Examples Of Nihilism In Macbeth

Macbeth's solution of killing his current problem finalizes his actions of immorality as well as his foil found in Banquo. Even after his death, Banquo is able to keep his integrity and use it to punish, or even remind, Macbeth of his moral supremacy. Banquo returns, as a ?horrible shadow,? to haunt Macbeth at a feast and successfully does so to the point of 'unreal mock'ry' (III.iv), certainly driving Macbeth?s darkness into a phase of decay, leading to further irrationality. This continued irrationality is the cause of yet another stockpile of dead bodies, revealing Macbeth?s inability to cope in his dark

Macbeth is of a brave and capable warrior initially the first time that we see him. However, once we see Macbeth and the three witches together, we begin to realize that his physical courage is joined by a consuming mind boggling ambition and a tendency to self-doubt. The crusade’s mission is to place the rightful king, Malcolm, on the throne, but Macduff also desires vengeance for Macbeth’s murder of Macduff’s wife and young son. Macbeth is easily tempted into murder to fulfill his ambitions to the throne. Once he commits his first crime and is crowned King of Scotland. When Macduff finds out that Macbeth killed Duncan he plans to kill Macbeth and take his head to Malcolm. Banquo helped Duncan to claim victory over Norway and to become the Thane of Cawdor. They all are loyal to Duncan at some point, although Macduff and Banquo are doing the right things for Duncan, Macbeth is thinking of himself and is doing things so he will be the new King of Scotland. Macbeth is the play’s villain because he is betraying Duncan and trying to hide everything so he will be king.

Macbeth murders many to gain power. He causes the suffering of families and murders former friends. The violence starts with the murder of the king, Duncan, who’d trusted and honored Macbeth; Macbeth kills him to gain the position of king. Duncan’s death is the catalyst; Macbeth subsequently begins to use violence as a regular way to attain power. He murders his former friend, Banquo, refusing to accept that Banquo’s sons will be kings as prophesized by the witches. He says in regard to the prophecy, “Rather than so, come fate into the list, / And champion me to th' utterance.” Instead of accepting fate, he challenges the prophecy and orders Banquo’s death. His final homicide is the massacre of Lord Macduff’s family. When Macduff hears of the brutal slaughter, he cries, “That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on, / And would not take their

In the play, Macbeth was a man who had shown very little mercy to friends let alone his foes. After killing Duncan to become King, he had hired assassins to go and kill Banquo and his son so that he could secure his reign. Banquo was a close friend of Macbeth, they had gone to war together, lived together, fought together and without a second thought, Macbeth has put a death warrant on Banquo and his son’s head. Here Macbeth shows his newly developed uncompassionate character as he does not care about Banquo and their friendship. “ Rather than so, come fate into the list, And champion me that’ utterance.” Here we can see Macbeth speak about the prophecy and how he realises he let go of his morality but for “ Banquo’s seeds” Macbeth not only showed a lack of compassion towards his best friend but also to other characters such as

After everyone has found out that the king is dead Banquo suspects Macbeth of doing something to make the witches predictions that they ways saying to become true. At that time Macbeth is king so he turns on his best friend Banquo and has him and all of his family including Fleance killed because he was the only person there when the predictions of Macbeth becoming king and also the witches said that Banquos son Fleance would become king too. So this shows that that Macbeth is getting over protective of his crown to the throne so he will do anything to stop people becoming king. So he will kill he’s best friend and his family only because the three withes said that predictions of Macbeth becoming king. So Macbeth is going into a downward spiral towards great darkness and becoming ever more evil from every action he makes and does to protect the crown.

         Towards the end of the play, once Macbeth’s wife has died and the battle is drawing closer, Macbeth shows the desire for some good that may have been.  He wishes for a normal life in which he would have lived to an honorable age, but he recognizes that he has deprived himself of this.   Even when Macbeth hears that the prophecy of Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane has been fulfilled, he rejects this idea and fights on until he realizes that Macduff wasn’t born in a natural birth but instead was "untimely ripped"(V.viii.19-20) from his mother’s womb.  When Macbeth hears of this, he realizes what dastardly deeds he has done and how he has underestimated the power of the witches. He fights on, knowing it is only a matter of time before he is slain.

Coincidentally, Duncan, honoring the hero, decides to stay at Macbeth’s castle overnight. Lady Macbeth believes that this is a perfect opportunity given by fate to kill Duncan and usurp his power. Exhibiting extreme ambition and masculinity, Lady Macbeth orchestrates the entire scheme and persuades her husband into committing evil deeds, chiding him for behaving like a feminine and coward. Macbeth eventually yields to his wife’s pressure and manipulation. After the murder is discovered, Malcolm and Donalbain, Duncan’s sons, flee to England and Ireland, respectively, while Macbeth assumes a dictatorial sovereignty of Scotland. Macbeth, however, becomes insecure about his power, for the witches have prophesied that Banquo’s descendants will be kings and Macduff, another Scottish nobleman in England, may threaten him. Hence, the vicious tyrant assassinates Banquo and Macduff’s family. As a result, Macduff, with aids from Malcolm and England, vows to retaliate against Macbeth. Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth is greatly agonized by guilt, sleepwalking, rubbing her hands as if trying to wash away the bloodstains, and finally committing suicide. The downfall of Macbeth immediately succeeds when the English army invades his castle and is marked by Macduff outplaying Macbeth in a fierce

When she commits suicide, however; Macbeth declares “Life’s but a walking shadow.” (V:v, 24). His expression denotes how insignificant and empty life is. At this point, Macbeth is on the verge of falling apart. His experience differs from the beginning of the tragedy producing a major personality transformation.

