In the suspenseful drama The Tragedy of Macbeth, William Shakespeare tells a tale of an overly ambitious nobleman’s sinful rise to power and his dreadful, deadly downfall. Macbeth, the main character and antagonist, begins the drama as a loyal captain. Duncan, the King of Scotland, praises Macbeth, declaring him as a “worthy gentleman” (I.ii.24). Later, three unnamed witches appear to Macbeth and his loyal friend Banquo, and the witches prophetically greet Macbeth as Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and King hereafter. Of the bold, unsettling statement, only one is currently true about Macbeth, but the proclamation lights the fuse to a ticking time bomb of vaulting ambition in Macbeth. Lady Macbeth aids in her husband’s vaulting ambition, his hamartia, or fatal flaw, by encouraging him to murder Duncan while he is sleeping in their castle at Inverness. After the murder, the King’s two sons flee, establishing them as the first suspects and leaving the throne wide open to Macbeth. Macbeth becomes paranoid and answers any possible threat to his throne in blood, which is apparent in his murderous actions against Banquo after the witches say he “shalt get kings, though thou be none” (I.iii.67). Macbeth feels the only way to avoid this prophecy was to kill Banquo and his son Fleance, who was able to escape the murder unlike his father. After a guest appearance by the ghost of Banquo at a dinner banquet, Macbeth visits the witches. The witches inform Macbeth to beware Macduff, a nobleman opposed to Macbeth’s rule, that he is unable to be harmed by any man born of woman, and that he is safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane. Macbeth successfully orders the murder of Macduff’s family. Then, Macduff joins forces with one of Duncan’s son... ... middle of paper ... ...ady Macbeth’s fabrication ultimately bails Macbeth out of such out of the ordinary gestures. Macbeth seems to have a terrible, natural, chronic fit, but he really is reacting under the power of guilt he derives from the murder of Banquo. Overall, Macbeth appears to be a helpful and supportive friend to Banquo, but he turns out to be the sole root of his death. In Macbeth, Shakespeare combines appearance versus reality and the supernatural events of the witches, the floating dagger, and Banquo’s ghost to lead to Macbeth’s death. The witches’ predictions appear comforting and eventually display harmful traits that lead the way to death. The floating dagger and the ghost of Banquo both appear real to Macbeth, but the delusional Macbeth’s violent imagination produces them. Out-of-this-world occurrences have the complete and absolute ability to shape one’s worldly life.
Macbeth’s ambition is to remain king for as long as possible and he will kill anybody who stops this from happening. Macbeth feels as if he was given a childless rule, and that his legacy will not continue on in fears his rule will be taken away by someone outside his family. Macbeth states, “For Banquo’s issue, I have filed my mind; For them the gracious Duncan have I murder 'd, put rancors in the vessel of my peace only for them, and mine eternal jewel given to the common enemy of man. to make them kings, the seeds of Banquo kings”(Shakspeare 3.1.64-69). Macbeth had committed murder, poisoned his own mind, and destroyed his soul only to end up benefiting Banquo’s heirs. Macbeth, being the paranoid character that he is, feels threatened by this and orders both Banquo and Fleance to be killed. In Act 3, Macbeth says that, “and mine eternal jewel, given to the common enemy of man, to make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!” (Shakspeare 3.1.67-9). Seeing this choice of act, leads Macbeth’s blind ambition doing all he can, in order to remain where he is, even if he is ‘blind’ to what it going on and fails to truly understand the concept of his choices in killing Banquo, which only further deteriorates his mind because of his thirst for power, causing
In the play Macbeth, Macbeth and Banquo are good friends, and even after hearing the prophecy told by the Three Witches, they only laugh and joke about their individual prophecies. It is only after Macbeth kills Duncan that the thought of having to kill Banquo in order to secure his place and his bloodline on the throne ever crosses his mind. After killing Duncan, Macbeth was initially struck by grief and remorse, but when it came to killing Banquo, Macbeth had shown no real signs of guilt for it (there is even speculation that the third, secret hitman was actually Macbeth himself!). After killing Banquo, Macbeth had visions of Banquo as a ghost, but no real signs of grief as he had with Duncan. He seems more troubled over the fact that the murderers he had hired hadn’t been able to kill Banquo’s son, Fleance.
