Essay on macbeths descent into evil

     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.

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the theme of guilt and conscience is one of many explored throughout the play. Macbeth, is a well respected Scottish noble who in the beginning of the play is a man everyone looks up to; however as the play progresses he makes a number of bad decisions. Eventually, as a result of his actions he suffers guilt and this plays heavily upon his character until his personality is completely destroyed. Shakespeare uses a range of techniques in order to develop this theme such as, characters, imagery.

"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.

Macbeth shows this when he kills King Duncan.The events that continue after the king’s death are as follows: Malcolm and Donalbain (Duncan’s sons) flee Scotland to England and Ireland, Macbeth is crowned king and he orders the death of Banquo, Macbeth becomes a corrupt and vicious tyrant over Scotland, Lady Macbeth becomes insane and commits suicide, and finally, Macbeth dies at the hands of Macduff. From this chain of events, the ruling passions that Macbeth had reached a point where they took over any bit of innocence and guilt that he may have had over the things that he had done. He felt no remorse when he ordered the death of his close friend Banquo, and he also did not feel any sadness when he had the family of Macduff’s killed. The only time Macbeth had any rational feelings was when he became aware of the death of his wife and even then, he still pushed away those feelings to fight the armies that were approaching his castle. The prophecies betrayed Macbeth; this should have been realized at an earlier time. His passion blurred the fine line between moral and immoral actions that caused his untimely demise.

    Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's more popular plays, and nearly everyone knows about the abundant blood and gore, the witches, Lady Macbeth's ambition, and the ghost of Banquo. However, not as many people know about the superstitions that surround this play.  There's a long-standing belief that the play is jinxed, than any company that produces it is courting disaster, and that quoting from the play (or even saying the title) leads to serious bad luck.

Death in Macbeth Murder does not just cost the life of the person killed, but it also costs the life of the killer. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth he deaths of Duncan, Banquo, and Lady Macbeth represent Macbeth’s decay in character and in health. The murder of Duncan begins his decline in mental health, and creates his inner evil.

In the play Macbeth, there are two main characters, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, and both of these characters have done some things that some people would consider to be evil. There are some who think that Lady Macbeth is more evil than Macbeth, but there are reasons that I believe that Macbeth is more evil than Lady Macbeth. I think that Macbeth is more evil because he has no respect for anyone, and he is two-faced who only cared about himself and nobody else, not even when his own wife had died. Macbeth has went beyond his measures into killing the king and having others be killed, in related to Lady Macbeth has never actually killed anyone in the play.

The qualities that it takes to murder a king are not present in Lady Macbeth.

Macbeth Essay What are the psychological effects of evil on humans? Evil causes people to do unnatural and destructive things. Someone evil can be described as being immoral, such as how Macbeth lacks moral strength. Because Macbeth lacks moral strength, he kills King Duncan.

In Macbeth by Shakespeare, an evil seed grows in each character and sometimes entirely takes over someone’s good nature. Shakespeare also shows how once Macbeth has committed one evil act, it is hard to stop evil from consuming the mind and body. Macbeth shows strong examples of evil growing in any character, from innocent looking Lady Macbeth who turns into a major negative influence over her husband, and Macbeth, who is ambitious and turns into a selfish King with murderous intent. Ambition can turn a strong man like Macbeth into a fearless man without morals. Lady Macbeth knows Macbeth has ambition but lacks the necessary evil to act on his malicious thoughts and ideas, so she says, “Hie thee hither that I may pour my spirits in thine ear and chastise with the valor of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem to have the crowned withall” (48).

His treacherous acts cause the deaths of two of the most virtuous men in the play, Duncan and Banquo. And to top it off, Macbeth murders Macduff’s wife and kids (IV.iii.76-81), and attempts to murder Banquo’s son (III.iv.17-20). Macbeth, fully aware of his wrongdoings, murders innocent people for his own, selfish motives. The guilt and paranoia Macbeth feels after committing these atrocities prove that his actions are evil. Before Macbeth murders Duncan he experiences an unnatural sickness of the mind: a hallucination of a floating dagger (II.ii.33-35).

In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, the main character, Macbeth is truly a “devil more damned” of “horrid hell” as he senselessly murders. He is guided by his own ambition, the witches and his wife to kill the king but he reveals his true evil nature by choosing to murder his best friend. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is portrayed as noble and brave. This shown as Lady Macbeth says in Act 1, scene 4, line 12, “ yet I do fear thy nature: it is too full o’ the milk of human kindness” This portrayal does not last long as Macbeth receives a prophecy from the witches, who represent evil and are seen as allies with the devil, and Macbeth believes these wicked beings.

Macbeth’s mental and moral deterioration throughout the play engages the audience illustrating how guilt overwhelms his conscience He believes he hears voices crying “Macbeth has murdered sleep” this demonstrates how he is battling against his morals and his ambition. His good qualities are battling his bad thoughts and this is the main reason for his mental downfall which makes for a deeply engaging plot. Macbeth goes from being a man of bravery, strength, honour yet he slowly loses these qualities. He once believed that killing a good man was an evil, un-worthy thing to do yet by the end of the play he is killing the people he once had close relationships with to get himself out of the mess that was dragging him deeper into despair and tragedy. This process is enthralling for the audience who cannot resist watching him go to any length to save himself as his morals go into deep decline. Ambition has completely taken over him in the soliloquy in which he states; “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o’erleap itself and falls on the other.” In this instance Macbeth is interesting because he realises that the only thing that is making him want to kill Duncan is

These thoughts devour him, but not how they once did, but that now he is comfortable with killing the innocent without second thinking. It’s ironic, because in this scene Macduff’s son explains to the reader that there are more villains in the world than there are heroes. He explains that the villains could just all come together and kill the heroes, this is ironic because this is exactly what Macbeth is doing. King Duncan was a nice guy, he never second guessed it, he trusted Macbeth and he killed him, Banquo his best friend and killed him. Macbeth has no mercy or conscience at this point in his

Firstly, Macbeth’s growing ambition causes him to commit evil actions without the influence of external forces. Macbeth kills Banquo without any prompts from Lady Macbeth. In fact, the quote, “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck / Till thou applaud the deed” (III, II, 50-51), hints that Lady Macbeth is unaware of Macbeth’s plan to murder Banquo. Lady Macbeth warns Macbeth to dismiss his evil thoughts yet Macbeth disregards her and continues on with his scheme and gives into his ambition. Macbeth’s ambition causes him to ignore Lady Macbeth with in turn causes him to continue to commit an evil deed. Macbeth also kills Macduff’s family, which is encouraged by his ambition to remain on the throne. Macbeth states, “The very firstlings of my heart shall