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Literary analysis of macbeths character
Character analysis macbeth
Foreshadowing of macbeths descent into madness
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In Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, the main character Macbeth is labeled as either a tragic hero or a villain. A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgement error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. A villain is the bad guy of the story. They are the ones who come up with a diabolical plot to somehow cause harm or ruin (“Literary Terms.”). As of now where we are at in the play, it seems as if Macbeth is a character who does reckless things but intends to do the right thing. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is faithfully serving the king by slaying the enemies who try to invade the great land of Scotland. Although selfish by killing King Duncan, his righteous morals and servant attitude says otherwise in the …show more content…
It introduces Fleance, Banquo’s son. Banquo and Fleance are walking around the castle because Banquo could not fall asleep. While they were walking around, they run into Macbeth and his servant. Banquo asks why Macbeth was awake because everyone in the castle was either relaxed or asleep. He also mentions how much the king likes Macbeth, and even gives him a very nice diamond for Lady Macbeth for being such a great hostess.At this point, Macbeth is pondering whether or not to really kill King Duncan because as Macbeth is thinking, the king has literally done nothing wrong to him. He pushes those thoughts away and tells the servant to ring for lady, which is code saying that he’s ready whenever she was. As the servant goes away, Macbeth starts to get a vision. He sees a dagger floating in the middle of the room and he tries to grab it, failing to do so. As he tries to grab the dagger, it slowly gets covered in blood, and the dagger started to point towards the direction of where King Duncan was staying for the night. This was to foreshadow what Macbeth was about to do, which was kill the king. This was also to show that only bad things happen at night. Scene II starts with Lady Macbeth portrayed as a psycho again. She says that she’s given the servants the drugged alcohol and that she had some herself, making herself feel nice. The servants were snoring, and they were so drugged that you could not tell if they were even alive or not. Macbeth returns and Lady Macbeth says that everything is set up. Macbeth goes and kills the king, and returns with bloody daggers. By this point, Macbeth has done a villainous thing by killing an innocent character, King Duncan. Duncan has done nothing but good to Macbeth, yet he murdered him with no reason except for being power hungry and selfish. Keith Waddington put it in a great way: “Though perhaps something of a truism, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth suffer from the same
Macbeth was certainly no villain to begin with. He is introduced to us as a man of great honour, nobility and strength of morals. He is held in high regard by King Duncan, who addresses him as “valiant cousin, worthy gentleman';- so highly, in fact, that Macbeth is granted a promotion over Banquo (who seems to be of an extremely worthy and loyal character). But there is a fatal difference between Macbeth and Banquo- Macbeth’s ambition and lust for power. He is a man with an unsurpassable desire to advance himself. He himself identifies this quality while he contemplates an action that he is wholly repulsed by; “I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting Ambition which o’erleaps itself, And falls on th’ other.'; This “Vaulting Ambition'; is what makes Macbeth vulnerable and leads him to commit possibly the most vile deed he can imagine, setting him on a path of destruction. There is a temptation to use the fact that he could comprehend the vileness of his deed as a reason as to why we should condemn Macbeth as even worse a villain. But this is a simple view that does not take into account Macbeth’s later torment or give credit to Shakespeare’s intention to create a true – to-form tragedy. Macbeth is not a ruthless, callous villain devoid of all pity and humanity, and there are several issues in the play that serve to illustrate this.
Throughout the play Macbeth, Macbeth goes from a brave, honored soldier to a crazed tyrant. How does one make such a drastic change? Why did Macbeth come to accept his role as a murderer? Macbeth has come to be known as a tragic hero in today’s terms. A tragic hero is a main character who, throughout the story, realizes his flaw and accepts that he cannot control the outcome of his actions. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth has a lot of situations that ultimately lead to his demise and tragic conclusion.
Macbeth exhibits most, if not all, of the classic traits of a Shakespearean tragic hero almost flawlessly. From his rise to greatness to his ultimate destruction and death, he is most certainly a tragic hero.
Macbeth, a tragedy that was written by William Shakespeare in the 17th century is a play that expresses how ambition destroys people and how a strong pull for desire of power can have over a man. Macbeth is a tragic hero and had it not been for the witches prophecies and his wife's ambition and interaction with him, the play would be been ended very differently. From the beginning, Macbeth is doomed by fate to descend into the madness, which in the end he did. Of course like every other tragic hero, Macbeth had a tragic fall which lead him to his ultimate downfall. His tragic flaw was his vaulting ambition and his hunger overall for power. Macbeth realizes his ambition when he himself says “ I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on th’ other—”(1.7.25-28) Macbeth shows regret. He is regretful because his only form of motivation is by ambition and not by some other more worthy motive. He has just explained to himself that there is no actual real justification for his murder of Duncan. Even though at the beginning of the play, Macbeth was portrayed as an energized, assertive and strategic warrior, who was ironically the bravest and loyalist soldier to his king, Duncan. Macbeth showed nothing but pure respect and admiration towards his king but his ambition had always resided with him. His ambition is triggered and causes problems when the witches arrive and tell their prophecies to Macbeth. Though initially at first Macbeth brushed the witches prophecies off, once he was granted the title of Thane of Cawdor, he started to reconsider the witches prophecies. Afterwards he doesn’t just view the idea of him becoming a king as a possibility, but rather the inevitable...
