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Examples Of Greed In Macbeth

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Blood, deceit, and greed are common occurrences in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The witches that Macbeth meets begin to set up his end. Lady Macbeth continues the trend by pushing him forward. Macbeth in the end is the only one that can decide his faith. The great and powerful Macbeth unholy end can be chalked up to the forces and the ones he holds close. While it seems that his downfall can be many different things, everything can be summed up into three reasons. Since the beginning of the play, the audience has known that the Weird Sisters that Macbeth meets had a plan for him. A plan which they did not need any hands on action on their part. Once the witches tell Macbeth his destiny in the first act saying, “that shalt be King hereafter” they …show more content…

Once Lady Macbeth is given the messages about Macbeth’s future and the arrival of Ducan, she makes a plan for “she knows immediately that murdering Ducan is the only way of quickly achieving her goal” (“Lady Macbeth” 1). Lady Macbeth does not hesitate about wanting to kill Ducan. This bloodthirsty attitude of hers could stem from her greedy personality that allows her to do anything for power this is shown when “she says she would have smashed it to the floor rather than go back on a promise” (“Lady Macbeth” 2). As a woman living in her time, Lady Macbeth only had a limited amount of options for “she can only really have power through her husband” so she did what she had to do to get what she wanted (“Lady Macbeth” 4). She even went as far as to talk Macbeth into the act since she knows that he would not do it since she says, “ yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full o’th milk of human kindness” (Shakespeare 334; …show more content…

Even if the witches tell him the future or if Lady Macbeth tries to persuades him none of them can physically makes him because “only Macbeth controls his actions” (Schoolworkhelper Editorial Team 2). Macbeth understood what he was doing for “he is able to retain the ability to act as a morally responsible person and control his ambition” (Riedel 2). Macbeth, even though understanding what the consequences are, he is still a human who makes mistakes. Macbeth’s ego clouds his judgment many times in the play such as when Lady Macbeth commented on his lack of manhood in the first Act he responded with “I am settled, and bend up each corporal agent to his terrible feat” (Shakespeare 339; 7: 79-80). Macbeth becomes bolder as the play went on. Macbeth decided to do what he wants as shown when he said, “And even now to crown my thoughts with act” (Shakespeare 384;

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