“Till he unseam’d him from the nave to th’ chops.”(Act 1 scene 2 line 22) This is one of Duncan’s captains describing how Macbeth brutally murdered Macdonwald in battle. It is also an early foreshadow of how bloody and violent Macbeth will progressively become throughout the play. Macbeth’s mental deterioration progressed from unwilling to kill, then willing to kill and live with the shame, and lastly killing without a second thought.
Early in the play, Lady Macbeth devises a plan for Macbeth to kill King Duncan and take the throne. “He’s here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed; then, as his host, who should against his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife myself.”(Act 1 Scene 7 Lines 13-17) Macbeth is thinking of reasons on why he should not kill Duncan. He ultimately decides to go forth with the murder after his wife questions his manhood.
After the murder, Macbeth is shaken up and cannot accept what he has done. He believes he will no longer be able to pray, sleep, or wash off the blood from his hands. “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red.”(Act 2 Scene 2 Lines 61-64) Macbeth asks himself if any amount of water will clean his hands of the dirty deed. He answers his own question saying that his hands will turn the oceans red from the blood. Macbeth forgets to dispose of the guards’ daggers and Lady Macbeth tells him to get rid of them fast. Macbeth refuses to return to the scene of the crime. Lady Macbeth becomes outraged and grabs the daggers herself. She smears blood on the guards and puts the blades in their sleeping hands. Macbeth shows strong...
... middle of paper ...
... a woman born.”(Act 5 Scene 7 Lines 13-15) Macduff walks in. Macduff was born by C-section and breaks the other prophecy told by the witches. Macbeth is given the chance to fight or to give up. Macbeth decides to fight knowing he will die. Macduff defeats Macbeth and cuts his head off as the prize. In the end, Macbeth no longer cared about his life or anyone else’s.
Through the different examples, it is clear to assume that Macbeth’s mental deterioration progressed from unwilling to kill, then willing to kill and live with the shame, and lastly killing without a second thought. It made Macbeth the perfect antihero of the 17th century. Just when the reader starts to like Macbeth, he turns into what he despised. Macbeth is a textbook example for the famous lines from The Dark Knight, “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
After Macbeth committed a dreadful crime at the start of the play, he realizes that by killing even more people he can get what he wants whenever he wants. Macbeth reaches a point where he is too busy fulfilling his own ambitions that he was not fulfilling his obligations as king. “Those he command move only in command, / Nothing in love…” (5.2.22-23). His obsession with power caused him to murder his good friend Banquo, and Banquo’s son. Macbeth’s out of control ambition has caused him to lose his emotion. He progressively sta...
Mental illness is a serious societal problem today, and has been for a long time. People who have a mental illness often end up hurting other people mentally and physically. When someone has a mental illness, they might also end up hurting themselves or cause suffering for themselves. Also, it is sometimes difficult for them to understand things clearly, and they might be unsure of things in their life. All of these problems are shown in a person who is mentally ill. Macbeth hears his prophecy from three witches which starts his mental illness, along with Lady Macbeth pressuring him to kill the king. After Macbeth kills the king, things start to get out of hand; Macbeth gets over ambitious and wants to kill more people, whatever it takes. Lady Macbeth asks for her womanhood to be taken so that she will not feel guilty, but ends up feeling more guilty than ever. Subsequently, she kills herself to escape the guilt, and causes her husband great pain. These tragic examples and many others show that mental illness is a societal issue, and it is shown throughout the story of Macbeth.
