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Macbeth: Are People Born Good Or Evil?

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Are people born good or evil? Or do things throughout their life change them into who they are today? In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the main character Macbeth, was destined to be evil. Macbeth goes from being praised in the beginning to becoming an evil murderer in the end. He was destined to be evil because he had bad thoughts own his own, killed the king and continued to kill more people by the end of the play.

Macbeth is destined to be evil from the beginning and even has bad thoughts before he talks to his wife, Lady Macbeth. The witches tell him that he is going to become Thane of Cawdor and Thane of Glamis, but they do not tell him how he will become thane. His thoughts conflict because he is wondering if this is a good or bad thing. "Cannot be ill; cannot be good. If ill, / Why hath it given me earnest of success / Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor. / If good, why do I yield to that suggestion / Whose horrid image doth undid my hair / And make my seated heart knock at my ribs / Against the use of nature?" (Act I, scene ii) Macbeth wonders why the witches prophecies seem to be both good and bad. They seem good because he became Thane but also bad because he is thinking of murder. Macbeth's evil thoughts grew without the help of Lady Macbeth, showing that he does have evil within him and not just because of his wife. …show more content…

Macbeth says, "If we should fail?" To this Lady Macbeth says, "But screw your courage to the sticking place," Macbeth responds, "I am settled and bend up / Each corporal agent to this terrible feat."(Act I, scene vii) The amount of persuading Macbeth had to hear to convince him to kill the king, shows that he already partially had his mind made up about killing him. Having bad thoughts is not good, but what makes him evil is that he acts on

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