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How Is Macbeth Inhumane

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In the beginning of the play, Macbeth acknowledges human life as any other person in the world, something valuable, sacred and not worth going to waste. Macbeth discovers, from the weird sisters, that it his destiny to become king of Scotland, and all that is in his way is the current king, Duncan. As Macbeth contemplates whether or not to kill Duncan, he states, “We will proceed no further in this business” (1.7.34). Macbeth goes back and forth with his decision, because he does not want to kill Duncan, but like any other human being he desires more and wants to be king. Although he will be more powerful by murdering the king, cruelty does not come to him naturally. Macbeth does not want to have murder on his shoulders. In addition to not wanting to be responsible for murder, the idea of fate plays a role in Macbeth’s humane …show more content…

In Act IV, Macbeth is told by Apparitions that no one will rip the power out of his hands. He will remain the king of Scotland until the Wood of Birnam moves out of place. Macbeth declares, “The very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand” (4.1.167-168). In other words, Macbeth will utilize the first idea that appears in his mind. Therefore, Macbeth lacks a conscience and moral sense. Not only does Macbeth portray his inhumane quality through his lack of inner voice, but also through his cruel actions. Later in the Act, Macbeth is told by Apparitions that he should beware of Macduff. Because of this warning, Macbeth thinks he needs to kill all the members of Macduff’s family (4.1.171-175). When Macbeth killed Macduff’s wife and sons, he did not stop to think about them as humans. The wife and children of Macduff were innocent people with lives that were taken away just because Macbeth received a warning from ghost-like images. Macbeth’s cruelty and inhumane characteristics took over, and caused him to commit murder for no

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In Act 2, Macbeth murders Duncan because he was king. Macbeth shows greed by doing so because he did not consider Duncan’s feelings at all and simply killed him to get closer to becoming king. In sum, Macbeth shows a lot of greed throughout the play and does not consider others’

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Temptation leads Macbeth to murder, and murder leads him to problems. At this point, Macbeth’s mind is clouded, and his thirst for the throne blinds him. With this tunnel-vision, Macbeth can only focus on securing his position, ignoring his morals along the way. • Good vs Evil: A situational archetype that is found throughout

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This, along with Lady Macbeth and her convincing, eventually leads to the betrayal of his king. Macbeth gains a lot of power and cruelty as a result of him murdering King Duncan. Right before Macbeth murders him, he says to himself “Hear it or not, Duncan, for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell” ( II, i, 63-64 ). Murder makes Macbeth is vulnerable to cruelty, as he may not be able to control himself

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955 Words | 4 Pages

Macbeth was once a great man. He had the world in the palm of his hands: a wife, titles beyond any peasant of Scotland, even a castle with loyal servants. Greed and envy took his mind over the second he found that he was to become king, but who was truly responsible for his actions? The play “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare may not seem to elaborate as to who was responsible, but this may convince one otherwise. Macbeth was very aware of the actions that he took, even if his insanity had helped him along the path that he walked.

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1118 Words | 5 Pages

Afterwards, he emerges and states, “I have done the deed” (Shakespeare 2.1.14). By describing his murder so matter-of-factly, Macbeth dispels the notion that he is able to feel any empathy towards the king, or other people in general. Empathy is a necessary trait for all leaders, and instead of using it to rise to power, Macbeth has a willingness to murder in cold blood

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1505 Words | 7 Pages

Because of the number of people required to become king, he kills the king and those in line to become king, and in order to do this, Macbeth needed to know what was going on, so he became involved with these witches, but he finally realizes, after killing a family and losing his wife, that he has done something very bad and feels awful and doesn't know how to fix it. Macbeth no longer wanted to slaughter the Innocence; he had spilled too much blood. With everything that Macbeth has done to this kingdom and the people, he desired to die with honor, and the only way he could do so was to die with good morals, but Macbeth had already lost his good morals after killing Duncan the king and also Macbeth murders the servants, Banquo, and Macduff's entire family in cold blood. These actions are not from a good man. In the beginning, Macbeth was a fine man, but as the witches began to feed him prophecies and things he didn't know he wanted, it got to him and turned him into a treacherous, lying liar.

