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.

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

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.

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 is portrayed to be a very evil character throughout the play of Macbeth. The most back stabbing scene in the play is when Macbeth murders King Duncan, But the real evil genius behind the murder is Lady Macbeth, who forced Macbeth to kill King Duncan, which brings up the argument, whos responsible for the murder of King Duncan? A Lot of people also ask, who’s more evil? Macbeth, or Lady Macbeth?

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

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.

In the opening of the well known tragedy Macbeth, the captain says, “And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, Show'd like a rebel's whore” (Shakespeare 1.2. 16-20). The captain refers to Macbeth escaping his death, but implies that fate will seize him in the end. The concept of fate being inescapable is presented in Macbeth just as it is presented in many naturalist texts. One naturalist who captures this concept comprehensively is Frank Norris. In Norris’ tragic novel McTeague, those who defy fate are met with chaos and destruction while those who accept their fate can avoid fate’s wrath.

Shakespeare used the character Macbeth to acquaint the audience with ideas accomplished for a greater cause. A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgement error that inevitably leads to his own destruction. However, a monster is someone with evil actions done merely because it is wanton. Macbeth is a tragic hero according to its definition. He was noble, his tragic flaw led him to his demise, and the audience sympathized him.

When people do something that makes them feel good, their brain releases dopamine to teach them to seek out this activity in the future for that good feeling to be repeated. Over time, the brain adapts in a way that actually makes the sought-after substance or activity less pleasurable. Macbeth was so addicted of the idea of becoming king that he did whatever it took. The tragic hero caused his own downfall simply because once the prophecies started coming true he continued to feed on to it which starting leading to chaotic choices. Yet, there are others who might of influenced it in the beginning, Macbeth began to do his own thing in the end.

In the play, the character of Macbeth may have wielded the knife, but I do not believe that Shakespeare presents him as acting alone and of his free will. I believe that Shakespeare shows him as being manipulated into killing Duncan by the witches. This is because they are guilty of planting the idea of becoming king in Macbeth's head, they cause Macbeth to be confident in their abilities to predict his kingdom, they allow the idea of becoming King to take over Macbeth and they use their supernatural powers to interfere with the natural world.

Faber est suae quisque fortunae - Every man is the architect of his own fortune. This Roman saying rings especially true for Macbeth, the ill-fated, murderous king of Scotland. Throughout The Tragedy of Macbeth , William Shakespeare shows readers just how far a man goes to maintain power. Readers see just how many lies are told, how many families are destroyed, and how many friends are murdered in the coldest of blood, all because one man gets the smallest glimpse of the fate he is due. The witches may have showed Macbeth his future, but the responsibility for what is done with that knowledge falls entirely on Macbeth. “All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!” Eight words are all it takes to drive Macbeth, the tragic hero of Scotland, to commit crimes against mankind itself. Macbeth is the forest,and the witches’ prophecy the spark that sets an entire country ablaze.