The play Macbeth tells the story of a power-hungry Thane in 11th-century Scotland who does all that he can to become and stay king after receiving a prophecy. Throughout the story, cruelty plays an important role, especially in the main character, Macbeth, who finds himself devolving into an increasingly brutal person to achieve his goals. In Macbeth by Shakespeare, cruelty is used as a means to acquire power and masculinity, as well as a venom that leads to Macbeth’s moral and mental decay, ultimately illustrating how one will often use increasing cruelty as a defense mechanism to protect their power. During his reign, Macbeth is hailed as a tyrant by those around him because of the lengths he went to in order to acquire and maintain power. …show more content…
It sets him on a path of mental deterioration marked with extreme paranoia of those around him, despite the closeness they may have originally had. This is a result of nothing other than his cruel actions, killing a king who was not only noble but also extremely trusting of him. The bloodshed committed against Duncan had left a permanent tint on his vision, only allowing him to view the world in terms of betrayal and mistrust, even against his closest friend. Yes, it was his brutality that allowed him to come to power in the first place, but the more atrocities he acts upon, the more he grows afraid; Just as the allusion to Caesar and Mark Antony suggests, Macbeth views Banquo as his Caesar, a usurper out to destroy him for his brutish actions. Cruelty, along with functioning as a stepping stone for his ambitions, has now become his vice. In a cyclic pattern, the more cruelty Macbeth exhibits, the more paranoid he grows, enabling him to grow more cruel as a defense. Deciding to kill Banquo represents the first step in his deterioration. When Macbeth spots Banquo’s ghost, another crack forms in his sanity as he exclaims, “Thou canst not say I did