Author’s Commentary
Explain the significance of your speech in the context of the scene.
In Act 5 Scene 5, Macbeth hears of the death of his wife as he faces defeat and death himself in the forthcoming battle with Malcolm’s forces. This soliloquy tells a story of Macbeth in a reflective mood, wondering where all had gone wrong. Macbeth realises that he had lost control of his actions, likening his ambition to a drug addiction. As he digs deeper into his thoughts, he discovers the cause of this ‘addiction’ – the deceased Lady Macbeth. He refers to his deceased wife as his “dealer”, the person that fuelled his ambition. Macbeth begins to play the victim, questioning how he could be the one to blame for the murders and the widespread turmoil given that he was merely ‘an addict’ and had no control of his actions. He diverts the
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Macbeth was at first be a hero – someone with a high standing, seen positively in society. By the cause of a fatal flaw, he proceeded to make judgement errors that lead to his own demise, and had far-reaching consequences. This makes Macbeth a tragic hero. Despite being characterised as the villain, Macbeth’s story draws sympathy towards him from the audience. Throughout the soliloquy, Macbeth’s status as a tragic hero is expressed through the extended metaphor of cocaine and a drug addiction.
Cocaine itself is a metaphor for Macbeth’s fatal flaw, ambition, in the sense that it is ‘addictive’ and cannot be contained if consumed too frequently. The ‘high’ feeling when using cocaine and subsequent pain is a metaphor for Macbeth acting upon his ambition, which provides him with a momentary satisfaction before feeling fear and agitation. Cocaine may also cause psychosis – Macbeth uses this to ‘play the victim’ and argue that he was not in control when he committed murders. Again, what causes him to lose control is his “ambition
Macbeth was a tragic hero. Traditionally, a tragic hero is someone who is born as an example of greatness but somehow along the way they acquire a flaw in character that brings about his own downf...
the way it is written and the time period it's takes place in says that Macbeth is a tragic hero. A tragic hero is a little different from a normal hero because tragic hero will experience some supernatural being that will be the purpose of his actions and is said to experience a bad end when these said actions lead him or her there. In Macbeth, this is very true. Throughout his life, he displayed characteristics that would be considered a tragic hero.
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragedy in which the main characters are obsessed by the desire for power. Macbeth’s aspiration for power blinds him to the ethical implications of his dreadful acts. The more that Shakespeare’s Macbeth represses his murderous feelings, the more he is haunted by them. By analyzing his hallucinations it is possible to trace his deteriorating mental state and the trajectory of his ultimate fall. Throughout the play Macbeth is never satisfied with himself. He feels the need to keep committing crime in order to keep what he wants most: his kingship. The harder Macbeth tries to change his fate the more he tends to run into his fate. His ambition and struggle for power was Macbeth’s tragic flaw in the play. Macbeth’s rise to the throne was brought about by the same external forces that ensure his downfall.
direct Act 2 scenes 1 and 2 (the ones before and after the murder of
Lady Macbeth: “Out damned spot: out I say.” (5.1.30). Lady Macbeth once thought that she would be able to wash herself clean of the horrors she once committed. This is not possible, for she is so full of guilt that now her hands are completely covered in blood.
In brief, the three scenes discussed above are illustrations of the compunction the two Macbeths are equally afflicted with after they preside over the murders of their king, a close friend, and an entire innocent family. Neither one was expecting such a strong impact on their minds, but neither could hide from their guilty consciences after the fact. Inevitably, Lady Macbeth is overcome with despair and commits suicide, not surprising given her poor, ravaged mind. Macbeth, too, seems to succumb to his inexorable destiny by Macduff’s sword, solidifying the pervasive theme that unchecked ambition must lead to an unpleasant end.
