The theme of fate is consistently present throughout the entire play, that it actually applies to multiple characters. Macbeth’s tragic flaw would be that he lets others control his fate, constantly in Macbeth. He allows his wife to persuade him into an act of treason, which leads to both of their deaths. Whereas, guilt would be a feeling equivalent to doing something. Lady Macbeth possesses an ambitious flaw, in her plan to kill Duncan.
This deception is evident soon after when Banquo is concerned about the witches trying “to win us harm. / The instruments of darkness tell us truths /... ... middle of paper ... ...ower illustrate that even at the root of even the noblest man, can lie chaos and terror. In an ironic twist near the end of the play, Macbeth laments life and at the same time provides a perfect description of his own: “It is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing” (V. v. 29-31). Although Macbeth has strived to become king, in reality his power was nothing but an illusion, created by his twisted fantasies and the sin residing within him. Works Cited Pilkington, Elaine.
The witches play a brief, yet important role in Macbeth’s fate. At the beginning of the play, the witches deliver a prophecy to Macbeth stating that Macbeth is the Thane of Glamis, and he will become the Thane of Cawdor and the King of Scotland. At first, Macbeth is humbled by this news. However, the prophecies give him false hope, overconfidence and much temptation and ambition to become King. This is exhibited when Macbeth writes a letter to his wife about the witches prophecies in which he says, “My dearest partner of greatness,/ that thou might’st not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being/ ignorant of what greatness is promised thee.” (1.5.10-12).
It is continually building up until the end, when all the evil is unleashed upon the world. This song connects to the play because when Macbeth hears about the witches’ prophecies, something evil is born in him. He starts thinking about killing King Duncan and having horrid images of him doing it. His thoughts when he heard the prophecies were: “If good, why do I yield to that suggestion/Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair/And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,/Against the use of nature? Present fears/Are less than horrible imaginings./My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,/Shakes so my single state of man” (act 1, scene 3, lines 138-143).
In the play Macbeth, the main character, Macbeth transforms from a gallant war hero to a tyrannical murderer. As soon as Macbeth enters this life filled with tyranny his fate is doomed to a tragic downfall. Throughout the play, Shakespeare makes Macbeth responsible for his actions but Shakespeare also uses other characters as influences upon him which gives the character of Macbeth only partial responsibility for what he has done. In the scenes which lead up to the murder of Duncan, Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth as an unnatural being with a strong influence on Macbeth who drives Macbeth to his fatal flaw which is similar to the witches in the beginning of the play. In order to gain control over Macbeth, Lady Macbeth questions his masculinity in Act 5 Scene 1.
This essay will examine to what extent Macbeth is truly responsible for his actions, and equally to what extent the audience perceives him as a tragic hero. The first scene begins with the witches making mysterious predictions about their future meeting with Macbeth, ‘when the battles lost and won’, immediately creating a sense of uncertainty and suggesting that events can be interpreted in different ways. This intrigues and even frightens the audience, possibly... ... middle of paper ... ...rders Duncan, but I feel most importantly, that it is only due to outside forces that firstly the prospect of murder arises, and secondly he ends up committing it in the last, and continuing in the way he did. After the first murder, Macbeth acts of his own accord and loses, to an extent, the audiences’ sympathy. Macbeth appears to have suffered to a large extent, after his effective fall from grace.
Tell me more… Say from whence You owe this strange intelligence or why Upon this blasted heath you stop our way With such prophetic greeting. Speak, I charge you.” (Act 1.3. 72-81). He slowly begins to believe the witches and their stories, showing how gullible he is for the power that he is told will soon be his. Onward into the play, as many deaths occur and the prophecy begins to unfold in Macbeth’s favor, he starts to worry and suspect Macduff.
This voluntary misinterpretation, committed in pursuit of power, leads Macbeth to perform certain actions which result in the death of the king, Macbeth's friends, and eventually his own death. From the beginning of the play, Macbeth desires great power. Lady Macbeth's statement to Macbeth that "When you durst do it, then you were a man;" (I.vii.55) suggests that she and Macbeth have contemplated and possibly committed murder for the sake of advancement before. Macbeth provides further support for this in his reaction to the witches' prophecy that he will be king. After Macbeth is made Thane of Cawdor, he realizes that the witches were right, and immediately begins to ponder the other part of their prophecy.
But after three witches give him a prophecy, he starts to betray other characters and becomes an evil malicious man. Therefore, by betraying others he is being scurrilous to his sense of humanity and how others view him. Macbeth’s betrayal of Duncan is the first major form of betrayal portrayed in the play. In short, Duncan trusts Macbeth full-heartedly, and Macbeth stabs him in the back. He does this because he is too malcontent with how he is currently living and is allured by the thought of what Duncan has: power.
A tragic hero should at some point reach the top of Fortune’s Wheel, but land up at the bottom by the end of the tragedy due to the continual change of fate. Macbeth fits the description of being a tragic hero, displaying his strengths, his weaknesses, his tragic flaw, and how influential outside influences are on him. Lady Macbeth is delineated as the villain in Macbeth because of her evil, mischievous, formidable temperament. Lady Macbeth is in a position to simply manipulate her husband whereas Macbeth solely thinks he's doing the heroic factor to become king. Macbeth is a tragic hero who causes suffering by committing murder and distress, exemplifying the negative effects of a bloodthirsty desire for power.