How Does Power Affect Macbeth

Personal power has the capability to be essential to greatness, and is also able to destroy a person nature. In William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, ambition takes a toll on destruction of power that goes unchecked. It is mostly displayed in the one of the main characters, Macbeth. Macbeth is a prime example throughout this play of the horrible effects that ambition can have on someone who lacks a strong character. However, some people feel that Macbeth is an evil person, but he is badly qualified for the consequences of time mentally. Throughout this play ambition is displayed as a dangerous quality and triggers a series of deaths.

In Shakespeare play, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s character progresses in an interesting manner. Lady Macbeth is made to act as an incentive to Macbeth's immoral actions. Even though Macbeth is generally the person to have a final say before killing someone, Lady Macbeth plays the role of his “sidekick”. She mocks her husband if he worries over a sinful deed (which usually she instructs him to do), saying he would be less of a man if he does not follow through with their plan (I. vii. 56-57). She gives Macbeth a short lecture in deceptiveness when they are planning to kill King Duncan (I. vi. 73-78). She also prepared the daggers for Macbeth to kill Duncan in advance (II. ii. 15-16). Although her husband was still having doubts, she was always ready to go in for the kill. She did not think twice about it or feel any remorse. This shows that Lady Macbeth evolved into looking like a humble and quieter person on the exterior, but being an insane woman and criminal due to the events that have affected her.

Everyone has a quality that they do not like about themselves. Some people struggle to be social, others may be too controlling of people. The list goes on and on, but the point is that everybody has a particular quality that they must learn to control or else that particular quality can get out of hand. Of course, one could write a list of characters that have major flaws. There is no better example than William Shakespeare’s character, Macbeth, in The Tragedy of Macbeth. Anyone who has ever read it, could easily identify the fatal flaw that the character Macbeth possesses which is greed. Even though many readers can all agree that greed is Macbeth’s fatal flaw, the argument as to whether or not

As the play goes, Macbeth shows a character of free will. Although his destiny was pre-determined for him by the witches, he took action to believe and to make sure that his prophecies will come true. Macbeth is a strong character with many deep desires that include gaining power, and so throughout the play with the many crimes he had committed, there was no turning back for him. In all, his decisions help shape the future ahead of him.

The play, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, presents many societal issues, such as the influence of superstition and the supernatural, as well as the continuous desire of the human race for progress and ambitious fulfilment. What a person chooses to do in order to fulfil those desires depends on the individuals themselves, and in the case of Macbeth, he turns to murder in order to advance his social and political standing. The audience’s perception of Macbeth changes throughout the play, beginning with feelings of admiration and approval of his deeds and character, and ending, with the play and as well as his life, as feelings of contempt and disgust at his treachery. This is achieved mainly through the progression of Macbeth’s character development, as well as through the dialogue of himself and other characters.

On the other end of the spectrum, Macbeth must deal with the moral uncertainty of the actions he does commit. When he goes to kill Duncan, the dagger appears, which he judges to be “A dagger of the mind, a false creation /Proceeding from the heat oppressèd brain” (II.i.38-39). It is something that has materialized because he has a humoral imbalance. This is the “psychic distress” Roychoudhury says, “threatens often to undo the protagonists” (218). Because his mind is not right, Macbeth goes down a path of self-destruction. Macbeth does not murder all of his possible enemies at once, it takes four separate murders until he is finished. This goes against Machiavelli’s prescription in The Prince: “Violence must be inflicts once and for all; people will then forget what it tastes like and so be less resentful” (32). Though the audience does not get a chance to see whether the people are resentful, Macbeth is resentful of himself. He has “terrible dreams / that shake us nightly” (III.ii.18-19), violent nightmares, because of his guilt from murdering Duncan. His own rumination contains the same idea: “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well / It were done quickly” (I.vii.1-2). The repetition of the “w” sound evokes the madness behind Macbeth’s thoughts. This is not easy to get out when spoken. His words are more than his tongue can handle, he cannot manage to get everything done all at once. The state Macbeth usurped to obtain is in trouble by Machiavelli’s standards

The crafty serpent appears next to Eve. The evil creature encourages her to eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, which God had specifically warned her not to do. The woman, unaware of the serpent’s true intentions, eats from the tree and gives some to Adam. Eventually, the pair realizes that they have been deceived by the snake, and they are consequently exiled from paradise. Sometimes acts which appear honest and good are really meant to mask the hidden desires of wicked people. These desires often have irreversible repercussions, which only accelerate the degeneration of morals and character. Throughout William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the idea of murderous actions and their dire consequences establishes the

Good leader is only as good as the people who follow them. In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Scotland is thrown into turmoil when king Duncan dies. Throughout the play Malcolm, the king’s eldest son, exhibits the noble traits of a just leader, whereas Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, is the epitome of poor leadership skills. Both men are motived to do good and bad things. As well as being intelligent, Macbeth uses his brains contrary to those of Malcolm. Lastly, Malcolm and Macbeth exhibit opposite mentalities when it comes to achieving their goals. Even with opposite mindsets, Macbeth and Malcolm are motivated to do what they believe is true.

