Why Is Fame Important In Macbeth

Fame, being known or talked about by many especially on account of notable achievements, is and has been desired since the early ages all around the world. Although everyone has aspirations of a claim to fame, some are willing to take deeper measures than others in order to reach it. In William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, Macbeth was willing to do whatever necessary in order to become King. In the play, violence was used to further the quest for power. The witches because of their evil, the blood, and the crown all represent Macbeth’s rise to higher power. Although the meaning of the term witch can vary according to the culture and the context in which it is used, “the word [...] derives from the Old English noun wicca [meaning sourcer]

He, himself, began wanting to become King, but did not have what it took to do so on his own. He needed a support group, someone to help truly convince him to commit the crimes. Lady Macbeth and the weird sisters became the group, the pressured him into his violent ways. For example, “Lady Macbeth [was] ambitious and unscrupulous for her husband, [Macbeth]” (Roof 861). She is the one that helped him develop the plan and wished that she was unsexed, so that she could commit the crime herself, but because “womens and mens blood differ in both composition and cultural association” (Veenstra 159) she was unable to. Macbeth became like a wild animal. Once he got his first taste of blood from killing King Duncan he was unable to stop. Much like the witches “double double toil trouble” (4.1.20) spells his acts of wickedness began to be multiplied. At first he felt regret, so he had to hide himself from himself creating a false face (2.2). Macbeth quickly began to turn dark, and no longer needed Lady Macbeth to oppress him into the murders. He became wicked himself. Shakespeare writes that, “something wicked comes this way” (4.1.45), which displays that Macbeth is no longer human, that he has fully transferred to the dark side. In Act Three, Scene Four, it says “It will have blood, they say: blood will have blood”(3.4.124), meaning that murder leads to more murder. One bad deed is sure to lead to another. This

Typically the crown is a symbol of social security and power” (Hopkins 324), but for Macbeth it was the opposite. It represented all of the wrongdoing and the crimes that he committed. It was no longer a symbol of power and authority, but one of regret. The divine right of kings says that a monarch is given the kingship because it is the will of God. Although it could have been part of God’s plans for his future, he tried to play God by taking his future into his own hands because of something the witches told him that may or may not have been true in the future. If he would have waited and let time show, he may have became a true King while holding the crown, instead of a tyrant. His quest for power ultimately got him the crown, but only for a short period of time before it was taken from