Macbeth Character Analysis

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragedy in which the main characters are obsessed by the desire for power. Macbeth’s aspiration for power blinds him to the ethical implications of his dreadful acts. The more that Shakespeare’s Macbeth represses his murderous feelings, the more he is haunted by them. By analyzing his hallucinations it is possible to trace his deteriorating mental state and the trajectory of his ultimate fall. Throughout the play Macbeth is never satisfied with himself. He feels the need to keep committing crime in order to keep what he wants most: his kingship. The harder Macbeth tries to change his fate the more he tends to run into his fate. His ambition and struggle for power was Macbeth’s tragic flaw in the play.

Whilst the character of Macbeth is initially portrayed as a noble kinsman, his ambition and motivation, directly influenced by the witches and Lady Macbeth, ultimately transforms him into a corrupt and ruthless tyrant. William Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy “Macbeth” clearly depicts this notion of change, illustrated through Shakespeare's utilisation of literary techniques. The tragic downfall of Macbeth is mainly attributed to Macbeth’s own greed and hubris.

Throughout the book, as Macbeth continues to progress in power, it seems as though his morals fade away while dark and destructive ideas spread through him quickly. While Macbeth contemplates his first evil deed of killing Duncan, he often talk’s himself into doing it, or gets outside persuasion to gain the courage that he is lacking. After talking to Lady Macbeth about how he has to murder Duncan, he exclaims, “I am settled and bend up / Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. / Away and mock the time with the fairest show. / False face must hide what the false heart doth / know” (1.7.92-96). Later in the novel we learn that Macbeth thinks that Banquo has become a threat to his power. Macbeth then takes this problem into his own hands and assigns murderers to kill Banquo. Macbeth then says, “So is he mine; and in such bloody distance / That every minute of his being thrusts/ Against my nearest of life. And though I could / With barefaced power sweep him from my sight/ And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not, / For certain friends that are both his and mine, / Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall who I myself struck down. And thence it is, that I to your assistance do make love, masking the business from the common eye for sundry weighty reasons” (3.1.132-142). Macbeth is saying that if he absolutely has to do this terrible deed he will, it doesn’t mean he wants to, but he is going to do it anyways. Macbeth uses the motif of appearance versus reality when he

In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the protagonist of the story is a typical ‘tragic hero’. He has the obvious traits of a hero, and from the start of the play the audience is told of his great bravery and loyalty in battle. However, as the story progresses, Macbeth slowly descends into his own demise. He rises to absolute power as king of Scotland, and then loses everything he has. The reasons for Macbeth’s downfall can ultimately be attributed to the witches’ prophecy, to Lady Macbeth’s influence and to Macbeth’s own personal attributes, such as greed, ambition and lust for power.

Role in Plot: He is another person that Macbeth has to fight in order to secure the thrown.

In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, trust is an important topic throughout the play and is displayed through the character Macbeth as he rises and falls from power. Shakespeare conveys the idea of trust though Macbeth. In the play, Macbeth may seem loyal and trustworthy, but he actually is a fraud and has evil intentions. He trustworthiness to other characters directly corresponds to the amount of power he has in the play. When Macbeth is talking to King about Macbeth’s amazing service to the King, he claims that, “The service and the loyalty I owe in doing it pays itself,” (Shakespeare, 1.4 25-26) Here, Macbeth claims that serving King Duncan in itself is a gift. This quote displays exemplary loyalty from Mr Loyal himself, Macbeth, as he is enthusiastic about serving the King. In this part of the play, Macbeth is trusted enough to gain power and move up the ranks, as he is trusted by all and doesn’t seem to be hiding anything.

    Aristotle defined a tragic character is a man who “falls into misfortune through some flaw." (Grube, 5) Shakespeare's tragic hero is a man who falls from his position of honor and respect due to a flaw in character and ultimately arrives at a fatal end. (Nostbakken, 2) Macbeth is an epitome of a tragic hero. He had a good nature, but was driven by greed and a quest for power. Macbeth had been a military hero,  loved and praised by the people, but his blind ambition resulted in his destruction, and all his past greatness and happiness were lost. This essay will explore Macbeth’s path toward destruction and show how he became the epitome of a tragic hero.