When we are first introduced to Macbeth in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth he is illustrated as a loyal warrior hero to Scotland. Macbeth’s recognition on the battlefield helps gain him great honor from King Duncan who later announces him as Thane of Cawdor. However, throughout the play the audience is able to discover his human flaws. Ironically, his first characteristic of being a mighty powerful man actually changes to be a weak man who gets stepped all over on. Through his soliloquies for instance, the audience can read that he is just any regular human being who has private and selfish ambitions. From the beginning he is manipulated by the three witches’ prophecies and Lady Macbeth who all triggered his ambition of wanting to

We believe that to obtain a position of power we must acquire, or presently have traits of deception, force, and manipulation, although the people who think this are dead wrong. People with the greatest amount of power get authority through ambition, responsibility, and motivation. In the play Macbeth written by William Shakespeare, it shows a story about a fictional tragedy in which a strong scottish general named Macbeth receives news from witches that he will one day become king. The new king of Scotland would be him one day. He created a large amount of confidence and ambition out of this tale, that he comes to his goal by killing the king to take the throne of the now deceased, king Duncan. The power Macbeth obtains corrupts Macbeth and leads to him being a manipulative, overpowered leader. Macbeth has absolute power and goes against all laws of nature to get to that point of obtaining the position he eventually has through cheating god.

Upon hearing the prophecy that he is to become king, Macbeth develops an extreme lust for power that pushes him to commit violent acts. Macbeth started out as a humble soldier who was proud of the accolades that he had received. When Lady Macbeth is attempting to convince Macbeth that he should kill King Duncan and take the throne Macbeth tells her “We will proceed no further in this business: He hath honored me of late, and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, Not cast aside so soon” (Shakespeare 20). Macbeth believes that the fame and power he has currently should be

Since Macbeth believes that he must kill Duncan to achieve his goal of becoming king quickly, Macbeth subdues his feelings and thoughts to become more "masculine." From the start, Macbeth recognizes his need to separate his mind from his actions, because his mind overpowers his will to act. Macbeth has the capacity to perform the deeds necessary to achieve his goal; obviously, from the first description of him in the play describing his prowess on the battlefield, he can kill Duncan. However, he is unable to carry them out because he is too caught up in his imaginings. Therefore, instead of overthinking everything, he suppresses his thoughts and begins to act rashly. For instance, he kills Duncan 's guards spontaneously, and then plots the deaths of Macduff 's family, Banquo, and Fleance, without even consulting his wife. He expresses his need to carry out his actions without extended thought, saying, "Strange things I have in head, that will to hand, / Which must be acted ere they may be scanned" (3.4.141-2). This quote brings in elements of the meta-theatrical, since Macbeth 's plans "must be acted" by the player onstage. If they aren 't being performed onstage, then they are being read and "scanned," alluding to the analysis of the play through poetic scansion. Although we do not directly consider metrical elements in this paper, this line still refers to what we are currently doing—analyzing the play. Regardless of the medium through which we experience these lines, this

Macbeth is a play written by Shakespeare where the main character Macbeth makes his way from battle and comes across three witches that call him upon his future before it actually takes place. Later in the play Macbeth notices certain changes that start to come true just like the witches told him and tries to take advantage of what he was told and chases his ambition to be the new king. He achieves his goal to be crowned the new king by tragic events that will take place in the play and with the help of Lady Macbeth. Macbeth seizes power and will do his best to fulfil his goals by doing what he can to maintain his position by the help of supernatural elements in the play. The three supernatural elements used in the play Macbeth that

This quote means that the one who has complete authority is extremely likely to abuse his position. 'Absolute power' refers to complete, unchallengeable power where the holder has no external compulsions and is answerable to none about his actions. It builds on the idea that every human being has the potential to become a 'benevolent dictator' given the right situation. Power, or simply the desire for power, can cause people to act in unintelligible ways. Many examples can be seen throughout history of leaders who have been perverted with power. For example, leaders like Hitler and Napoleon have all committed disgraceful actions during their rule in the hopes of attaining the 'Absolute power'. All through the play Macbeth, the desire for 'Absolute power' is the central compelling force for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. They are dominated with a great yearning for gaining the ultimate power by becoming the King and Queen, and are willing to achieve it by whatever means necessary. Power corrupts their thoughts, behaviours and actions. They become greedy and selfish. As a result of this, they suffer the tragic fate of their own doings. Example of this corruption is first seen when Lady Macbeth decides that she will murder Duncan after reading her husband's letter about the witches prophecies. She refuses to see the difference between right and wrong as she is blinded by the desire

Macbeth is a tragedy written in the 17th century that shows what the desire for power can do to a man. Macbeth is expressed as being the villain. But, Macbeth is in fact a tragic hero, doomed by fate from the beginning into the madness he put himself in. If it not been for meeting the witches and persuasion of his wife, the play would have had a very different ending.