Macbeth Character Analysis

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.

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

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.

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

A wise man by the name of Aristotle once said, “A tragedy is that moment where the hero comes face to face with his true identity.” In a tragedy, the hero is often presented as a righteous, but flawed character, whose downfall is brought upon by his or her flaws and the circumstances outside of his or her control. William Shakespeare’s Macbeth manifests the undeniable power of unbridled ambition, and its consequences, after Macbeth becomes influenced by his sinister desires and those around him. In the beginning, Macbeth is looked at with high regard for his heroic actions at the battlefield. However, he becomes overpowered by evil after receiving a prophecy from three witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the throne for himself. Overall, there is a vivid and grotesque depiction of a man who is thrust into evil and malice, as he assumes the role of the tyrannical ruler of Scotland. However, despite his involvement in sin, he is not solely responsible for the murder of Duncan, and the consequential events that transpire. Macbeth’s unequivocal downfall is a result of the malign guidance of Lady Macbeth, falling prey to the deception of witches, and his ambitious mind under the influence of evil.

“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it” (A. Einstein). Evil is a destruction that causes people to commit unnatural actions of harm. The play is centered on the coexistence of good and evil. The evil of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is so great that it ultimately destroys both of them. The human soul cannot endure such evil; it destroys the soul. It is incompatible with humanity. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth was presented with three prophecies, one being that he would become king. This specific prophecy was the first thought Macbeth had to kill. However, Macbeth is known for lacking character and ambition. He knows right from wrong, and he isn’t comfortable with his role as a criminal. At this point, it is where we see Macbeth’s conscience start to override his ambition, but his wife, Lady Macbeth, convinces him into killing King Duncan. She summons evil spirits and persuades him into doing so. She has a deep ambition and lust for power. Throughout the play, she seems to link masculinity to ambition and violence. Lady Macbeth is more evil and more responsible for the murder of king Duncan due to the fact that he came up with the idea to kill him, she manipulates her husband, and she persuades him to perform terrible deeds.

Macbeth is the play of a warrior’s rise to power and tragic downfall based in medieval Scotland. Macbeth, a successful soldier, is the main character of the play whose goal is the kingship of Scotland. Three witches inform Macbeth in the beginning of the play that he will become the next king of Scotland. The witches also predict that the kings after Macbeth will not come from his descent, but actually from Banquo. While in the beginning Macbeth wants to just sit back and wait for fate to happen, but when King Duncan nominates his on Malcolm as the next king Macbeth wants to spring into action. Macbeth is not completely sure what he should do, but his wife persuades him that regicide, the murder of the king, will be the fastest way for her

William Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’, is ranked among the four great tragedies of the world, of ancient as well as of modern times. The concept of the tragedy is Elizabethan. These tragedies are basically tales of suffering that ultimately result in death. The protagonist in these tragedies is not only notably placed socially but is also conspicuous for his qualities of head and heart. In the tragedy, the society is largely affected by the fall of the supremacy of the central character. Like, in Macbeth, the decadence from a hero to a villain greatly affects the fate of the nation, i.e., Scotland. Of all the four tragedies

William Shakespeare creates a character unlike many others seen in literature. Rather than making a character with a single intent or ‘mood’ through the play, he overcomes tropes of “villain” and “hero” by making his main character one that is between those tropes. Shakespeare shapes his main character, Macbeth, as a character that is not a completely loathsome nor heroic character. He gives Macbeth human strengths and weaknesses to make him realistic and understandable to the reader.

Macbeth on some levels could be considered a very complex play. To dissect and analyze is very easy. The characters are very forward about how they feel and their intentions. Part of that has to do with the setting, the characters, and the circumstance. Its a play filled with great emotion and ambition. Its just how far some of the characters are willing to take it. The lines they are willing to cross, and people they are going to betray.

A man can possess many things wealth, power, honor and in the 11th-century woman, contrary to the belief of the times women cannot be possessed for they are the determinants of fate and this shown through lady Macbeth being the catalyst for his transformation. Over the course of the play he becomes an entirely different person than he once was, he goes from a hero figure to a deceitful murderer that has a very narrow focus on becoming king and drives himself crazy with the prediction that he will become king. Macbeth betrays his own values, those close to him, and any moral compass that once existed within him. Throughout the play Macbeth does not stray from his ways in order to satisfy himself, he goes down the reckless path to become king in order to please his wife and this eventually leads to his demise. Machiavelli states “...fortune is a woman and if she is too submissive it is necessary to beat and coerce her”(pg.81 The Prince). Due to the fact that Macbeth plays the passive role in their relationship and his own life when it comes to mobility he enables his wife to take over as a master of his fate. This occurs not only in the play Macbeth, it occurs in Madea, in Greek mythology through the story of Pandora's box and in the book of the city of ladies where it is proved that woman are drivers of fate through men, simultaneously they are able to manipulate fate on their own through virtuous actions such as invention or through divine intervention. The theme of the

Shakespeare, a name made popular ever since the beginnings of his career. As time took its tool on the world, his name spread and his plays and literature works also spread with it throughout the world. His works are not just a play, so many elements are used within them. Thre greatest examples come from his play Macbeth.

Macbeth changes dramatically throughout the story. He starts off as a loyal soldier to the king. Macbeth is very loyal to the king and does everything he is told. He was granted thane by the king, a military nobleman. Also Macbeth is a loving sympathetic husband to Lady Macbeth. He wrote a letter to her when he was away, and would always make sure she is okay. Macbeth was a very honest man, even the king trusted him as a man.

“When facing a dilemma, choose the more morally demanding alternative” (Harold S. Kushner). In Macbeth, he did not have a high standard of morality, instead he chose the path of anger, greed, and ruthlessness. At first he was reluctant, but once he started there was no stopping him, as he was longing the throne of King Duncan. His killings become easier and easier as he no longer feels the remorse and becomes a cold hearted individual who exhibits iniquity. His ambition only takes him to a much darker place where he struggles with himself and his wicked thoughts. Macbeth faces many predicaments within himself, and the outside world caused by the need for his prosperity.

When the audience first hears about Macbeth from the sergeant’s report, the audience is led to believe that he is very much a person who does only what he believes is right. Furthermore, when he first appears in the play, his fellow nobleman, Banquo, accompanies him. Given this, The audience would think that he does what is right, and makes all his own decisions. However, this belief is proven wrong. Although Macbeth starts off as a loyal subject of Duncan, he is ambitious and this is a weakness, which allows him to be manipulated by a few factors in the play.