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Control In Macbeth

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The character arcs of Shakespeare’s Macbeth were written over four centuries ago, yet its themes and morals presented in the 1600’s still carry weight in the second millennium. To scholars of his work, Shakespeare’s infamous tragedy is considered something of a social commentary upon the political and philosophical practices of the Jacobean period when it was written. One of the many themes addressed in the play is how the combined forces of unchecked power and ambition can lead to an immoral shift in a person’s mentality. Macbeth is the prime example of this theme all throughout the play from the very first mentioning of his character. Although the character of Macbeth is influenced by a variety of differing personalities and entities in the play, he carries the ultimate control over his own behavior and his actions, and as a result Macbeth controls the central conflict of the story. The …show more content…

All of these actions performed by Macbeth are done by his free will, and are motivators to all of the major conflicts in the play, therefore making the character of Macbeth the spearhead of action in the drama.
Some would consider the witches in Macbeth the controllers of conflict in the play, but they are nothing more than mere catalysts to Macbeth’s downward spiral into madness, which in turn causes the conflict. From his first encounter with the Weird Sisters, he is noticeably fascinated with the idea of gaining power, and once seemingly cheated out of his prophecy by King Duncan’s son, Malcolm, he goes forward and plots the death

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