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Macbeth Good Vs Evil

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“Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor players that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” (V. v. 23-28). This despondent epiphany springs from the lips of the title character of William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, a tragic portrait of a man who suffers the torment of phantoms of his own moral decay, alongside guilt, inordinate paranoia, and fervent temptation toward sin due the loss of his integrity to the perils of bloody ambition. Though perhaps he may bear a greater inclination toward evil than most, Macbeth is not a monster, but rather he is merely another casualty to the infirmity of humanity, for he possess an …show more content…

It is explicitly Macbeth’s human weakness that causes him to give in to the allure of power and pay the ultimate price. Macbeth, by nature, has a visceral desire to conduct himself as a paragon of virtue. “He’s here in double trust: first, as I am his kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed; then, as his host, who should against his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great office, that his virtues will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against the deep damnation of his taking off; and pity, like a naked newborn babe, striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubim, horsed upon the sightless couriers of the air, shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, that tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself and falls on th' other” (I. vii. 12-28). Macbeth frankly acknowledges how unsound his ambitions to the throne are and reaffirms his duties as King …show more content…

“Methought I heard a voice cry,….‘Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more.’…I am afraid to think what I have done; look on ’t again I dare not….Whence is that knocking? How it ’t with me when every noise appals me” (II. ii. 33-56)? A terrifying combination of guilt, remorse, and anxiety over his violence leave Macbeth’s mind in such fearful, dire straits that may never sleep soundly again, supplementing his insanity and delusions. Furthermore, his cowardly disposition erodes his confidence as a man and as a ruler, leaving his heart pallid and highly sensitive to even the slightest of scares. While Macbeth claims that he no longer knows fear and emotion since atrocities become so familiar to him over the course of the play, the intensity of his emotional state is still very reliant on the circumstances of his situation, such as when his courage falters after Macduff reveals that he is not born of a woman. Macbeth is certainly a man who is at the mercy of his emotions and cannot possibly act without the feeling emotive reverberations echo within the entirety of his

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Untae Langis points out that as the play opens, “Macbeth reveals himself caught between rational and appetitive will, virtue, and self-esteem… When Lady Macbeth chides him for having cold feet… Macbeth’s cowardice foretells the yielding of his desires for good to the desire for worldly power”. This desire for power is valued because Macbeth has innate nobility, and he has honorable character at the beginning of the play. One of his many tragic flaws includes ambition, which leads to his downfall at the end of the

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793 Words | 4 Pages

Greed causes even the best of men to brood immoral intentions. The Tragedy, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, describes the flaws of human nature and the traumatic effects unrestrained ambition may cause. The play commences, featuring Macbeth as an eminent, highly esteemed Thane and loyal warrior to the king; however, after being prophesied by the three witches, a torch of ambition is lit. Furthermore, upon hearing the witches prophecies, his reputation is downgraded as he steps into a realm of evil, and more tragically, finds that he has “in blood stepped in so far that should [he] wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er”. After murdering the rightful king of Scotland, Duncan, and therefore subsequently, one murder leads to another; to a point where he cannot return from his life of evil “I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er”.

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Finally, Macbeth’s surrender to his uncontrolled passion for power led to his own tragic death and to his total transformation from being one of moral character to a heartless murderer. Although Macbeth’s decline evokes pity and compassion from the reader which makes him a tragic hero, passion without reason cannot be tolerated , because every man has a specific gift: the freedom of choice. Indeed, the prophecies of the three witches, Lady Macbeth’s wicked inspiration and encouragement, and Macbeth’s lustful passion to keep the throne altogether provided the perfect elements for the development and the end of the Shakespearean tragic play,

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813 Words | 4 Pages

The namesake of the play, “Macbeth” is a man who faced a decision between his own personal passion and his moral obligations and duties. The two choices pulled at him and seemed to torment him even after he made a decision. Through the conflict that Macbeth felt because of his decisions, the reader can better empathize with him, and can obtain a more profound lesson from the story concerning decisions between personal passions and moral obligations. Macbeth is not what one would call “perfect.”

