However, all the while he is greedily planning their deaths. Also, the witches fool Macbeth into actually thinking he will become king, when in reality he will only kill others and die fighting for the throne. Deception, dishonesty, and betrayal can lead to many things, especially if they are done out of greed for
However, once the notion of royal power is introduced by the Witches, the dam is broken and a cascade of corruption follows. This corruption leads to the murder of Duncan and Banquo by Macbeth. Once the thrown is obtained by Macbeth, more corruption ensues leading to his fear and neuroses. This destructive combination of fear and corruption leads to a wake of destruction for Scotland. Debuting in the play with auspiciousness, Macbeth slowly becomes corrupted by his new-found power, ambition and, most importantly,
Who do you trust, your king or your conscious? Many characters in Macbeth had to make this very choice as there kingdom was slowly deteriorating because of a tyrant of a king. Macbeth written by William Shakespeare is the story of a brave honourable soldier who ruins his life due to his own greed for power, respect and wealth. This play begins with three witches who inform Macbeth that he will become king. It is clear to all readers that Macbeth is not simply going to wait for these prophecies to come true, after the previous king Duncan is murdered.
The witches were the driving force of Macbeth’s guilty ambition and were the prophecies that would play on his mind continually. “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter,” (Act One, Scene 3, Line 53). Following this, readers are introduced to Lady Macbeth, another character that encounters an ambitious discourse. The audience witnesses Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s ambitious discourse being ruined when they conclude that the only way to be on the throne is to commit the murder of the loyal King Duncan. The murderous actions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth lead to their guilty ambition influencing each other to commit deeds that would not only ruin their clean conscience, but also their cultural assumptions.
Macbeth’s initial character portrayed him to be a man of nobility by being a military hero. However, due to the weird sister’s prophesies, Lady Macbeth’s manipulation and influences and man’s own ambition, Macbeth was led astray and under goes a change into a murderous tyrant. In the opening scenes of Macbeth, Macbeth is reported brave as he fought to defend Duncan against a rebellion. Macbeth’s loyalty and nobility is shown in the quote ‘which smok’d with bloody excetution’. This description describes Macebth’s sword killing the rebel MacDonald.
Macbeth hatches the plan, as he is in conversation with Lady Macbeth, he states, “When we have marked with blood those sleepy two”. Sleepy contains connotations of vulnerability and no use of self-defence, therefore meaning that the guards are helpless moreover Macbeth planning to frame them whilst at this vulnerable stage, infers the tyranny within. Aristotle’s theory on a Tragic Hero states that persuasion soon follows the self-indulgent of greatness. In this instance, his own wife, Lady Macbeth, convinces Macbeth to kill his best friend, Duncan. She insults his masculinity greatly, by calling him a coward.
In the play Macbeth ambition is what causes a once strong, noble, valiant, heroic warrior to debilitate his good-natured self and throw his morals away. It is ambition that causes Macbeth to kill many people who were once close to him and ultimately lead to his downfall. Before the meeting with the witches he was a very loyal man, to his wife, his king, his friends, and his country. Macbeth was seen as a brave and loyal man by all of his peers, including the king. He was willing to risk everything he had to protect Scotland, and because of it he overthrew the corrupted Thane of Cawdor.
that is a step on which I must fall down, or else o’er-leap, for in my way it lies” (I.IV.55-57). With the help of his wife, Lady Macbeth, Macbeth was able to take a dagger and kill the present King of Scotland, Duncan. “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so that my single state of man that function in smother’d in surmise, and nothing is what but is not”(I.iii.52-55). His ambition becomes so powerful he begins to think the witches are the ones who told him to murder Duncan! His first thought was killing the King, so they may have triggered his murderous ambition that has been
Instead , he murdered the king to take his place. Opting not to wait to see if Banquo would be loyal to him, Macbeth had his companion murdered. His impatience led Macbeth to listen to his wife, the witches , and his darker side. He again informed people what a good man was not. In the end, Macbeth did regain a shred of his previous distinction when he faced his adversaries like a true warrior.
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