Analysis of Macbeth by William Shakespeare

The witches and their prophecies are the first major influence on Macbeth's actions. Macbeth is content with his position as Thane of Glamis, until the three witches tell him, "All hail Macbeth, hail to thee Thane of Glamis. All hail Macbeth, hail to thee Thane of Cawdor All hail Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter." This prophecy startled Macbeth. He believes that his title is still Thane of Glamis; yet here he has just been told that he shall be King.

The witches play a brief, yet important role in Macbeth’s fate. At the beginning of the play, the witches deliver a prophecy to Macbeth stating that Macbeth is the Thane of Glamis, and he will become the Thane of Cawdor and the King of Scotland. At first, Macbeth is humbled by this news. However, the prophecies give him false hope, overconfidence and much temptation and ambition to become King. This is exhibited when Macbeth writes a letter to his wife about the witches prophecies in which he says, “My dearest partner of greatness,/ that thou might’st not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being/ ignorant of what greatness is promised thee.” (1.5.10-12).

“My thought, whose murder is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man that function is smother in summise and nothing is, but what is not.”(I, 3, 138) The villainy that Macbeth has already planned as a response to the predictions of three supernatural beings shows his innate villainy. Similar to Macbeth, Lady Macbeth upon reading the letter that explains the witch’s foretellings, and Macbeth’s appointment of thane of Cawdor immediately begins to plot the murder of King Duncan. “All that impedes thee from the golden round, which fate and me... ... middle of paper ... ... After the successful murder of Duncan, Macbeth entered a life of villainy. Ambition was also a clear motive to the murder of his friend Banquo. The witches' predictions sent Macbeth into his own world where he could not be stopped on his way to becoming king.

Bonquo doesn’t take these prophecies seriously, but Macbeth shows some ambition for power. "If chance will have me king, why, chance will crown me." Macbeth becomes more dependent to the Witches. In Act 4 scene 1 Macbeth returns to the weird sisters, demanding what the future would bring. The Witches gave him three prophecies: "Macbeth!

His success in the battle against the invaders of Scotland gains respect from the King Duncan and his fellow soldiers. However, the demonic forces, symbolized by three witches, temptates Macbeth. The witches hail Macbeth as the Thane of Glamis and Cawdor who will be king and hail Banquo, who is a nobleman of Scotland and Macbeth’s friend, as one who will become the father of a line of kings. Macbeth ambition deep in his heart starts growing at that time. In Act I, scene iii, when Macbeth is thinking about the fulfillment of the two prophecies given by the witches before, "My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes my single state of man"(I, iii, 139- 140) In this soliloquy, Macbeth reflects his idea about the "two truths" told by the witches.

Macbeths need to be all powerful was a direct cause of his death. At the beginning of the play, the third witch says ‘All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter’ (Act I. Scene iii line 49). This had intrigued Macbeth.

With a promising prophesy upon him, a once loyal man turns to a dark road all for power. This is the story of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. A Scottish solider, Macbeth, and his friend, Banquo, are approached by three weird sisters who play in the dark arts. The sisters, the witches, tell them that Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor and then king. In order for him to do this, something would need to happen to the current king of Scotland, Duncan.

It was clear that being king was something that Macbeth desired, and would do anything to achieve it. It became impossible to tell if Macbeth becoming King was as a result of fate, because he took the matters into his own hands. Macbeth and his wife planned out the actions necessary for Macbeth to become king. Within in the first act of Macbeth, the three sister witches speak these words to Macbeth, “ First Witch: All hail, Macbeth, Thane of Glamis! Second Witch: All hail, Macbeth!

In the suspenseful drama The Tragedy of Macbeth, William Shakespeare tells a tale of an overly ambitious nobleman’s sinful rise to power and his dreadful, deadly downfall. Macbeth, the main character and antagonist, begins the drama as a loyal captain. Duncan, the King of Scotland, praises Macbeth, declaring him as a “worthy gentleman” (I.ii.24). Later, three unnamed witches appear to Macbeth and his loyal friend Banquo, and the witches prophetically greet Macbeth as Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and King hereafter. Of the bold, unsettling statement, only one is currently true about Macbeth, but the proclamation lights the fuse to a ticking time bomb of vaulting ambition in Macbeth.

Shakespeare’s famous play, Macbeth, is the story of a man named Macbeth who kills the present king of Scotland, Duncan, in order to become the king, and the aftermath of that event. Within Macbeth, very few female characters are introduced. The first female characters are the three witches, who prophecize the whole play, and then Lady Macbeth, the wife of Macbeth and the most prominent female character in the play. Both the witches and Lady Macbeth lead Macbeth to kill Duncan, but once he does, they find themselves unable to live with the consequences. Shakespeare purposefully wrote the main female characters in this derogatory way so as to assert the idea that women cause ambition, ambition is bad, and therefore, women are bad, but then shows that once the women cause bad things to happen, they can’t deal with them.