During the rising action of the play, Macbeth commits a series of murders to not only inherit the throne but to also stay on the throne. In fact. after the nobles and Lennox have come to a conclusion that Macbeth commits the regicide of Duncan, the noble expresses his feelings towards the situation, " The son of Duncan, From whom this tyrant holds due to birth," (3.6. 25-26). Due to Macbeth's actions, all the respect and support from the nobles have been lost because they begin to illustrate Macbeth as a "tyrant" thus emphasizing that all his supports are against him now. In addition after Banquo was murdered, Macbeth start seeing the ghost of Banquo and he yells out, " Thou canst you say I did it: never shake/ Thy gory lock at me." (3.4.63-64).
The Play “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare is shaped by supernatural forces with the use of the weird witches, the apparition of the ghost, and the floating dagger. These forces lead Macbeth to act in the way he did and add suspense to the play. The play opens with the three witches, and later on Macbeth and Banquo encounter them. They prophesized that Macbeth will be promoted to Thane of Cawdor, and then become King of Scotland. In addition to that, Banquo was told that his sons shall be kings, but never himself. Macbeth was skeptical about the prophesies, but until some of King Duncan’s men came to inform Macbeth that that he was to be named Thane of Cawdor due to the betrayal of the previous and condemned to death. Then Lady Macbeth comes up with the idea to murder King Duncan and take their place of kingship as prophesized. She persuades Macbeth to kill him that very night and he is led by a floating dagger to do the evil deed. Fearful of the witches’ prediction that Banquo’s sons will seize the throne, Macbeth hired murders to kill Banquo and his son Fleance and the boy escapes. Later that night Banquo’s ghost appears at Macbeth’s dinner. In the second encounter with the witches, they warn Macbeth of Macduff, and tell him no women born will harm him, and about moving trees. These events are lead by the supernatural, and lead to the fall of Macbeth.
Macbeth was truly a compassionate, brave and trustworthy man as he held only the title of thane of Glamis; however, soon after his encounter with the witches he gained the title of thane of Cawdor. With his new title in tow, the man that had once been a hero became power-hungry and greedy. Nevertheless, once he saw one of his three prophecies become true, he wrote to his devoted wife to inform her of the good news. It was at that point when the two began to conspire for power.
In Shakespeare’s tragedy entitled, Macbeth, the main character, Macbeth, has his life taken over in an internal struggle through his guilt and conscience of bloody hands; where he sees a dagger in his soliloquy hallucinates of Banquo’s ghost and imagines voices. Banquo and his son Fleance walk in the halls of Macbeth’s castle, where they suddenly encounter each other. Banquo, baffled that Macbeth is still awake late in the night, tells Macbeth that the king is asleep and that he had a dream of the “three weird sisters.” Macbeth, playing forgetful, says he forgot about the three witches and that they would discuss the matter at a later time; Banquo and Fleance leave and Macbeth begins to hallucinate. Macbeth envisions the dagger in front of him floating in the air, questioning whether it is real or a figment of his imagination.
After murdering Duncan, Macbeth feels that he needs to kill Banquo. He is afraid that Banquo is going to be a problem for him. He is suspicious that Banquo believes Macbeth had something to do with Duncan's murder, "Our fears in Banquo/ Stick deep; and in his royalty of nature/ Reigns that which would be feared" (3.1.47-49). He plans to kill him, though Banquo has made no direct threat against Macbeth. He speaks of feeling inferior to Banquo, even though he is king. "There is none but he/ Whose being I do fear; and under him/ My genius is rebuked" (3.1.53-55). Banquo is Macbeth's closest friend, he is starting to lose trust in everyone around him.
