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Macbeth Evil Vs Evil Essay

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Evil stands for profoundly immoral and malevolent which is exactly what the character Macbeth represents in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. Macbeth is a warrior who gains the title Thane of Cawdor for killing the rebel Macdonwald and the previous Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth confronts three witches who foretell Macbeth’s ascension to the throne of Scotland. Unbeknownst to Macbeth, the witches actually will “drain him dry as hay. Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his penthouse lid. He shall live a man forbid” (1.3.15-27). The witches’ prophesy says that Macbeth will be unable to sleep, which will drive any person mad. Macbeth ultimately turns toward murder and treachery to feed his ambition to become King of Scotland. Macbeth’s behavior in the play also proves that evil actions are worse than evil thoughts. Macbeth also shows exponential growth of evil actions throughout the play because of Macbeth’s progressively worse actions. The readers of Macbeth can learn to not allow unbridled ambition to possess one’s mind. Macbeth as a character proves how unchecked ambition can compel someone to commit egregious atrocities. Macbeth is the ultimate root of evil throughout the play. Macbeth plays an integral role in almost all the evil committed in Macbeth. Macbeth contemplates killing his king when he …show more content…

Macbeth starts his murder spree with the murder of Duncan. Macbeth has extreme hesitance in the scenes preceding Duncan’s demise. Macbeth worries that “in these cases We still have judgment here, that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague th' inventor” (1.7.7-10). After Macbeth commits his first treasonous murder, each act of murder becomes easier to him thereafter. As previously quoted, Macbeth shows a manic glee to the thought of murdering his friend Banquo. One who murders women and children clearly has a severely broken moral

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William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a testimony to the difference between greed and ambition, good and evil, and right and wrong. The story shows that when one becomes obsessed with power, they will often resort to methods of manipulation and retaliation to achieve their desired outcome. In the case of Macbeth, he is approached by the Three Witches who inform him that he will one day become Thane of Cawdor and the King of Scotland. Additionally, they inform Macbeth’s comrade Banquo that his sons will one day be kings.

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The acts that they pursue to get his King position is both evil and violent. Macbeth had many qualities as much as he had tragic flaws. A courageous and brave noble man he was, haunted by superstition, morals, and an extremely overwhelming ambition. Throughout the play

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The play Macbeth involves a lot of ambition and negation. Macbeth was a great Scottish general. Macbeth comes along three witches and they tell him that he will be king. He listens to him and his strong leads him to wanting to become king. He will kill anyone that gets in his way.

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These are not considered evil until he caves into the temptation of power (Gimelli Martin 165). His weakness is shown when he makes the decision to murder King Duncan and secures the position as king. He even goes as far to murder his friend, Banquo, because he feels uneasy about his suspicions (182-183). At this point in the story he is even comparable to Satan, “Like Satan, Macbeth becomes the chief equivocator in his own hell, unwittingly uttering objective truths to his subjects even while telling subjective lies.” (183).

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Greed for power has always been evil and even made a saint turn into a demon. As the quote goes “All power tends to corrupt and an absolute power corrupts absolutely” (unquote), which is true not only in the fictitious stories but also in real life and Shakespeare, th9e greatest writer ever known, has always been in habit of making fictitious character come alive and Macbeth is no exception to the rule. The character of Macbeth has two sides, one which is wholesome while other been dubious. He symbolized great ambition but went overboard and in the process not only became corrupt but also became a killer. Macbeth reflects great strength but within he has his own weakness and thus good over took evil resulting in its downfall and finally his own death.

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Because of his dangerous mentality, he became reckless, paranoid, and boastfully insane. Macbeth soon began to not trust anyone This is especially illustrated in Act 3, Scene 3, where the murderers were waiting to kill Banquo and Fleance. In the scene Macbeth had a third murderer join the two that he had already hired. As one of the original murderers stated, “He needs not our mistrust; since he delivers our offices, and what we have to do.” (3.3.3) Macbeth's disposition led to the defeat of himself and losing his place in the throne.

