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Ambition And Guilt In Macbeth By William Shakespeare

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Macbeth is a tragedy set in 11th-century Scotland focusing on temptations’ ambition and guilt. Shakespeare was a popular playwright in the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe. He wrote some of the most popular plays, including Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Julius Caesar. One of his most notable is Macbeth, often referred to as the Scottish play. Shakespeare was born in April 1564. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway and had three children. In 1603, a new monarch usurped the throne of England. He was James VI of Scotland. Shakespeare’s company became the king’s men under James’s Patronage and now sometimes staged plays for the new monarch (Mowat, Werstine). It is possible that the writing of Macbeth was intended to appeal to the interest of the new king. In Scottish history in the 11th century, Shakespeare identified a …show more content…

The prophecy tells him he will become king. He then decided to kill the king to become king himself. Macbeth writes to his wife, Lady Macbeth, telling her what the witches told him (Shakespeare pg. 31). Macbeth’s wife is very excited about this news and she pushes him to kill Duncan. Macbeth’s conscience is telling him not to kill the king but his wife is putting him down and insisting on him killing the king. This begs the question, Why did Macbeth kill Duncan? Is it the prophesied fate, is it his own will and intention, or is it the extra nudge and pressure from Lady Macbeth? After Macbeth kills the king his guilty conscience is focused on making sure he gets away with it and who he needs to be wary of in the future. While lady Macbeth changes her mood for her ambition got her what she desired but left her with a guilty conscience as well. The two of them handle the murder in very different ways, they switch roles, and while Macbeth turned into a hardened killer Lady Macbeth breaks down with guilt eventually killing herself

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When the witches told Macbeth that he would become king he wanted to make it happen for himself so he killed King

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At the beginning of the play, three witch sisters told him that he would become Thane of Cawdor and the King of Scotland. Right after they told him about the prophecies, Macbeth was told that he did in fact become Thane of Cawdor. Since that prophecy came true, he began to wonder if the prophecy about him becoming King would come true. When Lady Macbeth found out about the prophecies, Lady Macbeth convinced and influenced Macbeth to kill the King so that the prophecy could come true. Macbeth was reluctant to kill the king, but that reluctance was soon overcome by the sheer determination for power that grew inside of him.

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Macbeth killed King Duncan and many other people so he would become king. According to the play Lady Macbeth told Macbeth,”When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the man.” She commented on his manhood to manipulate him into making an irrational decision. He took that prophecy seriously and wanted to be king by any means possible no matter who had to get hurt. Macbeth knew his time was coming

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Lady Macbeth, after finding out about the prophecy given to Macbeth, would push him greatly to kill the king and take his predestined position as king, “ Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear And chastise with the valour of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round, Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem To have thee crowned withal.” (Mac,1.5.28-33). Lady Macbeth is the only reason he followed through with the murder. We have further proof of this when Macbeth describes Duncan before killing him, “Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been. So clear in his great office, that his virtues.

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835 Words | 4 Pages

Since there already is a King, Macbeth wants to kill him because he wants to be King. Shortly after Macbeth is given the prophecies and hears Banquo's prophecies he begins to plot the killing of the current King, Duncan. This is the start where readers are shown that power can corrupt someone. Readers are also shown that Macbeth is a bit disinclined, after he plots out the murder of Duncan, and when the time comes to pursue the murder, Macbeth hesitates and doesn’t want to follow through with it anymore. When Macbeth tells his wife Lady Macbeth that he doesn’t want to follow through with the murder, Lady Macbeth calls Macbeth every bad name in the book, and also says that he isn’t a man anymore.

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If he didn't want to kill King Duncan, he didn't have to. “Even if Lady Macbeth pressured Macbeth, he killed King Duncan impelled by his own selfish ambition…” (Cause of Guilt)She ended up becoming guilty from Macbeth's murdering of King Duncan, her guilt took her life. Macbeth constantly kills people to “cover up” for the previous murders. “The ambition of Macbeth starts to get out of control and makes him repeatedly kill, just to cover up his prior murders.”

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Supplying a mental image inside the reader’s head is ideal for any writer. William Shakespeare assured that the information in Macbeth correctly represented the society of Scotland. The written date of the play was likely in 1606, this was associated with King James VI and I attempting to unite the Unions of Scotland and England. With 1606 being a significant year in Scottish history, Shakespeare had a lot to incorporate in his Shakespeare used facts from articles in Scotland including The Chronicles of Scotland and other historical pieces to provide purpose surrounding his writings.

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It is truly Lady Macbeth who causes the death of Duncan. Lady Macbeth acts as if she is above Macbeth while the murder of Duncan occurs. Lady Macbeth has high but very evil ambitions for Macbeth. She understands that Macbeth has the ambition to take over the throne.

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Some may argue that Macbeth was simply being strategic in his actions. Macbeth's manipulation is often morally reprehensible and results in the suffering of innocent people. Therefore, people may not find the argument valid. Macbeth attempts to control the future and bury the past through various means, including the murder of Duncan, the manipulation of others, and the avoidance of confrontation with his guilt. Macbeth desires to control the past and the future by killing King Duncan because he believes that by doing so, he can alter the course of his own destiny and fulfill his ambition of becoming

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Jack Bishop Period 1 January 9th 2023 Writing Assessment #1 Macbeth Essay (An analysis of Macbeth scenes) William Shakespeare was an English playwright and poet who is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, in 1564 and baptized on April 26 of that year. His father, John Shakespeare, was a successful glove maker and businessman, and his mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of a wealthy landowner. In the late 1580s, Shakespeare moved to London, where he began his career as an actor and playwright.

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Macbeth shows that he is willing to kill King Duncan because he is interested in the witches prophecy, after they tell him that he will become ‘Thane of Cawdor’ and then the King.

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Macbeth evidently undergoes a mental process by which he come round to the idea or murdering Duncan. He does this as a result of his wife’s manipulation, her leverage being his manliness. Without the role of Lady Macbeth, the murder of King Duncan would never have occurred in the play. Lady Macbeth had already been plotting for the murder since she received the letter concerning the three prophecies by the witches. Although Macbeth had sinister thoughts about having the throne, Macbeth would have never dared to take it upon himself to kill King Duncan and steal the throne from

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1288 Words | 6 Pages

Macbeth was the Thane of Cawdor but he wanted to be king more than anything. The witches had told him that he would one day be king but he did not know how long that would take so when King Duncan had been invited to stay the night at his house he exclaimed that “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,/ shakes so my single state of man/ that function is smother 'd in surmise,/ and nothing is but what is not”(1.3.52-55). He felt that if he were to kill King Duncan that he would have a better chance of becoming king. Though the witches had never told him that someone would need to get murdered for him to become king, his ambition tempted him to quicken this process the only way he felt he could. This was the beginning of the murderer that the witches had created with the fortune telling.

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999 Words | 4 Pages

Macbeth had another chance to change his outcome. his wife was consumed with the idea that he would become king, so much so that she pushed him to kill the current King. She said she couldn 't do it because King Duncan looked too much like her own father. Macbeth could have easily dismissed this and not listened to his mentally dwindling wife, “Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, that my keen knife see not the wound it makes, nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, to cry ‘hold, hold!’” He followed the instructions of his wife and killed the king.

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Macbeth reveals the prophecies to Lady Macbeth. She believes the idea is perfect and agrees with him to do it. When Macbeth begins to have second thoughts, she manipulates him into doing the deed. Once Macbeth kills Duncan he becomes paranoid. Macbeth views people as a threat and decides to hire men to kill others for him.

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