Power In Macbeth

The distinction of Macbeth from Othello, Hamlet and King Lear lies in the fact that Macbeth gives one scope to study a man within a political set-up. Our interest increases also in the matter of issues how a survivor of his citizen turns to be the destroyer of his citizen. It is also noted that the leaders (Here Macbeth and Banquo should be remembered) of the state get exposed with the provocation of temptation for the permanent royalty of the state. But some one is tempted and other remains reluctant as they believe in the honest way of governing the citizen of the state.

“Nearly all men can stand the power of adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power” (Abraham Lincoln). Someone can come off as a good person until they are given power. When someone has power, they may abuse it or treat others unfairly. Giving someone power and seeing how they act can show their true character. Macbeth is the most responsible for the events that occur in the play because he misconstrued the witches prophecies and was overcome by greed.

Audience becomes aware of Macbeth’s corruption when he plans to kill his ‘friend’, Banquo. He describes him as “dispatched” (3.4.15), and later as “safe” (3.4.25). This positions the audience to feel as though Macbeth is somewhat desperate to convince himself that he has acted appropriately despite using corrupt power. Using this stylistic device of language further demonstrates that Macbeth has now been corrupted to the extent that he longer feels compassion for his former companions. This ultimately establishes the representation that Macbeth’s illegitimate power has directly resulted in his destructive nature.

One of the most important themes in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare comes from one of the last lines in Act 1, Scene 1 of the play. The three witches speak this simple line ‘Fair is foul, and foul is fair,’ shortly before they disperse and it becomes a prophecy and an underlying warning for the rest of the play. The connotations of this one line becomes significant as the play unfolds beginning even with Macbeth’s opinions at the beginning of the story and lasting throughout the play with the constant recurring themes of deception, doing evil in the name of good,

Shakespeare’s bloody and tragic play Macbeth, written in the seventeenth century, portrays blind ambition, appearances can be deceiving and corruption of power. It follows the reasons behind Macbeth’s downfall. The play analyzes how other outside forces can easily change the path of ones desires and decisions. The witches’ intrusion, Lady Macbeth’s manipulation and Macbeth’s dark desires all interfere and manipulate Macbeth’s decisions. He goes from being praised as a noble soldier to a traitor and corrupt king. In the play, Macbeth commits many terrible crimes; however he is solely not responsible for all of them. The outside factors manipulate his decisions and are responsible for his downfall at the end.

Macbeth's ambition represents a universal human pursuit of power because they will do anything to an extent to obtain power. When people desire something, they will find ways to get it and if power is their desire they will do anything to obtain it even if it’s good or not, and they will not think about the consequences of their action. In Macbeth, he didn't think about the consequence of killing the king until he had done it and he started to become paranoid by hearing things and this represents death and decay because he is haunted for what he did which is killing the king to obtain power. "Whence is that knocking? How is 't with me when every noise appals me? What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes." (Act II, Scene II) this quote explains that Macbeth is becoming more paranoid by hearing things that only he can hear after of what he had done to obtain power. People will forget about their conscience and morality if their whole mind is completely covered with their ambition and they can do things

In William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth evil is conveyed in many ways through characters, themes and settings. Many themes are explored in detail contributing hugely to the sense of evil with characters being used along with these themes to create evil within the characters. These themes and characters are shown in different settings at different times consequently affecting the mood and atmosphere of the play.

Throughout reading the play, Macbeth changes a lot from being a man of loyalty and honesty, to a man of whom is power hungry and greedy. This shows how the more power you receive the more power you want; which in many cases, such as this one leads to destruction. Many of the choices that Macbeth made were influenced by the power that he had, and this power began to take over him. This then lead to greed and destruction of not only others, but himself as well.

William Shakespeare Macbeth shows many different types of power throughout the play during different scenes, such as supernatural power, domestic power. The witches show a strong power over Macbeth in not a physical way to force him to be there slaves yet through creating false images and roles for Macbeth to feed off to believe he will be brought great power such as becoming king.

In this essay I shall be looking at the way evil is portrayed in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth. I will be concentrating on the characters in the play that contribute to the evil themes of the play. It is clear from the start of the play that the witches are the main source of evil.

No wildfire burns without ignition, and no misdeed comes about with the perpetrator alone at fault. There are always others who had an impactful effect. This is demonstrated in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, where an extensive cast of characters are developed through their roles in the titular character’s road to condemnation. Macbeth’s quest for power came to fruition through the temptation and support of other characters, demonstrating that without others, he would not have met his downfall.

This shows us how engrossed and corrupted Macbeth is that he no longer cares for his best friend to the point where he has him killed for suspecting macbeth of regicide.This part of Macbeth’s reign shows us how easily even the strongest of minds can be corrupted by power, by what they would be able to do and the paranoia that can occur as a side effect of their actions. This is a regret that everyone feels in their life to some degree and so makes the ideas Shakespeare expresses in the play even more relevant to today’s society because we can all experience some degree of power whether it’s being captain of a sports team or president of a country and that power comes with an immense responsibility and duty to control yourself and not let the temptation of power corrupt you.

Complicated consequences result from the abuse of power that is central in William Shakespeare’s play ’Macbeth’ following immoral manipulation. Macbeth was written in 1606 during the reign of King James I and was used as a warning to potential threats of the King. It is a form of praise and admiration towards the King by Shakespeare as those who immorally seize power will ultimately possess a destroyed fate. Through analysing the text, we can see that abuse of power through supernatural manipulation on human nature is evident therefore guilt and delusions are consequences of that power abuse.

With ambition driving Macbeth’s motives through the play, the perception of fair and foul is warped as a result. Presenting itself as an enigma, the moral conflicts that arise from the idea of fair and foul is unjustifiable dependent on a person’s point of view. Macbeth, predisposed towards a destruction of typical ideals as a result of ambition roused by the influence of the witches’ and his wife, descends into a slow spiral of insanity. Shakespeare incorporates equivocation to further confuse Macbeth’s own ideas. He uses the technique of soliloquy to allow for the audience to identify with Lady Macbeth. In Macbeth, Shakespeare explores the attrition of the Chain of Being, an important historical aspect that governed and influenced the hierarchal order of the time period (VICTORIAN TIME PERIOD?) Shakespeare bases Macbeth in. To place emphasis on the broken chain, Shakespeare uses the repetition of a phrase when referring to “foul and fair”. First appearing in the witches’ line at the beginning of the play “All is fair and foul is fair” (1.somethingoranotheridekifthequoteisright), Shakespeare reiterates the phrase in Macbeth’s entrance in Act 2, demonstrated in the quote “Never have I seen a day as fair and foul as this”. Shakespeare manipulates/or henceforth influences the audience’s perception on the secondary use of the phrase to lead to their realisation/to emphasise that the Chain

In the play “Macbeth”, William Shakespeare uses belief in the existence and power of witches to create and influence the audience’s understanding of the play. Our initial impression of Macbeth is one of a brave and capable warrior, however once we see his interaction with the three “evil sisters” (Shakespeare, 1996) we realises that his physical audacity is coupled by an intense amount of ambition and self doubt. It is believed that the witches are the motive behind this ambition which eventually leads to his tragedy, however strong diverging arguments are in existence. The intensity of Macbeth’s tragedy is dependent on whether or not the witches are “professed to be able to control the naïve, innocent Macbeth” or whether he is to blame