The Nature Of Evil : Macbeth By William Shakespeare

The play Macbeth is about true ambition and powerless character. Macbeth, the main character of the play, has a weak and convincible personality. Throughout the play other characters such as his wife, impact his hideous actions and paranoid mind. Once the three witches tell Macbeth about his fortune and becoming the new king, Macbeth isn't as convinced to take the risks of earning the position which consisted of killing the current king Duncan. His wife on the other hand believes it's the perfect solution.

In Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, he exhibits the personal transformation of Macbeth, a general with the huge desire. Based on the tragic ending of Macbeth, Shakespeare reveals the versatility and complexity of human nature, exhibits the distortion of natural mind of people. In Shakespeare’s thought, Macbeth’s tragedy is mainly accomplished by three evil acts assassinating Ducan, killing Banquo, and massacre the family of Macduff. Macbeth wants to be a great man with his great ambition. In his initial desire of human nature, he hopes to achieve ambition by proper means; however, under the temptation of witches and instigation of his wife, the original calm, and balance of Macbeth is broken. When his impatient desire tilts the balance between his emotions and his senses, Macbeth comes up with the delusion of killing Ducan and Banquo. Thus, Macbeth is immersed in an extreme self-contradiction that inner good and evil keeps struggling. Author shows the characteristic evolution of Macbeth from an illustrious military general and valiant hero who brings peace and stability to the country to a selfish careerist and a bloody tyrant who only pursues his own goal. Shakespeare depicts Macbeth as the victim of desire and lack of moral judgment between good and evil in order to question the human internal contradiction of conscience and ambition.

Through the soliloquy, the audience gains insight into Macbeth’s innermost thoughts. He names multiple reasons as to why he should not kill King Duncan, noting that Duncan is his guest, kinsman and a good king. He also admits that the only motive he has is the “Vaulting ambition” residing inside of him. Here he names his own hamartia, his fatal flaw, and acknowledges that to give in and commit such a deed, would result in his “deep damnation”. While still undecided on the matter, Lady Macbeth enters, and, seeing his indecision she decides to manipulate him into the decision that suits her; for after all, she is almost if not as ambitious as her husband. By questioning his manhood, his bravery, even their marriage, she successfully leads him to make the choice to kill the king. We now must realise that although the witches’ prophecies and Lady Macbeth’s taunts were a catalyst for Macbeth’s treachery, they never force him to make these errors in judgement; it must have been something that was already inside of him that caused him to decide this. There must have been some inherent evil already a part of his character.

The Way Shakespeare Portrays Evil in Macbeth Right from the first scene, it is obvious that Macbeth is a story of evil. The play starts on a moor, with thunder and lightning being the very first signal that something less than ordinary is going on. Before the play has even begun, the atmosphere is set for an intimidating and somewhat frightening scene. Stormy weather is nearly always seen as frightening, dark and evil, because it is often related to so much danger and destruction, and Shakespeare uses this well to give and accurate and striking first impression of the play.

Throughout his play, Shakespeare uses a wide variety of themes in order to convey the sense of evil. These themes are omnipresent, and well implemented into the text, as they allow the reader to visually imagine the different occurrences, and how they might lead to a sense of evil throughout. The themes included consist of appearance and reality, guilt, ambition, violence and tyranny and order and disorder. Several quotes are weaved into the text in order to express more clearly the theme Shakespeare is attempting to convey. The themes all come together to enhance the dark symbolism of evil, and how it is actually conveyed.

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragedy in which the main characters are obsessed by the desire for power. Macbeth’s aspiration for power blinds him to the ethical implications of his dreadful acts. The more that Shakespeare’s Macbeth represses his murderous feelings, the more he is haunted by them. By analyzing his hallucinations it is possible to trace his deteriorating mental state and the trajectory of his ultimate fall. Throughout the play Macbeth is never satisfied with himself. He feels the need to keep committing crime in order to keep what he wants most: his kingship. The harder Macbeth tries to change his fate the more he tends to run into his fate. His ambition and struggle for power was Macbeth’s tragic flaw in the play.