We can see who motivates the action of the plot while under the influence of the supernatural. The supernatural also augments the impact of many key scenes while we have a sense of character traits. With supernatural in many key scenes, characters will often get a better visual sense of what's next. Lady Macbeth shows that she doesn’t care about anything other than power. She shows how heartless she is by influencing Macbeth to kill all his loyal friends. This quote states precisely this, "It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great”(i.v, 16-17). As depicted, Lady Macbeth is a malicious and manipulative mastermind. She conceives the entire plan and hashes out details before Macbeth decides whether to go forward with the plan. In contrast Banquo had shown clear interest in the prophecies. However, he still believed friendship was more important. Banquo is shown as a sympathetic figure, as he knew of what the audience knows concerning the murder of the king and his own depending fate. He expects Macbeth to reward him in return. Finally it's important to understand Macbeth's character traits. He is the main character who created every action of the plot. Macbeth is introduced in the play as a warrior hero, whose fame on the battlefield wins him great honor. However, by act two, we can see his mind is unclear and easily persuaded to do evil
Macbeth has changed dramatically as a character throughout the play. Macbeth was tortured with remorse after Duncan’s murder but upon hearing of Banquo’s successful assassination he is elated. His vaulting ambition was driving him to extreme measures and he could do nothing to abate it. Macbeth had risked his life to attain the throne and he had no choice but to employ Machiavellian practices to retain it. The appearance of Banquo’s ghost at the royal banquet horrifies Macbeth. Shakespeare brilliantly uses irony to make Banquo’s emergence very dramatic:
Does this country’s bad luck ever seem to end? Just as we were starting to come to terms with the death of Great King Duncan we seem to be faced with yet another drama and a crisis. Insiders claim that the freshly appointed King Macbeth has been diagnosed with a serious mental illness. If that is the case than this might answer some of the peculiar rumours that have been surfacing around about the King and his beloved wife Lady Macbeth.
But he wont, so she insults him more, and goes to do it herself. Lady Macbeth was the initial force to make this entire play roll along. Macbeth was comfortable where he was, he was curious about the fact the witches stated, but he didn't want to force it to work. After Lady Macbeth's help in the killing of Duncan, the only influence she has upon him is to keep everything to themselves. At the party after Banquo's murder, Lady Macbeth tries to calm Macbeth, and tell him that what he sees is only an illusion, and not to worry about Banquo, and to shut up because his fit may show everyone that they are the murders of Duncan and Banquo.
Macbeth decides to pointlessly murder Macduff’s family even though they were not mentioned in the prophecy. The witches told Macbeth he could not change fate, yet he continued to try and challenge it. This shows how desperate Macbeth is to secure his power. Macbeth’s battle with Macduff reflects the battle between good and evil and his tyranny is also a major cause of conflict between good and evil.
Macbeth’s ambition to obtain power convinces him that it is his destiny to become King of Scotland, and that he should do anything to fulfill that destiny, even if it involves him committing tremendously immoral acts such as murder. After Macbeth realizes that the witches may actually speak the truth due to the second prophecy (Thane of Cawdor) becoming true, he begins to have an eerie and frightening thought of him killing his king and friend, Duncan, in order to ac...
...gicality and eagerness which leads his arrogant action to result in his demise. Banquo is much more wary about the prophecies given to both Macbeth and Banquo that appear to be really good for both of them. Macbeth is motivated by the gratifying appearance of the prophecies to act upon the possibility of the prophecies coming true. This gives him a false sense of security because he is tempted with the fact that these prophecies could quite possibly be the truth. This is want ultimately gives Macbeth the motivation to execute his arrogant actions. He is under the impression that his actions could in no way fail because the supernatural tells him he will get the power he seeks.
William Shakespeare's Macbeth To a certain extent this statement can be considered to be true,