Immediately after the murder was committed, Macbeth was in deep distraught, regret and sadness; He could barely function and focus on the events that were transpiring after he murdered Duncan. In fact, to further prove Macbeth’s distress, he brought the murder weapons, covered in blood, with him. Macbeth was practically in shock. Additionally, Macbeth feels so regretful that as he is done washing the blood off his hands he hears a knock at the door and proceeds to say,”Wake Duncan with thy knocking: I would thou couldst…”(2:2:77). This line displays the immediate immense feelings of remorse Macbeth has inhibited. Moreover, this quotation shows his automatic feelings of regret and guilt by killing Duncan. Distinctively, whilst Macbeth’s deep feelings of distress, Lady Macbeth remains collected and pragmatic by rushing to her husband aid and quickly washing off the blood from both of their hands. Additionally, Lady Macbeth orchestrates an entire plan to create their false innocence and falsely incriminate the servants of Duncan. This shown when Macbeth has presented Lady Macbeth with the murder weapons and she proceeds to say, “Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead are but as pictures...If he do bleed, I’ll glid the faces of the grooms withal, for it must seem their
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a play centring around opposing forces trying to gain power in the succession for the throne of Scotland. Macbeth, in the beginning, is known to be a nobel 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 naïve, gullible, and vulnerable. He is vulnerable and willing to be persuaded by many characters throughout the play, his wife, the witches to name a few, this is the first sign that his mental state is not as sharp as others. One will see the deterioration of Macbeth and his mental state as the play progresses, from level headedness and undisturbed to hallucinogenic, psychopathic and narcissistic. The triggering event for his mental deterioration is caused by the greed created from the witches first prophecy, that Macbeth will become King of Scotland (I.iii.53). Because of the greed causing his mental deterioration, Macbeth’s psychosis is what caused his own demise by the end of the play. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the tragic hero Macbeth’s demise is provoked by his hallucinogenic episodes, psychopathic actions and narcissistic behaviours.
She decides that it is best to frame the murder on Duncan’s servants by smearing Duncan’s blood on them while they are intoxicated with alcohol. The metaphor “the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil” represents people fearing things that cannot hurt them. Lady Macbeth once again ridicules her husband for his current state of paralysis out of fear. Lady Macbeth needs to be strong and definite in order to embed confidence in Macbeth mind in order for the prophecy to be fulfilled. Switching from Lady Macbeth to Macbeth is an immense change in character since Macbeth feels shocked while remorseful for the action he performed. After Macbeth comes back from Duncan’s room, he is stricken with grief to the point of minor paralysis. His speech retains his weak and feminine tone of voice, but conveys a more conscience driven response, which he states, “What hands are here! Ha, they pluck out mine eyes./ Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand?” (2.2.76-79). Shakespeare employs the rhetorical device of an allusion to the play of Oedipus the King. Oedipus, the main character of the alluding play, plucks out his eyes, in guilt, because a terrible prophecy came through. Macbeth alludes to Oedipus, the main character, by stating that his hands pluck out his own eyes. This represents Macbeth taking responsibility for committing the murder of the king through his ambition and scheming wife. He feels
The fact that the blood cannot be washed from his hands is interesting. The blood of Duncan and the murder will never leave him. The blood will be a constant reminder of the evils he has committed. Not even Neptune god of the oceans can wash it away. Macbeth at this point in the play is not able to deal with guilt and murder. The thought of turning the ocean red would mean that Macbeth’s guilt will be everlasting. The water cannot cleanse him of his actions, but Lady Macbeth still says to just wash it off. In the past quote said by Macbeth with blood the idea of guilt recurred.
He is manipulated by Lady Macbeth to commit the murder of King Duncan, and Macbeth feels extreme remorse after the murder. Originally Macbeth was wavering with committing the murder. That scene contains the following quote “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man.” In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is seen as a brave and great nobleman, however, when Macbeth receives news that there is a chance for him to rise to great power he conspires to murder the current king to gain the
Once word of the demented king of Scotland reached Malcolm, one of Duncan’s sons, he and Macduff made plans to overthrow Macbeth. When Macbeth learned of the traitors, he boasted his confidence to servants and generals. The witches had filled his head with nonsense once more, including the belief that no man of woman born could kill him. While he spent his time gloating, his wife passed away, yet he held no remorse for Lady Macbeth’s death. The atrocious man moved forward into battle where his madness led him to his ultimate demise at the hand of
To begin, Macbeth loses his sense of integrity slowly throughout the play until he has none remaining. Macbeth is introduced as a valourous and successful general. His drive for power, however, causes him to taint the perfect image of himself he has created. Once the witches flaunt the idea of being king in front of the man, his natural impulse to gain power and prestige is ignited and he begins a rampage in order to achieve his goal. Its this human quest for power that causes his mind to disregard truths he once held selfevident, such as valour, loyalty and patriotism, giving way to a cruel wrath. The goal of increased power causes Macbeth’s mind to distort his morality and make diabolical deciscions, such as killing the king he once loved so dearly. Futhermore, the threat of losing power also causes Macbeth great mental distress and leads to further loss of loyalty and morality. He fears Banquo is plotting against him shortly after his coronation and hires murderers to kill his old best friend. This demonstrates Macbeth’s paranoia being placed above rationality, due to his fear of losing power. “ We have scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it;”(III,ii,15). This quotation demonstrates Macbeth’s desire to hold on to his fleeting power by illustrating that he does not feel safe in his current position. He is prepared to defy his moral compass and loyalty and kill those he loves...
