Macbeth’s Costly Deed
(An Analyzation of Macbeth’s Imagination about his Crime)
Macbeth is a man that has inner battles that are constantly waging inside of him. Inner demons brought upon him by his own mind. Although, he committed the crime and deserved the punishment. There are many other factors inside his story to reign that have brought this madness upon him. There was his wife and the amount of pressure put upon him from her. She always called him out in his manhood and questioning his loyalty and love for her. He always cracked under it every single time without fail. Macbeth’s imagination draws him to do his crime, it is worst when you let your mind wander on the possibility of greatness, that you realize you are willing to do anything to achieve it and he does what’s necessary for his final goal to be king, but in the end he has a horrible time going through with the act of killing his king.
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After the traitor, the previous Thane of Cawdor, had been killed, Macbeth is immediately thrown into the shoes of the Thane of Cawdor by the king. This means that there must be a very strong trust between King Duncan and Macbeth. The now Thane of Cawdor, also gave his word to do nothing but protect the monarchy, and to commit his crime is to break the vows he has promised to keep. Macbeth has done nothing but serve under the King, to which whom he has been loyal to for years. So killing him is way far off from anything that he could have ever thought to
Macbeth’s capacity for suffering also leads him to be a tragic hero. Before the murder of Duncan, Macbeth has a personal moment of truth and thinks about what he is going to do. He imagines the dagger in his hand and thinks about the nightmares he will be invaded with. Macbeth is so obsessed with murder; he begins seeing things, and must be quiet and not wake anyone, for he would give himself away.
Macbeth is the story of a man who falls from his noble state. In the beginning, Macbeth was a courageous fighter for Scotland's King Duncan. Macbeth is soon overcome with greed for power, so he kills the king and crowns himself. He becomes worried of losing his newly gained power causing him to kill more people. In the end the lords and nobles join forces with the king's son, Malcolm, to destroy Macbeth. In William Shakespeare's Macbeth, the character Macbeth was persuaded by the three witches to commit evil, leading to his tragic downfall.
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a play centred around opposing forces trying to gain power in the succession for the throne of Scotland. Macbeth, in the beginning, is known to be a noble and strong willed man, who is ready to fight for his country. However, one may see that Macbeth has a darker side to him, he is power hungry and blood thirsty, and will not stop until he has secured his spot as King of Scotland. Though Macbeth may be a tyrant, he is very nave, gullible, and vulnerable.
At the beginning of the play, Macbeth was a kind and gentle person. The only time he killed is when he was in battle. Macbeth was loyal to the King (Duncan), and did as he wished. In battle, he kills a traitor to the Scotland who was a high ranking individual. For killing the traitor so bravely, Macbeth is awarded the title the Thane of Cawdor. The irony of this situation is that the title first did indeed belonged to 'a most disloyal traitor'(pg. 3, line 53). As Macbeth heads home with his new title and a lot more ambition. This is mainly because of the three witches who tell him he will be king. With this new ambition, Macbeth did not know what to think and he wrote a letter to his wife. By Macbeth writing this letter it showed at this stage he was still loyal because he still was sharing everything with his wife. Macbeth at this point still did not have a lust for power.
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...
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 swaying between the forces of good and evil. He wants to stop killing but he also wants to become king and in his mind the only way to do that is to kill whoever is in his path, saying “I am in blood/ Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,/ Returning were as tedious as go o'er.” (3.4.168-170). Macbeth is already deep into this situation and if he were to turn back now, it would cause him greater hardship than relief. Macbeth has been dealing with this inner conflict ever since he was told by the weird sisters that he is fated to become king. This conflict ties everything together, between fate versus free will and sane or insane. Macbeth started the play as being a glorified war hero, however as time moved on he transformed into a bloodthirsty tyrant. Macbeth has gone through so much that he has shifted into a guilty man haunted by nightmares and hallucinations but will not stop until he gets what he came for. Macbeth has gone so far into the void of guilt that his name has now fell into infamy, as shown by quote by Young Siward saying “The devil himself could not pronounce a title/ More hateful to mine ear.” (5.7.10-11). Macbeth had already grown a name for himself while he kept his innocence, however with all the killings macbeth has made, he has done nothing but shame his name. Macbeth name to others is more hateful and there is nothing that Siward would rather do than to end Macbeth’s life, thus ending all the guilt and evil inside
The heroic loyal character of Macbeth is forced into a internal battle to decide between ambition and loyalty to his king. Macbeth overcomes the evil within him, though Lady Macbeth crushes his thoughts of loyalty to the king by calling him a coward or threatening his manliness. Macbeth allows the evilness to grow within him, which allows ambition to take control of his life. Due to the evilness that has started to control his life he prepares to kill the man who has given him everything to his credit, to fulfil his ambition, and to become King.
