Good And Evil In Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'

There is a constant war waging between good and evil in everyday life. It may be a war between two fractions that feel they are both in the right or an internal battle of good and evil. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth the titular character and his wife are battling against the true nature of themselves and in each other. Although they are known and seen by others as virtuous, their unsatisfactory greed and ambition lead both characters to become immoral.

Shakespeare’s Macbeth portrays evil as a perversion of human nature through Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s betrayal of Duncan and the repercussions of their actions. Murdering Duncan is not the best way for Macbeth to gain the power promised to him, he and his wife fall into a downward spiral that ends in death.

Macbeth, a highly revered Thane, was a huge war hero and feels that this is who he is meant to be. Upon returning from war, he meets 3 witches who start his prey drive towards the other members of the kingdom. Our witches reveal that Macbeth will become Thane of a second region, but will not just stop at being a Thane. He will one day be king. Macbeth reveals this to his wife, who quickly becomes the force behind the madness. She insists that the only way for Macbeth to become king is to murder the current king who just so happens to be coming to stay with the Macbeth’s that very night. It is here that Macbeth turns himself into a force of direct suffering.

“Nearly all men can stand the power of adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power” (Abraham Lincoln). Someone can come off as a good person until they are given power. When someone has power, they may abuse it or treat others unfairly. Giving someone power and seeing how they act can show their true character. Macbeth is the most responsible for the events that occur in the play because he misconstrued the witches prophecies and was overcome by greed.

It is known that, the King is God chosen, and Macbeth was not the chosen one to be king. Macbeth’s ambition dominated the great chain of being, so that he could get what he wanted. When Macbeth sinfully disrupted the great chain of being, nature’s natural flow was also disturbed.

The great man who could convince anyone at first glance of his bravery and power has now fallen at the hands of his own voice. His lack of virtue leaves me with the great task of restoring not only the political structure of my country but also the moral fabric. Now the task remains for me to rule as King of Scotland without the tyranny that so deluded Macbeth. Macbeth fell into the alluring trap of winning power at all costs—even that of taking the life of another who threatened his wishes. The hunger was not satiated even after he was crowned king. Instead, his desires became like parasites that needed more and more sustenance, with Macbeth as their loyal slave. This brute determination may be indispensible in the battlefield, but it falters in the political arena, fumbling to unite the needs of its people with the self-obsession of a tyrant. Where Macbeth treated every dilemma with violence, I will face with finesse and moral uprightness.

O, dear friend, what have you done? Why have you poisoned my life with this blade? What could drive you to the death if a friend which, another day, would send you trembling? Now I see that my mind did not trick me, for the prophecies did in fact forever change you. I knew this would spur you to fulfil your ambitions, largely amplified by Lady Macbeth’s desire for you to hold the throne. Why did I not do something about it, for now I see this was coming all along? Why Macbeth? Why oh why? As soon as King Duncan died I told myself that you had done it-only for my misgiving to change due to my longing to believe the best of you. After all, you were my dearest friend who served for Scotland, why would you want to betray the country you fought for? Who else in the castle would benefit from Duncan’s death so much that they would be prepared to forever have blood on their hands, prepared to risk their own throat from being slit, prepared to betray me. It was then I realised who else but Macbeth. His endless curiosity in the three witch’s prophecies had me worried. It seemed as if he was so deeply invested in his ambition to attain power that he in fact lost his grasp on his own sanity. And damn his lady, for she questioned his manhood and only spurred him on more to claim the throne. How dare she manipulate his lack of emotional stability for her

Shakespeare's play Macbeth shows the roots of all evil, our own human nature. The play is centered on the coexistence of good and evil. Macbeth, unlike any other Shakespeare play has the protagonist convert to evil. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is shown as a hero in the Scottish army, that is ironic because Macbeth defeats a traitor and he himself becomes one later. Macbeth knows his place in the world. He is fully capable of distinguishing between right and wrong. Macbeth purposely disregards his own moral judgment to rise to power which is again ironic and goes against his own beliefs. Macbeth stands as a symbol for Satan's sin of ambition. Like Satan, Macbeth's thirst for power and ambition drives him to commit evil.Contrary to

