Duncan even tempts Macbeth, by pronouncing him as the Thane of Cawdor. This gives Macbeth a taste of power and he begins to have a desire for more. This desire or ambition is his fatal flaw. Shakespeare, by using Macbeth as a guide, shows that even the honorable men can fall into the hands of evil just like everyone else. No one is safe from his or her own ambitions of power and success.
Aside from these similarities, there are significant differences as well. For one thing, the incitation of both characters’ evil doings differ. Macbeth, it could be argued, is a victim of fate, whereas Satan is portrayed in Paradise Lost as very willful in his rebellion. While Macbeth and Satan are similar in their ambitions, their lust for power, and their conflicted emotions, they differ greatly in what initially led them to their evil paths and pushed them on to their ultimate destruction. Macbeth, who at the beginning of his play’s plot is in a position of some honor and power, obtains position as king of Scotland through secretive foul play, spurred on by some external manipulation as well as personal ambition.
The Embodiment of Evil Sometimes, true wickedness is hard to imagine, but the famous Shakespearean tragedy, Macbeth, illustrates it perfectly. A man so twisted that he slaughters his own king, his best friend, and an innocent man’s entire family to secure the throne is the definition of evil. Although Macbeth is motivated by the witches and Lady Macbeth, he ultimately makes those decisions for himself. All things considered, it seems as if Macbeth is the model warrior of his time in the beginning of the play. However, it appeared as if Macbeth is putting on a front because his first thought is of killing King Duncan which is made clear by Banquo wondering, “Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear/ Things that do sound so fair?” (1.3.51-52).
Lear sees Goneril as being nothing more than an ungratefully child with a beastly attitude (Lind). Shakespeare shows how money and power are usually the root of all evil and can affect a person ethical values and moral judgment. Albany must have been blind by love when he married that witch! As for Lear, a father by blood has no choice but love her and her evil sister. Regan, Lear 's middle child, keenly fulfills the role of a deviant woman by demonstrating a violent nature, "first by plucking poor Gloucester 's eyes out, and then by killing her own servant" (Teach).
Evil is an injurious power; it brings harm to those who adopt it and their victims. In William Shakespeare's Macbeth, protagonists Macbeth and Lady Macbeth become tethered to the reigns of evil. Evil compels people to commit twisted acts of violence and takes control of ones body and mind. “In Macbeth evil is the opposite of humanity, the deviation from that which is natural for humankind, yet evil originates in the human heart” (Pilkington). Macbeth succumbs to evil through his own imperfection, greed, which in turn causes him to upset the predetermined chain of being.
The family reunion that takes place with Satan, Sin and Death foreshadows the fall of man. Sin and Death are personifications against broken heavenly laws: narcissism, incest and lust. Satan becomes enamored by his own creation because he sees himself in her image; "...who full oft/Thyself in me thy perfect image…" ll. 763-764. However, he goes on to commit two other sins as he lusts and goes off "in secret" with his own daughter.
But it is his conscience about evil that makes him tragic. Through Macbeth's actions, Shakespeare is able to depict the nature of evil as being: lusftul, deceptive, tyrannical, and disruptive to family. To begin, Macbeth himself stands as a symbol for Satan's sin of ambition. Like Satan, Macbeth's insatiable lust for power and ambition drives him to commit evil. Although Macbeth's ambitiousness is not in itself evil: "His very strong social sense, worldly but valuable, together with that gift of imaginative expression whereby he far outshines all the others, makes him naturally and rightly desirous of winning `Golden Opinions from all sorts of people' [I.vii.33]" (Elliot, 288).
In many religions and cultures, a demonic entity embodies the spirit of evil, ruler of hell, enemy of God, and tempter of humankind. This arch rebel figure often emerges in literature, and one of the most well-known is Satan, a defiant epitome of evil from John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. There must be good in the presence of evil, thus there must be a hero with whom the villain clashes with, a bold character whom the audience roots for. In Shakespeare’s tragic play Richard III, Richard plays the role of both the hero and the villain by using his heroic traits to underscore his satanic persona. He is a satanic hero because he uses his political eloquence to rebel, his isolation causes him to oppose all moral constraints, and he wears a mask of charisma to hide his selfish lust for power.
Ultimately, actions speak louder than words. Iago is evil in his actions towards Othello, but between the two, Othello is the most evil for reacting to lies in the most violent of ways. The evil in Iago becomes visible from the very beginning of the play. He explains at the beginning how he was passed over for the position of lieutenant by Othello, who gave the position to Cassio. This gives Iago cause for not only hating Othello but Cassio as well.
The main theme is Othello's jealousy, which results in his downfall. Vital to the play is the devilish Iago, one of Shakespeare's most fascinating villains. His motives for manipulating Othello remain in mystery. However, Othello's race is vital to the success of Iago's schemes. In the rest of my essay I will look in depth of the other character to show how Iago convinced Othello of Desdemona's guilt.