Macbeth: The Guilt Of Murder

Macbeth stood in front of the mirror, disheveled and tired wondering when his life took a left turn. Was it after he killed his loyal friend Duncan? Or when put a target on Banquo's head for another to deal with. Either way, he knew his actions were unjust but somehow he did not feel sympathetic. Macbeth's only mission was to hide his actions and make it through Banquo's Funeral.

     The character Macbeth in the story of Shakespeare’s Macbeth faces decisions that affect his morals. He begins as an innocent soul, dedicated to serve his kingdom and its king, Duncan. As time passes and opportunities present themselves combined with the deception of the evil witches, Macbeth begins his descent into madness. Macbeth’s innocence and loyalty are completely corrupted due to his over confidence, guilty conscience, and the inevitability of human nature. Macbeth looses sight of what is morally right to do in life because his logical choices are changed by these factors.

Macbeth then began a series of murders to retain his "fruitless crown" (3:I 67), “to be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus” (3:I 54). It was Macbeth's latent ambition for power that caused his descent into evil.

In the Shakespearean tragedy, Macbeth, numerous murders take place. Throughout the play, the reader finds that each murder gets more and more evil, and more planned than the previous, thus leading to the downfall of Macbeth.

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth the reader watches as Macbeth changes gradually as the play endures. He are transforms from a loyal person with a loving and loyal disposition with other people, into a tyrants who are willing to kill in order to keep himself on the throne. He is tormented with fear, regret, and guilt. When someone does something they know is wrong it causes them to fall prey to their own emotions.

With attention to the murder of King Duncan, Macbeth struggles with the morality of his actions. Before the murder takes place, Macbeth begins to believe that the murder will “be the be-all and the end-all” to his clear conscious and would risk him to eternal damnation (Act I, line 5). Yet, the murder would bring him power over Scotland and he “shalt be kind” as told by the Weird Sisters(Act 1, line 50). Macbeth goes off of his ambition to murder King Duncan. The internal struggle of choosing mortality over motives brought forth an intense shift of loyalty to betrayal. The murder caused for Macbeth to turn on Scotland and only care for his own selfish motives. The betrayal causes for the play to become horrific and have a double meaning. Macbeth must put on a face to hide his murder to become the king. The double meaning is how Macbeth looks like a hero to all of Scotland, but only the people on the inside know of his horrific actions. He had to murder to to get the position of King, but the

Macbeth accepted that his life was in change in the play; as a result of this decision, Macbeth grew more comfortable in his savage deeds. Madness takes hold of Macbeth, as a result to bearing knowledge of his future. This is an element that is deeply woven within all of Shakespeare’s Tragedies; the protagonist looses their sanity, as a result to their inner struggles. Macbeth’s ambition of status and the desire to know his future, became the reason why Macbeth fell from grace and into hell. The choices and the hysteria that came along with those choices are what Macbeth a tragic hero; it is Macbeth’s loss of reason through infinite knowledge and ambition that killed

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, changes happen. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a well liked and good man of Scotland, who turns into an evil, cold hearted, murderer by the end. His rewards and punishments could have been predetermined by fate, but the actions he took to get to get those rewards and punishments were determined by Macbeth’s free will. In Macbeth, he attempts to control the future and hide the past by listening to other people and committing multiple murders of innocent people.

Although MacBeth no longer shows the same hesitation about killing as he did in the first act, the burdens of his actions are now the cause of his extreme remorse instead of the thoughts

    Macbeth shows signs of having a good heart and good intentions, but he also shows that he has a weak mind that ignores and disobeys what his good heart tells him is right. The reader can see Macbeth's good heart when Lady Macbeth tries to persuade him to kill Duncan. At first Macbeth refuses to do such a horrible deed. He knows in his heart that killing Duncan is wrong and deceitful. Just after Macbeth has received the news from the witches that he will be King, he thinks to himself," This supernatural soliciting/Cannot be ill, cannot be good. . . . If good, why do I yield to that suggestion,/Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair/And make me seated heart knock at my ribs/Against the use of nature?" (I.iii.17). Macbeth's heart is telling him that this suggestion of killing Duncan cannot be good. The reader can see that Macbeth tries to listen to his good heart when he tells Lady Macbeth that he will not kill Duncan,"We will proceed no further in this business./He hath honoured me of late, and I have bought/Golden Opinions from all sorts of people,/Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,/Not cast aside so soon" (I.vii.33). Although Macbeth has a good heart with good intentions, he does not obey and listen to his heart. He allows Lady Macbeth to persuade him into doing what he knows is wrong. Macbeth knows he has chosen the wrong path when he says," I'll go no more./I am afraid

Shakespeare is one of the most influential and famous playwrights of modern times. A major reason his work is loved by so many is because of his insightfulness into the human mind, and one of Shakespeare’s greatest works demonstrating this is Macbeth. This famous play is about nobleman and military man Macbeth and how his tragic choices lead to his inevitable demise. The first and most trying choice that Macbeth has to make is whether or not to kill Duncan, the king of Scotland. Macbeth has to make this decision while being pulled in different directions by two conflicting forces. The force pulling him away from murder is his loyalty and humanity towards Duncan. The other force pulling him towards murder is his loyalty towards Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth becomes incensed at her husband “Naught’s had, all’s spent,/ Where our desire is got without content./ ‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy/ Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy” (III.ii.4-7) that all will turn to nothing if Macbeth starts to feel guilty about killing. She tries to teach him how to become unemotional and fearless. All of these commands and actions cause Macbeth to have a war inside of him, leading him to his downfall.

It's clear that Macbeth sinks deep into darkness blinded by his wife's lust for power that eventually penetrates into him. Appearing that he only sinks deeper after the initially killing Banquo and his family. His transformation, as he reaches closer to his desire was a change that even his wife did not see happening. Even showing slight emotions of fear as she oversees what unfolds, especially when all the immoral acts taken place was of her wil. His sinister appearance was enough to make me cringe as I wonder if it was possible for a man like that to exist. The character development of Macbeth from how he was hesitant to commit such heinous crimes to becoming a ruthless tyrant is remarkable from the viewer's perspective of how he got to that point.

Throughout Shakespeare’s famous play, Macbeth, the central character Macbeth is represented as both victim and villain. Lady Macbeth manipulated and deceived her husband while The Witches planted the seed of temptation within him. However, Macbeth himself let these influences lead him into a downward spiral that ultimately played a vital part in Macbeth’s want for glory, his ambitious lust for power and his intense and selfish desires through greed that resulted ‘his downfall’.

"Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but A dagger of mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? …"