The Tragedy Of Macbeth Persuasive Essay
In an old TV show, comedian Flip Wilson always said, “The devil made me do it.”
Macbeth went one better and said,“The dagger made me do it!” The facts are that both of these 1 men are responsible for the decisions that they make. Macbeth chose who to listen to. He chose what advice he wanted to hear instead of seeking advice that he needed to hear. He chose what actions he would take, but as with the rest of us, he did not get to choose the consequences of his actions. Every person reaps what he sows. Macbeth had a choice throughout the play to choose his own fate, and that is what he did. He killed others, but his own fate was death. Macbeth was not a pawn of fate having no choice over his actions, but he acted of his own free will following
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He chose to talk with the three witches who told him things that filled his mind with a sense of power that was impossible to have. What they told him appealed to desires he already possessed. He ultimately wanted to become king. He chose to believe what the witches said and did not use common sense. In other words, he believed lies! He even believed he was indestructible. He showed no loyalty to his friend King Duncan and killed him.
As he was walking to commit his first murder, he spoke to the ground. “Hard ground, don’t listen to the direction of my steps. I don’t want you to echo back where I am, and break the terrible stillness of this moment, a silence that is so appropriate for what I am about to do.” It is 2 obvious he is choosing to kill Duncan, but now he is blaming the bell. “I’m going now. The murder is as good as done. The bell is telling me to do it.” He chose to do this because he 3 wanted to be king.
1 Act 2.1.44-45
2 Act 2.1.55
3 Act 2.1:56
Macbeth is a paranoid sociopathic murderer, he is very easily deceived and
Throughout the play, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Macbeth continuously makes bad choices and the consequences of these decisions catch up to Macbeth and result in his mental deterioration, however with Macbeth’s almost infant feel for ambition this makes him susceptible to manipulation, which then grows into an insatiable appetite for power. The acts of this, with the manipulation from outsiders, causes his blind ambition, his false sense of security and then finally his guilt, which all contribute to his derangement. Some will argue that all the choices made by Macbeth were continuously his own, that he had these opportunities as a man to put his foot down and say no, and be able to draw the line where things should come to an end, the fault of a mental deterioration was not there, that from the beginning Macbeth was an evil man who had a twisted way of achieving things. Macbeth’s ambition is to remain king for as long as possible, and he will kill anybody who stops this from happening. Macbeth feels as if he was given a childless rule, and that his legacy will not continue on in fear his rule will be taken away by someone outside his family.
Duncan was taken from our lives far too soon. He had a few enemies, some of which wanted his place in the throne. He was viciously murdered purely for his position as King. His death signified the start of destruction and continuous acts of murder throughout Scotland. His death was guided by three witches who manipulated an honest soldier to commit a horrifying crime. Macbeth further exceeded this with his desire for power and it pushed him and his wife over the edge committing the ultimate crime. Duncan was a good and honest man who didn’t deserve to be disgraced in such a
There is an ambiguity in Macbeth - do the witches represent inevitable fate, and is there in this instance the triumph of the forces of darkness, or does Macbeth have free will? If the responsibility for his actions rests with him and him alone, it may be argued that it is his weakness and his ambition that matter. His weakness lies in allowing himself to be bullied and shamed by Lady Macbeth into the murder of his king and guest.
When making the decision to kill Duncan, Macbeth weighed his options heavily. He states that he does not want to kill Duncan because “we but teach/ Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return/ To plague th’ inventor” (1.7.7-10).
He decided he didn't want to follow through with the plan, then Lady Macbeth began to question him and insult him in a way trying to make him rethink his decision. The three witches forced Macbeth to kill king Duncan, in the beginning, they made him evil and once he did kill the king all types of bad things began to happen to the world. Macbeth gradually became eviler as he killed more people to cover up his first murder. It was all the witches fault they got in his head and made him want to kill, then he did. The three witches and Lady Macbeth forced Macbeth to do something he didn't want to do, like a bully would force a person to do anything they want them to do.
Macbeth is not a victim of fate, but he is a victim of his own choices and the power of suggestion. Macbeth on multiple occasions chooses evil over good, and these decisions lead to his circumstances. Macbeth is not a victim of fate, but an ambitious man who makes poor decisions that have terrible results for him.