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975 Words | 4 Pages

5-7). In this instance, Macbeth shows that he can feel guilt, and he exhibits this by demonstrating that he does not desire to end the life of a man whose family was already victimized at his hands. Guilt is the one thing throughout the entire play that stops Macbeth dead in his tracks and causes him to take a moment to consider his present and future courses of action. Although Macbeth was lead to commit murder by the witches’ manipulative predictions of the future, he is the one who ultimately makes the choices that prove that he is in control of his actions, even when his actions cause him to be filled with

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512 Words | 3 Pages

This consisted of killing off innocent people, in his eyes. Not only did he bring himself down with his thoughts, but also had his wife plot with him. She may have encouraged him at times, but it was a group effort, and a ruthless one at that. Macbeth’s lack of thinking before he acted caused me excessive anger.

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1823 Words | 8 Pages

As the play progresses Macbeth appears as a ‘butcher’ with no conscience who does not hesitate to kill someone. From the start of the play it is obvious Macbeth does not hesitate as in Act 1 Scene 2 the captain describes Macbeth killing Macdonwald as ‘unseam’d’ indicating he ripped him open with his sword, which would have left him in extreme pain before he died, showing he did not care or hesitate to kill him. This point is further reinforced when the captain tells Malcolm that Macbeth ‘never bade farewell’ to Macdonwald and ‘ne’er shook hands’, confirming he did not feel guilt when killing him. In Act 4 Scene 1 Macbeth is told by an apparition that he cannot be harmed by anyone born of a woman so he believes that no one can harm him even Macduff however he wants to ‘make assurance double sure’. This indicates that he wants to kill Macduff to make sure he cannot harm him however it is not necessary so he believes that one more murder isn’t that serious and he doesn’t hesitate to start planning the murder of Macduff and his family.

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634 Words | 3 Pages

Even though “Macbeth’s unholy act of murder seems to trigger off unnatural phenomena”(Berger 1) as society lacks King Duncan, Macbeth will be able to slowly return society back to its original order by learning how to restrict himself from being involved in these vicious acts. Macbeth’s main focal point only rewards himself, and this ruthlessness is due to his “sense of self, status, and role in this society, his sense of the world, his sense of others---these are deeply structured by his position in the order”(Berger 1). The quality of ruthlessness causes readers to clearly see the serious ramifications it creates for Macbeth. Macbeth’s temptation prompts characters to see him as a self-centered human

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1015 Words | 5 Pages

Macbeth is also a power hungry man who would do just about anything to achieve his goal of becoming King. When Macbeth first hears the prophecies from the three witches he instantly became invested with the journey to become king. Similar to Lady Macbeth, nothing was going to come between him and his potential power, “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” (1.3.52-55). This quote exemplifies how Macbeth’s initial solution to becoming king was murder.

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760 Words | 4 Pages

Macbeth’s impatience for power leads to drastic actions. He murders the king in the belief that “this blow might be the be-all and end-all” (1.7.5). This assassination could never “trammel up the consequence” (1.7.2-3), as Macbeth believes, but only leads to more trouble. Although Macbeth seizes the throne, Macbeth had to betray his loyalty to the king whose “virtues will plead like angels” (1.7.18-19), and his morality has paid the price. Macbeth has now lost all sense of what honor is by using such dishonest ways to become king.

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1288 Words | 6 Pages

Macbeth was the Thane of Cawdor but he wanted to be king more than anything. The witches had told him that he would one day be king but he did not know how long that would take so when King Duncan had been invited to stay the night at his house he exclaimed 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”(1.3.52-55). He felt that if he were to kill King Duncan that he would have a better chance of becoming king. Though the witches had never told him that someone would need to get murdered for him to become king, his ambition tempted him to quicken this process the only way he felt he could. This was the beginning of the murderer that the witches had created with the fortune telling.

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426 Words | 2 Pages

Macbeth’s ambitions influence him to attain his desire for power. This ambition drives him to become reckless for the sake of reaching his goals. This recklessness leads to the murder of Duncan- the first in a line of murders Macbeth commits to reach his power. These murders represent Macbeth’s gradual loss of morality.

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789 Words | 4 Pages

Macbeth is struggling and entangled with the advantage and disadvantage of killing Duncan. Macbeth appears hallucination under the temptation of power: “Mine eyes are made the fools o’th’ other senses, / Or else worth all the reset I see thee still, / And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, / Which was not before. There’s no such thing.

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