Many of people have heard the tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. The story revolves on a sequence of misfortunate events that take place when Macbeth makes immoral decisions to be king. In the play, Shakespeare shows how power can cause corruption in a human’s brain. Macbeth himself was not a very confident person, though he had a kind soul to begin with, he was easily influenced and gullible. Through the prophecies of the evil beings, an insignificant seed was planted in Macbeth. That spark of wealth and fortune caused the tyrant within him to awake. Which eventually lead to his fatal death. His ambition lead him to murder, go insane and become very superstitious.

When the second act begins, the audience is aware that Macbeth has agreed to do what his wife wishes of him, but what the audience is unsure of is whether or not he follows through with the evil deed. There could still be hope that maybe, when he is faced with actually murdering the king, he will change his mind. Nonetheless, that night in the dark hallway of his castle, he says to his wife, “I have done the deed, didst thou not hear a noise?” (Mac.II.ii.14). This reveals to the audience that instead of turning his back and choosing the path of the reputable, he embraces evil and murders Duncan. While his wife may have had an influence on that choice, it was ultimately all his own. He was alone in the room with Duncan and he proceeded to kill

I am writing this entry, sitting at a desk in Scone. I have recently witnessed my dear friend Macbeth crowned King of Scotland. I am still in shock after the strange happenings of the past few days, so I am not yet overcome with neither joy nor grief. I should be happy for Macbeth, yet I feel that something inside me will not allow me to be so. These events, I fear, have not happened by chance, but that something evil, something supernatural is at work.

Macbeth and I felt immense pride, on that fateful day as we rode, victorious, over the moor. We had just defeated the ghastly Norwegians, though by uncivilized means. Macbeth rightly said "So foul; and fair a day I have not seen". Not far into our journey, we came upon three weird sisters. They all hailed Macbeth Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and king hereafter. True, he was Thane of Glamis, but we were puzzled, to say the least, about the other two statements. As I was intrigued, I questioned them about my future. In reply, they told me that my sons would me kings, and that I would be "Lesser than Macbeth, and greater". This confuses me greatly, for had they not just said that Macbeth would be king? Of course, I chose not to believe these 'instruments of darkness'.

Amazingly, minutes after the sisters had vanished, Macbeth was announced Thane of Cawdor. We

“Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air” (Shakespeare Act I Scene I 12-13). The Weïrd Sisters utter these lines in unison in the first scene of the play. Shakespeare thus establishes the backdrop for a story full of paradoxes and mysticism. Not all is how it appears to be. Deceit and betrayal take center stage in the play, paving the way for Macbeth’s ascendancy to kingship, and eventual downfall. Good versus evil is present in nearly every scene. As in most literary works, the author develops different themes expressed in various ways. Symbolism is often the most effective way to express central themes. In Macbeth, Shakespeare creates contrast to effectively strengthen the overriding message of good versus evil.

In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, nature itself reacts to some of the events in a supernatural manner. The topic of natural versus unnatural appears various times throughout the book Macbeth. Natural is what is good and unnatural is what is bad, or evil. In medieval times, it was believed that the health of the country was directly related to the goodness and the moral legitimacy of its king. If the king was good then the nation would have good harvests and weather. If there was a political order, then there would be natural order. In Macbeth, when characters do something considered evil, unnatural things happen. In Macbeth, the

William Shakespeare’s seventeenth-century tragedy Macbeth explores the themes of good and evil through the inner conflicts of people’s morality. The narrative presents issues surrounding the psyche of the central characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, as well as how this is portrayed through their relationship. Such concepts can be interpreted differently by a modern audience compared to an Elizabethan audience, through both gender and psychoanalytical perspectives.

    Macbeth by William Shakespeare involves evil on the part of Macbeth, his Lady, and the three witches. This essay will consider evil in its many guises in this tragedy.