Macbeth the Tyrant

This resource is designed as a reference guide for teachers. We have listed the major themes and motifs within Macbeth and provided examples of scenes where you can study them.

Throughout the story of Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Macbeth acts in a much despised manner: he becomes a murderer and later, when king of Scotland, a tyrant. Many who have read or seen the play are left wondering how a man’s whole approach to life can change; how Macbeth turned from the hero whom all adored, to the tyrant who was hated and ended up a lone man, fighting for his life.

Macbeth’s desire to become King begins with the three witches. The witches predict Macbeth to be King and his friend Banquo to produce kings. Macbeth is seduced by the thought of being King so much that he decides to kill King Duncan. Macbeth is completely aware of his wrongdoing. “I have no spur/To prick the sides of my intent, but only/Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself/and falls on the other” (Act I, Scene VII, page 16). He realizes there is no justification for the crime. He states reasons for not killing him but his drive for power feeds his ambition to kill Duncan anyway. This leads Macbeth to continue to make mistakes and has Banquo killed. Macbeth sees Banquo as a threat to his legacy from fear that Banquo’s sons will overthrow him. Macbeth wants to kill all possible threats to him being King. He becomes paranoid that Banquo may want him dead so that his son’s can become King. Macbeth manipulates two murderers he has hired that Banquo has done them both wrong. His ambition for power lacks all morals and Macbeth reached a point where it was hard for him to cease such horrible actions. “For mine own good/All causes shall give way: I am in blood/Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,/Returning were as tedious as go o’er” (Act III, Scene IV, page

3. How do Malcolm's comments about Macbeth again bring to mind the “fair is foul” theme?

Macbeth ambition led him to do stuff out the orderly and made him have a blind spot and a dark side to him, Macbeth is blind to his eager and growing interest in the prophecies causing him to say “I have no spur to prick the side of my intent/ but only Vaulting ambition/ which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other”, (Act 1.Scene 7. Lines 25-28). Macbeth realizes that his ambition is getting out of control. It made him to do something that he know that is wrong, and is against everything he has supposedly stood for, but the witches are at fault because they made a prophecy that Macbeth would become king causing corruption in his mind. The word of the witches have Macbeth having hope making Macbeth think, “murder yet is but fantastical/ shakes my single state of man that function is smother’d in sunrise/ and nothing is But what is not” (Act 1.

The play Macbeth opens to reveal the chaotic world of good and evil. the main character of Macbeth is a loyal soldier whose only motivation is his allegiance to his king and country. At the play's beginning Macbeth is an effective general, brave soldier and Thane of Glamis. Macbeth's choices as the play progresses cause a definite change in his character which becomes secretive and vengeful, his motivation shifts from serving his king to helping himself to more power. Macbeth's pride and this hunger for more power causes him to lose everything he values- his friendship with Banquo, his marriage and with his most violent deed he loses his sanity and eventually his life.

A picture may tell a thousand words, but an image is the product of imagination. In any piece of literature, imagery plays a significant role in illustrating the characters. In the play, Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are developed through the use of clothing, sleep, and blood imagery.

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth the main theme of loyalty is explored throughout the play by main characters. Loyalty can be defined as faithfulness or unwavering devotion to a person or cause. Duncan, Banquo, Macduff and Macbeth are all essential characters who are given opportunities to express their loyalty, however it is the different ways in which these characters choose to be loyal or disloyal that shape the play as a whole. It is the character’s loyalty and/or disloyalty that construct the course of the play. The theme of loyalty interrelates the over arching themes of guilt and masculinity throughout the play.

Machiavellian rulers are known to be able to be very evil but effective. Macbeth in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, is a true Machiavellian ruler. However, he fails to embody these traits effectively. He abuses the powers of his position which causes an uproar within his kingdom. It is this uproar which leads to his eradication from the throne.

In “The Tragedy of Macbeth”, the author William Shakespeare tells the story of Macbeth, a man who becomes power hungry and desires to take control of Scotland's throne. Shakespeare employs many motifs into his work such as hallucinations and prophecy. Macbeth is a man moved more by the irrational than by calculation. Macbeth's tragic fate is his downfall from being such a noble, honorable man to becoming an evil, deadly tyrant.

In this dramatic writing of a tragedy, Macbeth is seen as the mighty warrior without fear, that is loyal to the King, but unfortunately changes because of the witches’ prophecies. Another factor was Lady Macbeth's ambition, which powered over Macbeth. Lady Macbeth was easily able to change the perception of Macbeth to kill King Duncan. Her strength motivated him to commit the deed, which eventually started the bloody path of power. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth go through changes in this play.

William Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy, Macbeth, was written around 1606 in tribute to King James I of England and was based on Holinshed’s Chronicles of England. This play was mainly set in Scotland in the eleventh century (1000-1099). Macbeth, a Scottish general whose fate was determined by the prophecies of three witches, contributes to his own rise as an honorable hero to his own downfall as envious tyrant. Throughout the play, Macbeth’s character undergoes a gradual, drastic change in his quest for power.

3. 70.; Hunter 230). Thus, Shakespeare makes a clear parallel with society and Macbeth, as both, in pursuit of fulfilling their ultimate goal of ascendancy, may even commit a murderous deed to get what they desire. Also, while Macbeth conscientiously “knows exactly what he is doing and is at all stages aware of his own progress”, from the first moment of encounter, he fails to prove his realization through actions, such as discontinuing his bloodshed scheme, and thereby loses the possibility of redemption (Moseley 364). His lust for power drives him so far that self-awareness starts to play a lesser role in his decisions and narrows his view of his ultimate goal of domination to merely the end, not the process. Hence, Macbeth inevitably gives life to the witches’ prophecies;

In the Shakespearian play, Macbeth cannot be solely responsibly for the tyranny that he causes. Macbeths close relationship with lady Macbeth and his own ambitions to become king lead him to many evil actions. This relationship causes many fatalities, which is turn leads to changes in the personality of lady Macbeth and this can be seen, as she has difficulty in coping with the situation that she has put herself in. However, slow reactions by other characters in the play, may have been the cause many unnecessary events to occur. But, theses may not have mattered is it wasn’t for the apparitions given to two characters by the evil sisters, these

The play Macbeth, composed by William Shakespeare in 1606, can be considered as a tragedy when feelings of sympathy for a character who becomes increasingly ambitious and when a character is affected by another’s increase in ambition is evoked upon the audience. Through the distress that the audience feels for Macbeth as he suffers his downfall from being pressured to give in to his ambition, the sorrow inflicted upon encountering many deaths due to Macbeth’s actions which are “those of a butcher” and the pity felt for Macbeth when the sacrifices he makes to achieve his