It was once asked, “How do you run away from things that are in your head?” (Unknown). This was Shakespeare's main conflict with Lady Macbeth in his play, The Tragedy of Macbeth. The overall theme of Shakespeare's play, The Tragedy Macbeth is choice. “Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear And chastise with the valor of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round,..” ( Lady Macbeth) (1.5.15-18)pg1. This right here shows that she made a choice to help her husband became king by persuading him and help him achieve the crown. If it was her fate to have her husband became king then she would not have to persuade him to get the crown. This is just one of her choices she has made that some will think was fate. “The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements..” (Lady Macbeth) (1.5.28-30)pg2. In these lines she is saying that King Duncan will come into her castle and that is where he will die. That was a choice she made, she …show more content…
What I got out of these lines were that Lady Macbeth is upset that Macbeth doesn’t want to go through with her plan of killing the king. Again I see that this shows choice because she came up with a plan to kill the king and Macbeth agreed, but know is having second thoughts. I could be Macbeth’s fate to not want to kill the king, but Lady Macbeth is making this a choice by saying that you said you would and you need to do it. I thought that the overall theme of this play was and is choice. Though there is a possibility that it could be fate. Maybe Lady Macbeth’s fate was to help her husband plan to kill the king. And maybe her fate was to end up feeling so sick of herself that she ends up killing herself towards the end of the play. But my personal feeling and thoughts are that this play was based upon choice and the choices that were made by each
The theme of Macbeth by William Shakespeare is that the main character, Macbeth, feels as though life is meaningless if there is no loyalty. The literary motif clothing is shown throughout loyalty between each character.
Brozel’s adaption of Macbeth was very successful in keeping the core components of the play’s themes intact. One of the most important themes that is present throughout the entire of the Macbeth play is ambition. This theme is demonstrated best through the two main characters; Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth is a courageous general who was naturally wanting to commit evil deeds, however he deeply wants power. Macbeth murders Duncan, which goes against his initial thoughts. After this he spirals into guilt and anxiety, “How is't with me, when every noise appals me?”. Towards the end of the play he further becomes engulfed with boastful madness. However, Lady Macbeth has her own ambition and pursues her own goals with complete determination;
...f the above, Macbeth is ambiguous about whether we have free will or are controlled entirely by fate. In the play, even though we see Macbeth changing his mind about whether to kill Duncan, he eventually does as the witches foretold; in addition all their other pronouncements came true. This veers more or less towards the idea of fate. If fate is unchangeable and the witches are acting only as messengers, the blame for the tragedy can not be attributed to the witches, Macbeth or Lady Macbeth. However, the witches also say about the sailor they are tormenting
There are many different outlooks on this question. Some view it as a story of fate, and some see it as a story of free will. This is seen in two different movie adaptations of Macbeth, the Polanski adaptation and the Wells adaptation. Polanski’s version focuses more on the natural world, and the decisions that Macbeth makes. He shows the characters’ psychological positions, and why it makes them do the things that they do. Welles’ is more surrealistic, and shows the characters as only being pawns in a fate that they have no control over. (Harper). Movie adaptations provide an interesting insight into how different people view the original text of the play.
Based on the text it states, “And, on thy blade and dudgeon, gouts of blood, Which was not so before. There’s no such thing. It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes. Now o’er the one-half world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse…..I have done the deed.” This illustrates that Macbeth went through with the plan his wife cameup with. He killed King Duncan so he could become King. His ambition caused him to take part and do a bad action such as killing Duncan. The killing and wrong doings don't stop there however. Macbeth’s ambition pushes him to the limit. Macbeth then kills his close friend Banquo and attempted to kill Banquo’s son, based on fears that Banquo’s son will become king. Macbeth brings forth murderers and states, “ Know That it was he, in the times past, which held you So under fortune, which you thought had been Our innocent self…. So is he mine, and in such bloody distance That every minute of his being thrusts Against my near’st of life. And though I could With barefaced power sweep him from my sight.” Macbeth deceives the Murderers and tells them that Banquo is to blame for their misfortune. He then convinces them that Banquo is the enemy and he must be killed. Macbeth also tells them, “The moment on ’t, for ’t must be done tonight….Fleance, his son, that keeps
“Present fears are less than horrible imaginings. My thought, whose murder is yet but fantastical, shakes so that my single state of man that function is smoldered I surmise and nothing is but what is not.” Macbeth as you can see is thinking about the witches’ prophecy of him becoming king. Macbeth knows that Duncan must be killed if he wants to acquire the throne, and the thought of Duncan’s murder is very disturbing to him. Macbeth desires to become king, but his ambition is halted when he thinks of the consequences that follow if he were to get his wish. However when Malcolm is chosen to become Prince of Cumberland Macbeth knew that if he did not take any actions then he wouldn’t be king. The reader can see that the ruthlessness that lied in Macbeth is coming out when he says “The Prince of Cumberland – that is a step On which I must fall down or else o’erleap, For in my way it lies. Despite the fact that Macbeth is a ruthless individual Lady Macbeth makes him look like a saint. After Lady Macbeth reads her husband’s letter she sees an opportunity to become queen that she probably never thought about. Lady Macbeth’s desire for her husband to become king is stronger than Macbeth’s own desire for the throne. After Lady Macbeth learns that Duncan is going to visit Inverness she begins plotting to kill him even though her husband does show hesitation to kill Duncan.
