ipl-logo

Greed And Evil In William Shakespeare's Macbeth

865 Words4 Pages

James Riley Harcrow
Mrs. Dean
British Literature
11 January 2018
MacBeth Paper
Macbeth is a poor soul fed on by that which seeks to destroy all men. You could call this evil but like all evil it has to be influenced by something. Even if it's not in your nature you can only take so much before you lose it. He is only a victim of the circumstances and what he did was only influenced by those around him. It is in human nature to be consumed by greed and power and this is exactly what happened to Macbeth. The number of things influencing him are immense. He has supernatural influences from the witches, his wife, and power and greed. In the end, all of these play a role in the rise and downfall of the powerful Macbeth.
The number of things influencing him are immense. Some of the first influences Macbeth experiences are the three witches. This is the example of the supernatural influences, and it is only one of many types found throughout the play. When he is first met by the three witches he is with …show more content…

As Macbeth arrives home he declares that KIng Duncan will be coming over for the night. Lady Macbeth sees an opportunity and takes it. She reveals the plan to murder Duncan while he is at their home. But when it comes time to commit the deed Macbeth cannot do it. He is such a good guy and loyal to his king. www.enotes.com even says, “Macbeth will be violating every rule of gracious hosting by killing Duncan while he is staying at his home.”. This makes his wife angry and she goes a little to far. She begins to call him a coward and question his manhood. When she does this it causes Macbeth to reconsider because his manhood is very important to him and he does not want to be a coward. Lady macbeth knows all the right words to say to manipulate Macbeth to commit her dirty deeds. She is the one that truly wants all the power and ultimately she leads Macbeth to the hunger for

Show More
Related
459 Words | 2 Pages

the woman who had the world turn against her. She was one of the catalyst’s for Macbeth’s killing of Duncan. She longed to be the wife of a King... Queen, but knowing her husband she realized it would never happen without some persuasion. So she basically bullied Macbeth into it. What she saw as an achievement at the time actually turned out to be a curse.

Read More
1039 Words | 5 Pages

She makes a plan for the murder to happen when Duncan is sleeping, and she will accuse the guards of the crime. First, she must get the guards drunk, and she will then kill him, putting the blood on the guards to make it look like they did it. She manipulates her husband into thinking that the plan will work. He is convinced and says that he will “dare do all that may become a man.” However, when Lady Macbeth goes to kill Duncan, she cannot because he resembles her father sleeping.

Read More
1059 Words | 5 Pages

When in a relationship, one's quest for power, can result in an endless effort to satisfy this desire, producing a tragic outcome. In the tragedy of Macbeth, William Shakespeare explores how greed and ambition has an influence on one’s actions, leading to the occurrence of a tragedy. In the case of Macbeth, greed and ambition results in Macbeth becoming a highly manipulative, and dangerous individual. The dominant status Lady Macbeth owns, allows her to influence Macbeth into committing harmful acts. When Lady Macbeth’s dominant status begins to deteriorate, Macbeth begins to mature, gradually becoming the more dominant individual within their relationship.

Read More
509 Words | 3 Pages

Macbeth arrives at his castle before the king and tells his wife of what happened. She tells him to kill the king that night but Macbeth is reluctant. When the king arrives, he is welcomed and made comfortable. That night when he goes to sleep, Lady Macbeth beguiles the guards into getting drunk and Macbeth continues to question whether he should kill

Read More
790 Words | 4 Pages

However, greed soon consumed him and the once honorable Macbeth disappeared. He was replaced with a power hungry man who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. Throughout “Macbeth,” the theme of greed causes Macbeth to murder, deceive, and listen to his wife’s voice of ruin. Macbeth’s thirst for power first begins with the killing of King Duncan.

Read More
318 Words | 2 Pages

In the play Macbeth, written by Shakespeare, the protagonist, Macbeth, possesses many qualities that shape the mindset that he carries. However, the one that influences his actions and need for power the most is greed. Greed has the power to greatly influence and corrupt one's actions, mindset and way of life. Macbeth strongly possesses the feeling of greed, as he has his mind set on being king after hearing the prophecy set by the witches. In Macbeth's mind being king equals having infinite power and that was all Macbeth wanted.

Read More
1516 Words | 7 Pages

Greed for power has always been evil and even made a saint turn into a demon. As the quote goes “All power tends to corrupt and an absolute power corrupts absolutely” (unquote), which is true not only in the fictitious stories but also in real life and Shakespeare, th9e greatest writer ever known, has always been in habit of making fictitious character come alive and Macbeth is no exception to the rule. The character of Macbeth has two sides, one which is wholesome while other been dubious. He symbolized great ambition but went overboard and in the process not only became corrupt but also became a killer. Macbeth reflects great strength but within he has his own weakness and thus good over took evil resulting in its downfall and finally his own death.

Read More
780 Words | 4 Pages

With help from his wife, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth plan a murder and with a little hoaxing from his wife, Macbeth pulls it off. The King plans to dine at the Macbeths’ mansion and plans to stay the night. Duncan feels safe going to stay in the castle of someone who protected him just hours before, but he does not know their fatal plan. The plan involves getting the guards of the king’s room drunk and planting the bloody murder weapon next to them. This will make it look like Macbeth has nothing to do with the treasonous act of killing the ruler.

Read More
429 Words | 2 Pages

Three witches show him that he will become powerful in the future and gain a seat on the throne. After gaining this vision of power MacBeth gains lots of ambition and kills King Duncan. MacBeth admits to the murder when he says "I have done the deed. Didst thou

Read More
1113 Words | 5 Pages

Greed for power leads corrupt leaders to pursue power through ruthless and violent ways, putting their countries in an unstable state. Macbeth commits murders and violent acts to earn his absolute power, but his corrupt mindset of yearning power leads to instability in the Scotland. After hearing from the witches, Macbeth admits 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.”

Read More
937 Words | 4 Pages

Previous to her first plotting of evil, Lady Macbeth is seen as a morally righteous and sane person who simply has a well off life with her husband. However, she turns completely opposite from the greed she acquires within herself wanting her husband to become king. A now selfish and greed hungry Lady Macbeth, plans and succeeds in the murder of Duncan, the first person in the way of Macbeth’s thrown. The act of taking someone’s life proves further all of her moral

Read More
967 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
876 Words | 4 Pages

Macbeth started off as a valiant and courageous soldier, who would do anything for the king. By the end of the play, Macbeth was a tyrant and a horrible leader who killed those who trusted him to maintain the throne. It takes many factors to take a strong man and transform him into an evil monster. Macbeth’s downfall was caused by the deception and temptation of the witches and their prophecies, Lady Macbeth’s greed and aspirations for her husband to be king, and Macbeth’s own greed, jealousy and ambition.

Read More
1312 Words | 6 Pages

Macbeth the, the Knight under King Duncan, has a hidden desire for the throne. The Weird Sisters visit Macbeth to explain his destiny. They explain his future holds the throne to Scotland. Upon finding this out, Macbeth figures he must kill Duncan.

Read More
559 Words | 3 Pages

With her skills of persuasion, Lady Macbeth is able to convince Macbeth to kill Duncan. Throughout Act 1, Scene 7, Lady Macbeth “bullies” Macbeth. She criticizes Macbeth and compares him to a cat, who would not catch fish because it was scared of getting it’s paws wet. Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband by telling him that if he didnt kill Duncan that he wasn’t a man. With Lady Macbeth telling Macbeth all of these negative things, he finally agrees and constructs a plan alongside her, to kill Duncan.

Read More

More about Greed And Evil In William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Related Topics

Open Document