Macbeth - Tragedy Essay

The play, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, presents many societal issues, such as the influence of superstition and the supernatural, as well as the continuous desire of the human race for progress and ambitious fulfilment. What a person chooses to do in order to fulfil those desires depends on the individuals themselves, and in the case of Macbeth, he turns to murder in order to advance his social and political standing. The audience’s perception of Macbeth changes throughout the play, beginning with feelings of admiration and approval of his deeds and character, and ending, with the play and as well as his life, as feelings of contempt and disgust at his treachery. This is achieved mainly through the progression of Macbeth’s character development, as well as through the dialogue of himself and other characters.

In the beginning of the play, before we are formally introduced to Macbeth, Macbeth is portrayed by King Duncan, as a loyal, brave and a heroic fighter. The King praises him, setting up Macbeth's initial character as an over all well rounded, strong person, leading the audience to belief Macbeth is a sane, honest person. However, through the next few acts to the finale, we witness Macbeth's portrayal shift to one with blind ambition and crude desire. We see his mental status deteriorate as well as the actions that illustrate this continuous decline; until inevitably, his sanity, or lack thereof, catches up with him.

The deterioration of Macbeth’s character illustrated throughout Shakespeare’s play shows the decline of his conscience. Initially characterized as a brave and noble general, his actions driven by mere ambition reduce him to an evil tyrant without purpose or meaning. “[Life] is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing”. (Act 5, Scene 5)

Macbeth begins to act different because he starts wanting King Duncan’s title. From here, Macbeth begins to ignore the obstacles that come upon his way and decides to head straight for the title. Macbeth sees a “dagger” before him and it shows how he says he wants to “clutch” it. (Shakespeare II.ii.2). At this point, Macbeth had killed Duncan and starts having illusions about the murder.

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

In the events leading up to the arrival of Duncan, Macbeth is very hesitant and wary of killing Duncan. In this soliloquy, he understands his role as an ally and a host, and this

The play ‘Macbeth’ written by William Shakespeare is one of great tragedy. In the play, Macbeth, the main character, transforms from a war hero to a tyrannical murderer. He is the one that is most responsible for all of this tragedy, including his own death. This is because he is the one that allowed other characters to influence his decisions; and he actually committed the murder of King Duncan. The Witches and Lady Macbeth may share some responsibility for the tragedy, but Macbeth must take most of the blame.

In this passage, Shakespeare uses the metaphor of sleep and purgatory, the symbol of the dagger, and the motif of deception and temperature to characterize Macbeth as conflicted and insane, ultimately to foreshadow the metaphorical demise of Duncan and Macbeth. In this passage, Macbeth has promised to murder King Duncan. He plans to do it this night, while everyone is asleep. As Macbeth sees a floating dagger on his way to kill Duncan, he questions saying “Is this a dagger which I see before me,”. Through the use of the phrase “Is this”, which means Macbeth is questioning himself, Shakespeare characterizes Macbeth as hesitant and conflicted. As Macbeth tries to figure out if the dagger is real, he wonders if it is his own brain and says “Or

3. 157-159) Macbeth’s arrogance is made apparent with the immediacy of his thoughts of becoming king and it is clear that the supernatural has given him arrogant ambition as Macbeth is already beginning to think of how he will be crowned king. Macbeth eventually decides he will show his “Black and deep desires” (1. 4. 58) and murder Duncan, the current king of Scotland. This is a shift from Macbeth showing loyalty to Scotland and the king as he now has arrogantly, for the benefit of himself becoming king, murdered Duncan, the king of Scotland. Duncan was greatly admired and respected by the population of Scotland. Macbeth himself describes Duncan as “meek” (1. 7. 17) and being “so clear in his great office” (1. 7. 18). When Macduff first realizes the death of Duncan, he describes the scene as: “O horror, horror, horror!” (2. 3. 73) Macbeth acknowledges that the reaction to Duncan’s death would be mournful before murdering him: “Pity… / Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, / That tears shall drown the wind” (1.7. 21-25). However, Macbeth’s only goal is to become king, not to please the population of Scotland who admires their king greatly and sees him as a righteous person. After tempting Macbeth with the idea of becoming king, the supernatural gives Macbeth arrogant ambition, forcing him to contrast his loyal and courageous personality, which motivates him to kill Duncan.

Macbeth clearly demonstrates his inner conflicts within the first act. He begins to have frightening thoughts of killing King Duncan for his own power, and Macbeth’s awareness of these immoral thoughts remains throughout the entire play. Now, although Macbeth has the ability to perceive what is morally logical, he does not always follow through. After Macbeth learns of the prophecy, he grows eager to fulfill these great revelations; being the flawed creature that he is, Macbeth had a steadily increasing measure of greed and angst that grew with each success. After a certain point, Macbeth had learned to ignore the guilt that nearly gnawed him raw after such heinous crimes. Only then did the greed and natural instinct to success really take hold of Macbeth’s mind.

  The tragedy of Macbeth comes about because of a single event in his life. If that one moment, the meeting with the witches on the heath, had not happened then Macbeth would no doubt have gone on to be a loyal and respected subject of King Duncan and, later, King Malcolm. However, the meeting did happen and the powerful force of ambition was unleashed within Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It is the combination of these two factors, the meeting with the witches and Macbeth's own inner demons, that lead to tragedy, and make the play 'terrifying' in the Aristotelian sense.

Macbeth couldn’t hide the guilt from himself; he didn’t want to kill King Duncan, but his focus was on being king. He couldn’t concentrate on anything else except for the that the three witches had told him. With some convincing from his wife, Macbeth accepts the risks ahead in order to be king. Before he can even make it into the kings’ chambers, he had started hallucinating and had seen two swords with his eyes. He says to himself, "Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feelings as to sight? Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable as this which now I draw" (Shakespeare 75). Macbeth is stating that he sees two daggers with his eyes, however, he only has one real dagger in his grasp. Seeing things that are not real is part of being paranoid which is a symptom of guilt. Not only was Macbeth panicking before the murder of King Duncan, but after the deed was done, he couldn’t cover up the murder himself due to his state of shock. Macbeth was talking to himself after Lady Macbeth went to clean the murder scene and he heard noises, “Whence is that knocking? How is't with me, when every noise appalls me? What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my

Macbeth realizes that in obtaining the crown by foul play he is devaluing it as the king is meant to be appointed by God. By now, Macbeth is able to have the courage to look into the heart of fear; Lady Macbeth on the other hand is unable to do this.

Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare in the year 1606, is a prominent tragic play that is notoriously recognized for its excessive use of violence. The author mainly elaborates how Macbeth, who used to be a proud hero of Scotland, spreads his turmoil throughout the whole kingdom. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is widely regarded as an honorable hero because he is a valiant warrior who wants to protect the kingdom to the best of his abilities. As the play progresses, however, Macbeth’s personality, motives, and character start to vary dramatically. His personal greed and overconfidence to fulfill his ambition for power leads him to commit malevolent actions that brings upon remorse, despair, and guilt within him and for the

If a play is to function as a tragedy, we, the audience, should feel a certain degree of sympathy for the protagonist through to the close of the play. In my opinion, however, Shakespeare fails to retain this in his timeless classic, “The Tragedy of Macbeth”. From the start of the play it is clear that Macbeth is a reckless warrior, almost barbaric in nature. He is a weak character, who is easily manipulated by his ruthless wife and the three malevolent witches. He ignores the advice of his shrewd, loyal friend and abandons his own moral instincts;