Jada Jones Mrs. Billings Honors English 10B May 5, 2023 Macbeth: Environmental Pressures vs Innate Instincts In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, many of the characters are portrayed as evil, especially Macbeth, but rather than this being his innate instinct, he becomes immoral because of the pressures put on him by the Witches, Lady Macbeth, and the position of power he gains. Some may argue that Macbeth is inherently foul and that the pressure surrounding him doesn’t have as much of an effect on his actions as his instincts. However, people are products of their environments.
For example, Lady Macbeth initially convinces Macbeth to kill King Duncan. These internal and external forces together influence Macbeth's actions. For example, Lady Macbeth encourages Macbeth to kill the king to gain power, but it is actually Macbeth's own need for power that drives Macbeth to kill the innocent king. Additionally Macbeth's motives for his actions are primarily, some would say entirely, external.
In addition, Lady Macbeth almost forced her husband to enact the murder with her, as she had no doubt of failure. Macbeth mentioned the prophecy from the Witches to his wife, and a possible plan of murdering King Duncan. When Macbeth later tells her that he no longer wants to go through with the murder, for reasons of possible failure and his conscience, she becomes enraged. She is in all support that the plan to murder Dunaan will work, and that he should not be so worried (she does this while also insulting his “manhood”). Her confidence in the plan to murder King Duncan supports how she had no idea that the plan would fall through, and they would be blamed or caught.
Likewise, one usually adapts to their environment’s mood, emotion, or tone. When one’s family is constantly by their side, one constantly receives influence from them. One such factor that can be easily influenced by family or significant others is ambition. In Macbeth, Macbeth’s wife takes a dominant role in their relationship and urges him to become king, as the prophecy foretold. Macbeth’s wife declares, “When you durst do it, then you were a man; /
There is a lot of fear involved in this plan. Lady Macbeth is pushing very hard for Macbeth to commit the murder, but Macbeth is fearful that something will go wrong and thinks he will get caught. Lady Macbeth continues to push the plan on to Macbeth and he is not all on board with it, “When Macbeth backs out of the thought, she brings him around by a combination of mockery, belittling of his manhood, and accusations of cowardice” (playshakespeare.com, Lady Macbeth). Lady Macbeth becomes aggravated that he does not want to follow through with the plan.
To conclude, ambition is a powerful force. It can be fueled by visions of power and lead people to change. This is best seen in MacBeth's character dynamic character. He changes from a good person, to someone who will kill anyone in his way to
2/20/24 Sophomore English Accelerated Mrs. Mack Grace Gil Ambition Influenced By Desire. In the tragedy Macbeth,by William Shakespeare, argues that a person’s ambition is influenced by desire to the extent of feelings of remorse and defeat from crossing the line of one's personal values just to achieve temporary feelings of power and happiness. Macbeth throughout the play flourished emotionally and mentally as he climbed up the ladder of what he believed were his dreams and key source to happiness and power, which led him to set his personal values aside. He had a desire to achieve happiness and power and had set personal and moral values aside because of his desire for these feelings he strived for, no matter how ambitious they were.
In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, there are varying conflicts which are fueled by the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. After Macbeth obtains a prophecy hinting at his future position as king, his ambition and rise to power was largely influenced by the manipulative nature of Lady Macbeth. This is supported by Lady Macbeth's decision to denounce Macbeth's indecision to kill King Duncan in favor of desired power and her exertion of continuous pressure targeted at breaking Macbeth's ethical ideals and moral compass. Macbeth struggles to conceive the possibility of murdering King Duncan, which is met by a torment of judgement and criticism by Lady Macbeth to coerce his actions for her own personal gain.
Despite what we think, society has a great affect on all of us. It influences the way we think, act, and even dress. In the play Macbeth the main character, Macbeth, is not influenced by society, but he is unknowingly influenced by many things around him. Most people do not realize the power of society to influence individuals, but the proof is everywhere.
Prompt: How does Shakespeare explore gender difference and the relationship between gender and power in an aggressively patriarchal society? What sorts of power do women wield? By what means? Why do female characters often seem so manipulative? Think, too, about comparing and contrasting the ultimate demise of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
Influence of Witchcraft In Shakespeare’s day witches were not merely a novelty character brought out as a joke around Halloween. It was widely believed that witches were real and that they possessed powers that were considered to be of the devil. This belief in witchcraft eventually led to a widespread panic that was followed by the persecution of witches. Due to this belief in witchcraft at the time Macbeth was written and performed; the tone was already set. Shakespeare used this fear to create suspense within the play and it led to the involvement of the weird sisters and the crazed actions committed by Macbeth and his wife.
Macbeth was working toward being the king of Scotland in the beginning after meeting the three wired sisters. And being told that he was king to be, so it inspired him to do anything that he had to to become king. It did not matter the circumstances he would do it. Even if that meant killing his best friend. He down was cause by him killing Macduff’s family.
Of all the failures human beings experience none are as crushing as those that are a result of following someone else’s desires. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the protagonist self-destructs because of his external forces as well as his own poor choices. An external force that influenced Macbeth includes Lady Macbeth’s strong goals, which she forced on her husband. Additionally, the witches impacted Macbeth’s choices by offering him their tricky prophecies. The blind greed that took over Macbeth’s life also impacted his choices.
Often times in literature, the downfall of a character arises due to both external and internal forces. In Macbeth, William Shakespeare demonstrates that the downfall of Macbeth arises due to both internal and external forces, but among the two, internal forces have a greater influence on the outcome. The forces of Macbeth’s own nature, the supernatural and Lady Macbeth all contribute to his downfall but the true deciding factors are the forces within. The external forces that affect Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and the witches, prompt Macbeth into doing actions and making decisions that lead to his downfall.
Celia Beyers Tinti Period 1/5 12 April 2015 Literary Analysis: Macbeth In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, he presents the character of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is shown, as a character that schemes into making rebellious plots. She reveals the desire for wanting to lose her feminine qualities in order to be able to gain more masculine ones.
