Why Do People Kill Macbeth

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the story of an ambitious royal turns into the followings of a murderous tyrant. The Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth, is motivated by his fear that his deep desires will not come true, and his tyrant, gender role-breaking wife, Lady Macbeth, to kill off various successors to the throne. Macbeth is introduced as an ambitious heir to the the throne, but is quickly displayed as a raging king. In William E. Cain’s essay “Murderous Thinking in Macbeth”, he describes the relationship between the audience and Macbeth as “sympathetically connected.” Macbeth is seen as a vicious tyrant to the rest of the characters, but his deep desires are seen by the audience or readers. The audience is shown Macbeth’s guilt and remorse throughout the play, up until he kills Macduff’s family. Macbeth obtains the mindset of a power hungry, murderous tyrant when he kills Macduff’s family.

Macbeth was conscious that his thoughts are used for “only [for] vaulting ambition” and yet he does nothing to correct the situation of his thoughts. Macbeth was not mentally deranged before the killing of Duncan and is able to differentiate good from evil, nevertheless he chose to commit regicide. Macbeth reveals that he knows what he is about to do is immoral, and that that “judgement here…. [will be] taught [to] return to plague the inventor”. This ambition eventually lead Macbeth to greed and paranoia; making him willing to do anything necessary in order to secure his position of power. It also becomes easier and easier for Macbeth to commit heinous crimes. Without thinking twice, he orders the murders of Macduff's family, including his children. Macbeth's selfishness and reckless ambition lead him to his own demise.

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 his ultimate quest for power, his bloodlust caused him to betray an old friend and brutally murder his family becoming a fiend in the process. To further support this, Macbeth preached about how he was going to murder to his friend and his family (Act four Scene one) “ Now I cannot kill him as I planned. From now on, when I decide to do something, I’ll do it immediately. I’m going to go to Macduff’s castle now and kill his wife and children before I change my mind.” Now with that being said, he demonstrates that he will do anything to ensure his position and now since he is king, he would do whatever it takes to maintain it. He believes that everyone he knows would be a threat, as well as those who opposed him, so he thoughtfully created a plan to kill them. His plan failed with Macbeth, but even with that happening, he still went through with the plan. Having regretting not killing Macduff, he went after his family and murdered them in cold blood to send a message and to make his old friend miserable. With this ferocious and treacherous act, he proves once and for all, that he does not care anymore about other’s lives. Now to further explore this, In his quest for power, Macbeth’s greed blinded him, causing him to murder his best friend and his son to safeguard his future. He arrogantly revealed that he will butcher

After hearing the weird sister, his ambition got the best of him .He considered murdering Duncan and the morality of the murder. Guilt plays a large role in how he acts after he commits their crimes. But guilt isn’t so obvious with Macbeth ,before he kill’s Duncan ,Macbeth feels guilt and consider backing out of the murder, but lady Macbeth won’t let him, “But Screw your courage to the sticking place, And we’ll not Fail “,(I, IV,70-71).Once again Macbeth sees that what he is doing wrong ,but he doesn’t let that stop him. As Duncan led him to feel paranoid and a lust for power, he kills the king despite his better judgment. Throughout the scene there are several quotes that show this “Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more”, (II, II, 51-52). This shows the amount of guilt his feels. He describe by saying “who was that thus cried? Why, worthy thane, you do unbend your noble strength, Go get some water And wash this filthy witness from your hand.” (II, II, 58-61). As Macbeth seeks to free himself of guilt he realize he suffer guilt as he seeks for ambitions

He is Duncan’s ‘kinsman and his subject’, he reminds himself that what he is doing is wrong and that he has the duty to protect the king, not murder him. In an interaction with Lady Macbeth prior to the murder of Duncan, he says they ‘shall proceed no longer in this business’, this shows that he has a moral compass, and he knows that what he is about to do is wrong. Also, previous to the murder he hallucinates a ‘dagger’, it is a figment of his imagination because he is very anxious, and is already feeling culpability. This part in the play is key in showing that Macbeth is consumed by guilt and anxiety, so is not in the best mindset to commit a murder. Despite this, he still kills Duncan. His guilt returns after the murder when an ‘Amen [is] stuck’ in his throat, he knows that he has sinned against God, and he is too anxious to say Amen. Immediately after killing Duncan he is ‘afraid to think of what [he has] done’, he has immense regret and feels a lot of guilt.

