Power In Macbeth

Power can be a tool used to achieve a man’s heartfelt desire. Such is the case for the protagonist, Macbeth, in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. After three crones inform him of three prophecies: thane of Glamis and Cawdor, king hereafter, and Banquo’s children will become king, Macbeth is not content with allowing fate to run its course. Soon enough, he joins with his wife to commit murder and ensure that the most sought after prophecy is fulfilled, a kingship. As Macbeth attempts to protect his ambition, his actions go from that of being a noble thane to a man of paranoia, suspicion, and inner turmoil. Macbeth struggles with the notion of killing his king; however, once he engages in such evil behavior, additional violence does not cause him

After a lot of persuading from Lady Macbeth, her husband finally felt comfortable with the subject of killing Duncan. Throughout the play, Macbeth begins to think less and less of his murders. When planning to kill Duncan, he is very hesitant and processed the murder a great deal. The reader sees a change in Macbeth’s reasoning when planning each murder. During the murder of Macduff’s family, Macbeth has no just reason to murder the family, he entirely killed them just for the sake of killing. Macbeth also becomes less sympathetic of his victim as the play progresses. He began to process the harm he has done after each murder less and less. Initially, Lady Macbeth was the sole planner of the murder. As the play advances, Macbeth takes the lead role in the murders, as Lady Macbeth takes back wheel in the crime. Macbeth’s entire mindset changes by the end of the play. During the conversation between Macbeth and his wife, Macbeth states, “if th’ assassination could trammel up the consequence and catch with his surcease success, that but this blow might be the be-all and the end-all here, but here, upon this band and shoal of time, we’d jump the life to come”(1.7.2-7). Macbeth reveals to his Wife, Lady Macbeth, that he fears the consequences succeeding the murder. As Macbeth develops into a new person, he no longer has the trepidation of murdering people close to him. Macbeth has a greater fear of the effect to his

Each individual murder, adds to how Macbeth begins to spiral out of control. Due to the change of his mental state, Macbeth starts to lose sight of what is reality really is. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth was able to control his feelings and decisions when dealing with these murders; However, it became hard for him to cope with the guilt and power to where he just began to kill for no reason. He lost sight of what was just and okay because he became obsessed with power. He murdered vulnerable people just for the sake of murdering them. In his head, Macbeth made these murders seem okay, even though he had no concrete reason for them. For example, Macbeth murdered Macduff’s family. He had not had a well founded reason to murder them, he just believed he needed to murder them because he saw Macduff as a threat. Macbeth exclaims, “I will not be afraid of death and bane”(5.4.73). As he is about to be in contact with Malcolm and Macduff, Macbeth claims that he is not afraid of death. He also felt that he was fully prepared to fight and win the battle. He was not aware of how much power Malcolm and Macduff really obtained because he was overconfident in himself and his power. His overconfidence led to him being in a state where he could be overcome by enemies. He lost sight of the power of other people due to his selfishness. Macduff ends up leaving the battle with Macbeth’s