The main theme of Macbeth-the destruction wrought when ambition goes unchecked by moral constraints-finds its most powerful expression in the play's two main characters. Macbeth is a courageous Scottish general who is not naturally inclined to commit evil deeds, yet he deeply desires power and advancement. He kills Duncan against his better judgment and afterward stews in guilt and paranoia. Toward the end of the play he descends into a kind of frantic, boastful madness. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, pursues her goals with greater determination, yet she is less capable of withstanding the repercussions of her immoral acts. One of Shakespeare's most forcefully drawn female characters, she spurs her husband mercilessly to kill Duncan and urges him to be strong in the murder's aftermath, but she is eventually driven to distraction by the effect of Macbeth's repeated bloodshed on her conscience. In each case, ambition helped, of course, by the malign prophecies of the witches is what drives the couple to ever more terrible atrocities. The problem, the play suggests, is that once one decides to use violence to further one?s quest for power, it is difficult to stop. There are always potential threats to the throne?Banquo, Fleance, Macduff?and it is always tempting to use violent means to dispose of them.
Macbeth cold-heartedly states that Lady Macbeth would have died sooner or later, and that this news was bound to come someday. This behaviour of Macbeth’s startles the audience, as how can one be so remorseless. Shakespeare has changed the character of Macbeth as a tyrant, who only cares about his power and nothing else.
One of the main questions that comes up when thinking about Macbeth is do the characters occupy the play to tell a historical story, or does the drama exist as a prop to explore the physiological nuances of the character Macbeth. It could be argued that the character of Macbeth, his complex physiological states, his weakness of character, the part that people around him and his wife play in the development of character, and destiny are truly the central themes of the play.
The Tragedy of Macbeth , by William Shakespeare, shows the slow deterioration of Macbeth who was once a brave, loyal soldier to an ambitious man with no sense of reality, In this tragic play, the most commonly used motifs are hallucinations, blood, violence, nature and unnatural, fair and foul. These motifs are used to represent the characters emotions, personalities, and appearances throughout the entire play of The Tragedy of Macbeth.
While speaking to herself, Lady Macbeth contemplates how she will convince Macbeth to agree to kill King Duncan. She urges Macbeth to hurry home so that she can “pour [her] spirits in [his] ear/And chastise with the valor of [her] tongue” (1.5.29-30). Lady Macbeth implies that her speech is honorable and just, and that she will be able to hold persuasive power over Macbeth and use it to their collective advantage in their rise to power. Her confidence in both the high caliber of her words and being able to convince Macbeth to follow through with her plan underscores her cruel ability to lure someone to murder another, as well as her bold resolve to successfully murder Duncan. Later, after a messenger arrives and tells Lady Macbeth that King Duncan will be arriving soon at the castle, she speaks of Duncan’s foreboding future; a “the fatal entrance…under [her] battlements” (Act, Page number, Line). The tone of finality in which Lady Macbeth describes the king’s arrival implies not only that Lady Macbeth already has full confidence that her deadly scheme will succeed,but also in the case that her strategic plan fails, she will persevere to ensure that Duncan does not leave her castle walls alive. Lastly, at the conclusion of her soliloquy, Lady Macbeth claims once she sees Macbeth that she “feel(s) now/The future in the instant” (1.6.64-65).
As previously stated, the theme is shown through a display of moral progression. Throughout the play, the two main characters, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, are constantly
Throughout they play MacBeth, there are many different themes that are caused by the controversial acts in the play. These themes can all translate into lessons and create, in a sense, a life lesson. A set of values that the characters in the play don't use or think about. This causes the play to unfold the way it did. All of the themes tie together to create a central point.
In Macbeth the fundamental theme is Ambition, not only because it is driving the force of Macbeth’s life but also because it is the theme which gives away the Shakespearean idea of tragedy in this play. It is ambition that causes Macbeth’s fall from grace and his inevitable death. “I have no spur… but only / Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself”, This admittance comes after he has considered all the right reasons for not killing King Duncan and ambition overrules all the right reasons and his conscious.
In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the focus that is placed on the character of Lady Macbeth helps to convey the play's theme of the strife created by the struggle for power and control that is present throughout the entire work. Shakespeare presents her character in great detail and shows her to be a dominating, authoritative woman who thrives on the power she holds over her husband. He then shows the principle character, Macbeth, rise up and join his wife in a struggle for power of his own. It is the actions that Macbeth takes in attempt to achieve ultimate authority that lead to his downfall, and it is Lady Macbeth's loss of control over her husband as he gains this independence which causes her own weakening and eventually leads to her demise as well.