Macbeth’s blind ambition leads him to surrender to his dark desires that taunt him throughout the play. Macbeth is frequently tempted to result to the wrongful methods that seem to roam inside of him. In the beginning however Macbeth tends to ignore these desires and depends on chance. He declares “if chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, without my stir” (Shakespeare, act 1, scene 3, 143-144). This declaration by Macbeth shows his initial stand, which is reliant on fate and sin free. Yet as Macbeth’s character develops throughout the play, he moves farther from his dependence on chance and closer to his darker desires. Eventually his blind ambition to become king overp...
...ce to happen and he had the chance to his mind. He could have avoided the whole situation; he could have just accepted the titles that were placed upon him. Greedy Macbeth wanted more power. He let his better judgment be tested by all of the motives that was placed in his way as an obstacle. Crimes were committed and the death of Duncan brought upon many more killings by the hand of Macbeth. Blood was shed over greed and the prophetic word of the three fortune tellers. Macbeth should be guilty in the first degree, and punished with the capital punishment.
This shows that he really didn't want to kill Duncan, but he did it in order to prove himself to Lady Macbeth, and to become the king. By the end he had no fear, and had killed not only Duncan but also many other people. He now had different views from which he had in the beginning of the play. Macbeth realizes that he is no longer afraid "no, nor more fearful. (Act V, scene vii, l 9). He is now considered a man, but he doesn't like the fact that he has killed all these people.
When you dart to do it, then you are a man,' (Macbeth, Shakespeare Act 1 Scene 7). Lady Macbeth's constant harassment pushed Macbeth and made him commit all this evil. When you reason things out by yourself, you tend to know what is right and what is wrong, a conscience. But with the outside influence from the witches, he thinks that that is his destiny and he must do everything to fulfill it. One can wonder if Macbeth ever had a chance of doing what was right after he met the witches.
In the context of the fictional story of Macbeth, it is hard to argue that fate was not controlling his life and actions. Many prophecies were made that seemed impossible at first, but each one came true and things happened as expected, though maybe not in the exact way or at the exact time that they were thought to. It is pretty clear throughout the narrative that the concept of fate prevails in the context of Macbeth, but once these beliefs are placed into the realm of the real world, there is a lot more room for argument. Things in real life are less certain, and there are many variables that can affect a person’s opinion on this matter. Ultimately, it comes down to a personal decision that everyone exercises their freedom of choice on to establish what they believe.
In conclusion, if Macbeth was more headstrong in his scruples and his honored his position with integrity, he would have never been persuaded to do any of the horrible things he did. Macbeth was not an obstinate man; he was compliant with everything and rarely questioned what was asked of him. It wasn’t a lack of wisdom necessarily, but a lack of judgment, which created his impressionable flaw that ultimately leads to his demise.
In Act 1, Scene 7 of this play, MacBeth begins a monologue. In this soliloquy, the character shows, as Shakespeare’s characters are known to, a human truth: he is conflicted with morals of killing his king; the mind’s battle between personal want and acting ethically. He states an ethical appeal to himself, saying, “First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed,” meaning that he should act as a dutiful subject and not slaughter his good king. MacBeth is aware that his only motivation to kill the king is his ambition, and that ambition drives people to disaster. At the end of MacBeth’s monologue, he had chosen not to kill King Duncan, and shares his decision with his wife Lady Macbeth once she enters.
Macbeth knows that killing Duncan is morally wrong as demonstrated in (I, vii, 31-32) where he states, “.we will proceed no further in this business: he hath honour’d me of late”. Yet it is his vaulting ambition that gets the better of him as he shows signs of wanting to kill Duncan. Macbeth says, “The Prince of Cumberland”. – That is a step on which I must fall down, or else o’erleap.
“His weakness is compounded by the urging of the equally ambitious Lady Macbeth and the encouragement given him by the Witches, whose supernatural powers seem certain to help him though in fact they bring him to his doom” (Boyce). He is constantly battling himself and trying not to lose his mind, but ends up doing just that. Macbeth thinks being King is his destiny, but learns the hard way that it was not. “His story is one of a moral choice and the consequences of that choice... Macbeth has every opportunity to avoid his fate: he could have ignored Lady Macbeth, or followed the lead of Banquo.