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Lady macbeths descent into madness
Lady macbeths descent into madness
Lady macbeths descent into madness
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O Horror, horror, horror, The sun is strangled by the night, as day is too weak and night too strong. Darkness glooms over the earth when it’s meant to be light. You can hear the cries of grief, strange screams of deaths ushering in a woeful new age. I even dream now of the weird women, I see those things offering sacrifices to the goddess Hectate, and no Merciful power is keeping away the nightmares that plague me when I rest. He is king, the thane of Cawdor, and the thane of Glamis, he is everything the weird women promised, even though it was my family damned to that fate. But the witches told the truth about him, then maybe it is true what they said about me. But no! I refuse retaliate, because the prophecy, shined a future of prosperity, …show more content…
It was their poisonous words and foul phrases behind my partners sin. Macbeth! My own friend whose veins are filled with blue blood. How could he give in when I did not? Is he weaker than the man I once knew? Did a shivering canine unburden him with it’s infectious jaws? Or has he been hiding under the skirts of “noble Thane of Cawdor?” Has Cawdor been wrapped by the new Macbeth who was birthed by the foul words of the weird women and a slave to their fatal ideas? I guess it our closest relatives to most likely to murder us while we sleep. Such betrayal! Here I see the face of whom I once trusted, whom I shared my sorrows and my guilt. My brother who has succumbed to the cry of his mistress who is more deadly than Lady Macbeth – his mistress “lust for power”. I fear Macbeth has ruined years of glory to satisfy his pestilent ambition and to fulfil a prophecy that will damn his soul. Macbeth! What has my dear friend done, that I can feel the knife slice the base of my skull. Has he poisoned lives with his blade that has driven to the death of our friendship? Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! For I see his true self now with my own eyes. I’m putting myself in God’s hands now because the Thane of Glamis, “noble Thane of Glamis”, - who will not be forgiven in death, is
The suffering of Macbeth throughout the play is a disconsolate process. Throughout the stages of his grievous downfall essential truths about humanity are dubiously displayed. Macbeth’s ordeal reveals the ev...
Macbeth, a play written by William Shakespeare, portrays Macbeth as a kinsman, subject and trusted friend to King Duncan I of Scotland. A trusted friend, that is, until Macbeth has a chance encounter with the “three witches” (Shakespeare) or the “Weird Sisters”. The witches predict that Macbeth will become the next King and that his fellow companion, Banquo, will be the father of a line of kings. A change comes over Macbeth after his meeting; he is no longer content to be a follower of the King, he will “be” King at any cost. After killing the King and his friend Banquo, losing his wife to madness and ordering the execution of many, Macbeth is killed in much the same fashion as he has killed. But does this really reflect the real King MacBeth of Scotland? While examining the characteristics and actions of the two Macbeths and decide if Shakespeare’s writing was historically sound or was it just “double, double, toil and trouble” (4.1.22-26) playing with MacBeth’s character.
First came the pride, an overwhelming sense of achievement, an accomplishment due to great ambition, but slowly and enduringly surged a world of guilt and confusion, the conscience which I once thought diminished, began to grow, soon defeating the title and its rewards. Slowly the unforgotten memories from that merciless night overcame me and I succumbed to the incessant and horrific images, the bloody dagger, a lifeless corpse. I wash, I scrub, I tear at the flesh on my hands, trying desperately to cleanse myself of the blood. But the filthy witness remains, stained, never to be removed.
Shakespeare’s social commentating is conveyed through the theme of power. This theme is clearly demonstrated through the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. For example, Lady Macbeth’s lust for power can be seen after she reads Macbeth’s letter and says, “Unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty; make thick my blood, stop up the access and passage to remorse.” In this quote she is asking to be stripped of her womanhood so that she can perform the deed herself. This quote not only reflects Lady Macbeth’s ambition and her desire to step out of her role to attain power, but also effectively links back to gender in the Jacobean era where woman were restricted to the role of a housewife. In addition, Macbeth’s
Hail to thee, thane Cawdor! All hail to Macbeth! That shalt be king hereafter. feed straight into his desire for advancement. At this point in the play he is the newly appointed thane of Glamis but assumes that the thane of Cawdor still lives.