This all happens after he receives the prophecy from the witches about becoming king. Before he commits the first murder, he says that he sees a dagger pointing him to Duncan's room. This dagger that he sees is a figure of his imagination, justifying to himself that it is ok to commit the murder. When they are at the dinner and Banquo's ghost appears and Macbeth is the only one who can see it, but this time Macbeth is having a feeling of regret why he has had his best friend murdered. Even though Lady Macbeth and the witches might of pushed Macbeth to do it, it was actually Macbeth who caused all the madness.
In Shakespeares “Macbeth”, Macbeth is an anti hero. He is very ambitious and courageous. However, he is also a moral coward, this is Macbeths fatal flaw, which in the end leads to his doom. Shakespeare defines Macbeth as a hero very clearly. His valor in defense of Scotland is significant in the opening scene. However, he is very ambitious to be king. At the beginning of the play, he was loyal to the king. While he did imagine the murder his mind rejects it and said, "Why, if chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me," (1.3.12-13). Yet his ambition increasingly defeated his good nature.
Macbeth then hires two men to murder Banquo and his son Fleance. In the next scene, Lady Macbeth fetches her husband in preparation for the feast. However, Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that he feels unhappy because just killing Duncan doesn’t eliminate other threats to his throne. Macbeth then tells his wife about his plan for Banquo and Fleance, but reminds her to be kind to Banquo so he doesn’t know his fate. The two men who Macbeth hired then kills Banquo but Fleance escapes. When they return to the castle, Macbeth gets angry at the men for not murdering Fleance, questioning their manliness, similarly to his wife previously, to make them want to prove themselves again. Returning to the party, Macbeth goes to sit at the royal seat but Banquo’s ghost appears. Macbeth starts speaking to the ghost which the other guests can’t see. Lady Macbeth tries assuring the guests that Macbeth sometimes has visions and that they should ignore him for now. She tries to snap him out of his hallucination as the ghost vanishes. Macbeth tries making a toast but Banquo’s ghost reappears. Lady Macbeth sends the guests out of the room as the ghosts
Many Shakespearean heroes go through a tragic downfall. In Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”, one can argue that the cause of Macbeth’s transition into a tragic hero is accredited to the witches and the supernatural elements in the play. The play begins with the first supernatural element when Macbeth pays a visit to the witches. From then on, this tragic hero takes a turn for the worst. He soon begins to see floating daggers and his best friend’s ghost. Finally, Macbeth visits the witches again and is given the rest of his fate, giving him all of the confidence in the world. The supernatural elements in “Macbeth” play an important role in the explanation of why the King of Scotland develops into a tragic hero.
The scene begins with Macbeth stepping away from the banquet, to contemplate how precious being royalty is to himself. He concludes that his loyalty to King is far too great, however, Lady Macbeth then joins him. She entices him with the idea being King and then bashes his self-confidence and manliness to seduce him to idea of murdering the King for rulership. They conclude their meeting with the intention and plan to fill Duncan and his servants with enough liquor to make them tipsy and pass out, then they will steal a servant blade and stab King Duncan when he is liquored up.
The murders report to Macbeth to tell him what happened, but Macbeth doesn’t take it too well. Macbeth now knows that Fleance is loose and will someday plot for revenge. Macbeth starts to see the ghost of Banqo, he feels haunted and guilty for what he has done. Macbeth is truly becoming an evil person, but his appearance makes it seem as if he is scared of everything. Macbeth is worried he will loose power because of Macduff and Macduff’s children.
MACBETH AS A TRAGIC HERO Tragic heroes are within everyone, but cannot be fully exposed or understood without the essential tragic qualities. One must be a potentially noble character who has heroic qualities and has respect and admiration from the society. Consequently, they are essentially great. Also within the character must be a flaw or weakness that leads to a fall. Lastly, one is required to possess an element of suffering and redemption.
Tragic heroes, who destined for a serious downfall, are the protagonist of a dramatic tragedy. A tragic hero is usually a great hero, who gets the most respect from other people; on the other hand, a tragic hero can also lose everything he gained because of his mistakes. His downfall is the result of a wrong judgment, a flaw which might combined with fated and external forces. The downfall can cause the tragic hero to suffer for the rest of his life. In many literary works, the downfall of the tragic heroes usually happen in their highest point. In the same way, Macbeth is a tragic hero in the play called “The Tragedy of Macbeth” which is written by a legendary writer, William Shakespeares. Macbeth is a great general who gained many respect from the people and even the king. In the highest point of his life, because of seeking for greater power, it created Macbeth’s downfall. Macbeth, a tragic hero, causes suffering for himself and others by committing murders and creating distress, which are the negative effects of seeking for a greater power.
Throughout the play of Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Macbeth is supposed to be a likeable character until he kills the king. By committing this heinous act, Macbeth instantly becomes a villain and continues to commit murderous acts, all stemming from his first terrible mistake. One of his motives consists of choosing power over integrity, therefore he kills the king. Another reason why Macbeth is a villain is because he continued to kill innocent people to hide his doings. Lastly, since Macbeth is a villain and murderer, he deserves to be condemned and disdained.
Macbeth can be considered a Shakespearean tragic hero because he possesses the tragic flaw of ambition. He is thought of to be a very ambitious man by himself and other characters, like his wife, Lady Macbeth. “Thou wouldst be great:/Art not without ambition, but/ Without ...
Macbeth as a Tragic Hero in Shakespeare's Macbeth. When William Shakespeare created "Macbeth" he included in the title character all the key elements of a tragic hero. Macbeth has a decline from his good standing, reaches a lowest point and soon after turns himself around, the epiphany, and finally rises in his morals and standing; however it is too late and his death is apparent. Macbeth's decline begins when he heeds the witches prophecies.