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Macbeth himself says that ambition is his only motivation, clearly seen in the quote, “I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself And falls on th’other”. Shakespeare uses personification, describing Macbeth’s ambition as akin to a horse, which “o’erleaps itself And falls on th’other”, representing Duncan’s demise as a result of Macbeth’s greed for the crown. This shows how his fatal flaw will cause him to continue in his murderous rampage. Furthermore, once Macbeth has gained the crown, his ambition is still growing and he does not feel safe in his position. This is seen in the quote, “To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus.”

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Imagine you are a young child again--let’s say 10 years-old--binge watching Scooby Doo on television all summer. Within every episode of Scooby Doo, The Mystery Gang reveals the villain running the diabolical crimes, at the end, and it becomes an archetype of these villains to be under a facade as someone sympathetic or innocent--making you least expect it. Towards the end of Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, the Macbeth’s unstable mental states drives them to have various people murdered and even after obtaining the throne, they struggles to cope with their individual guilt. However, before Macbeth’s rise as king, he does not possess such vile motives yet gradually he and his wife’s greed for the title of kings and queens led them to

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Lady Macbeth plays a key part in driving Macbeth’s motivations and encourages Macbeth to overcome his strong sense of guilt and take action on the prophecies. Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that he is “green” (I.VII.40) and “a coward” (I.VII.46) and that he resembles the proverbial “poor cat”. (I.VII.48) The willingness of Lady Macbeth to reach the epitome of betrayal is displaced that heightens the understanding of the overpowering and strong nature of Lady Macbeth as well as the deep and murderous motivations she wishes to impose on her husband. Shakespeare exposes to the audience to the persuasive and emotive techniques Lady Macbeth uses to manipulate and drive Macbeth's motivations. This

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286 Words | 2 Pages

In Macbeth, Shakespeare was exploring the great capacity for both good and evil that exist in one human heart. He demonstrates an example of this through the main character of the play, Macbeth. Although in the beginning, Macbeth only displays the good within his heart but as plot thickens and the story develops, the evil which it contains begins to show. Macbeth falls from grace to misery which shows how you can go from good to evil in a short time. At the beginning of the book he was a man of his word and very trustful.

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558 Words | 3 Pages

58-60). Highlighting the separation between the state of one’s heart and the darkness of one’s deeds with Macbeth’s moral struggle, Shakespeare demonstrates how a lust for power corrupts a previously good man, and turns him into a killer. Shakespeare wants people to see themselves in Macbeth, and to understand that

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937 Words | 4 Pages

True to the witches’ remarks, Macbeth was both fair and foul. He was a man that constantly battled with conflicting feelings of ambition, eminent self-doubt and exceptional amounts of guilt after submitting to his foul side. William Shakespeare’s shortest surviving tragedy, clearly illustrates the detrimental affects that yielding to feelings of ambition can have on an individual’s psyche. Macbeth had a deep yearning to gain control of the throne of Scotland since the weird sisters said it would end up like so. He allowed his desire to overtake the voice of his own conscience.

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563 Words | 3 Pages

Now this is just a story all about how A kingdom of evil got flip turned upside down And I'd like to take a minute, just sit or stand I'll tell you how I became the king of a place called Scotland. Thunder and lighting, you know what that means. this place full of tragic flaws, that nobody has seen. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble.

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760 Words | 4 Pages

Macbeth’s impatience for power leads to drastic actions. He murders the king in the belief that “this blow might be the be-all and end-all” (1.7.5). This assassination could never “trammel up the consequence” (1.7.2-3), as Macbeth believes, but only leads to more trouble. Although Macbeth seizes the throne, Macbeth had to betray his loyalty to the king whose “virtues will plead like angels” (1.7.18-19), and his morality has paid the price. Macbeth has now lost all sense of what honor is by using such dishonest ways to become king.

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978 Words | 4 Pages

Let not light see my black and deep desires. Human malevolence and evil is a common theme in many of Shakespeare 's tragedies. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, this evil grows and flourishes before consuming all that stands in its path. It kills through revenge, ambition, fear.

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888 Words | 4 Pages

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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910 Words | 4 Pages

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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