Macbeth killed King Duncan and many other people so he would become king. According to the play Lady Macbeth told Macbeth,”When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the man.” She commented on his manhood to manipulate him into making an irrational decision. He took that prophecy seriously and wanted to be king by any means possible no matter who had to get hurt. Macbeth knew his time was coming
Admittedly, some readers believe that Macbeth is to blame for his downfall by the virtue of being foolish, however, Lady Macbeth is shown to be a manipulative woman who can easily persuade Macbeth. While it may be true that Macbeth is foolish enough to believe that assassinating the King “may become a man” (1.7.51), yet he is not assured that the murder will not contribute to anything satisfying. Before accepting Lady Macbeth’s plan, Macbeth contemplates the reasons why it is terrible to murder King Duncan. Lady Macbeth then persuades her husband by questioning “[his] love” (1.7.43) towards her and questions if “[he is] afeard” (1.7.43), which led him to approve Lady Macbeth’s offer. Lady Macbeth even jeers her husband’s masculinity by stating,
Murdering the king undoubtedly makes Macbeth a true villain. He becomes sincerely evil, consumed with ambition and devotion to protect his position once he is crowned king, however as the story goes on we hear the witches say that Macbeth needs to be careful of his supposedly trusted ally Macduff. Macbeth hires assassins to kill Macduff's servants, wife, and children. Macbeth states, “The castle of Macduff I will surprise, give to the edge o’ the sword, his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls that trace him in his line” (Act Ⅳ, scene Ⅰ). Clearly, you can see that Macbeth’s temptation takes over once he hears there is a threat in his position to be king.
“One of the methods of manipulation is to inoculate individuals with the bourgeois appetite for personal success.” - Paolo Freire Many contest the nature of Macbeth’s murderous actions in Shakespeare’s Macbeth—whether they were committed in a sound state of mind or controlled by external influences. [Comparison] Macbeth’s actions were executed in a mindless state where the only factors that could determine his future deeds were his prophecies from the witches and his manipulative wife. Both gain Macbeth’s trust, though the witches exploit his indivisible faith in the supernatural, whereas Lady macbeth utilizes her womanly qualities as his wife and his equal to gain control of Macbeth’s conscience.
How far will a man go to gain power? How far will a woman? In the story of Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, three witches told Macbeth a prophecy that forever changed his and his wife’s life. The prophecy stated that Macbeth would soon become Thane of Cawdor, and then eventually become the king. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth used this knowledge to form a plan that did change their lives forever.
Macbeth’s Most Evil Character The murder of Duncan was a crime which cried out for justice. Lady Macbeth was to blame for this evil felony. In the well known play, Macbeth, written by WIlliam Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth, the wife of main character, Macbeth, showed many acts of violence through verbal and physical actions. The murder of King Duncan was represented with no honestly; Lady Macbeth was to be accused for this homicide because she made up the plan to kill the King, was an accessory for his murder and laid the bloody daggers on the guards, smearing the two men with the victim’s blood.
The idea that people’s choices and actions make them and affect them greatly is pretty basic. What they do in life is what they will become and will influence their conscious. In the play Macbeth, William Shakespeare conveys the idea that when an individual makes a decision that is harmful to his/her well being and conscious then guilt and regret can weigh down on him/her which can lead to physical illness, insanity and being haunted by the past. Lady Macbeth’s decision to convince Macbeth of killing Duncan and help causes worry and is later regretted, but eventually causes her to go mad and be continually haunted by her past. How she comes to make that decision is the start of her downfall.
Guilt is a direct consequence of the violence that Macbeth inflicts on others. Guilt overpowers the ambition Macbeth has, and in the end guilt is his downfall. Harboring extreme levels of guilt leads to the deterioration of his mind, his capacity to handle mental turmoil, and impairs his ability to distinguish a friend from an enemy. Guilt breaks Macbeth through paranoia-induced vision, lack of sleep, insomnia, and depression. Firstly, guilt causes psychosis and paranoia.
Lady Macbeth Alice Sebold once said, “Murderers are not monsters, they're men. And that's the most frightening thing about them.” One of the most frightening character in literature is Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth. Although she appears to be a loving wife, she manipulates her husband into killing the king. In planning the murder, she asks the spirits to fill her with cruelty so she will have the strength to kill Duncan.
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," warned historian Lord Acton. In the play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, the titular character and his wife, Lady Macbeth, are driven by ambition to commit regicide and seize the throne of Scotland. Written in the early 17th century, the play explores themes of power, guilt, and moral corruption against political turmoil and supernatural prophecy. While initially influenced by the actions of Macbeth killing Duncan, Lady Macbeth’s tragic demise is primarily caused by her ambitious choices in pursuit of power, leading to her moral decay. Lady Macbeth’s ambitious manipulation of Macbeth, challenging his masculinity and dismissing his moral doubts, underscores her relentless pursuit of power and sets
Upon being informed of the tragic demise of Lady Macbeth, Macbeth's mind is invaded by despondency and angst. The sheer drive behind the couple’s deceitful plan to rob the King of his life in hopes to secure their much-desired power was fate - a fate that had the illusion of immortality. Because of this intense reliance that Lady Macbeth and Macbeth developed, the death of the Queen pried the veil of timelessness from the mind of Macbeth and enforced a harsh and pessimistic reality. Although Shakespeare doesn’t reveal Lady Macbeth’s tragic fate, it is very clear to see how much it affected Macbeth’s view of life. The idea of authority and power generated this artificial light to the couple’s lives, shadowing their mindsets.
Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, is the story of an honorable and noble man falling victim to temptation and eventually descending to the point of murder. Macbeth, the thane of Glamis, is approached by three witches. They tell him of the prophesy that he will become king, causing him to go on a killing spree to get to that position, only to be killed in the end. Even though Macbeth carries out most of the action, his wife, Lady Macbeth, is also a participant; however, there is much controversy over whether she is a decent person or pure evil. Although Lady Macbeth is a negative influence at first, she is shown to be a decent person because she is extremely remorseful of her actions.
Though Macbeth has ambition, he is not an evil man who is capable of murder all on his own, and it is his wife’s manipulation that pushes him to commit the crime—his cowardliness being another flaw. After Lady Macbeth encourages Macbeth to kill Duncan and the deed is done, Macbeth immediately feels extreme guilt. He regrets the crime and is “afraid to think what [he has] done; / Look on ’t again [he] dare[s] not” (2.2.50-51). Furthermore, when he hears knocking at the door, Macbeth says “Wake Duncan with thy knocking. I would thou / couldst”
Macbeth and King Lear: Two Birds of A Feather Both Macbeth and King Lear have significant portrayals of rebelling from the hierarchy in the Renaissance. The hierarchy, or Elizabethan World View, is based off of the Summa Theologica, in which Saint Thomas Aquinas believes that certain lines or levels of holiness by God divided the world.
Macbeth as Tragedy Macbeth was a man that had many fault in his character, he was very ambitious and over confident. The beginning of Macbeth, Macbeth did not act like this he was a noble kinsman to the king and very loyal to him. After the witches told Macbeth that he would one day be king, he started changing. Macbeth is a tragedy in term of Aristotle’s criteria, by how Macbeth was noble by birth and by action, his limitations of knowledge, tragic flaws, and his understandings of how he fell. The supernatural powers, or the witches, tell Macbeth and Banquo many things, and they think they may not come true, but whatever a supernatural power says is going to happen, happens no matter what.