Throughout life, people make wrong decisions by performing actions without thinking about the consequences. The character that executes these actions is a tragic hero according to Aristotle. In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth is a tragic hero since he is the protagonist in the play which ends in a tragedy. Macbeth makes decisions which determine his fate. Lady Macbeth and the prophecies of the three witches lead Macbeth to his downfall thus making him a tragic hero. Greed, ambition, dishonesty and being hungry for power are all fatal flaws that make a tragic hero, Macbeth's character slowly built into these characteristics. +2 sentences

The story of Macbeth is no doubt an interesting one, but would it still be if some minor characters were taken out? Although the three witches are not main characters, they have a large role in the play Macbeth. The witches advance the plot of Macbeth by telling Macbeth his fate, by telling Banquo his fate, and by showing Macbeth the three apparitions.

Macbeth is a man facing an internal struggle between right and wrong, and whose reign started and ended with death. Throughout the play there are many places where imagery pertaining to clothing is used. I believe that these images are used to show the kind of character and man that Macbeth is. These images throughout the play show the transition from a good, honest, trustworthy Macbeth, into a corrupt, power hungry beast who murders anyone in his way. I believe that Macbeth is a good man turned bad through the witches and his wife which ultimately led to his rise to the throne by persuading him murder the king. Fear led to the end of his reign and to his death. Fear of people knowing that it was him that murdered king Duncan. It’s Lady Macbeth and the witches that guide him towards evil at the beginning of the play, but at the end of the play it’s his fear that leads him to murder anyone he sees as a threat.

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, women, his downfall, tempt the title character into going against his own nature. No matter how many times Macbeth talks himself out of doing something he will regret, he falls victim to the witches and Lady Macbeth. The way they manipulate him causes him to commit acts that he normally would not do, eventually leading to Macbeth’s mental break down.

At the beginning, the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are what one would expect to see in a husband and his wife. In other words, it is a normal marriage. Their marriage is the one that everyone would strive for. Macbeth can clearly be seen as the strong, manly soldier who is off fighting to save his country and Lady Macbeth can be seen as the traditional loving and caring wife of a man who is a soldier and is risking for his life for hers and her neighbors. Throughout the play one meets other characters who have opinions on what Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are truly like coming from the eyes of friends and family. Duncan asks the captain, “What bloody man is that?” This leaves one with the question on who or what type of man would be capable of this type of violence and destruction. In that passage, it is safe to assume that Duncan was thinking of one particular man. Duncan poses this question because he has the image of the courageous, smart, intelligent and superior Macbeth slaying all the enemies that come before him, when in reality, “But all’s too weak for Macbeth --well he deserves that name and disdaining fortune.” Is Macbeth actually the courageous man that everyone thinks he is? Or is Macbeth actually a coward?

Were the words the witches used to praise Macbeth, yet were the beginning of Macbeth’s ambitious goal of reaching to the top. Throughout The Tragedy of Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Macbeth’s character is shown in different characteristics throughout the play. Furthermore, there are multiple different viewpoints on who Macbeth is as a person. In the beginning of the play he is viewed as a strong and courageous soldier, who bravely protects his country. However, as the tale begins to unfold Macbeth is slowly being viewed as an unsympathetic person who murders without purpose. Despite this, Macbeth’s persona is too complicated to identify only one specific viewpoint. Therefore, Macbeth shows character traits from both the Brave Macbeth and the Butcher Macbeth. However, Macbeth is a complex character to characterize him as either Brave or a Butcher Macbeth in Shakespeare's classic play, The Tragedy of Macbeth.

People are ultimately judged by what they've done in life. In Shakespeare's "Tragedy of Macbeth", this story is all about the things people do to get what they want. In addition, Macbeth was an exceptional man and soldier until he attempted to control the future due to his inner evil and undying ambition.

Famous literary writer Shakespeare has written many works. The works of Shakespeare can be considered part of the literary canon. All of which are considered timeless because of their innovative use of characterisation and aesthetic elements. One such play is Macbeth written by written by Shakespeare in 1604.