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Who Is To Blame In Macbeth

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The events that occur in Shakespeare’s Macbeth are extremely gruesome and dark. This is part of the reason that it is considered one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies. When looking for an explanation as to why these proceedings happened, the only true thing that is to blame is ambition. Ambition is defined as “a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work.” The ambitions of Macbeth and Lady macbeth is what drove them to murdering their friends and colleagues. The entire reason that Macbeth ended up killing Duncan is because he wanted to become king, and fulfill the prophecy that the Witches told him about. He does it for his own selfish reasons. After actually killing Duncan, Macbeth says “For mine own …show more content…

I am in blood” (Shakespeare, 3.4.167-170). This is him admitting that he only committed the murder for his own benefit, because of his ambitions. He had the strong desire to be king, and in order to achieve this goal, he had to get Duncan out of the way. Some make the argument that Macbeth is in charge of his own actions, and is to blame for the murder. That is not entirely accurate. Macbeth didn’t want to kill Duncan. Before he killed him, he said “I have no spur to prick with the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other” (1.2.25-28). This is Macbeth being honest with himself and realizing that there isn’t really a good reason to kill Duncan. He just wants the power of king to himself. It is also evidenced that Macbeth doesn’t always have control over his own actions, or the right state of mind. After Macbeth murders Banquo, he sees his ghost standing on his dinner table. He then panics and begins

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In the play Macbeth, Macbeth is faced with the decision to kill King Duncan to become king or not. He first is told by the witches that it is his destiny that he will become king, but he brushes it off as nothing. This vision of him as king becomes brighter when his wife says that he should kill the king. Macbeth has many internal struggles over what he should do. Should he be morally sound and not kill the King or take the chance and do it.

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In Act 1 of Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth decides to kill Duncan for the sake of solidifying his ego and completing his ambitions. At first, Macbeth was quite hesitant about betraying his loyal friend Duncan and killing him but after talking with Lady Macbeth his thoughts changed. Lady Macbeth made him question his manhood and in doing so attacked his ego, “And live a coward in thine own esteem” (1.7.47). To aid his ego and esteem after being diminished by Lady Macbeth he decides to kill Duncan. We can see proof of this in Macbeth’s response, “I dare do all that may become a man” (1.7.51).

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What Macbeth essentially says here is that his only motivation for killing King Duncan is his ambition. Many would argue that it was not Macbeth’s ambition that caused him to kill King Duncan but instead was his wife using her femininity in order to charm Macbeth into doing as she says . However, Macbeth’s hunger for power was already seen when King Duncan gives Malcolm the title of Prince of Cumberland. Macbeth tells himself that he must not reveal his true intentions: “Stars, hide your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desires.”

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Macbeth has commendable ambition, but it cause him to become disloyal to the king. Macbeth kills King Duncan because he is so ambitious to become king himself. Macbeth professes his willingness to kill when stating that his “ thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,/ Shakes so my single state of man/ That function is smother'd in surmise,/ and nothing is but what is not.” (Shakespeare, 1.3.52-55) When reuniting with Lady Macbeth the night King Duncan is staying at Macbeth’s castle, Macbeth proclaims to her “I have done the deed.”, telling her that he had killed King Duncan.(Shakespeare, 2. 2. 14.) This is the point that Macbeth strayed away from the man he once was.

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Macbeth’s allies would find it odd that he would want to kill Duncan because he is very loyal to him as far as they know. Although before Lady Macbeth has this conversation with MAcbeth he is a little

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Macbeth hesitates to kill Duncan because he has a change of mind. He begins thinking about the fact that Duncan has recently honored him by promoting him to the position of Thane of Cawdor. “With his surcease success; that but this blow might be the be-all and the end-all — here, but here, upon this bank and shoal of time, we'ld jump the life to come. But in these cases, we still have judgment here, that we but teach bloody instructions, which, being taught, return to plague the inventor” (Act 1 scene 7, 4-10).

