William Shakespeare was a playwright during the early years of the 17th century. He wrote over thirty plays during his time living in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s many tragedies. In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the theme of ambition throughout the play to bring the character of Macbeth to his eventual downfall. His ambition presents itself in three ways: when he murders King Duncan, when he plots to assassinate Banquo, and when he plots to assassinate Macduff’s family. For example, Macbeth’s ambition leads him to murder King Duncan so that he and Lady Macbeth can rise to power as the new monarchs of Scotland. At first, Macbeth is revealed to be scared to murder the king, but his ambition overpowers his …show more content…
He decides to kill Banquo because of a prophecy that the witches had shown both Macbeth and Banquo earlier in the play. The prophecy stated that, although Banquo would not be king, his sons and future ancestors would be great kings. Macbeth’s ambition to have a line of kings from his own blood starts to lead him to the conclusion that Banquo and his son must die. Shakespeare writes, “To be thus is nothing, / But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo / Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature / Reigns that which would be feared. 'Tis much he dares, / And to that dauntless temper of his mind / He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor / To act in safety. There is none but he / Whose being I do fear, and under him”(III.i.50-58). Macbeth expresses how he fears no one but Banquo. As a result, he hires an assassin to kill Banquo and his son. Unfortunately for Macbeth, Banquo’s son …show more content…
Macbeth begins to slightly fear Macduff after a prophecy made by the witches. Macbeth had gone to the witches and demanded to be shown his future; one of the prophecies is a warning for him to beware of Macduff. His messengers inform him that Macduff has fled to England, so Macbeth decides to kill his family instead to be safe. Macbeth says, “The castle of Macduff I will surprise, / Seize upon Fife, give to th' edge o' th' sword / His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls” (IV.i.156-159). In this quote, Macbeth is ordering that Macduff's wife and children be killed. Macbeth had originally wanted to have Macduff killed, but decided that killing his family would be enough to prevent Macduff from causing him any harm. Later, it is revealed that not killing Macduff led to Macbeth’s hastened
He states, “The castle of Macduff I will surprise Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls” (4.1.150-152). At this point Macbeth is out of control and is killing anybody he suspects, showing that he is clearly paranoid and delusional. Once Macduff finds out his family is killed he decides to finally kill
Thus, he murders his friend for his own selfish desires and his crimes verge upon him through his ultimate ruination. Additionally, Macbeth treats his people with cruelty by murdering the innocent to display his authority. Macbeth orders, “The castle of Macduff I will surprise, /seize upon Fife, give to th’edge o’th’sword/ His wife, his babies and all unfortunate souls/ That trace him in his line” (4.1.164-167). Macbeth demands the slaughter of Macduff’s family after learning that Macduff has fled to England.
This fear causes him to overthink the situation and he gets paranoid. Macbeth acts out on this fear without seeing the consequences and kills the guards. When Macbeth thinks this has solved the problem, a new fear comes up. Macbeth begins to be obsessed with Banquo’s prophecy. He fears that if Banquo will become the father and grandfather of many kings to come, that means that Banquo is a threat to him (even though they had been friends).
Macbeth gets addressed that Macduff has fled to England after the witches prophesied about Macduff and Macbeth proclaims: “The castle of Macduff I will surprise, / Seize upon Fife, give to th’ edge o’ th’ sword / His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls / That trace him in his line” (4.1. 167-170). Macbeth is trying to kill Macduff’s family to deter Macduff from fighting Macbeth.
Macbeth is a very interesting play written by William Shakespeare in the year 1606. Macbeth kills Duncan, Banquo and others to try to become king and stay king. He does this because of the witches prophecies which state that he would be king and what he should avoid. In the end the witches tricked him and end up wording the prophecy so that he thought he was invincible let his guard down and ended up getting killed by macduff. Through most of the play Macbeth bases his actions off of greed, guilt, and fear.
4.1.167-169). Macbeth is planning to ruin everything Macduff has, to ruin Macduff as a person. Macduff is Macbeth’s biggest enemy and suspects he was the one who murdered King Duncan and plans to bring justice for his crime. Those who have committed crimes and know they are guilty will do everything in their power to prevent others from exposing or bringing justice for their
And at the time Macduff went to England. And in the result to that knowing that Macduff is going to England. He’s going to go and kill Macduff’s family. In Macbeth it says “The Castle of Macduff I will surprise,/ Seize upon fife, give to th' edge o' th' sword/ His wife, His babes and all unfortunate souls/ that trace him in his line.