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a play centring around opposing forces trying to gain power in the succession for the throne of Scotland. Macbeth, in the beginning, is known to be a nobel and strong willed man, who is ready to fight for his country. However, one may see that Macbeth has a darker side to him, he is power hungry and blood thirsty, and will not stop until he has secured his spot as King of Scotland. Though Macbeth may be a tyrant, he is very naïve, gullible, and vulnerable. He is vulnerable and willing to be persuaded by many characters throughout the play, his wife, the witches to name a few, this is the first sign that his mental state is not as sharp as others. One will see the deterioration of Macbeth and his mental state as the play progresses, from level headedness and undisturbed to hallucinogenic, psychopathic and narcissistic. The triggering event for his mental deterioration is caused by the greed created from the witches first prophecy, that Macbeth will become King of Scotland (I.iii.53). Because of the greed causing his mental deterioration, Macbeth’s psychosis is what caused his own demise by the end of the play. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the tragic hero Macbeth’s demise is provoked by his hallucinogenic episodes, psychopathic actions and narcissistic behaviours.
Macbeth, like most tragedies tells the fall of the protagonist from grace. Macbeth, originally a hero, degrades into a conscious villain who feels guilt and then into an unmerciful, non-repentant tyrant. A man once heralded as a hero becomes the bane of the land and his people.
Meaning that Lady Macbeth becomes the one with a guilty conscience and Macbeth is the ruthless one. For example, since Macbeth went to war, lady Macbeth began sleepwalking. In Act 5 Scene 1, Shakespeare shows a glimpse of her sleepwalking and she states, “...Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him...will these hands ne’er be clean?” Of course, she is referring to King Duncan and wondering how many others her and Macbeth will have to kill. Obviously she feels guilty if it is affecting her sleep. On the other hand, Macbeth is fearless. Before war, Macbeth was given the information that he can only be killed by a man not born from a woman and until Birnam Wood moves to Dunsinane. Since he believes this is impossible, he has a new grown courage, and thinks he cannot die. While preparing for war, Macbeth hears the sounds of woman screaming and states, “I’ve almost forgotten what fear feels like.” Also, when he hears the news of his wife’s suicide, he shakes it off saying it was “bound to come someday.” Obviously, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth contribute to the meaning of Macbeth.
Typical of Shakespeare’s works, the play Macbeth has a protagonist who ultimately experiences a downfall that lead to his demise. The protagonist or tragic hero of this play is Macbeth, once brave and honorable, who eventually becomes tyrannical and feared by many due to what Abrams describes as his “hamartia” or “error of judgment or, as it is often…translated, his tragic flaw.” In this case, Macbeth’s tragic flaw proves to be ambition; however, he cannot be held solely responsible for his downfall. As a result of many outside influential factors, including the witches’ prophecies and a rather coaxing and persuasive wife, one should not hold Macbeth entirely culpable for his actions and tragic end.
In this soliloquy, Macbeth mentions how becoming the king is pointless if he cannot pass down the crown to his son (Shakespeare, Act 3, Scene 1, 65-67). The weird witches foretold that Macbeth would become King, which he now believes, but they also told them how Banquo descendents will become Kings as well. This stirs anger in his heart because he killed Duncan to become king, and if his descendents will not become kings there is no reason to take the helm (Shakespeare, Act 3, Scene 1, 68). Now Macbeth feels horrible, and his animosity towards Banquo worsens. Macbeth mentions how this, “put rancours in the vessel of my peace”, and immediate distress on the killing of his dear friend Duncan for the future descendents of Banquo (Shakespeare,
Scene 2 act 2 is one of the most important scenes in the play. This is
Macbeth shows how greed and ambition can bring down a person as well as others and how the changes of power occur because of loyalty and betrayal. Macbeth is the play’s main unhappy character. The play tells of Macbeth's greedy thirst for power is a dangerous trait.
from one of the last lines in Act 1, Scene 1 of the play. The three witches speak this line
Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” explores a fundamental struggle of the human conscience. The reader is transported into the journey of a man who recognizes and acknowledges evil but still succumbs to its destructive powers. The character of Macbeth is shrouded in ambiguity that scholars have claimed as both being a tyrant and tragic hero. Macbeth’s inner turmoil and anxieties that burden him throughout the entire play evoke sympathy and pity in the reader. Though he has the characteristics of an irredeemable tyrant, Macbeth realizes his mistakes and knows there is no redemption for his sins. And that is indeed tragic.