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The Depiction Of Macbeth's 'Holinshed Chronicles'

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One of the most renowned stories in the world is William Shakespeare's "Macbeth". The story follows a Scottish nobleman named Macbeth. His ambitions are driven by the three witches, allowing him to kill the king to take the throne. Although this is a great story, Shakespeare did not come up with Macbeth with just his imagination. His inspiration came from the book, Holinshed Chronicles, published in 1577. Even though Shakespeare took inspiration for Macbeth from Holinshed, the two depictions of it are still different. Shakespeare’s depiction of Macbeth is a complex character, with his morals and motives being changed by supernatural forces, and also plagued by his issues. At the start of the play, Macbeth is shown to be a loyal vigilante soldier. He was even praised when it came to his bravery on the battlefield. Everything was fine until he encountered one of the witches who proclaimed that he would be king. This interaction piques Macbeth's interest, marking the start of the downward spiral of his character. As the play goes on, Macbeth goes through a dramatic shift in his character. He gets sucked into his paranoia and ambition, killing the king to get to the throne. The psychological trauma caused by the consequences of his actions weighs a lot on Macbeth, leading him down into madness, killing several more …show more content…

Macbeth is a brutal and ambitious tyrant who snatches the throne through corruption and violence. He rules through fear and intimidation, killing his enemies without remorse. Holinshed's depiction focuses on addressing the sequence of events leading up to Macbeth's taking of the throne. Using factual details rather than psychological analysis of his character. Holinshed is objective and detached, reflecting the conventions of the historical chronicle of that time. Although it lacks the detail and depth of Shakespeare's portrayal, it's still a historical record of that

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