Indecisiveness In Macbeth

In the story of Macbeth by Shakesphere, there are many characters who make mistakes that can be learned from. An example of this would be two of the main characters, Macbeth, and his wife, Lady Macbeth. Throughout the play, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth demonstrate their deepest desires, which in the end, leads to their eventual downfall. Through their downfalls, the audience is taught a very important lesson to not be overly ambitious. Lady Macbeth is manipulative, while Macbeth is indecisive, although both of their characters are motivated by control. Not only that, they both teach that too much power or control could lead to anyone's own ruin. When reading the play, someone could see that both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s characters had

His first sign of indecisiveness was when Macbeth was first approached by the witches, and they tell him that he will be king (). Along with his fellow captain from the war, Banquo, he will have sons that will be king. Macbeth wants to move up the social ladder as quickly as possible, so he contemplates murdering what was the current King Ducan. “This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success Commencing in a truth?”(Lines 130-133, Act 1, Scene 3)( Endo Education Research Director & Jago HMH Author and Associate Director, 2021). Macbeth wants to control, to get the control he has to pick between killing Ducan, and not killing him. Throughout the play he goes between these choices and it shows his indecisiveness. Even after he thought he made his mind up that he wouldn’t kill Ducan, he was easily manipulated to do otherwise. When Macbeth met up with his wife, she immediately wanted to move forward with a plan to kill Ducan. Once he arrived at their home, the King planned to visit Macbeth due to his promotion to Thane Of Cawdor. Despite Macbeth being the one who proposed the idea to kill the King in the first place, he states that he doesn't want to be involved with killing the King. “We will proceed no further in this business. He hath honored me of late, and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, Not cast aside so soon.”(Lines 32-35, Act 1, Scene 7)( Endo Education Research Director & Jago HMH Author and Associate Director, 2021). His reason at the time was because he had given him the role of Thane of Cawdor, and was good to the people of the kingdom. This shows his indecisiveness because he goes from his inchale plan and to waiting to be king. Lady Macbeth is different