Greed and Malevolence in Macbeth

Unfortunately, it corrupts if it is not restrained. In Macbeth, Shakespeare effectively uses the characters of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth to underscore their struggles for power. Their hunger for power is the determining factor for their destructions. Lady Macbeth longs for power, and hopes to get it by manipulating her husband to kill his own cousin. While Macbeth kills Duncan and becomes king, she fails to realize her husband’s obsession with power exceeds her.

Lady Macbeth even sees her husband’s weaknesses and uses his weaknesses to harass him into killing Duncan. This can be observed when, at one stage, Macbeth criticises the idea of killing a good king and believes that the killing should not proceed, his wife forces him to kill by saying offensive words. She questions Macbeth’s love for her, she questions Macbeth’s masculinity and she criticises Macbeth’s desire to be king. These three statements offend Macbeth. Because Macbeth wants to prove his manhood, his love for his wife and his desire to be king, he agrees to murder Duncan.

We also know that she is responsible for these heartless things because she has so much guilt that she commits suicide. Macbeth would never have done any of those horrible things if it were not for the murder of King Duncan, which was forced on by Lady Macbeth. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a trusted soldier, who is honest and noble. Unfortunately, he meets three witches who tell him three prophecies; that he will become thane of Cawdor, that he will become king and that Banquo’s sons will become kings. These three prophecies slowly change his opinions on life and turn him into a greedy, dishonest, tyrant, full of ambition.

Macbeth’s judgment is not only impaired by the three witches’ prophecies but also his wife’s corrupt ambition. As time progressed before Duncan’s murder, the idea of senselessly killing his own king lingers in Macbeth’s mind. The only logical avenue in his mind is to wait for the prophecies to come true instead of rushing them unnaturally; Lady Macbeth slaughters this idea of patience. She questions Macbeth’s manhood, and makes him think that the only way to successfully gain dominance is to murder his royal leader, Duncan. After killing Duncan, Macbeth feels that the only way to guarantee the throne he must take out Banquo, Macbeth’s right hand.

They then said of thou be none." Banquo noted how Macbeth looked fearful and he must have realised the witches put into words what Macbeth had been thinking. The supernatural forces not only got Macbeth thinking about how he could become king but also laid the foundations for his feelings of insecurity that would lead to his subsequent murder of Banquo. The major external influence pushing Macbeth to kill Duncan was Lady Macbeth. She knew her husband was " too full o' the milk of human kindness" to take the initiative and she resolved to push him into murdering Duncan Macbeth was so upset after killing Duncan he stated " I'll go no more, I am afraid to think what I have done".

As the play proceeds, Macbeth becomes more reliant on the witches prophecy to drive him to become king.They are obviously deceiving and are only saying these things for their own self benefit. Macbeth causes himself to become more depressed because he is guilty of killing King Duncan. This influences him to become ignorant to his actions of killing, this makes him kill more people for his self benefit. He would never have wanted to kill King Duncan or even become king in the first place if the witches had not influenced him by telling him this prophecy. Even though the Witches play a major part in causing Macbeth to kill and cause tragedy and start the wheels in motion, Lady macbeth and his own ambitions are the real culprits of corrupting Macbeth.

"Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full o’ the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way." Lady Macbeth uses the weaknesses of Macbeth to convince him to kill King Duncan: she challenges his manhood "When you durst do it, then you were a man." "Thou esteem’st the ornament of life and live a coward in thine own esteem." She tries to make him feel guilt: Macbeth promised to kill Duncan he changes his mind. "What beast was’t, then that made break this enterprise to me" In Macbeth the Witches are shown as being evil, conniving, and cruel.

William Shakespeare's Macbeth In William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, there is no doubt that the “dead butcher and his fiend like queen” (V, 9, 36) are both villainous; however they are villainous to varying degrees. We are first exposed to both of their villainy when Macbeth and Lady Macbeth hear of the witch’s predictions, and their reaction is to murder Duncan. Even though Macbeth is initially portrayed as being courageous and honorable, he eventually becomes more villainous than Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth appears very villainous to begin with, because she encourages and provokes her husband to murder King Duncan. However she has nothing to do with the murders that Macbeth commits later on in the play: Macduff’s family, Banquo, and young Seaward.

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is the play which tells the story of a soldier and the disastrous path which he took in pursuit of the throne. Macbeth was a victim of forces beyond his control; they are the witches and Lady Macbeth. The witches create a stimulus for Macbeth to become destructive in his pursuit for the throne. However Macbeth was only persuaded and ready to kill after being influenced by Lady Macbeth. Therefore we can assume that it was Lady Macbeth that transformed Macbeth into a megalomaniac.

After the successful murder of Duncan, Macbeth entered a life of evil. Ambition was also clearly stated when he thought of killing his friend Banquo to protect the kingship. The witches’ predictions sent Macbeth into his own world where he could not be deterred from becoming king. Macbeth displays his cowardice by avoiding Lady Macbeth’s initial plan to murder King Duncan. By overcoming his personal matters to plot the death of the king, Macbeth only displays that women are manipulative, and often have their way with men.