Macbeth has to murder more people to cover his tracks and secure his place as king (III, iiii, 135-140). He seems to value others lives much less than his own. Macbeth has already said that life is just a game and there is nothing serious in life (II, iii, 92-95). Macbeth orders assassins to kill Banquo and Fleance (III, I, 126-128) to try and secure his place as king.

    In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the repercussions of Macbeth murdering his King are very numerous. Through themes that include, imagery, soliloquies, atmosphere, and supernatural beings, Shakespeare enforces the magnitude of Macbeth’s crime. Most of these factors are linked together.

“...it's true that some of the most terrible things in the works are done by people who think, genuinely think, that they're doing it for the best” (Terry Pratchett). In Shakespeare’s play, The Scottish Play, Macbeth is driven by selfish desires to take his fate into his own hands and go to extremes to obtain the title of King of Scotland. At the start of his pursuit for power his actions are planned and his first murder has real meaning behind it. Next, Macbeth targets the man who will father future kings. Finally, Macbeth becomes so paranoid and overcome with guilt that he has innocent women and children murdered. What starts as selfish ambition can quickly grow into an all consuming force, causing one to abandon one's honor, lose friends

Macbeth killed five innocent people to get to the top. He then met the downfall of his wife and himself. He wanted to be king so Lady Macbeth helped him get there and doing this would allow him to take on the position of ruling. Macbeth is the husband of Lady Macbeth who has made some not so good decisions in order to take on this position.This both drove them to complete insanity. The thought of killing King Duncan crossed Macbeth’s mind, Lady Macbeth’s persuasion techniques are ultimately responsible for Macbeth’s decision to follow through with the murder.

In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, violence is a recurring theme much appreciated by the audience of the 16th to 17th century, yet it is much more than just swordfight and action. Violence is a tool that Shakespeare uses to show the psychological state of the characters. Throughout the piece, different levels of dishonourable acts of violence are reflected on a character’s sanity level. Honourable violence shows sane mind, dishonourable physical violence start of the descent toward madness and dishonourable psychological violence shorten a character’s path to insanity. Shakespeare displays a correlation between the sanity of a person and the intent of their violence, which creates insight about the mental state of that very person.

In the play “Macbeth” we strongly agree about the statement “The most effective villain is one who attracts and repels.” Our essay includes or talks about the most effective villain which is Macbeth due to his crimes that he has committed and how he has changed throughout in the play. A theme that most supports this statement is “Appearance vs Reality,” of Macbeth. We will also include examples of the different appearances of Macbeth in different situations. To back up our statement there will be quotes which express the appearance of emotions on Macbeth’s face at time or situation and connect it with reality. “Did he really mean what he said or did?” The essay will also discuss about the different language features which are used in the quotes like, repetition.

Macbeth hallucinates the bloody dagger he will use to kill Duncan, right before he kills him. “Is this a dagger I see before me,/The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch/thee/… Thou marshall’st me the way I was going,/And such instrument I was to use” (2.1.34-44). Duncan’s murder is just one of many murders that will occur, which Macbeth commits to gain power. In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses murders to develop the theme of violence throughout the play.

But he wasn't the only one feeling guilty. Once everyone hears that King Duncan is murdered, Macbeth kills the chamberlains with rage. Lady Macbeth start to sleepwalk because she overcomes with the actions she has caused in killing the King. She washes her hands over and over because the blood won't come off her hands but it's really just her mind thinking that. She later commits suicide because of the crime she did. Macbeth didn't seem very bothered on her suicide. He says ‘She sound have died

The play examines the effects of evil on Macbeth’s character and on his subsequent moral behavior. The later murders flow naturally out of the first. Evil breeds evil because Macbeth, to protect himself and consolidate his position, is forced to murder again (Harbage, 1963). Successively, he kills Banquo, attempts to murder Fleance, and brutally exterminates Macduff’s family. As his crimes increase, Macbeth’s freedom seems to decrease, but his moral responsibility does not. His actions become more cold-blooded as his options disappear. Shakespeare does not allow Macbeth any moral excuses. The dramatist is aware of the notion that any action performed makes it more likely that the person will perform other such actions. The operation of this phenomenon is apparent as Macbeth finds it increasingly easier to rise to the gruesome occasion. However, the dominant inclination never becomes a total determinant of behavior, so Macbeth does not have the excuse of loss of free will. It does however become ever more difficult to break the chain of events that are rushing him toward moral and physical destruction.