The Tragedy of Macbeth Essay

     In Shakespeare’s classic tragedy of Macbeth the main character Macbeth is driven from his status as a well respected warrior and lord of not one, but two Scottish regions to a dishonest, unloyal murderer. Macbeth gets caught in a web of lies and vile acts of murder in which he brings about his own demise. His criminal actions lead up to his tragic ending of life. ‘ They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, But bearlike I must fight the course.’ His great ambition and gullibility of the witches predictions are two of the biggest factors of his downfall;however, Lady Macbeth was probably the biggest influence in the whole tragedy.

"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.

     A Shakespearean tragic hero starts out as a noble person; a great exceptional being who stands out. A tragic hero has a tragic flaw of an exaggerated trait that leads to their downfall and eventually to death. William Shakespeare often made his main characters tragic heroes in his plays. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the role of the tragic hero is given to the main character: Macbeth. This is because he starts off as a loyal and well liked man in the beginning, but has a tragic flaw of ambition which ultimately leads to his downfall.

The three witches that are introduced at the beginning of the play are responsible for the introduction of the ideas that caused Duncan’s death and Macbeth’s destruction but not for Macbeth’s actions themselves. They recount to Macbeth three prophecies; that Macbeth will be: 1) Thane of Cawdor, 2) Thane of Glamis, and 3) King. Macbeth welcomes the ideas spawned from the witches’ prophecies, which is what triggered the spiral of events in this story. Macbeth eventually followed through with killing King Duncan. It was sometimes thought that the witches had the ability to reverse the natural order of things. This brings to the play the idea of fate and the role it has in the play.

After analyzing the play, The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare readers came to the conclusion that The Witches were most responsible for the events that happened in Macbeth. Readers found that without the actions the witches took, nothing would have happened and the characters would still have the good life they had before they appeared. The reasons why readers believe The Witches hold primary responsibility for the events in Macbeth is because they have paranormal powers and The witches equivocate to Macbeth.

In life, there are two types of people: those who do the right thing and those who don’t. In the play Macbeth, by Shakespeare, the main character Macbeth is given a prophecy by three witches that says he will become king; however, there is no descending line of kings of his own blood. With the knowledge of the Witches’ prophecy, Macbeth’s ambition, and manipulation from his wife, Lady Macbeth, Macbeth is quickly dragged into a never-ending, bloody murder rampage to obtain the crown and get rid of those who stand in the way of obtaining it as well. Macbeth constantly battles with his moral dilemmas; however, he easily falls victim to influences that go against his morals. Influences on major characters emphasize how easily one’s decision making can be negatively affected, resulting in one going against his or her morals/integrity.

The “Tragedy of Macbeth” by William Shakespeare tells a tale of deceit, murder, and ambition, beginning with a cutthroat rise to power, followed by calamitous downfall. At the start of the play, Macbeth is a brave and loyal captain in King Duncan’s army, but after three witches prophesize that he himself will become the king of Scotland, and that those born of a friend, Banquo, will be king after him, Macbeth is overtaken by ambition and gluttony. Instigated by his wife and his own lust for power, he murders Duncan, assumes the throne, and subsequently sends mercenaries to kill Banquo’s sons. While awaiting battle, Macbeth addresses the death of his wife in Act V, scene 5. Throughout the

Laurence Sterne once wrote, “No body, but he who has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man’s mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, both obstinately pulling in a contrary direction at the same time.” This passage embodies one of the over arching themes of Macbeth. The character Macbeth, in Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, could easily identify with this passage due to the fact that he is pulled in opposite directions by both his desire to do what is right and his desire for power.

Since the beginning of time people looked up to the stars asking Gods their fate. Fate is a belief, that there is a set path for an event that is both unavoidable and inevitable, that there is a fixed natural order to the cosmos. In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, viewers can observe fate or (prophecy) playing a major role. William Shakespeare was born April 1564 and died May 1616, during his life Shakespeare wrote 37 plays, and 157 sonnets, Shakespeare is also known for being the owner of the Globe Theatre. In Macbeth every character has a set fate, to live or to die. Macbeth 's fate was the most interesting, and mysterious. It was foretold that Macbeth will become king, and so he did. Although paying a hefty price for the crown. Macbeth seems to be surrounded by evil people who manipulate him for their gaine. The three witches and Lady Macbeth played with Macbeth using his fate, as their weapon. This play is set in Scotland, during a time of unrest, violence and war. It should also be pointed out that Macbeth is not historically accurate, and that actual historical events that are mentioned in this play are not following the timeline. Macbeth 's judgment was clouded by his ambition in becoming king. The three witches have foretold to Macbeth that he will become king, or did they? Could have witches manipulated Macbeth to murder his Duncan. The three witches seem out of this world, could it be that they selected Macbeth 's fate, for him.

Analysis of Macbeth Macbeth, is one of the greatest tragedy plays written by William Shakespeare. It is a rather short play with a major plot that we had to follow it carefully to understand its significance. The play is a tragedy about evil rising to power, which ends up corrupting the main characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. In the opening of the play Macbeth is introduced to the audience as Thane of Glamis and is respected. The witches also play a major part in the play, as they predict the future.

A Tragic Hero is a common figure in many of Shakespeare’s works. A Tragic Hero is usually a figure of royalty, fame or greatness. This person is predominately good, but falls from prominence due to personality flaws that eventually lead to self-destruction.

First performed in 1606, Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Macbeth “has been called his most timely, his darkest, his most poetic [and] most ‘philosophically ambitious’ play (Shakespeare 1). Although Macbeth is not Shakespeare’s most elaborate play, it is certainly one of his most powerful and emotionally intense. Taking place in Scotland, the play tells a story of a brave Scottish general, Macbeth, and all he has done to achieve power. Within the play, the theme of “Scottishness” introduced by Shakespeare has been interpreted differently by critics all over the world. In the time Macbeth was written, the English society was forging their national identity. Concepts such as ‘anti-Scottish discourse’, which is the dislike of Scottish people with the acceptance of Scottish stereotypes, became widespread. ‘Scotland’ as the setting is never clearly stated, so the location’s identity has to be interpreted by other means. The historical Scottish events and places in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth alludes to Scotland as the setting but is merely used as a device to accentuate anti-Scottish discourse from England’s perspective, which is identified subjectively throughout the play.

Macbeth is a Scottish general and at the beginning of the play he is the thane of Glamis. After three witches tell Macbeth a prophecy of him becoming the king of Scotland he acquires wicked thoughts and ideas. It gets worse after the prophecy of him becoming the thane of Cawdor comes true. Macbeth is a very brave and confident man on the battlefield although he is not as well suited for politics because he lacks the skills necessary to rule without being a tyrant. After his first crim of killing Duncan, all other crimes after that become increasingly easier to do.

In the beginning of the play Macbeth and Macduff are very similar in many aspects including rank, leadership, belief, and loyalty. But as the play unfolds, Shakespeare reveals these two characters are as different as night from day. In this essay I will compare and contrast the characters of the murderous Macbeth, and the forthright Macduff. I will consider their status within the Scottish society and the depth of their intelligence. I will also evaluate their actions and their relationships with other characters, including their families and I will discuss their degrees of ambition.

William Shakespeare's Macbeth “This dead butcher” is not an accurate description of Macbeth. Macbeth did not give an impression of a “butcher” since he was affected by the death of Duncan. He had contemplated on the positive and negative points about killing Duncan before he committed the act of treason. However his ambition to be king and Lady Macbeth’s persuasiveness and mocking had overridden his sense and logic which caused him to commit this crime.