Macbeth Character Analysis

Even so, if Lady Macbeth was a heartless, truly selfishly ambitious and a ruthless character then she would not have to call upon spirits to help become evil and take all her womanly qualities. Thus implying that she has womanly qualities that she wants rid of. And Shakespear makes us weary of this by allowing her to speak her thoughts and agony’s but only when Macbeth is not around.

Lady Macbeth was not naturally evil. She was just a common mistress who wanted to be treated better. Although, it was a blind ambition that drove her to come up with a diabolical plan to become more powerful than the woman she was. With this in mind, she figured that in order to commit the wrongdoings of her plan she should command the dark spirits to “unsex” her womanly traits (I, v, 41). Before she received Macbeth’s letter she was not typically an evil person without the play

Lady Macbeth is essentially an evil woman. She condones the death of innocent people and even wishes she were a man so she could commit murder herself. The idea to murder King Duncan was thought of by no other than Lady Macbeth,

Macbeth’s character has developed significantly up to the second act. We are first introduced to Macbeth character in a way that we view him as powerful and Nobel. We get this idea from the quote “oh valiant cousin, worthy gentleman” which is what he is described as by Duncan, who at the time is the king. From this quote Macbeth is portrayed as a loyal and heroic figure who has done much for many, however as we know this was not a smart move for Duncan to make as it makes him come across and weak and seems like Duncan should be giving Macbeth a higher title, which is what the witches had told him before. In addition, this idea of the king complementing Macbeth about all the good that he has done seems to trigger the belief that Macbeth has the ability to be king, even in the eyes of Duncan who is so ecstatic what he has done for the county.

In the play “Macbeth” the author furthers the ideas of ambition, manhood and violence throughout the play using a gender lens, mainly for masculinity in men. In the play “Macbeth” ambition plays a big role in the man characters life; Macbeth. In Act 1 scene 3, lines 125-129, “And oftentimes, to win us to our harm; The instruments of darkness tell us truth.” (Shakespeare 1.3.125-129). This quote stated by Banquo foreshadows Macbeth further into the play. Macbeth ends up killing King Duncan because he wants to be in power over the kingdom. When Banquo questions Macbeth about the killing of King Duncan, Macbeth’s ambition to kill Banquo skyrocketed. Macbeth didn’t want anybody to think or know that he ended up killing King Duncan for power. This started a cycle of death for Macbeth’s ambition to kill to stay in power. This example of ambition from “Macbeth” has a very similar motif from the movie called “The Mask You Live In”. In the movie, George Orwell states, “He wears a mask and his face grows to fit it.” The idea of the mask he wear fits his face helps us further the reason for men’s ambitions. Men’s ambitions are driven by power and dominance over people and prized possessions. For men to be able to gain power, they need to prove how masculine they are to society. In doing so they are dehumanizing their biological thoughts and feelings and turning them into artificial ones in order to be seen more powerful or dominate to the public.

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

Macbeth abuses his power as king by becoming so ruthless that he kills whoever might get in his way or threaten his position as king. Macbeth fears that Banquo is beginning to doubt him and believes that Banquo is his enemy. When he is speaking to the two men he has hired to murder Banquo, he tells them,” Every minute of his being thrusts / Against my near’st of life” (Shakespeare 3.1.128-129). Macbeth is jumping to conclusions about Banquo because he fears Banquo’s sons will become king, as the witches predicted. This turning point in the play shows that Macbeth is not suited to be king and continues to act out against people in Scotland. Macbeth feels the same threat towards Macduff as he did towards Banquo, but since Macduff fled to England, Macbeth had to take a different action. Macbeth chose to attack Macduff’s family, he said, “The castle of Macduff I will surprise, / Seize upon Fife; give me the edge o’ the sword” (Shakespeare 4.2.166-167). Macbeth chose to kill everyone in Macduff’s family so that he would scare Macduff away from Scotland while Macbeth is king. This downfall did not come from no where, but from his sins and the choices he made as king, he did everything for himself instead of for others.

    William Shakespeare's tragic play, Macbeth shows the gradual descent of the character Macbeth into the moral abyss.   Macbeth's yearning for power draws him to the murder of King Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff's family. It is difficult to understand how a courageous, gentle man such as Macbeth, could be involved in such villainous activities. In truth, it was the witches and Lady Macbeth that transformed into evil Macbeth's natural desire for control and authority.  The play, Macbeth clearly illustrates that wicked intention must, in the end, produce wicked action.

