Macbeth by William Shakespeare

“Macbeth”- A revered play written in the 16th century by the famous playwright: William Shakespeare. The theme of “Macbeth” is centred on how power and the thirst for it can corrupt a person and lead to their insanity. Power-hungry and manipulating Lady Macbeth, with the help of the prophecies of the three malevolent witches, persuades the eponymous Macbeth to kill his king, so that she can be the queen. But unfortunately, for her, her plans do not ultimately run smoothly. Both Macbeth’s guilty conscience and his wife’s insanity give them away and eventually lead to their down fall.

The Guilt of Lady Macbeth Everyone is influenced by other people, including leaders or authority, to make the wrong decisions at some point in their lives. In the play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is responsible for the evil doings of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is responsible for this by using his love for her to persuade him into killing King Duncan. Because Macbeth loved and trusted his wife, he was vulnerable to her opinions and suggestions. We also know that she is responsible for these heartless things because she has so much guilt that she commits suicide.

Fear of being arrested or put to death is the key motivation in turning others in as witches. From these three human flaws, the town of Salem falls into chaos with many innocent people paying the price. Vengeance plays a key role in causing the mass hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail Williams, who?s probably most to blame for the trials, acts out of revenge. She and John Proctor have had an affair and when Elizabeth Proctor finds out, she throws Abigail out of their house.

If it were only the witches' prophecies, then Macbeth would surely not have murdered Duncan. It was because Lady Macbeth constantly harassed her husband, that he was driven to commit all this evil. "... her blood thickened, her milk changed to gaul - into the inhuman, the distortion of nature..." (Ludwyk 233). This illustrates the complete metamorphosis of Lady Macbeth from a loving, beautiful, caring, kind wife to a ruthless, nasty, shrew of a woman. The women in this play distort Macbeth's intuition so much that he thinks he is doing the right thing.

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.

After they leave, Macbeth questions Banquo about the witches. Banquo... ... middle of paper ... ...he witches' have tricked him, but he also realises that it is useless and so he fights on only to be slain. After the murder I think that Macbeth became more evil with every passing day. He ordered Banquo's and Fleance's death without any hesitation. He ordered the death of everyone connected to Macduff, all because they witches premonition told him to be wary of Macduff, "...Beware Macduff; Beware the Thane of Fife."

The witches’ ambiguous language concealed the whole truth from Macbeth eventually resulting in his gruesome death. Finally, without the witches, Macbeth would not have been so entirely affected by the supernatural. For instance, Macbeth sees a hallucination of a dagger before killing Duncan and he seems to believe that it is a sign that he is doing the right thing. He also begins to believe everything the witches’ say, even if it is outrageous, such as him becoming king. This belief in the supernatural leads Macbeth to commit corrupt acts such as killing Duncan and is one of the causes of his growing paranoia.

Banquo realizes that there must be a trick hidden in the witches prophecies somewhere but Macbeth refuses to accept that, and when Lady Macbeth finds out about the witches her strong desire for ambition and her cold nature leads Macbeth astray. Lady Macbeth's ambition far exceeds Macbeths and so she is able to get Macbeth to agree with her to kill King Duncan. Macbeth still has a conscience at this stage because he is very hesitant about killing the King but his weak nature over comes him. He has a conscience throughout the entire play as this is seen by the hallucinations of the dagger and the ghost of Banquo. His vivid imag... ... middle of paper ... ...as already thrown away his conscience, so much so, that Macbeth continues to commit even more evil acts.

Lady Macbeth’s heartless ambitions blind her and stop her from foreseeing the consequences. Despite Macbeth being manipulated it is he who becomes the murderer protecting his position. Macbeth is greatly manipulated by other characters which leads him to take the path of murder. The witches plant the seed of desire for Macbeth when they tell him that he ‘shalt be king.’ Macbeth ponders about being king and begins to like the idea of it, but his daydream is stopped dead in

In addition to his mind, it is his never-ending ambition and his blind trust of the witches prophesies which ultimately change Macbeth from what he once was to the monster he had become. Over the entirety of the play the changes in morals, personality, and confidence within Macbeth and Lady Macbeth can clearly be seen as a result of their ambition for the crown of Scotland. Lady Macbeth, first presented as strong and able to commit murder, eventually went insane due to her guilty conscience and killed herself. Macbeth on the other hand, went from a sincere, conscientious person into a maniacal monster which no one could control. Thus they well deserve the title Malcolm appoints them at the end of the play: "the dead butcher and his fiend-like queen."