Macbeth Themes: The meaning of Macbeth
Macbeth is a complex play written by William Shakespeare in the 1600's. The play is about a man who has ambition to become king and does anything and everything to accomplish his goals of power. It consists of themes such as: ambition, guilt, natural versus the unnatural, and things are not what they seem. The themes of the play are portrayed by death, guilt, blood, and the supernatural. The things the characters say and their actions are how the themes are able to be understood. There are many different themes to be learned from Macbeth.
Shakespeare made it a point to create many themes to learn from in his plays. One of his themes being ambition. Ambition is portrayed by many of the characters in Macbeth. One of which being Macbeth himself. Macbeth is so ambitious that he does anything in his power to get to the position of power he feels he deserves to have. As the story continues we see many other ambitious characters such as Lady Macbeth, Macduff, and Young Siward. At the end of the play we see the ambition that Macduff has to revenge Macbeth for the death of his wife. Macduff says "Either thou, Macbeth, or else my sword, with an unbattered edge, I sleathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be; By this great clatter, one of the greatest note seems bruised.
Let me find him, Fortune, and more I beg not." (5.6, 19-24).
Shakespeare also uses guilt as a theme in his plays. The theme of guilt is used to show that it can destroy you in the end. This theme is showed throughout many parts of the play.
After Macbeth killed Duncan he joins his wife in their room, saying "Methought I heard a voice cry, 'Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep'-the innocent sleep. Sleep that knits up the reveled sleave of care, The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast." (2.2, 33-38). In this it shows that
Macbeth's mind is play tricks on him. The guilt of killing Duncan causes him to hear things that are not truly there or able to be heard by other people. At the end of the play Lady Macbeth ends up having the guilt eat her alive. She is heard talking about the murders in her sleep while sleep walking.
While Macduff is in England, Macbeth learns of the abandonment of Macduff's family and resolves to have them murdered. When Macduff learns of the murder of his family, he is motivated by Malcolm to get revenge. It is this that pushes Macduff to the edge and forces him to go after Macbeth himself. The power of Malcolm's taunting that he must take it like a man and his own love for his family makes him hate Macbeth to the fullest extent, and eventually he succeeds in killing him.
Ambition is often the driving force in one’s life. It can have an extremely dominant impact on not only yourself, but also many people in your surroundings. You have the ability to control if the outcomes either have a lasting negative or positive effect. When a goal requires determination and hard work to complete, personal morals often take a back seat to the aspiration of accomplishing the goal. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, it is clear that like many other great leaders, Macbeth exemplifies the necessary leadership virtue of ambition. Macbeth’s ambition does not just drive him to do great things. It in fact controls him. The playwright explores the idea of how an individual’s ambition can cause them to deceive others, make irrational
There are many different themes displayed in Shakespeare's famous play Macbeth. Many of these themes play with nature, the supernatural, and fate. From ghosts to horses eating each other the play uses symbolism, language, and characters to portray these themes. During the play the audience learns of several themes such as ambition, guilt, fate versus free will, nature versus the unnatural, and how things are not always as they seem.
The play Macbeth written by William Shakespeare is based upon old Scotland and this is used as the general time frame. During this time, Monarchy still existed and Scotland is in war with Whales. There are many emotions that arise throughout the play, but the most important of all is ambition. “Ambition is the desire for personal achievement. Ambitious persons seek to be the best at what they choose to do for attainment, power, or superiority” (“Ambition”). The motif of ambition in the play is that being ambitious leaves one blind to certain areas and can drive one insane to reach the intended goal. Numerous characters that showed this trait throughout the play were Banquo, Macduff, Lady Macbeth, and Macbeth.
Macbeth is the “bravest” soldier, very noble, courageous. He is also the honorable Thane of Glamis, but he is not a virtuous one. Macduff is very loyal Scottish nobleman, courageous and is also a Thane of a city. Banquo is a brave, courageous noble general who like Macbeth thinks ambitious thoughts. MacDuff and Banquo are very loyal to their King. When King Duncan was killed they do everything that they possibly can to find out who murdered the King and to properly hand the killer the consequences.
