As Macbeth commits murders, he loses his value for life based on the amount of time between murders, which ultimately reflects on his change as a person. The first time Macbeth is going to kill someone, he is scared and reluctant. Macbeth begins to hallucinate,“Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight? Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?” (2.1.37-40). Macbeth is scared to kill Duncan, and doesn’t want to do it. The dagger represents Macbeth’s value of life. Macbeth can’t grasp the dagger, much like how he can’t grasp the fact he is going to kill someone. Macbeth hears Lady Macbeth ring a bell ,“Hear it not Duncan for it is a knell. That summons thee to heaven or to hell”(2.1.63-65 ). Macbeth has become more courageous and prepared to murder Duncan. He has to kill Duncan to fulfill the prophecy and maintain his fate. Without anymore cowardice or fear, Macbeth kills the king. Macbeth becomes more suspicious of people around him, and begins to lose his value of life. He feels threatened by Banquo’s fate of his children being kings. Macbeth says “It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul’s flight, of it find heaven, must find it out tonight.”(3.1. ) Macbeth …show more content…
The witches gave Macbeth a prophecy, and he believed it because he became the Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth earned that title by being a hero, and lost his values when he heard that possibility of being king. Once Macbeth kills Duncan, he is put on a path to be king. Macbeth is desperate to maintain his control, and kills Banquo. This puts Macbeth further on the path. After he orders the death of Banquo, he loses his value for life. He has gone too far and begins to spiral out of control. He orders the death of Macduff as soon as he thinks of it. Macbeth has changed from a hero to a coward who doesn’t care about anyone or their livelihood. He has lost his calm psychological state to guilt from the murder he has committed to innocent
At the start of the play, Macbeth is well respected among King Duncan’s army. He encounters three witches who give him a prophecy that he will become king. At first, Macbeth believes that fate and the natural order will lead him to become king, and he doesn’t have to do anything. Macbeth’s wife convinces him to kill King Duncan, which he eventually proceeds to do. Macbeth continues to commit murders to maintain his power, and he thinks there is no going back.
Macbeth was the Thane of Cawdor but he wanted to be king more than anything. The witches had told him that he would one day be king but he did not know how long that would take so when King Duncan had been invited to stay the night at his house he exclaimed that “My 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”(1.3.52-55). He felt that if he were to kill King Duncan that he would have a better chance of becoming king. Though the witches had never told him that someone would need to get murdered for him to become king, his ambition tempted him to quicken this process the only way he felt he could. This was the beginning of the murderer that the witches had created with the fortune telling.
Macbeth claims that “to be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus” (51-52), portraying that even though he is the king, there is still more that must be done until he is content with his security. To make Banquo’s sons kings according to reoccuring theme of fate, Macbeth regrets that he had to “put rancors in the vessel of my peace,” and give his “eternal jewel” to the “common enemy of man” (72-74). Safety in this case is not only a distinction between life and death, but of Macbeth’s well-being: Macbeth wants to be secure both physically and through a successor of his name, Throughout the process of becoming king, the “rancors” disrupting Macbeth’s peace has damaged his mental health to the point of doubting himself, and his “eternal jewel,” or soul, was exchanged with the devil to perform the necessary tasks for getting to where he is. Macbeth gave up his innocence and morality for power, and has second-guessed himself along the way. Being concerned with his own personal well-being allowed Macbeth to focus on saving himself instead of Scotland as a
The Thane of King Duncan, Macbeth hears a prophecy that he himself will become king later on in the future after King Duncan. This then leads to Macbeth being overcome by greed. Since Macbeth greeds to be king so bad, he murders King Duncan and takes his place of the throne. Macbeth starts to live with so much guilt and fear that he commits even more murders to have his power safe. Macbeth is so confident in the prophecies that his life comes to a downfall and he gets killed by the people he did wrong.
