Macbeth External Circumstances

Is Macbeth a victim of external circumstances or a man driven solely by evil?

In Shakespeare's Macbeth, supernatural intervention drives Macbeth to his own hamartia, telling the tale of a tragic hero. Throughout the play, Macbeth is shown to be the victim of supernatural forces as opposed to a bloodthirsty man, fueled by pure evil. Painted as a villain, Macbeth is far from it; still showing human emotions that a man of such evil will not feel, such a bloodthirsty monster would not feel near the amount of guilt that riddles Macbeth after the murder of Duncan. As the victim of divine fate, Macbeth is led to a sense of ambition, which only after being manipulated by Lady Macbeth does his ambition transcend into blind fulfilment of Lady Macbeth’s manipulative request, further showing how

After receiving word from his hitmen that they had fulfilled their talk of murdering Banquo, immediately after being told this, Macbeth sees Banquo's ghost, covered in 20 stab wounds in the head. Later on during Act 3 scene 4, Macbeth sees an apparition of Banquo seated on Macbeth's throne. Initially Macbeth thinks it is a trick yelling “Which one of you have done this.” This quote is preceded by Macbeth saying “Thou canst not say I did it, Never shake thy gory locks at me.” Shakespeare employs visual imagery in this quote to paint a clear picture of what Macbeth is seeing. Furthermore we know that Banquo's ghost is a symbol for guilt, and the fact that only Macbeth can see it shows how he is haunted by his own guilt, something that a man of true evil can not feel. Overall, by showing how guilty Macbeth feels, readers are able to assure themselves that Macbeth is not a man of evil but, as stated earlier, a tragic hero, doomed from the start by external