelty” Lady Macbeth is the “true” evil.
Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth’s persuasion and the witches’ charm, both in act 1 to show the influence of others. Lady Macbeth uses different techniques to persuade Macbeth to kill the king. She accuses Macbeth of being “green and pale” like a coward. He is also accused of being “afeard to be the same in …act…as thou…desire”, telling us he might be weak or fearful. The witches are possibly linked as the “charms” seem to influence Macbeth and he begins to echo “foul and fair”.
Therefore the witches could foretell Macbeth’s fate and his downfall. Although, the witches were not completely honest, Macbeths' actions were more ambitious and destructive than the witches, since Macbeth used violence to advance in the game of power taking harmful actions to the advance to the next. Proving, that Macbeths' actions fed his ambitions and led him to his downfall. Secondly, the witches told Macbeth the apparitions as if they were complete truths not just mere predictions. The witches mislead Macbeth into believe a certain fate that could possibly have been a false truth.
This illusion is one of the witches, sowing the seeds of murder in Macbeth, and ultimately, immediately after he murders Duncan. Further, Macbeth again visits the witches, this time in a plead for further knowledge and is met with additional illusions. Before though, Hecate meets with the witches and states, “Shall raise such artificial sprites / As by the strength of their illusion / Shall draw him on to his confusion: / He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear”(Shakespeare 3.6.26-29). The witches use apparitions to further influence Macbeth this time leading him down a false path. By doing this, Macbeth becomes arrogant and feels invincible.
Lady Macbeth is not satisfied with power, as soon as there is an additional opportunity for abundant power Lady Macbeth is committed to getting that power by any means necessary, moral or immoral. She desires for her husband to gutlessly murder King Duncan and expects him to be mentally stable after the murder. However, she is the one who is driven to complete insanity because of all the killing that Macbeth is doing and all the bloodshed that the pair has caused. This is essentially Lady Macbeths fault as she bestowed her corrupt morals onto Macbeth. She shaped the mindset that it was necessary to murder someone who trusts you for more power and accordingly she changed Macbeth’s way of thinking.