“The castle of Macduff I will surprise; seize upon Fife; give to the edge o’ the sword his wife his babes, and all the unfortunate souls” (4.1. 165-167). This shows Macbeth’s complete disregard for human life and his willingness to commit crimes to maintain his power. He sees Macduff as a significant threat and is willing to do whatever it takes to eliminate him, including murdering Macduff’s wife and children. His ambition has consumed him, and he has lost touch with morality or compassion.
The witches told Macbeth to fear Macduff, but never told Macbeth why he should fear Macduff. Macduff was not born from a woman naturally, and his mother died during childbirth. Macbeth also does not know how he will become king, but he takes it upon himself to kill anyone that may pose a threat to the throne. In addition to Macbeth’s lack of knowledge, his downfall was also due to one tragic flaw: his ambition. Once Macbeth wanted something, his ambition took over and caused him to do whatever it took to attain his wants, whether it was killing Duncan to become king, or killing innocent people and close friends.
Little does Macbeth know, he is setting himself up for death because of the misleading prophecy. In the final act of the play, Macbeth finds out that Macduff was not born of a woman because he was born early being ripped out of his mother’s womb (Mac 5. 8. 17-20). This means that because of the confusing prophecy, Macbeth has Macduff's family killed making Macduff want to kill
In Macbeth’s soliloquy, he talks about Banquo’s “hath of wisdom” and how Banquo acts safely(58). This illustrates that Macbeth is afraid of what Banquo might do. This illustrates Macbeth’s ambition because he is not going to give up until he finds what he is looking for if he gets suspicious with Macbeth. This makes Macbeth very scared of Banquo because if Banquo finds out that Macbeth killed Duncan, Macbeth’s life is going to be hell and Banquo is immediately going to tell everybody in Scotland. Macbeth fears Banquo so much that he will “champion his utterance” and will battle anybody to keep his crown(77).
After achieving the title of the King of Scotland, Macbeth wants to secure his position as the king and desires to inherit the Scottish throne to his ancestors. His aim was showed in “To be thus is nothing, /But to be safely thus” (III, i, 52-3). This quote reveals that Macbeth not only wanted to become the king but also wants to secure his position as the King of Scotland for the welfare of his upcoming generation. This reveals Macbeth’s is implying the witches’ prophecies; as long Banquo’s sons live, Macbeth’s throne would not be able to inherit down to his ancestors. As the play progresses, Macbeth’s hires murderers to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance, as represented through, “Banquo, thy soul’s flight, /If
He does not want to kill Macduff because he has already killed his whole family. This causes Macduff to have more reason in wanting to kill Macbeth. It would have been avoided for Macbeth to run into Macduff if he have not approached him first, since he no longer needs interaction with blood of thine already. Erin Connelly furthers the discussion on the conflict between Macbeth and Macduff by stating, “manliness is a conditional characteristic, consistently defined in opposition to other attributes” (Connelly 111). Macbeth being boastful about murdering all of Macduff’s family is camouflaging his true fears towards his pathway to the throne.
I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on 't again I dare not.” (Act II, sc ii, Lines 48-50). Macbeth is getting extremely paranoid and feels bad killing Duncan. Macbeths ambitions caused him to murder Duncan, but he also had Banquo murdered, and wanted to murder Banquo 's son, Fleance. Macbeth wants Banquo killed because he saw him as a threat; however, Banquo had been Macbeth 's friend and thought he could trust him. "
The fact that Macbeth spends no time contemplating the decision to kill Macduff shows his character arc, as previously he spent a whole scene debating if he should kill Duncan. Shakespeare highlights Macbeth's ease to kill to make readers realize how ruthless Macbeth has become throughout the course of the novel, as well as how he is starting to kill when there is no logical reason to. This idea overall disputes Lady Macbeth’s belief of Macbeth being innocent and filled with goodwill. Another example of Macbeth being a vicious individual is when Macbeth learns that Macduff has fled to England. This causes him to command the “Seize upon Fife, give to th’ edge o’ th’ sword,/ [Macduff’s] wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls/