In the tragedy Macbeth; the reader witnesses the inevitable downfall of the tragic hero Macbeth as he attempts to do the impractical. While Macbeth turns from an admirable nobleman into the traitor fiend that is the result of his wife’s relentless coaxing, the reader distinguishes more and more of the “appearance versus reality” or the “things are not what they seem” theme that intertwines with Macbeth’s hubris thus leading to his downfall. As Macbeth furthers his plans, which fall in step with the weird sisters’ prophecy, he uses, “False face must hide what the false heart doth know,” (Macbeth, Act1.Scene7.Line82) in order to deceive his fellow noblemen and fulfill the prophecy of his becoming the Thane of Cawdor and the King of Switzerland. Even as Macbeth tries to defy fate, he realizes that what appears to be the truth is in fact unreal, and Shakespeare’s tragic hero does not fully apprehend that his difficulty in discerning between the real and unreal worlds is a chief factor in his demise until the completion of the prophecy/the death of Macbeth and of course, his foreseen downfall.
Throughout Macbeth, Macbeth is a little bit on edge, and gets to such a point, that the reader can’t determine if what Macbeth is seeing is actually there, or in Macbeth’s own head. At the beginning of the play, when Macbeth is about to kill King Duncan, (Act 2), he says:
Is this a dagger which I see before me, /the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. /I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible/ To feelings as to sight, or art thou but / a dagger of the mind, a false creation, / Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? / I see thee yet… (Macbeth, Act 2. Scene1. Lines 34-40a)
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...aunt him, and so he starts slipping up and his false face starts to show what his heart knows; he thinks so hard about the prophecy that he thinks he sees the three weird sisters and the apparitions, when in fact he might not have truly seen them since no one else did. Macbeth at first thought that he was immortal; he was on top of the world and no one could even come close to them. But because of the difficulty in discerning the real and the false, he comes to the closing of the prophecy; he is killed from a man not born of a woman (Macduff), and thus is done for which is more or less his downfall.
Works Cited
Beers, Kylene, et al, Elements of Literature Essentials of British and World Literature Sixth Course, Austin, Texas; Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2009.Date accessed: 8 March 2011
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Date accessed: 8 March 2011
At this point, Shakespeare has provided sufficient evidence to prove that Macbeth is mentally troubled. His death and his mental deterioration are inevitable. He is haunted by the deeds he has done and the witches’ prophecies. Macbeth claims that life is utterly meaningless when he says, “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player/ That struts and frets his hour upon the stage/ And then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury/ Signifying nothing.” (5.5 27-31). He no longer has the will to live with knowledge of what he has done. The witches, however, have revealed that he cannot be killed by “one of woman born.” Upon hearing this, Macbeth believes himself to be invincible. During the battle of Dunsinane, he fights recklessly against his foes, under the impression that none can harm him. Macduff then enters the scene. He reveals that he was not of woman born but “from his mother’s womb / Untimely ripped” and therefore has the ability to kill Macbeth (5.8 19-20). Afraid for his life, Macbeth remains persistent and declares that he will not surrender. In the end, Macbeth is slain and Malcolm becomes King of Scotland. Ultimately, Macbeth’s mental deterioration led to his downfall and imminent death. Before Macduff slew him, Macbeth was almost wishing for death. He was overwhelmed with guilt, regret, ambition, power, paranoia, and the blood on his hands.
In the third scene, he encounters the witches who truthfully predict that he will become the Thane of Cawdor and further predict that he will become king of all Scotland. At first Macbeth is merely intrigued by what the witches say, but when their prophecy starts to come true, a seed of evil is planted within him and he can no longer see the reality of the situation – the evil nature of the
In Macbeth, William Shakespeare portrays Macbeth’s dishonorable political advancement to his downfall, as the acquisition of foreseen titles ends in his execution. While Scotland is fearful of the invading forces, Macbeth’s valor in the battle with traitors secure him the positions of Thane of Cawdor, as well as Thane of Glamis. Macbeth is a character of bravery and courage. In the beginning, one believes that Macbeth is a stable, rational individual, although when Macbeth discovers the weïrd sisters’ forecasts that he will continue to obtain ranks, an insane character emerges from within. Macbeth’s actions are based upon motivation and truly evoke an imbalance in his mind. Despite these factors, the imperative annihilation of Duncan proceeds Macbeth to a further state of insanity. Macbeth’s mental state transforms in the progression of the Shakespearian tragedy, developing a character that originates as sane, but then is driven towards madness through the tragic flaw of ambition; this is the result of (1) Macbeth’s likelihood to commit atrocities, (2) willful construction of figments, and (3) external pressures for pursuance of ill-advised intentions.
Macbeth’s path into insanity begins when Macbeth first hears the witches refer to him as the thane of Cawdor and reveal that he will be the king (1.3.51-53). The prediction makes no sense to him and the thought that Duncan would no longer be king leaves him completely confused and fearful of the future. When he does become the thane of Cawdor, however, he immediately wonders if his prediction could really speak the truth. Macbeth imagines the King being murdered and himself becoming king but immediately shows regret and tries to forget ever thinking such an absurd scene (1.3.164). His regret for imagining this along with logic and reason force him to decide that if the prophecies are meant to happen they will whether he gets involved or not: “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,/Without my stir”(1.3.155-156). Macbeth convinces himself that he will not interfere with the predictions at all. Despite his good intentions, when Duncan crowns Malcolm as the Prince of Cumberland, giving him the title of future king, Macbeth acknowledges that this is an obstacle that interferes with his prophecy of being king: “The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step/On which I must fall down, or else o’er-leap,/For in my way it lies” (1.
In the play of “Macbeth”, Shakespeare gradually and effectively deepens our understanding of the themes and most importantly the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The main theme of Macbeth is ambition, and how it compels the main characters to pursue it. The antagonists of the play are the three witches, who symbolise the theme appearance and reality. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relation is an irony throughout the play, as most of their relation is based on greed and power. This is different from most of Shakespeare’s other plays, which are mostly based on romance and trust. There is also guilt that leads Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to the final consequences of the play. As the progresses, the constant changes in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are exposed.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a selfish Scottish thane becomes over-ambitious and commits several murders in order to gain and stay in power. After the murders, Macbeth evades suspicion by hiding his guilt and intentions, therefore deceiving others into thinking that he is innocent. Other characters including Lady Macbeth, the witches and the Scottish thanes also use their appearances to hide the truth and deceive others. With these examples, Shakespeare shows that appearances can be deceiving.
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.
1.) At first Macbeth sees a dagger floating, leading him to Duncan’s room, which existence he questions. After having murdered Duncan, Macbeth is jumpy and nervous, he imagines he hears things when they are owls. He also is afraid that he is damned to go to hell when he cannot say ‘amen’. He is afraid he will not be able to sleep in peace.
In the play Macbeth, William Shakespeare exclaims that personal portrayal can conceal one’s stature and true intentions. Macbeth is a man who is initially well trusted by the king. Unfortunately behind King Duncan’s back , Macbeth decides to murder him because of a future prediction that three witches made about Macbeth. After hearing that he could potentially become the Thane of Cawdor, and more importantly the King. He decided he must take action in order for his future to become true. Though the ways he went about obtaining this future were not all ethical. Deception and betrayal brightly lit his path to becoming the potential king, and unfortunately Macbeth was faced with fate and more importantly put to justice for his preposterous actions.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth’s visions and hallucinations play a significant role and contribute to the development of his character. In the play Macbeth, a man is driven to murder his king and his companions after receiving a fairly ambiguous prophecy told by three witches. Although the witches triggered the series of events that later aid Macbeth’s descent into complete insanity, Macbeth is portrayed from the very beginning as a fierce and violent soldier. As the play goes on, several internal conflicts inside of Macbeth become clear. After he performs several bloody tasks, the madness inside of Macbeth is unmistakably visible to everyone around him. As a result of this insanity, he sees visions and hallucinations. Each time Macbeth hallucinates, he plunges further into insanity that is essentially caused by misguided ambition, dread and guilt. Macbeth has three key hallucinations that play a considerably important role in the development of his character: a dagger, the ghost of Banquo, and four apparitions while visiting the prophesying witches.
