Almost everybody that reads William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth will agree on one thing: guilt is the main force that drove Macbeth and his Lady to insanity, and later, death. If the text is analyzed to a further extent and the theme is reconsidered, however, greed can be seen as what leads to Macbeth’s downfall, not guilt. Greed is what makes the world go round – it’s what causes people to want to be bigger and better and richer. Without greed in Macbeth, there would be no plot. Had Macbeth accepted the titles of Thane of Glamis and Thane of Cawdor, there would be no tragedy at all - Macbeth is influenced wholly by greed. After a prophecy by the Weird Sisters, which may or may not have been them just messing with him, and a push from his wife, Macbeth agrees to kill his friend and his king, Duncan, is order to gain another title – King of Scotland. Now, at first look, this seems like an acceptable thing to do because he wants to be king and this is the only way to get the title and it is just a …show more content…
As the play develops, Macbeth kills multiple more people. The excessive murders feel as though he kills these people out of paranoia and guilt. It is true that paranoia does play a main part in these other murders, but guilt is not the other driving force – greed is. He wants there to be absolutely not chance of somebody finding out what he did and stripping him of the tile of king and he does not want somebody else to be able to overthrow him. Macbeth kills a lot of people, but apparently none of the right people, because in the end he ends up being murdered. Guilt is not what led him to his death, but greed is. Had Macbeth accepted that he could not have it all, he would have been alive and living a reasonably luxurious life with his Lady. The Macbeth’s were a greedy family and this, not guilt, forced them to live considerably short and complicated