Macbeth is not happy with being Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and a general of an army because he is so power hungry; he will not relent until the prophecy comes true and he becomes king. Macbeth became a very brutal man with malicious plans because of the despair this new way of living had brought him; his hope for a new future completely vanished. Macbeth lost sight of who he was when he started obsessing over everything the three witches told him. Greed played a large role in his life when he first decided that taking the Prince of Cumberland title was “a step On which [he] must fall down, or else o’erleap, For in [his] way it lies,” (1.4.54-55). He became very greedy at this point, striving for whatever would lead him down the path to become king, even the end to his relationships. Macbeth originally was a very good friend to Banquo, however he ruined it because of such selfishness. The avarice overran his mind and Macbeth became very irrational, eventually hiring murderers to slaughter his own best friend and his son. As Macbeth’s jealousy spikes, he decides it is reasonable to murder once again because he says, “No son of mine succeeding. If ‘t be so, For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind,”(3.1.64-65). Because Macbeth did not support Banquo’s family heir line, he chose to kill, however Fleance, Banquo’s son, escaped and still has a chance to eventually become king. As Macbeth’s sorrowful, evil-filled life continues, he loses sight of a future for himself. He loses all hope and wishes to be at peace. Because he never sleeps he thinks, “Better be with the dead, Whom we, to gain peace, have sent to peace, Than on the torture of the mind to lie In restless ecstasy,” (3.2.19-22). He longs for a chance to live a normal life like he once had, he yearns for peace. Because of the greed is Macbeth’s heart, his chance
In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the protagonist Macbeth starts off as a respected, brave war hero. Killing the thane of Cawdor and winning the battles for Scotland made people admire Macbeth, but also fear him. Even with all the fame and fortune, Macbeths desire to be king drove him crazy. Macbeth’s fear of never sleeping, Banquo’s line on the throne, and killing Macbeth all drove Macbeth into utter darkness. It was Macbeth’s internal conflicts that drove him into mental deterioration.
King Duncan trusts Macbeth too much. Macbeth appears as a superhero and faithful to King Duncan. He fights against the traitor Macdonwald, and he helps the king to solve a great problem that wins the war. Duncan trusts Macbeth very much because of Macbeth’s heroic efforts and he gives Macbeth the title “Thane of Cawdor”. In actuality, Macbeth is not as faithful to the king as he appears. He has the ambition to become king after hearing the prophecies from the three witches. After Macbeth returns to his castle, he makes plans with Lady Macbeth to kill Duncan when he comes to visit. As soon as Duncan arrives, he says something very important. Duncan says, “This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air/ Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself/ Unto our gentle senses” (I.vi.1-3). This quote shows that Duncan, like Macbeth, even feels that Macbeth’s place is comfortable for him. Duncan never suspects the trustworthiness of Macbeth and never does anything to guard himself. Macbeth kills Duncan easily. Therefore MacBeth’s appearance deceives Duncan.
To begin, Macbeth experiences an internal downfall due to his ambition where he battle between his desires and moralistic values. Initially, the idea of attaining power over Scotland by killing King Duncan sparks a sense of fear and paranoia in Macbeth, however, his conscience struggles to take over his ambition: "that we but teach/ Bloody instructions, which being taught, return/ To plague the inventor. [...] I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent, but only/ Valuing ambition, which o'erleaps itself/ And falls on th' other-" (1.7.8-28). At this moment, Macbeth contemplates on killing King Duncan as he visualizes the long term consequences of committing the crime. The reader can grasp his moral judgement as he understands that by proceeding with the murder, he is only causing his own demise and punishing himself. With that b...
Macbeth, the protagonist of the play, seems to be the greatest of Scottish heroes, who is a savior of the kingdom and is loyal to the king. Although Macbeth seems like a hero, upon meeting with the witches a new surface of his character is revealed. The treachery within him is provoked by the witches and Macbeth thinks that their predictions justify his heinous acts. Throughout the play Macbeth struggles with an internal and external conflict. The external conflict is deflecting suspicion from fellow thanes who think Macbeth cheated his way to the throne. The internal conflict is Macbeth struggling with all of the guilt that is being built up inside of him.
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...
Seeking for greater power, Macbeth murders Duncan who is the king at that time, which caused a great pain for the kingdom. Duncan is a great king, but just not a so good human reader. He has never been aware of Macbeth. He never have a thought that Macbeth might be a danger, who is willing to kill him for the throne. On the other hand, Macbeth does not accept to be just a general for the rest of his life. He wants a greater power, higher position than he is having at the time. Because of the suggests from the trio witches: “ All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!/ All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!”(1.2.49-50), Macbeth has the thinking about killing the king to take his throne. By calling Macbeth the Thane of Cawdor, they give Macbeth the thought that being a king is his fate. On the night Macbeth is planning to murder Duncan, the Old Man see many strange events: “And Duncan’s horses (a thing most strange and certain),/ Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, /Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out/ Contending ‘gainst obedience, as they would/ Make war with mankind” (2.4.14-18). It creates a scary feeling in the kingdom, and means something bad will happen to the kingdom.