Essay on Shakespeare's Macbeth is a Tragic Hero

Fate versus free will is a huge theme in the play Macbeth. It is Macbeth's fate that leads his free will to act the way he does. When the witches say "All hail Macbeth the future king" (I.iii.51) it leads Macbeth down a road of death and self-destruction. If Macbeth hadn't known

In play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s most dominant and frightening female characters, known for her ambitious nature. As Macbeth’s wife, her role is significant in his rise and fall from royalty. During Shakespearean times, women were regarded as weak insignificant beings that were there to give birth and look beautiful. They were not thought to be as intelligent or equal to men. Though in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is the highest influence in Macbeth’s life. Her role was so large; in fact, that she uses her position to gain power, stay strong enough to support her unstable Lord, and fails miserably while their

In Macbeth, Macbeth, King Duncan, and Malcolm have different motivations which lead to different actions.

“The prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, for in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be which the eye fears, when it is done, to see” (Shakespeare 1.4.48-53). Since the King is still alive, Macbeth decides to either give up or try to become king. “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly. If the assassination could trammel up the consequence, and catch with his surcease success; that but this blow might be the be-all and the end-all here, but here, upon this bank and shoal of time, we’d jump the life to come” (Shakespeare 1.7.1-25). Macbeth knows that killing the king is wrong but he is still contemplating on killing him just to become

Macbeth is introduced to the audience as a noble general and thane with quite a bit of power. This can lead one to believe that he is

The Play “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare is shaped by supernatural forces with the use of the weird witches, the apparition of the ghost, and the floating dagger. These forces lead Macbeth to act in the way he did and add suspense to the play. The play opens with the three witches, and later on Macbeth and Banquo encounter them. They prophesized that Macbeth will be promoted to Thane of Cawdor, and then become King of Scotland. In addition to that, Banquo was told that his sons shall be kings, but never himself. Macbeth was skeptical about the prophesies, but until some of King Duncan’s men came to inform Macbeth that that he was to be named Thane of Cawdor due to the betrayal of the previous and condemned to death. Then Lady Macbeth

"Macbeth" is a tragic play that was written by William Shakespeare in the early 1600’s. It revolved around the character Macbeth and his urge to become king of Scotland. Macbeth had to do anything possible to become the king including murder, lying, and deception. However, Macbeth committed these evil deeds due to some influential people in his life. Between Macbeth’s wife persuading him to do anything to become king and the witches prophesying over him causes Macbeth to try and bury the past and control the future.

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.

novels or plays that leave this interpretation up to the discernment of its audience. In Macbeth

In the play Macbeth by Shakespeare I found at the beginning the character Macbeth was a portrayed as a noble, honest and brave man. As said by the captain in the second scene, ‘For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that title’ (I.2.16). This gives the audience an indication that Macbeth was highly respected by the king’s men and the king himself. His desire for power grew throughout the play from when he had his first encounter with the witches.

Macbeth thought it was a joke; however, when the first prophecy came true, his heart is shaken by desires. At this moment the imagination of himself wearing the crown, and besides is the blood that he must stain in his hand or else he could no longer clutch it. This imagination has ignited the scintilla of guilt thoughts deep in his heart. No wonder before he would hesitates, "If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me/ Without my stir" (i, iii, 147-148), but currently, his eyes only stares at the "resplendent prize" and forgets all the goodness from King Duncan (Rolfe). While Macbeth stick his first foot on the swamp of curses, Lady Macbeth puts his other foot in. Hence, Macbeth could never return to a dedicator, who fights for his beloved king, but now he fights for his own desire. Lady Macbeth lured, "Come, you spirits/ That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,/ And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/ Of direst cruelty" (i, v, 37-40). She have overcame Macbeth's uncertainty by her clear willing to murder King Duncan and seize the throne, and her speech showed the real

Yet after his encounter with the witches, his mind was going back and forth trying to figure out how he should act upon the prophecy of becoming king! It was by then that the idea of fate had been planted into his head, and with such good title to come with it, why wouldn’t he want to believe his ‘fate’? Something that I found very interesting about the witches was that looking closely at line 24-25 when one of the witches says, "Though his bark cannot be lost, yet it shall be tempest-tossed." From what I seemed to understand, these lines seemed to really show the limitations to the witches’ powers, because they were basically saying that they could only make life rough for the clueless captain, but they could not kill him. I think that this is really important to all the people who thought that the witches had ‘written out’ Macbeth’s fate because in the same way as the previous stated scene they can tempt Macbeth with predictions about his future, but they cannot make him choose evil. Meaning that in this scene, one of the conflicts is obviously fate vs. free will! All the witches really did was find a way of stirring up evil, by tempting Macbeth into choosing to opt for evil instead of good. “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, without my stir.” (Act 1. Scene iii. Line 10). Here, Macbeth seems content to leave his future to "chance." If "chance" will have

24-29). When Macbeth decides not to continue with their plan to murder Duncan, his wife urges him to act on his desires or he will think of himself as a coward. She says, "Art thou afeard / To be the same in thine own act and valour / As thou art in desire?" (I, vii. 42-44). She then makes sure he will perform the deed by taking an active role in preparing for the murder. "his two chamberlains / Will I with wine and wassel so convince," (I, vii. 70-71) and cleaning up afterwards, "Give me the daggers: the sleeping, and the dead / Are but as pictures; 'tis the eye of childhood / That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, / I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal, / For it must seem their guilt." (II, ii. 69-73).

As the lead up to the event of King Duncan’s murder Lady Macbeth tricks Macbeth into killing Duncan by using her cunning and complicated words. She makes Macbeth think that he has to kill Duncan for his benefit. Lady Macbeth deceives him into thinking that only he would gain more power, and it wouldn 't benefit her. Lady Macbeth counters Macbeths’ arguments by saying that he needs to muster up all of his courage, and just follow here directions. Lady Macbeth plans the murder strategies, and influences Macbeth to go along with her strategy. Macbeth doesn 't want to kill a good king for his own ambitions, but is persuaded to do it. From Lady Macbeth persuading him to kill Duncan, the first evil act he commits, he is drawn into believing the witches’ prophecies, and takes action to make them come true. Through various quotes by Lady Macbeth, it is evident to say that with each other by their sides, was a negative influence to the lead up of Macbeths’ downfall. Lady Macbeth blames her husband for lacking the courage to do the deed, and because Macbeth is a warrior above everything else, her comments manipulate him a good deal. Indeed, "manliness" is an idea the play interrogates in various ways, such as when Macbeth says "I dare do all that may become a man who dares do more is none" (1.7.46-47). This is the belief that his wife use against him: "When you durst do

     King Duncan trusts Macbeth too much. Macbeth appears as a super hero and faithful to King Duncan. He fights against the traitor Macdonwald, and he helps the king to solve a