Macbeth is growing more and more delirious and wants to get out of the murders. When attending the gathering, he tells guests that "[his] dull brain [is] wrought with forgotten things" (I.iii.166-167). He is slowly allowing himself to be eaten alive by such guilt that he even admits it to his party attendants. Macbeth goes through with the slaying of Duncan. His wife tells him to look innocent and to "carry [the daggers] and smear the sleepy grooms with blood" (II.ii.63-64).
Over the last six months we have seen Macbeth degrade from a fearless and heroic warrior to a murderer, a conscious villain who felt extreme guilt after killing his King out of pure greed and ambition. His servant, as testified, overheard Macbeth express his guilt to his wife on the night of the murder:
Throughout the play Macbeth allows his pride to interfere with his judgment and succumbs to the witches’ prophecy, leading to his tragic downfall. “Macbeth orders a slaughter of innocents in a vain and futile attempt to preserve kingships threatened by prophecies” (Hassel). He murders King Duncan, his good friend, in order to secure his fate as king. Although Macbeth knows the difference between right and wrong, he is a victim of his tragic flaw: his ambition. His tragic flaw repeatedly leads him to deceit and murder.
In Act Three, Macbeth says, “Ay, and since too, murders have been performed too terrible for the ear.” Macbeth is talking about the murder of Banquo. The trust and friendship between longtime friends is very valuable. To stab your friend in the back is a terrible offense. Macbeth, however, not only stabbed Banquo in the back, but in addition, murdered him. Deep down, Macbeth knew what he did was wrong. Being a loyal man all his life, it is very important to him. Therefore, when he saw Banquo’s ghost, he was reminded of the loyalty he broke. That guilt messed with his mind and drove him insane. This shows that he is still affected by his guilt. Furthermore, this proves that he is not a heartless
The character of Macbeth is the battlefield on which we witness one of the most intense struggles in the whole play, forming our tragic hero. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is called honorable and brave because his fearless fighting in the opening battle. Indeed, Macbeth seems to be a worthy man. Yet, when faced with the opportunity to seize more power for himself through the use of wicked tactics, a war is kindled within him. Although he is pulled strongly towards the evil inside by his personal ambition and by the influence of his wife, Lady Macbeth, Macbeth's conscience and human kindness does not let him give in easily. In the heat of the battle, Macbeth's ambition is victorious when he chooses to commit the murder of Duncan. Though the first murder leads to others, Macbeth does not tur...
This leads me to the conclusion that the tragedies of Macbeth were not at all Macbeth's fault. His only fault was his gullibility and innocence, which was targeted and abused by the real source of evil, his wife.
prospect of you being king was so great that I lost touch with reason. When the
Power can transform even the most loyal of men. In Shakespeare’s gloomy and morbid Macbeth, nothing is as it seems. Even the most loyal characters are duplicitous in their nature, exemplified by Macbeth. The greatest Scottish warrior becomes power hungry in his quest to re-kindle his relationship with his wife, Lady Macbeth, and is thrown over the edge when he is not appointed the Prince of Cumberland, an honor he feels he deserves. This same hunger for power ultimately destroys Macbeth, leading him to betray all those he loves, including king Duncan, his friend Banquo, and his wife.
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, first published in 1606, is an endearing tale outlining the dangers of unchecked ambition and moral betrayal. In the subsequent centuries after first being performed, Macbeth's critics have been divided upon whether Macbeth himself was irrevocably evil, or if he was guided by the manipulation and actions of the women in the play to his ultimate demise. Although Lady Macbeth and the witches were influential with their provocations in the opening acts, it is ultimately Macbeth’s inherent immorality and his vaulting ambition, that resulted in the tragic downfall. It was Macbeth’s desire for power that abolished his loyalty and trustworthiness and led him down a path of murder. It is evident through his actions and words throughout the play as to how he led himself through a path of betrayal leading to his inescapable demise.
Macbeth’s story highlights the inherent goodness found in all of us, but also the evil that lurks within us, unnourished. Although there is no redemption for Macbeth’s evil sins, he finally comes to acknowledge his crimes and thus can provoke pity in the eyes of the audience. Macbeth’s psychological journey from a courageous general to a “ dead butcher” (5.9.41) is one that truly merits to be called a tragedy.