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At this point, Macbeth is seriously reconsidering his choice to kill the king, saying that that if he could kill Duncan without consequences or later difficulties he would risk eternal damnation; however, Macbeth knows that his decision to murder the king of Scotland will have many negative effects on his life and the kingdom. He acknowledges that Duncan has been a good and honest leader, realising that the only reason behind the assassination is that he wishes to become king. Although many will argue that Macbeth became king because of fate, this monologue given by Macbeth shows that he wasn’t forced to kill the king by anything

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He now perceives that in order to become king he has to step over some people, kill them. For all intents and purposes, how can he become king if Duncan is already running the position? Executing Duncan was the only option in order for him to become king, at least to his regards. Despite his bad ambition, Macbeth is not happy about committing murder, not to the slightest. It's like if he'd close his eyes and reopened them (hoping to see things differently)

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The play, Macbeth by William Shakespeare is a tale filled with plenty of twists and turns. It tells of a brave soldier, Macbeth, who receives a prediction fortuned by three witches, that one day he will become the king of Scotland. Macbeth being overwhelmed receiving such news, is overcome with irrational ideas on how he will become king and takes matters into his own hands by murdering current royal man in charge, King Duncan. With this being said, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, uses Macbeth’s character flaw of excessive ambition as the leading factor to his downfall and helps the reader recognize that when morals are ignored, ambition can turn into an issue. To begin with, Macbeth’s over ambition is on display after he has met with the trio

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This was stated by Macbeth later in the play when the plan was for him to assassinate Duncan so he could become King. Macbeth calls off the murder of Duncan because he didn’t want to continue it. He was being noble and thinking about him and their friendship and how he couldn't go forward with it because the guilt would eat him

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The witches tell Macbeth “that [he] shalt be king hereafter”(1.3.53), foreshadowing his impractical rise to power. As Macbeth prepares to kill Duncan, he draws his dagger and says,”Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going/And such an instrument I was to use”(2.1.54-55). This exemplifies Macbeth’s true and impatient motives as he was never told to kill Duncan, rather chose to out of his freewill. Killing Duncan wasn’t enough though, as Macbeth needed someone to blame the murder on, so he framed the guards who were there to protect Duncan. Lady Macbeth decides to “smear/The sleepy grooms with blood”(2.2.63-64), which Macbeth could have objected to, but still continued, which made him worse of a person, steering him into a disastrous path.

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He does not want to be a loyal servant to the king, but rather be the king with loyal servants to serve him. And because of these ambitious thoughts lurking in his mind, he must ask the “Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires” (1.4.52-53). So that no one can see through his wall of false appearance and discern his true deepest desires. Hence, Macbeth appeared to be an honorable and exemplary candidate for the role that king Duncan bestows upon him, but in reality he is only dishonorable for he has notion of regicide to become king himself and must appears to be loyal to a king “whose murder yet is but fantastical” (1.3.139). Also, Lady Macbeth hides herself behind the wall of her false appearance which makes her seem as if she is the greatest of hostess, but in reality she too has “black and deep desires” (1.4.52-53), to kill king

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like in scene one and two, is where we first see the desire of the power climbing to Macbeth. Which in reality Macbeth had no reason to kill Duncan, Duncan was just amazing at being king.as he being selfish and wants all the power for himself. Macbeth committing the murder of Duncan was under the influence if the three witches. Guilt cause him a grate a great deal og mental and anguish and leads him to hallucination’s. Now the motivation of Macbeth has grown more to have it all.

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Macbeth’s ambitions influence him to attain his desire for power. This ambition drives him to become reckless for the sake of reaching his goals. This recklessness leads to the murder of Duncan- the first in a line of murders Macbeth commits to reach his power. These murders represent Macbeth’s gradual loss of morality.

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“If good, why do I yield to that suggestion[killing Duncan]/Whose horrid image doth unify my hair” (I, III, 144-145). This quote indicates that the force of ambition is so strong within Macbeth that even he himself cannot understand why it is making him think of killing Duncan. Likewise, Macbeth’s ambition to become king is further emphasized after Duncan names his son Malcolm as his successor. Here, Macbeth says that he will have to “oerleap,/For in my way it [Malcolm] it lies” (I, III, 55-57).

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