Justin Kasey English Feb. 22, 2023 The Effect of Sin on Macbeth William Shakespeare, during his life, claimed to be a protestant Christian. Did this belief carry over to his writing? Looking at Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth starts with a good loyal soldier, the Thane of Glamis, named Macbeth. Macbeth was going home after a victorious war when three witches prophesied his rise to power, provoking him to murder the king and kill many people to keep his power. During this story, we can see Macbeth give in to temptation, and once he does the first heinous act of killing, he loses all of his morals and becomes ruthless and unrecognizable from Macbeth at the beginning of the play. Macbeth’s military success turns into unbridled ambition when he …show more content…
Adam and Macbeth both face the same consequence of death. Macbeth needed to trust that, in time, he would get the crown in a fair and moral way. Instead, he acted irrationally, gaining the crown through murder. This sin will plague him throughout the rest of the play. After killing Duncan, Macbeth expresses remorse and guilt in Act 2, Scene 2: “I'll go no more: / I am afraid to think what I have done; / Look on't again I dare not.” Only after the deed was done did Macbeth understand the moral problem of killing someone, as he was overcome with guilt. Macbeth laments his past decision: Will all great Neptune’s oceans wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red. Instead of using this time of remorse to admit what he did, Macbeth killed more people to cover up what he did. In Act 2, Scene 3, Macbeth explains why he can not return to his former way of living: Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessèd time; for from this instant There’s nothing serious in mortality. All is but toys. Renown and grace is dead. The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag …show more content…
He was not watchful of the witches’ motives and got wrapped up doing exactly what they thought he would do. The Bible warns us about watching for the devil's traps. 1 Peter 5:8 ESV “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Later in the play, Hecate confirms that the witches were using Macbeth, saying, “Saucy and overbold, how did you dare / To trade and traffic with Macbeth / In riddles and affairs of death.” The witches completely confused Macbeth, causing him to act with less thought, make bad decisions, and hide his qualities of wisdom and grace. The Macbeth, who was so grieved after killing Duncan, changed to a ruthless leader who killed young Seward without a second thought. Macbeth did not only lose himself but also lost his friends, his wife, and the respect of his people, the things he valued most at the beginning of the
As Macbeth prepares to kill Duncan, he realizes that “this blow/Might be the be-all and the end-all here”(1.7.4-5), meaning this might be the end if he gets caught. Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth to “proceed no further in this business”(1.7.34), telling her to stop thinking about killing Duncan. Macbeth does not listen to his own advice and continues to think about murdering Duncan, which he achieves. After the murder of Duncan, Macbeth looks towards Lady Macbeth as he says,”This is a sorry sight”(2.2.28), truly acknowledging his actions and feeling guilty for them. As Macbeth lets the murder sink in, he realizes that the blood will never be “
Eventually leading him to descend further into madness and instability. We can see his downfall as he hallucinates a dagger, his dead friend Banquo and three apparitions. To begin with, Macbeth has conflicting emotions and is filled with fear about killing King Duncan as he lacks foresight about his first murder. His
Macbeth’s very first soliloquy characterizes him as a person who is both loyal and honorable to his king; he knows that he must honor his king by fighting every battle like it would be his last, but his mind gradually begins to alter and generates a chain of betrayal. Macbeth was a great man in the commencement of the play, “Till he faced the slave; which ne’er shook hand, nor bade his farewell to him, till he unseamed him from the nave to th’chops, and fix 'd his head upon our battlements” (L. 9). After the three witches antagonize Macbeth, he changes even more from being the righteous soldier that he was, by saying to himself; “Let not the light see my black and deep desires: the eye wink at the hand yet lets tis should be which the eye fears, when it is done to see” (LL. 51-53). Nevertheless, many of the happenings in the play occur because of betrayal, whether it is betrayal regarding the main character or even betrayal of leaving people dear to you behind.
Macbeth continues to get flashbacks from the murder claiming, “Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red' Macbeth” (Act II, Sc. II). Macbeth Highlights in this part that all the oceans in the world wouldn't be capable of washing the blood from his hands saying he is guilty. Throughout the play, Macbeth continues to see recurring images which not only prove he regrets his actions but in some cases foreshadow the future.