Banquo’s ambition is unlike Macbeths and Lady Macbeths, his ambition does not drive him to kill. His ambition is he wants his son to become king, and he wants his son’s son to become king and so on. He does not quite know how to make his ambition successful but he knows that it is not worth killing for. Macbeth becomes jealous of Banquo’s ambition and Macbeths ambition drives him tell people to kill Banquo.

Macbeth is at first incredibly affected by the guilt he feels from his actions, but his mind makes him become numb to it in order to deal with it; eventually making him become cruel and insane. This insanity causes imaginary objects to seem real to him. He ends up firmly believing in the existence of multiple images fabricated by his mind. In the second act he sees “A dagger of the mind, a false creation” and says that “I have thee not, and yet I see thee still” (2.1.35-38). Also, he sees the ghost of Banquo in the third act and speaks to it, making exclamations such as “Let the earth hide thee! / Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold” (3.4.93-94). This blurs the line between real and imaginary. It is difficult for Macbeth to tell whether something that seems real actually is or is not. This shows that things can seem perfectly corporeal and obviously real, yet not be at all. His numbness also leads to changing opinions. He starts to question if what he has believed is actually true and determines that some of it is not. He states that “Life’s but a walking shadow. . . a tale / Told by an idiot. . . Signifying nothing” (5.5.24-28). Life is always described as unique and beautiful, or a wonderful adventure, and ambitious Macbeth seemed to hold those opinions at the start of the play. However, by the end, he no longer believed that: he regarded life as a worthless chore. Life had always seemed to him to be one way, but eventually proved to be entirely different. The guilt Macbeth harbors and the insanity that is produced from it elucidate the concept that not everything is as it

/Upon first exposure to Macbeth, appear words of of “”. Duncan’s praise of “a worthy gentleman” illustrates aggression and violence being criteria for the ideal male, and as such, Macbeth fits within the idealized masculine sphere.

Shakespeare’s characterization of Macbeth and his consequences reveals his warning about ambitions and its downfalls. Macbeth begins as a noble man who’s ambition ruins him and his true self, leading to his inevitable death. In Act I, Shakespeare presents Macbeth as an accomplished man whose lust for more is fueled by his wife’s ambitions. At this point in the play, Lady Macbeth commonly challenges his masculinity to drive his ambition to kill King Duncan and acclaim the throne of Scotland: “Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour as thou art desire?” (P. 29). Conversely, by Act III, Macbeth’s ambition is self-driven because of the prophecy making him loses his sense of morality, and become corrupt. One such action is the murder of Banquo, Macbeth’s “noble partner” (P. 17): “Who wear our health but sickly in his life, which his death were prefect” (P. 56). Banquo’s murder serves as the beginning of Macbeth’s crumbling edifice, as for each murder he commits, he falls deeper into the world of deception.

Following a prophecy, Macbeth and his wife made sure to make the prediction from the witches come true. Once a king, he seemed to have had it all, until his wife ends up committing suicide. When Macbeth is notified, he seems to be plunged into a somewhat state of misery. As seen in act 5, scene 5, Macbeth expresses his sorrow by saying, “ Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale… signifying nothing.” In a way, I believe that in those words, Macbeth was reflecting back on his journey as a ruler. The poor player is himself, who got his own hour upon the stage, or the throne, and now his time is coming to an end, leaving him with nothing. Unlike Richard II, Macbeth is not acceptable towards being defeated, and keeps fighting back until he is eventually killed, because to him it was better to die fighting than to have his reign taken from

It isn’t until he reaches rock bottom that his true existential colors show. When his wife dies, he comes to terms with the futility of all his pain and suffering. All his risk-taking and mental turmoil turns to dust in the wind when his wife dies in vain and his own impending death is on the horizon. He realizes how short life truly is: “Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player/ That struts and frets his hour upon the stage/ And then is heard no more: it is a tale/… Signifying nothing” (Shakespeare V. v. p. 77). Finally, Macbeth accepts his actions:

Several main betrayals of faith occurred throughout the play, such as Macbeth’s attempt on Banquo and his son’s lives showing his infidelity to his longstanding friendship with Banquo. Lady Macbeth was not free from this trend of disloyalty, either. She took part in tempting Macbeth into killing Duncan, the main betrayal of the entire play, which demonstrated her favoring power over her love for her husband. Each of these evil acts was of complete opposition to the natural acts of humanity. Extreme immorality does not come from simply human thought; the idea must be planted into the mind of a human and grown through temptation. The witches’ prophecy for Macbeth, as