Macbeth is captured by his wild ambition at the opening of the play when he and Banqou meet the three witches. The witches tell Macbeth that he is the Thane of Cawdor, and later will be king. They tell Banquo that his sons will be kings. Instantly Macbeth started to fantasize how he is going to be king. He understood that in order for him to become king he has to kill Duncan. “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical”(Act 1 Sc. 3, p.23). He was pondering about the assassination until the moment that he could no longer control his emotions. “To prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself and falls on the other-“(Act 1 Sc. 7, p.41). Because of his “vaulting ambition” he killed Duncan.
He no longer is the innocent soldier he once way, he now has “unclean hands”. Lady Macbeth however, assumes his innocence. She claims she cannot murder Duncan herself because Duncan looks to much like her sleeping father. She is all words and no actions. Macbeth is devoid of any human emotions as the play goes on, and Lady Macbeth assumes the emotional role. Lady Macbeth begins to have dreams in which she cannot get the blood off her hands, and ultimately commits suicide from guilt of her actions. This breakdown of Lady Macbeth really highlights how inhuman the murder of Duncan has made Macbeth.
People are innately “good”– it is circumstance that has the transformative ability to twist commendable qualities into fatal flaws. Such is similar for Macbeth, as he too is a victim of fate – left vulnerable by the exploits of the supernatural, his wife, and most tragically, his own fatal flaw. Lady Macbeth effectively summarizes her husband’s downfall as a direct result of his ambition, as Macbeth “wouldst be great... not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it” (1.5.17-19). Readers witness how Macbeth “catches” evil as one would catch a disease; his symptoms develop through his corrupt rise to power, as he reigns with a decreasing hope of cure until his inevitable death. Although Macbeth 's monumental downfall is largely influenced through manipulation, it is ultimately his own hamartia and corruption of power that leads to his demise.
He also orders all his soldiers to attack the wood (macduff’s soldiers, V, vii, 46-53) and he fights Macduff but Macduff says he was born by a c-section and not by a woman (V, vii, 41-45). Macbeth fights to the death but is beheaded by Macduff as the witches said he would. (V, vii, 82-83).
Throughout the play Shakespeare developed Macbeth into a cold and depressed man. In the beginning Shakespeare developed Macbeth into a brave and loyal man. After the witches tell him of the prophecies Macbeth was convinced by his wife to kill Duncan. After this Macbeth starts to lose it by going crazy by seeing 3 apparitions then a row of kings(p125 sn1 lines 77-140). Shakespeare has turned the character of Macbeth totally around. Toward the end of the play when Macbeth starts to get things together he learns that he is going to be invaded by Malcolm, Donnalban, and Macduff. His wife also commits suicide. After hearing this he starts to treat his servants cold heartedly and then said "She should have died hereafter. There would have been a time for such a word.
Duncan is the most unlikely character to be killed because of his personality, but his title as King of Scotland, causes for Macbeth to loathe Duncan. In the play there is very little interaction between Macbeth and Duncan, showing the little time in which Macbeth gets more power. Prior to the witches’ prophecies Macbeth is loyal to Duncan, and would never imagine killing him. After the one of the witches’ prophecies comes to be true, the thought of killing Duncan, Macbeth "yield[s] to that suggestion / whose horrid image doth unfix my hair / and make my seated heart knock at my ribs" (1.3.146-148). Partly because of Lady Macbeth’s suggestion his "vaulting ambition" is starting to take over, and he begins to take into consideration killing Duncan, to become king. Macbeth however, does not feel comfortable in killing Macbeth, giving himself reasons why not to kill Duncan: “First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself,” (I, vii, 13-16) Lady Macbeth, convinces Macbeth, that killing Duncan is the right thing to do until right before he performs the murder. We learn from this murder that Macbeth truly had faith in the king and was very loyal, but knowing that one day he would become king, his ambition and the persuasion of Lady Macbeth, causes him to perform the act, that he will regret. This murder changes Macbeth as a person, however, and he soon feels little regret for killing King Duncan, but this act will soon aid in his downfall.