Greed In Macbeth

While most characters in Shakespeare’s Macbeth tend to stay static and have the same values as they did at the beginning of the play, Macbeth deteriorates because of his greedy and selfish nature into an abyss of gluttony. The reason behind this can be attributed to the witches, who predicted for both Macbeth and Banquo’s son to take the throne in Scotland. This put the greedy thought of power into Macbeth’s malignant mind. Macbeth begins the play as a well-off guy who is loyal and well-liked, but as greed and the urge to obtain power get pounded into his head by his wife, he slowly dwindles and he eventually becomes a savage that will do anything to maintain his power. Macbeth starts the play as an honorable, respected man that is recognized

Macbeth’s wife originally puts the thought of killing King Duncan for power into his head because she is hungry for the power, but Macbeth was very hesitant. However, these thoughts began to change when “[his] thought, whose murder is yet fantastical, / Shakes so [his] single state of man / That function is smothered in surmise, \ And nothing is, but what is not” (I.iii.142-145). This is the first time in the book where he is acknowledges the fact that his morality is dwindling because he has started pondering with the thought of killing Duncan. Throughout Act I, Macbeth keeps on falling deeper and deeper into the pit of his desires. With this, he knows he is falling into this hole, and he cannot figure out why because he has “no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself and falls on th’other” (I.vii.25-28). This shows that he cannot pinpoint an exact reason for his desire to kill Duncan other than ambition, and he does not want to jump into a place of no return with just ambition to back it up. The end of Act I is the point that Macbeth has his downfall from a good guy that the audience likes into a bad guy that the audience begins to