After a long and hard battle, the Sergeant says to King Duncan, “For brave Macbeth,-well he deserves that name,- disdaining fortune, with his brandish’d steel, which smok’d with bloody execution , like valour’s minion carv’d out his passage till he fac’d the slave;” (1.2.16) . This quote shows that Macbeth is viewed as a valiant soldier and a capable leader. However, it does not take long for the real Macbeth to be revealed- a blindly ambitious man, easily manipulated by the prospect of a higher status. His quest for power is what drives his insanity, and after having been deemed the Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth’s ambition can immediately be seen. In a soliloquy, Macbeth says, “Present fears are less than horrible imaginings; my thought, whose murder yet is but fantastica, shakes so my single state of man that function is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is but what is not” (1.3.140). Macbeth has just gained more power, and his immediate thought is of how to gain an even higher status as king. He imagines how to kill Duncan, and then is troubled by his thoughts, telling himself it is wrong. This inner struggle between Macbeth’s ambition and his hesitation to kill Duncan is the first sure sign of his mental deterioration. Although Macbeth does kill Duncan, he questions whether or not he should to do so, which is far different from how Macbeth feels about murder later in the play. Macbeth becomes king, and this power leads
Macbeth is a character in the play Macbeth who was vivacious and inveigled. He often deceived people with his outward appearance. At the beginning of the novel, Macbeth was a well-respected and noble man. He went to fight for his country Scotland and brought home victory. Later in the novel, because of greed Macbeth later betrays the king who put so much trust in him. Macbeth became greedy and because two of the witch’s prophecies had come true, he wanted the one about him being king to be true too. He deceived the king by portraying himself as a reliable solider meanwhile he had plotted with his wife to kill the king. Fair is foul, and foul is fair (1.1.12), just as bad is good, good is bad. When the king told Macbeth he was going to visit his castle, Macbeth acted very honored and nice to him. The king fell a victim of deception of appearance. Macbeth showed the king so much gratitude and was very much hospitable to him. Macbeth's false face must hide what false hearts doth know. The second time Macbeth deceived others with his outward appearance was when Duncan was murdered. Macbeth and his wife had finally succeeded in killing Duncan. When the...
Macbeth’s ambition to obtain power convinces him that it is his destiny to become King of Scotland, and that he should do anything to fulfill that destiny, even if it involves him committing tremendously immoral acts such as murder. After Macbeth realizes that the witches may actually speak the truth due to the second prophecy (Thane of Cawdor) becoming true, he begins to have an eerie and frightening thought of him killing his king and friend, Duncan, in order to ac...
The first illusion that Macbeth sees is that of a dagger, floating in the air and convincing him to commit the foul act of murder. Macbeth, at this point, is still together enough to realize what this dagger is. He says, speaking to the dagger, "Art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat oppressed brain?" (II.1, ll. 38-40) Not only does he see a blade at this point,...
In conclusion, this theme of appearance versus reality is developed and presented through different characters in the play which include The Witches, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. All these three characters paint a vivid picture of their personalities on the outside; but as proven, they are different on the inside. Interestingly, Macbeth’s first line in the play is “So foul and fair a day I have not seen” (1, 3, 36), showing that Macbeth is the core of the play’s moral confusion from the start of this play. It is made clear that Shakespeare identifies what he sees in life as the world’s fatal flaw, the inability to distinguish between appearance and reality. However, no matter what, reality will conquer appearance whether it is slow in the case of Macbeth or abrupt like Lady Macbeth’s, the truth will always emerge at the end.