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Macbeth: Environmental Pressures Vs Instincts

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Jada Jones Mrs. Billings Honors English 10B May 5, 2023 Macbeth: Environmental Pressures vs Innate Instincts In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, many of the characters are portrayed as evil, especially Macbeth, but rather than this being his innate instinct, he becomes immoral because of the pressures put on him by the Witches, Lady Macbeth, and the position of power he gains. Some may argue that Macbeth is inherently foul and that the pressure surrounding him doesn’t have as much of an effect on his actions as his instincts. However, people are products of their environments. They are shaped to act differently in various kinds of situations. While there were many different things and people pressuring Macbeth, the Witches, Lady Macbeth, and his power …show more content…

Macbeth feels that the Witches “placed a fruitless crown [on his head]/And put a barren scepter in [his] grip” (3.1, 66-67). He feels like he has to do this because of the position of power he is in. He mentions how he has to keep killing because it is easier to keep going down this path: “I am in blood/Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,/Returning were as tedious as go o’er” (3.4, 168-170). This alludes to the fact that in order to maintain his position of power he feels pressured to continue killing so that he doesn’t lose his power or kingship. This is a prime example of societal pressures along with the coercion of his wife and the …show more content…

Macbeth had no clear reason for doing this besides hurting Macduff. This makes Macbeth seem innate evil, however, at this point, Macbeth was already insane from guilt and stress. Macbeth starts hallucinating after he decides on killing Duncan. He questions whether the dagger he is seeing is real or if it is “of the mind, a false creation/Proceeding from the heat oppresséd brain” (2.1, 50-51). By saying that his brain is overheated, it shows that he cannot think straight and he is in a state of confusion. He also hallucinates Banquo’s ghost after ordering for him to be killed and is unable to tell whether or not it was real. This shows that he is haunted by guilt and unable to think clearly due to being forced into killing by his position of power and the people around

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To continue his family’s name but also assuring he has a lot of power he had to kill King Duncan as shown in Act 2 Scene 1 lines 33-35 Macbeth says “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand?” this was when he was on his way to murder Duncan. Macbeth also had to murder his companion Banquo and others to keep his ambition going.

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William Shakespeare wrote a play called Macbeth, where the main character Macbeth is trying to get the most power he possibly can and kill everyone in his way. Macbeth's actions are caused by strong and maybe small emotions that guide his actions. Emotions like anger, guilt, sadness, greed, and many more. Macbeth’s character is very simple, he is a man that is given a very good opportunity for power and he takes it and doesn’t want to give it up. Macbeth's actions were mostly controlled by greed, anger, and guilt.

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Later on, when he finally becomes king, he starts to worry about the witches’ last prediction – that Banquo’s sons will one day take the throne. He is no longer satisfied with just being the king and now wants his legacy to continue. This dangerous combination of paranoia and ambition plays a significant role in sparking the chain of events that would lead to his own downfall.

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The hallucinations Macbeth suffers from are because of the regret and guilt Macbeth is feeling after the murders he has committed. “Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand? / Come, let me clutch thee. / I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.” (2.1.33-44). Macbeth murders Duncan after this quote is said, representing that Macbeth's guilt had already started to build up even before killing him.

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Macbeth is a greedy person like us all but he unlike most of us is willing to cross anyline to get what he wants. Macbeth was willing to kill someone he considered a dear friend to gain more power as well as killing Duncan's servants to frame them. His greed out-weighed his loyalty for his king and friend showing how much he’s willing to do to accomplish his selfish goal. Macbeth is so greedy that he’d turn against his own best friend to keep his position as king.

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He decides to have Banquo and his son murdered. He tells the murderers “I require a clearness: and with him to leave no rubs nor botches in the work/Fleance his son, that keeps him company/Whose absence is no less material to me/Than is his father's. ”(3.1.61) Meanwhile, his wife begins to worry that her husband is losing his mind as he hallucinates and sees Banquo’s ghost after that murder is committed and causes a scene during dinner when he yells, “Avaunt! and quit my sight!

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People often don't know that they have something inside of them that drives them to do the most horrible things. You must be aware of the animal inside of you because it's there and you never know when it's going to come out. We saw Jack's survival insists take over and it caused him to start killing the boys on island. Macbeth was so deadeye on trying to prevent or allow what the witches told that he was willing to do anything to changed his destiny. People who stood in his way were killed by him or by his hitmen.

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The reversal of these traits come from situations that they got themselves into, coming from their dark decisions. At the start of the play, before the murder of Duncan, Macbeth and

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Furthermore, the murder of Banquo led Macbeth to destruction. Later in the play, Macbeth was troubled by the Banquo’s ghost. Macbeth acts out of desperation to get rid of Banquo’s ghost (III, iv, 82-7). Here, it shows Macbeth’s destruction of mind, which is fuelled by his fear and guilt. Eventually, Macbeth’s

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He doesn’t want to see his hands commit this deed. Macbeth feels as though his evil actions are entirely separate from his identity and blames his actions on fate, which eventually becomes consequential. After talking to Banquo and Fleance, Macbeth is left alone when he starts envisioning a knife and questions “Is this a dagger which I see before me/ The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee./I have thee not, and yet I see thee still./Art though not, fatal vision, sensible/

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Finally, the vision of a bloody dagger that emerged right before the murder emboldened Macbeth to kill King Duncan. Prior to murdering Duncan, Macbeth was hesitant about following through with his wife 's merciless task. He doubted that he was able to murder one of his most loyal friends, until he saw the vision. On page 43, Act II, scene I, Macbeth sees the apparition: "Is this a dagger that I see before me with its handle turned to my hand?" Macbeth contemplates whether it is a figure of his imagination prompted on by his already guilty conscience, or a supernatural encounter that is compelling him to do the deed.

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Macbeth’s ambition is what is causing him to intervene with his prophecy and pursue his goal (rather than leave it to chance). In a way, it is Macbeth’s own “black and deep desires” that make him kill in the first place as the witches never tell him to do so. Furthermore, apart from ambition, it is Macbeth’s own weak will and moral system that causes him to do the actions that result in his downfall. Macbeth’s weak will is undeniable and is illustrated before killing Duncan. “I have of spur/To prick the sides of my intent, but only/Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself/And falls on the other” (I, VII, 25-28).

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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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