    William Shakespeare's tragic play, Macbeth shows the gradual descent of the character Macbeth into the moral abyss.   Macbeth's yearning for power draws him to the murder of King Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff's family. It is difficult to understand how a courageous, gentle man such as Macbeth, could be involved in such villainous activities. In truth, it was the witches and Lady Macbeth that transformed into evil Macbeth's natural desire for control and authority.  The play, Macbeth clearly illustrates that wicked intention must, in the end, produce wicked action.

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 play Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, the two main characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth helped the audience understand the dangers of unchecked ambition. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth was portrayed as a "good being" that was noble and fought for his country and for his King. He is known by this honourable reputation, and the Sergeant speaks of him fondly, by saying "for brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name”. Once he is told the prophecy that someday he will rise to be King, Macbeth realises his deep desires for power and advancement.

The character arcs of Shakespeare’s Macbeth were written over four centuries ago, yet its themes and morals presented in the 1600’s still carry weight in the second millennium. To scholars of his work, Shakespeare’s infamous tragedy is considered something of a social commentary upon the political and philosophical practices of the Jacobean period when it was written. One of the many themes addressed in the play is how the combined forces of unchecked power and ambition can lead to an immoral shift in a person’s mentality. Macbeth is the prime example of this theme all throughout the play from the very first mentioning of his character. Although the character of Macbeth is influenced by a variety of differing personalities and entities in the play, he carries the ultimate control over his own behavior and his actions, and as a result Macbeth controls the central conflict of the story. The

“Macbeth” is a drama written by William Shakespeare back in 1606. Macbeth is a story about a scottish general who becomes king from killing the king and slowly descends into madness. The theme of the play is how over ambition causes the downfall of great people. Macbeth is consumed by greed and power which causes him to lose touch with his own humanity. Blood is spilled to feed Macbeth’s madness and is the major imagery throughout the play. People begin to turn on each other and slowly thirst for blood, showing the cruelty in humanity. Fate blinds many with riches and power.

If he were certain about the murder he would have had the confidence to face the exposing light of nature fearlessly. True evil fears no good. Macbeth fears the light then he cannot be a purely evil individual. A purely evil individual fears nothing but himself and to add to that note that is reason why Macbeth is referred to as a tragic hero and not a villain. His tragedy is profound because he realizes that killing the king is wrong and mentally and physically he is very hesitant to do so but he still give into his selfishness ambitions as he makes his ways to Duncan’s chambers.

Shakespeare's play Macbeth shows the roots of all evil, our own human nature. The play is centered on the coexistence of good and evil. Macbeth, unlike any other Shakespeare play has the protagonist convert to evil. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is shown as a hero in the Scottish army, that is ironic because Macbeth defeats a traitor and he himself becomes one later. Macbeth knows his place in the world. He is fully capable of distinguishing between right and wrong. Macbeth purposely disregards his own moral judgment to rise to power which is again ironic and goes against his own beliefs. Macbeth stands as a symbol for Satan's sin of ambition. Like Satan, Macbeth's thirst for power and ambition drives him to commit evil.Contrary to

Upon Lady Macbeth’s introduction to the play, it is immediately noted that she is associated with forces of evil. The author uses her character to relay & maintain an ominous tone through symbolism and motif. After her initial plot to kill one of their guests is revealed, her husband Macbeth experiences a moment of hesitation. This is credited to the fact that the man she wanted to murder was honorable and had been an acquaintance of his in the past. In turn Lady Macbeth questions his manhood and calls upon his honor as if it is a weakness.

Macbeth as a Play About the Conflict Between Good and Evil Macbeth is a tragedy, which addresses the inner conflict of people's morality. Furthermore, it appears Shakespeare's intention was to portray the modern day attitudes towards religion and the supernatural of his time. Indeed, the Elizabethan audience the play was written for would have been devout Christians, and would have had strict beliefs towards good and evil. The audience was genuinely afraid of evil, and it was about this time that the Salem witch trials took place, where witches were executed.