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At the end of Act 1, Lady Macbeth manipulates him into committing regicide on Duncan by questioning his masculinity, telling him to “be so much more the man” (1.7.51). By associating masculinity with violence, Lady Macbeth convinces him that murder is the right thing to do. Initially, this clicks in his mind, justifying his murder with fulfillment of his destiny, saying, “I have no spur / to prick the sides of my intent, but only / vaulting ambition” (1.7.25-27). However, once he ascends the throne, he becomes paranoid that he will be found out and orders the murder of Banquo and his son, Fleance. He continues this paranoia until his ultimate murder, as what initially seemed like simply following his masculinity led him to a heap of

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From the beginning of Macbeth to the end, the influences of evil have tremendous effects on the characters of the play. Some characters such as Banquo recognize and are terrified by the the dangers of these evil influences and keep away from them, while others give into the evil’s supposed, promising rewards and lead themselves down a path of villainy. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth exhibit characteristics of villainy, however one proves worse through murderous actions and internal state of heart prior to death.

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Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, is a play that mainly focuses on one common theme of insanity. Macbeth gradually becomes plagued by intense guilt as his desire for power drives him to attain his goals by any means necessary, including committing murder. He kills Duncan in cold blood in order to become King, has Banquo killed by three murderers because he wishes to maintain his position as King, and finally, he has Macduff’s family slaughtered. Each of these occurrences takes place because of Macbeth’s will to be King, or they are a result of his guilt. Nonetheless, they are all completed of his free will, which is what causes him to deteriorate mentally.

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Therefore, anyone can be susceptible of being either both good or evil. This ties into another recurring theme of the search for power. Throughout Macbeth, he is trying to gain power by killing the King, and begins to get greedy and power driven to his fate. A lesson to be learned from the play is how you should never let power control you. Having power can be a good thing for you and the people around you, for instance, Duncan was a powerful King and very worthy and respected by his people.

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Jaylin Wilson Ms. Morris English 12- 1st Period 5 December 2016 The Good and Evil in Macbeth In the tragedy, Macbeth, the good and evil shows a relation between the killing of characters throughout the story. It was evil that the characters are being killed, but it was good for the other characters that did the killing.

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Lady Macbeth is truly an evil character. In the beginning of the play, it tells how much Macbeth is a fierce warrior, but coming home the witches came. As soon as Lady Macbeth heard about the prophecy, she becomes the fierce warrior and Macbeth bends to her every whim. Lady Macbeth is always making Macbeth feel awful, (Act 3, scene V, line 58) “Are you a man?”.

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William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the main character; Macbeth, is seen as an evil character. The play is based off of Macbeth’s decisions and his actions to become King. In the beginning Macbeth starts out as a hero in Scotland’s war with Ireland and towards the end he is transformed into a murderer. Macbeth is not wholly evil because of is heroism in the war, his love for Scotland, and because he didn’t want to kill King Duncan initially. Macbeth was brain washed by his wife and tricked into killing the King.

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The internal conflict between good and evil has jeopardized the human condition since the beginning of time. Adam and Eve dealt with this when the serpent pressed Eve to eat the forbidden fruit and people still continue to struggle with this problem to this day. Every human struggles with good and evil actions because humans have the potential to be malicious and do evil deeds given the opportunity and motivation. In the play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, the protagonist, Macbeth, wrestles with kind and evil thoughts due to the constant pressuring of his wife and witches. The witches symbolize Macbeth’s subconscious mind while his wife represents his true identity.

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I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on 't again I dare not.” (Act II, sc ii, Lines 48-50). Macbeth is getting extremely paranoid and feels bad killing Duncan. Macbeths ambitions caused him to murder Duncan, but he also had Banquo murdered, and wanted to murder Banquo 's son, Fleance. Macbeth wants Banquo killed because he saw him as a threat; however, Banquo had been Macbeth 's friend and thought he could trust him. "

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