The supernatural motivates Macbeth comprehensively, to the extent that he murders King Duncan, Banquo and Macduff 's family. It galvanises him to do things that otherwise he would have thought were ludicrous. Firstly, the witches prophecies stimulated Macbeth to kill the ones he loves, as a consequence losing friends that were loyal to him. Additionally, Banquo 's ghost caused Macbeth to feel guilt and fear, causing him to rely on the witches’ predictions and having a false feeling of security. Finally, the vision of a bloody dagger that appeared right before the murder encouraged Macbeth to kill King Duncan.
Greed for power leads corrupt leaders to pursue power through ruthless and violent ways, putting their countries in an unstable state. Macbeth commits murders and violent acts to earn his absolute power, but his corrupt mindset of yearning power leads to instability in the Scotland. After hearing from the witches, Macbeth admits that, “My 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.”
Often times, people go through rises and downfalls in their lives that they themselves are responsible for. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, both main characters, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, himself, are responsible for the downfall of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is responsible for the tragedy because she convinces and manipulates Macbeth into doing the deed. However, Shakespeare accomplishes in showing that Macbeth is more responsible for his own downfall than Lady Macbeth because he listens to the witches and follows his ambition rather than his conscience. To begin, Lady Macbeth is responsible for the tragedy because she convinces and manipulates Macbeth into doing the deed by insulting him when he changes his mind.
Macbeth shows that he is willing to kill King Duncan because he is interested in the witches prophecy, after they tell him that he will become ‘Thane of Cawdor’ and then the King.
Shakespeare Selected Plays Imtiaz Jbareen 204495170 A Close Reading of Macbeth Shakespeare’s brilliance lies within subtle details. Therefore, a close reading of his plays, including Macbeth, presents an insight into the structure of the play. Once this is accomplished, one reaches an understanding of the play and characters through their speeches. This paper discusses Act 2 Scene 1, Macbeth’s soliloquy.
His capricious and malicious acts prove how naive and vile he is as a person. Macbeth even attempts to kill Banquo to prevent any trace of his nature from making him, a “fruitless crown.” Macbeth states, “Must lave or honors in the flattering streams, and make our face vizards to our heart, disguising who we are,”(3.2.45). With such desperation, Macbeth is willing to include other people in his premeditated murder. By having Lady Macbeth be part of his plot to kill Banquo, Macbeth reveals two things about himself: That he does not value those around him, even if they are his loved ones, and that he places his personal success over all aspects of his life.
Additionally, it also accentuates the unjust nature of Banquo’s murder later on. This is due to the fact that unlike Macbeth, he remained true to his reputation until his death. The night that King Duncan is scheduled to visit Macbeth’s, Lady Macbeth warns him to act normal to avoid suspicion and
Motivation to attain goals plays an important role in an individual’s life. It is instinctive to put effort for the accomplishment of one’s target. If an individual put genuine effort and enough motivation to fulfill one's objectives, it will result in success. Nonetheless, the urge to fulfill one's goal keeps individual to focus on its mission until it has been achieved. In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, the character of Macbeth uses motivation in order to achieve his ambition of becoming the King of Scotland.
Macbeth is struggling and entangled with the advantage and disadvantage of killing Duncan. Macbeth appears hallucination under the temptation of power: “Mine eyes are made the fools o’th’ other senses, / Or else worth all the reset I see thee still, / And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, / Which was not before. There’s no such thing.
While Fleance was able to escape, Banquo was not so lucky. The reason for his murder was because the witches say to Banquo that his sons will be king Macbeth is out of control, and it also led to his decision to kill Macduff’s family, as Macduff was considered a threat, having figured out his insanity. []. By the end of the play, Macbeth is lost in a pit of state. The crimes he committed had desensitized him.
They told Macbeth that he was going to be king, and told Banquo that his children were going to be king. With the knowledge that there is a possibility to become king, along with the selfish human nature, noble Macbeth was easily swayed by this prophecy. At first, Macbeth’s conscience took care of his ambitions, he was afraid he would betray the king, because he knew that he was “his kinsman and his subject” (1.7.13). However as the three witches continue to encourage Macbeth with carefully chosen words, he eventually pushes his conscience away and committed crimes that were dishonourable. Macbeth, easily controlled by his ambitions, loses his noble and heroic title in fear of losing his power.