He is not only burdened by the physical act of murder but also by the moral and emotional weight of his actions. In the immediate aftermath, he expresses remorse, wishing he could undo his actions and wake Duncan from eternal slumber, declaring “Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!” (Act 2, Scene 2, p 83); however, Macbeth's guilt drives him to commit further atrocities, desperate to conceal his past crimes, thrusting him deeper into a descent of madness. The interplay between his overwhelming remorse and his internal struggle with guilt serves as a driving force, propelling him along a path of
He murders King Duncan to steal the throne, not anticipating the immense wave of guilt that will wash over him as a result of his crime. Beginning to panic in the moments following the murder, Macbeth wonders, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine, / Making the green one red” (Shakespeare 2.2.78-81). Though Macbeth’s longing to be King drove him to murder, the guilt he experiences from this action consumes him.
When we are first presented with the character of Macbeth he is pictured as a noble and loyal warrior. However, once his future is presented to him by the witches saying that he, Macbeth, is to become the next great King of Scotland, he begins to lose focus and makes the wrong decisions. Macbeth begins to only make choices that will benefit only himself and to gain power. Becoming almost unrecognizable to the person he once was. After confronting his wife, Lady Macbeth, he isn't the only one with a lust for power.
When the story begins, Macbeth truly is a “peerless kinsman” to the king (1.4.66); however, as the story progresses others refer to him in this way only because they are oblivious to his true desire” (Balwan 3). As Balwan states, Macbeth has as significant change due to the so call “power” of being king. While Macbeth transitions to a new form of character, he isolates himself from Lady Macbeth. As the power increases, Macbeth is determined to kill.
Following murdering Duncan, Macbeth exclaims “this is a sorry sight.” Contrastingly to the battlefield, Macbeth is not proud of his murder. Formerly taking pride in his killings, away from the battlefield the effect on him away from battle is drastic. Macbeths conscience displays feelings of regret and remorse here, conveyed by the adjective “sorry.” Shakespeare develops the motif of disturbed sleep further emphasizing his guilt by illustrating that Macbeth has murdered sleep both literally and figuratively.
Macbeth feels regret and guilt after murdering King Duncan. He is beginning to understand the consequences of his actions and the disruption of the natural order that he has caused. Macbeth’s guilt shows that he still has some understanding of the natural order, but his ambition and desire for power are clouding his judgment. “I am in blood / Stepp’d in so far, that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er” (3.4.136-138).
Even if he was pressured into killing Duncan he did it anyway. After he has committed the murder of Duncan, Macbeth is plagued by guilt and remorse. This suggests that he recognizes the gravity of his actions and is
Macbeth’s mental condition begins to dwindle as time goes on, starting with the murder of Duncan. At first, Macbeth is seen as a soldier that everyone aspires to be, strong, brave, and compassionate about his duties to the king. In act one scene two, Captain says, “...For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name-...” This shows that he is a likeable person who has only the objective of serving his king. After meeting with the witches and hearing his prophecy, Macbeth starts to think about what it would be like to be king of Scotland.
For the Macbeths and Adam and Eve, sin is also cyclical; as Colston says, “sin creates a proclivity for sin” (83). Colston claims that “Macbeth is made for war, not peace” as evidenced by his endeavors before the play (64). Although I resist the notion that Macbeth has no agency in killing, it is logical that his ambition to murder blossoms at least in part from his “appetite formed by violent action” (76). Certainly, his first sin of ambition soon spreads into many more; by the end of the play, Macbeth is “materially guilty of breaking all ten commandments” (83). To name just a few, he kills many people, bears false witness against innocents, covets his neighbor’s position, and worships the god of ambition exclusively.
Throughout the tragedy, Macbeth 's character takes a big, yet gradual change for the worst as ambition starts to completely take over him. Once the three witches give Macbeth his prophecies he transitions from a brave, loyal man to a cold blooded murderer. His power hungry personality leads to a character change from who he was before he knew about the witches prophecies, after he learned of them, and right before he was murdered. In Macbeth, Shakespeare dramatises the damaging physical and mental effects of ambition on those who seek power for their own sake.
The witches played a colossal role in Macbeth’s downfall and ultimately, his death. Since the first part of the prophecy stated Macbeth as being the new Thane of Cawdor, he believed he could continue to become king as well. In knowing his prediction, Macbeth also realized that since the king was in good health, so he would have to kill the king himself. For the rest of his prophecy to come true he would have to kill the king for himself. “All hail, Macbeth that shalt be king hereafter!”