Macbeth Character Analysis

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.

Macbeth may be perceived as a monster, however there are three distinct actions which cultivated him to act as the perfect monster. “Macbeth is not a monster, rather, he is a man, perhaps more inclined to evil than most men, but still a man who is tempted, succumbs to temptation and pays the price for his weakness.” The quote given wraps up the entire play of Macbeth in 35 words. When the reader first analyzes the quote they can see the quote clearly state, “Macbeth is not a monster”. But why? Shouldn’t he be convicted as such for the horrendous things he did? Killing the king, betraying his friends, and killing their families? Slaying thousands due to these Witches telling him he was destined to? Doesn’t Macbeth have control over his own destiny? As it transpires to be, Macbeth only turns to his natural instinct of lust for power and the fear to stand against the will of the Witch's, their apparitions, and even his own wife. Even though he did what few would execute, he still must make up for his actions. Macbeth payed the ultimate price by losing his friends, his wife, his kingdom, and his life.

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

Making poor choices and treating others with disrespect can affect you in the long run and can easily contribute to a downfall. Macbeth was fully aware of the choices he made with the inhumane torture and disrespect he had on the citizens of Scotland. Being a tragic hero is when one experiences an immense tragedy which leads to a downfall, but Macbeth never had a tragedy because his death originated from the choices he made and reactions he had while he had authority as king. Macbeth being selfish and only caring about himself creates an undeserving and improper image as king which brought chaos into the land of Scotland. In Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Macbeth does not fit the formula for a tragic hero because he is not a moral

Macbeth is as guilty of his fate as a man under the influence is guilty to drive off his family from a cliff, to their demise. It is only on him that the guilt lies for he is the one and only at the helm of events. Of course you could take into account the booze in the man, and the prophecy that rotten the mind of Macbeth. Nevertheless, no matter the influence, free will was present, and therefore no one is to blame, but that who chooses. The man could have said no to the bottle, and Macbeth could have said no to his fate. You see Macbeth was a prisoner, chained by the compassionate praises he receives from his brothers in arms, and fellow noblemen. He is a vicious dog on a weakened leash. The three witches did not let Macbeth’s fate be known to him. They solely gave a mad man the excuse he needs to act upon his true nature. To fight off the good in him with the belief he has no other option than to give in. Macbeth choose to believe in the prophecies as facts because that is what he covets, not because that was his fate, but because of greed.

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

Destiny is controlled half by supernatural force and half by your own action, because sometimes people can make their decisions and that will affect their destiny. In “Sports Genes”, “Into the Wild”, and “Macbeth”, the main characters all made their own choice but there were still outside forces that effected their decisions. In “Macbeth” although he made his own decisions of doing all the bad things he is doing, but the witches are the ones who affected his decisions and made him do all the things. In “Sports Genes” Thomas is naturally much more talented than other athletes, so his destiny is already set before he does any decision. Chris in “Into the Wild” is completely different from the other two characters, he did what he wanted to do

Macbeth’s character develops consistently throughout the play. The key to his character development is his unchecked ambition, which is powered by the three witches and his strong desire to become the King of Scotland. Macbeth ends up achieving his goal but ultimately, it leads him to a downfall such as the suicide of Lady Macbeth. Macbeth’s ambition has played a significant role in the play ever since the three witches tell him that he would become the King of Scotland. His ambition has led Macbeth to become gullible. He is easily manipulated and convinced to take immoral actions. Moreover, Macbeth also becomes selfish as he only thinks about himself and not the citizens of Scotland. He fails at his job as a King in making Scotland a better place to live. Lastly, due to his unchecked ambition, Macbeth starts acting violently by murdering his closest allies and friends. Therefore, Macbeth’s ambition has driven him to become manipulative, selfish and violent; and thus, ambition is Macbeth’s greatest weakness.

Macbeth in inherently a villain, and it can be argued that he is all a villain to an extent. His act of killing imposes him to become all a villain, however, due to his gothic protagonists traits such as duality, and internal conflict, we manage not only to retain an interest or possibly sympathy for Macbeth but we also manage to argue if he is a completely, ‘all’ a villain and whether Macbeth is naturally malevolent and devoted to wickedness or if it’s human conditioning and extremely powerful forces (both his wife and fate).

Characterization is a vital component of a text. How does Shakespeare utilise character traits to demonstrate characters as either heroes or villains?

Nature changes from day to day, and when nature starts to get dark then one knows when a bad storm or a hurricane is going to happen. Some storms can stay and can ruin people’s lives. During the tragedy of Macbeth, Shakespeare relates nature to Macbeth morality in order to show that Macbeth starts off as a man on the edge, and then get worse as the play goes on. So Macbeth has been bad from the start, and he's not sympathetic. The repetition of nature in the play shows that he had evil within him throughout the whole play. Some examples of where nature shows is when, when Macbeth becomes the Thane of Cawdor, when the horses are eating each other, and when the forest moves.

All humans can be manipulated or changed by inside and outside affects, some that are good while others are bad. This can all be related through books/plays and the characters change throughout them. In the play Macbeth written by Shakespeare, the title character has a major conquest to become king. Throughout his process, he is affected by both internal and external forces. These affects really come in to play as the play progresses and several terrible things happen. In the end, Macbeths demise can ultimately be said from the causes of Lady Macbeth’s controlling actions, his murderous ways, and the witches’ trickery.

Every female, or perhaps a male, knows a guy who thinks he’s the strongest, toughest dude on the planet Earth. However, most of these “tough” men are not mentally nor emotionally stable. This is proven also by the article 7 Signs You’re Not Mentally Strong, You’re Just Acting Tough, “While acting tough may meet your needs in the short-term by artificially boosting your ego or by getting other people to back off, it’s not a good long-term strategy,” (Amy Morin). She means that acting macho and being a jerk can ruin a lot of things for you, and that it does not make you manly by doing so. Just like the article about how being tough doesn’t make you mentally strong, in the play Macbeth, there is a huge theme of manhood placed throughout.

In the beginning of the play, Macbeth’s actions can be described as cautiously calculated as he only does what he believes to be necessary in the achievement of his goal to be king, and thus his mental state remains stable during this time. Macbeth’s decision to take the witches’ prophecies seriously demonstrates the fact that he is willing to do and believe anything needed to be King, regardless of the possible repercussions. As Macbeth was contemplating the prophecies he thinks to himself, “The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step/ On which I must fall down, or else o’er-leap,/ For in my way it lies” (Shakespeare 1.4.55-57). Macbeth chooses to internalize what the witches tell him, regardless of the fact that it seems preposterous. He

Shakespeare creates a strong and courageous persona for his starring character, Macbeth, but it wasn’t until he was faced with the Weird Sisters did the journey of his downfall begin. The three Weird Sisters essentially lead Macbeth to his demise, by foretelling a prophecy that he shall be named as Thane of Cawdor and then king. Although the prophecy of