Many people who have read William Shakespeare’s Macbeth know that Macbeth is the tragic hero in the play, but there another character stands out as a much greater protagonist. Macbeth is the type of character who turned from a loyal warrior to the king into a violent, tyrannical, and conflicted person as he progressively commits crimes inside the kingdom without anyone’s notice, except for one person, who is Macduff. Macduff doesn’t have any flaws and remains sinless and heroic throughout the play. As Macbeth progressively gains power and prestige in exchange for the lives of his king, his friends, and his countrymen, Macduff meanwhile goes through great personal loss in his attempts to stop Macbeth’s tyrannical ruling and to restore justice and freedom to Scotland. It is ironic how Macduff acts so much more nobly than his king. Throughout the tragic events that have occurred in the play, Macduff serves as a heroic figure through his demonstrations of intelligence, loyalty, and righteousness.
Shakespeare uses the title character of Macbeth to effectively develop the theme of guilt and conscience in his play. Several times in the play we see Macbeth’s character crumbling as a result of a guilty conscience. At
Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’ is about the leading male protagonist succumbing to his ambition and need for power. Though Macbeth is liable for his own actions, he is not solely responsible for the events that eventually result in his downfall. Macbeth is corrupted by his wife, Lady Macbeth, as well as the three weird sisters. Macbeth’s contribution towards his downfall is his strong ambitious nature. Lady Macbeth is the person who induces Macbeth to assassinate King Duncan. The three weird sisters (witches) play with Macbeth’s ambitious nature and sense of security. Macbeth’s downfall is due to himself and two external factors.
The audience quickly sees that Macbeth has guilt from his action forced by Lady macbeth because Macbeth murdered Duncan. Macbeth murdered Duncan while he was inoperative, powerless and unable to protect himself. After Macbeth kills Duncan, he is then overcome with guilt and remorse. He believes that he has heard people accusing him of murder. Macbeth is hearing voices demonstrates the depth of guilt that he is feeling after killing a humble king like Duncan.
He defines his life’s work as uniting the whole world as an empire. His image of himself is a man who hates luxury,as a king to rule people and to find others with talent to rule unde him.
Many believe lines 17-28 to be Macbeth’s most famous speech. What metaphors does he use to describe what he feels to be the
Macduff’s character is used as an effective foil for Macbeth in the play. The foil serves to show the parallels between these two characters.
‘Macbeth’ is a play in which a Lord and his Lady come into supreme power through acts of injustice and despicable inhumanities. In the play Macbeth there is no main focal theme that overrules the others; the play however has several underlying themes, namely there are important themes i.e. good and evil (like ying and yang), greed and power, guilt and conscience, fear, ambition – this leads to the murder of other people illustrating to the reader that even the most sane of people can result to character diminishing methods to get what they want. These particular themes are the most prominent and when closely looked at, it can help to understand characters and meanings behind the play. The theme of ambition is very important in this play,
Alternative characters in the play contrast Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's twisted perception of a man by allowing their emotions and not giving in to traditional gender roles. When taking a look at masculinity in Macbeth, MacDuff’s is an aforementioned character. Shakespeare gives MacDuff phrases, which contrast the misguided ways of Macbeth and his Lady, and also show that there is hope in masculinity. It is obvious that MacDuff is Shakespeare's ideological adaptation of a real man. MacDuff knows himself and he performs his duties, as he knows he must and settles his feelings with the stability a man needs. As he is told to take the news of their murders “like a man.” He retorts, “I shall do so, / But I must also feel it as a man” (4.3.
Ambition can make you lose everything if it takes over. For some people it has ruined their lives. Many people has ambition but for some people to much of it can be dangerous. In Macbeth, Shakespeare creates a character that sends a message about how not to let ambition takes over you.