The characters searching for power in Macbeth show us through their actions that the decisions we make determine our destiny.
The choices that Macbeth makes during his pursuit for power ultimately result in his descent into madness. This all begins when he meets the witches at the beginning of the play. “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! All hail, Macbeth! That shalt be king hereafter!” (Act 1 Scene 3 Ln: 51-53). By choosing to believe what the witches preach, Macbeth takes destiny into his own hands. Every decision he makes from this point on is so that he can take over the kingship and retain this position. The witches drive Macbeth into creating his own destiny by planting the idea that he is going to be the king into his head. Once he gets it in his head that he is going to be the king, he will stop at nothing to make it happen. After Macbeth has killed King Duncan and become the king, he still has the threat of Banquo’s line of kings looming around him. Even though Banquo is one of Macbeth’s friends he decides Banquo needs to be killed. Macbeth is so controlling of his own destiny that he doesn’t want to leave anything up to chance. He won’t leave his fate in the hands of anyone else. He decides that he is going to kill people in order to solidify his kingship. “So is he mine (enemy), and in such bloody distance that every minute of his being thrusts against my near’st of life.” (Act 3 Scene 1 Ln:
The character Macbeth in the story of Shakespeare’s Macbeth faces decisions that affect his morals. He begins as an innocent soul, dedicated to serve his kingdom and its king, Duncan. As time passes and opportunities present themselves combined with the deception of the evil witches, Macbeth begins his descent into madness. Macbeth’s innocence and loyalty are completely corrupted due to his over confidence, guilty conscience, and the inevitability of human nature. Macbeth looses sight of what is morally right to do in life because his logical choices are changed by these factors.
The play of Macbeth is all about power and greed. It is about ambition overriding inhibitions and the conscience of a good man. We know that most people consider Macbeth to be a good and a brave man at the start of the book, for example King Duncan himself refers to him as “O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman!” He is admired for his skills in battle by everyone. It is hard to say what driving force underlies the events of the story, and it is equally hard to know what emotions or convictions drove the characters to do what they did. Parts of the text give us detail and insight as to the relation and power balance in the marriage of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, this can be interpreted and used to try to
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the influence of two different forces cause the main character, Macbeth, to be torn between his desire for power and his sense of loyalty to his king and country. Macbeth already holds a place of power when the play begins, being the thane of Glamis, and later gains power as the thane of Kordor, given to him by his gracious king Duncan. However, when his fortune is told by three witches who told him he will be king, instead of being gracious for what the king has already given him, he thirst for even more power. These split in Macbeth’s desires drives the idea that seeking to much power is more harmful than good.
At this point you can say that Macbeth’s ambition took over his actions completely. His obsession with power led him to think that murder was the only answer. First he killed Duncan, the King, his own blood. Then he had to eliminate the threat so he killed his partner in battle, Banquo, because he knew about the prophecy and he knew that Macbeth would stop at nothing to get to the throne. Macbeth also tried to kill Banquo’s son, Fleance, because the prophecy stated that he was going to be future royalty, but he escaped.
In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, changes happen. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a well liked and good man of Scotland, who turns into an evil, cold hearted, murderer by the end. His rewards and punishments could have been predetermined by fate, but the actions he took to get to get those rewards and punishments were determined by Macbeth’s free will. In Macbeth, he attempts to control the future and hide the past by listening to other people and committing multiple murders of innocent people.
Macbeth is victorious; he has just returned from the battle ground as a brutal warrior; courageous, but what is more, heroic. At this point in the play, Macbeth's reputation is rapidly growing with the rampant spread of the word of his good deeds at war. This climaxes when his actions are acknowledged and rewarded by the title given to him by King Duncan,
Fate is one person's destiny, it cannot be understood by mere mortals but a greater power beyond human comprehension. Fate is so powerful that it controls a person's outcome on life before it happens. Many people become victims of fate in which they catch a glimpse of what their future is going to look like, but do not totally grasp the outcome. Macbeth cannot fully comprehend the possible outcome of his fate because he is mortal, and therefore is a victim to his power driven quest and his ultimate fate. Many have been said to agree with this statement. For example, as stated in Shakespeare A to Z, "The Witches are an enactment of the irrational. The supernatural world if terrifying because it is beyond human control, and in the play it is
"is this a dagger which I see before me, let me clutch thee." (II, i)
During several soliloquies and asides Macbeth expresses his "black and deep desires" (1.5.51) to become King and gradually overcomes his moral reluctance and foreboding long enough to kill Duncan. The independence of Macbeth in this decision is best described when he states:
His desire to stay in power overcomes him as he realizes that Banquo’s son may take his place. Shakespeare reveals Macbeth’s feelings about his best friend after becoming king in another soliloquy: “To be thus is nothing; but to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo stick deep, and in his royalty of nature reigns that which would be fear’d…” (3.1.48-51). Macbeth’s fears of Banquo are expressed, and it all started because he heard that prophecy about Banquo. Macbeth does not see much point in becoming king if he in not “safely thus”. In order to preserve his power, he feels the need to sacrifice other people’s lives. The murderous path he has chosen will only lead him to death, as people will find out and kill him for it, contributing to the theme that death is inevitable. In conclusion, Macbeth’s desire to stay in power is what made him choose to take another life; however, if it was not for the witches, he would not have felt a need to carry out any of the deeds he has done.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth details the outside entities which hold complete influence in the title character’s rise to the Scottish throne and his following demise, ultimately arguing that we have no power to create our own destiny in the real world.
reference to Act 1 Scenes 5, 6 and 7 and Act II scene 1. Also, I
If you know the story of Macbeth, you know he was a noble soldier, until 3 witches came and visited him telling him he was going to be the next king. To become the next king he had to get rid of the king ruling in his place, Duncan. Macbeth’s wife, Lady Macbeth came up with the idea to kill him. Any man or woman in their right mind would be against killing another human being. But when asked if he was a man, he decided to go with the plan. Once becoming king he became paranoid: “Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep’, the innocent sleep” (1.2.45). Madness could be a good reason to lose all your marbles. Ambition, paranoia, and pure fear.
Macbeth tells the story of a Scottish thane, who, after receiving prophecies from witches, murders the King he was once loyal to and ascends to the throne with the pressure of his wife, Lady Macbeth. Macbeth’s desire to maintain his imperial authority leads to countless deaths and murders to suppress potential challengers, but the witches soon return, with prophecies suggesting his imminent downfall. The story of Macbeth is one of guilt, corruption, greed and ambition, and one that challenges the way we look at life in the eleventh century.
So it was there sitting around this long medieval table. Macbeth ", hallucination." Lady Macbeth, trying to hide her relationship with this whole issue. I, holding him together, but dying almost on hold, enjoying the wine with my cup, shows the situation in a nutshell.