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Motivation In Macbeth Essay

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A kingdom shrouded with blood of those who got in the way, only a tyrant motivated by evil could commit such actions. Written by William Shakespeare, Macbeth is a play about Macbeth, the cousin of the king, being prophesied that he will become king, leading to him taking the king's life. The rest of the play follows the reign of the new tyrant and his downfall. In Macbeth the supernatural creates all of the motivation for Macbeth’s actions for Macbeth is easily persuaded, frightened, and a natural follower. The supernatural motivate all of Macbeth's actions due to him being easily persuaded. Macbeth is given the prophecy that he will be the Thane of Glamis, then the Thane of Cawdor, and then king. But Macbeth doesn’t believe this until Ross tells him that “He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor: In which addition, hail, most worthy thane, For it is thine.” (Shakespeare 1.3.110-112) fulfilling the second part of the prophecy given …show more content…

Macbeth is given another prophecy by the three witches “Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff. Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough.” (Shakespeare 4.1.81-82) Which leads him to kill Macduff’s family. This shows that the supernatural led to motivate Macbeth’s actions because if he had not feared the prophecy and feared the consequences of his actions he would have not killed Macduff’s family and wouldn’t have tried to kill Fleance. For if he had no fear he would have thought nothing of them and ignored them. But his fear was manipulated by the supernatural and the prophecies for everyone that was harmed was mentioned in the prophecy and perceived as threatening by Macbeth. This is further shown through how Macbeth fears being disliked through how he bends to the will of the person in front of him at the time and pleases those around him. Macbeth’s fear is one of the reasons the supernatural motivates Macbeht’s

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For Macbeth, he is motive by the fulfill of the prophecies, which facilitate the growth of ambition. “He will be fooled into thinking he is greater than fate, he will mock death, and he will think he is above wisdom, grace, and fear.” (Crowther.3.5.2). As Hecate, the head of the witches suggests, the prophecies are made to fool Macbeth and lead him into the completely wicked way of killing people in order to satisfy his intrigued ambition and paranoid thoughts. In other words, the deterioration of Macbeth’s character and all the immoral practice done by Macbeth and her wife predominantly provoked by the prophecies, which in fact, only contains one piece of real information, possession of The Thane of Cawdor by Macbeth.

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