Throughout William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth develop profoundly differently over the course of the play. Macbeth’s character transforms from a noble hero to an ambitious, blood-thirsty murderer. When Macbeth is on the battlefield, he is heroic and brave by defeating the traitors of King Duncan and the Norwegian Army, and he is crowned as Thane of Cawdor. Later in the play, Macbeth cold-heartedly murders his King, a woman and her children, and his own beloved friend. This illustrates Macbeth’s drastic transformation from a hero to a murderer. On the contrary, Lady Macbeth changes from a manipulative, ruthless wife, and an accomplice to murder, into a guilt-ridden, and a paranoid madwoman who commits suicide. When Lady Macbeth and her husband are quarrelling, she insults her husband’s manliness to make him commit the murder of Duncan. Later in the play, Lady Macbeth deeply suffers from her guilt, that she becomes mad. Lady Macbeth constantly sleepwalks and washes her hands of the imaginary blood of her husband’s victims and of her ambition. It is evident that over the course of Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth develop profoundly differently throughout the play.

Would you kill someone if that’s the only way you can get what you really want? From the time the witches told Macbeth that he will be the king of the Scotland, Macbeth becomes greedy and started making plan on how he can be a king. Later he kills King Duncan with the help of Lady Macbeth (Macbeth’s wife) and afterward he keeps on killing people. He even kill his friend Banquo because he thought Banquo was suspicious of him. But at the end of the play, Macduff kills Macbeth. The play Macbeth by William Shakespeare incorporates the elements of hamartia, peripeteia, and anagnorisis to demonstrate Macbeth’s fall from hero to tyrant.

In spite of Macbeth was influenced by outside sources, he was motivated by his ambition and has a desire to become King

Throughout history, many Shakespearean scholars and enthusiasts have examined the relationship between Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth. One objective purpose for closely examining their relationship is to determine who was acting as the greater evil of the pair or to determine if one could have acted without their partner in crime. Although many people view Lady Macbeth as the devoted wife who merely wished to help her husband gain control of the throne, it is Lady Macbeth who successfully manipulates her husband into committing murder by preying upon his ambitious flaw. The cruelty of Macbeth and his wife can be observed in multiple scenes throughout the play; however, there are two soliloquies which require a closer reading. Based on a closer reading of two separate soliloquies, one performed by each character, it can be seen that Lady Macbeth proves to be far from just an initiator in King Duncan’s murder. It is Lady Macbeth who proves to be crueler and more villainous than her husband, and it is Lady Macbeth who manipulates her husband thus turning him into the monstrous killer he becomes.

Who would have thought “brave” Macbeth, described by others “like Valour’s minion” accompanied by his “dearest love” Lady Macbeth, his selfish, heartless wife, would end up as an inhumane, brutal murderer with a remorseful carcass of a wife? Shakespeare describes the contrast between the characters Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s mentality through a gradual diversity lead by their consciences. I am going to analyse the difference between the deterioration of mindset in the characters Lady Macbeth and Macbeth by showing how Shakespeare introduces the character Macbeth as a heroic and loyal warrior; on the contrary, when we first meet the character Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare presents her as a ruthless and ambitious woman. This is incongruous to the typical judgements of men and women during Shakespearean times, where men were depicted to be more dominant compared to the women. Through the process of the play, Macbeth ends up as a homicidal tyrant

The play examines the effects of evil on Macbeth’s character and on his subsequent moral behavior. The later murders flow naturally out of the first. Evil breeds evil because Macbeth, to protect himself and consolidate his position, is forced to murder again (Harbage, 1963). Successively, he kills Banquo, attempts to murder Fleance, and brutally exterminates Macduff’s family. As his crimes increase, Macbeth’s freedom seems to decrease, but his moral responsibility does not. His actions become more cold-blooded as his options disappear. Shakespeare does not allow Macbeth any moral excuses. The dramatist is aware of the notion that any action performed makes it more likely that the person will perform other such actions. The operation of this phenomenon is apparent as Macbeth finds it increasingly easier to rise to the gruesome occasion. However, the dominant inclination never becomes a total determinant of behavior, so Macbeth does not have the excuse of loss of free will. It does however become ever more difficult to break the chain of events that are rushing him toward moral and physical destruction.