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Examples Of Greed In Macbeth

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In the play Macbeth written by William Shakespeare we see many different themes emerge from the characters. Greed is one of the biggest themes in Macbeth the definition of greed is excessive or rapacious desire, especially for wealth or possessions. Two characters that express greed the most are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, greed causes Macbeth to go extraordinary measures in order to achieve his goals. Greed leads Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into mental illness and eventually death. Macbeths greed stems from his first meeting with the Three Witches. Macbeth who is the Thane of Glamis is satisfied with his position and power before meeting the Witches and hearing their prophecy. Macbeth hears word from the Witches that he will become the Thane …show more content…

Macbeth begins to realize that he will have to defeat Malcolm and Banquo's son Fleance in order to achieve his goal of becoming king. Macbeth’s greediness will make him go to extreme lengths to achieve power. Macbeth kills Duncan and is given the Kingdom, this only stokes Macbeth’s fire as he starts to let his newly found power corrupt him. Macbeth also hires murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance, locking up his power more than ever. Macbeth has lost sight of his former self, the only thing driving him is greed, the determination to capture as much power as he possibly can. He begins to have hallucination of Banquo’s Ghost haunting haunting him during a dinner. These hallucinations can be accredited to Macbeths fragile mental state he has given up everything in order to achieve power. Macbeth isn't the only one however who is driven by greed..Lady Macbeth is extremely greedy in nature, she was the one to push Macbeth to kill Duncan in the first place. Lady Macbeth desires a life of fame and fortune even more than Macbeth. Her greed causes her to develope mental illness as wells, the blood on her hands from the murder of King Duncan causes her to have vivid hallucinations. Greed overtakes the

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