Good And Evil In Macbeth

The theme of good versus evil is exceedingly prevalent throughout Shakespeare’s tragedy play, Macbeth. Specifically, the main characters of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth prove to be both good and evil in this play. Their characters are considered to be dynamic, which means they undergo a change in their character traits. Actions and thoughts of both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth exemplify how they went from good to evil and vice versa.

At the beginning of the play, the audience is forced to assume Macbeth is a good character from the way other people talk about him. During a previous battle against Scotland and Norway, Macbeth, “…won for himself honor and a promotion to Thane of Cawdor” (Hibbs and Hibbs 274). Therefore, our first impression of Macbeth

Instead of going from good to evil like Macbeth, she went from evil to somewhat good. Lady Macbeth proves to be evil from the start by the way she initiated Macbeth’s killing spree. Lady Macbeth wanted her husband to, “Hie thee hither / That I may pour my spirits in thine ear / And chastise with the valor of my tongue / All that impedes thee from the golden round” (1.5.15-18). She was speaking to herself saying how she hoped for her husband to hurry home so that she could sway him into murdering King Duncan for the throne. Once he came home, she told him, “What beast was’t, the, / That made you break this enterprise to me? / 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” (1.7.47-51). This confirms how she had to threaten Macbeth in order for him to even think about killing the king. She wanted to persuade him to think if he killed King Duncan, then he would be so much more of a man. Of course Macbeth “proceeds, partly out of vaulting ambition, and partly out of fear of his wife’s mockery of his manhood” because he wants to be a man for his wife (283). Her ambition and greed for power turned her husband into a monster and ultimately was the cause of both of their downfall. Another way she appeared to be evil is the way she reacted after Macbeth killed King Duncan. Both characters seemed to be frantic at this time, however,

The events that happen in this play do alter both of these characters for the good and for the worse. The main thing that planted this seed of evil was greed and ambition. Without it, none of these murders would have