Macbeth - Tragedy Essay

  The tragedy of Macbeth comes about because of a single event in his life. If that one moment, the meeting with the witches on the heath, had not happened then Macbeth would no doubt have gone on to be a loyal and respected subject of King Duncan and, later, King Malcolm. However, the meeting did happen and the powerful force of ambition was unleashed within Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It is the combination of these two factors, the meeting with the witches and Macbeth's own inner demons, that lead to tragedy, and make the play 'terrifying' in the Aristotelian sense.

Macbeth recognizes that the dagger is not real and accepts this. This is his first step into insanity. As he admits, his mind is feverish with excitement and perhaps dread, and he understands that this vision is ominous. His internal conflict has now begun to develop; his ambition is driving him to do something and subconsciously he knows it is not right.

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 the beginning of the play, before we are formally introduced to Macbeth, Macbeth is portrayed by King Duncan, as a loyal, brave and a heroic fighter. The King praises him, setting up Macbeth's initial character as an over all well rounded, strong person, leading the audience to belief Macbeth is a sane, honest person. However, through the next few acts to the finale, we witness Macbeth's portrayal shift to one with blind ambition and crude desire. We see his mental status deteriorate as well as the actions that illustrate this continuous decline; until inevitably, his sanity, or lack thereof, catches up with him.

As any good character, Macbeth, of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, has several different intriguing and well-thought-out layers to his character. Whether it is the thrill of Macbeth’s daring side, or the interesting psychological aspects of his thought processes, Macbeth has a unique element that can seem to relate to everyone in some way. Macbeth is a prime example of a human being faced with varying degrees of everyday conflicts, emotions, and morals. He makes and exponential impact on both the reader, and all his fellow characters, by displaying several aspects of life that make people truly human

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.

Macbeth begins to act different because he starts wanting King Duncan’s title. From here, Macbeth begins to ignore the obstacles that come upon his way and decides to head straight for the title. Macbeth sees a “dagger” before him and it shows how he says he wants to “clutch” it. (Shakespeare II.ii.2). At this point, Macbeth had killed Duncan and starts having illusions about the murder.

In the events leading up to the arrival of Duncan, Macbeth is very hesitant and wary of killing Duncan. In this soliloquy, he understands his role as an ally and a host, and this

In this passage, Shakespeare uses the metaphor of sleep and purgatory, the symbol of the dagger, and the motif of deception and temperature to characterize Macbeth as conflicted and insane, ultimately to foreshadow the metaphorical demise of Duncan and Macbeth. In this passage, Macbeth has promised to murder King Duncan. He plans to do it this night, while everyone is asleep. As Macbeth sees a floating dagger on his way to kill Duncan, he questions saying “Is this a dagger which I see before me,”. Through the use of the phrase “Is this”, which means Macbeth is questioning himself, Shakespeare characterizes Macbeth as hesitant and conflicted. As Macbeth tries to figure out if the dagger is real, he wonders if it is his own brain and says “Or

The play ‘Macbeth’ written by William Shakespeare is one of great tragedy. In the play, Macbeth, the main character, transforms from a war hero to a tyrannical murderer. He is the one that is most responsible for all of this tragedy, including his own death. This is because he is the one that allowed other characters to influence his decisions; and he actually committed the murder of King Duncan. The Witches and Lady Macbeth may share some responsibility for the tragedy, but Macbeth must take most of the blame.

After being rewarded for his heroic victories in battle, Macbeth tells King Duncan that his only duty is to serve and protect him. However, we know this to be untrue because in a previous scene, the witches’ predictions of Macbeth’s kingship immediately spur thoughts of murdering Duncan. He also contemplates the necessity of killing the king’s son, Malcolm, in order to achieve his goal. Macbeth’s thoughts reveal his is not the virtuous, honorable man Duncan and others believe him to be.

Macbeth couldn’t hide the guilt from himself; he didn’t want to kill King Duncan, but his focus was on being king. He couldn’t concentrate on anything else except for the that the three witches had told him. With some convincing from his wife, Macbeth accepts the risks ahead in order to be king. Before he can even make it into the kings’ chambers, he had started hallucinating and had seen two swords with his eyes. He says to himself, "Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feelings as to sight? Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable as this which now I draw" (Shakespeare 75). Macbeth is stating that he sees two daggers with his eyes, however, he only has one real dagger in his grasp. Seeing things that are not real is part of being paranoid which is a symptom of guilt. Not only was Macbeth panicking before the murder of King Duncan, but after the deed was done, he couldn’t cover up the murder himself due to his state of shock. Macbeth was talking to himself after Lady Macbeth went to clean the murder scene and he heard noises, “Whence is that knocking? How is't with me, when every noise appalls me? What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my

If a play is to function as a tragedy, we, the audience, should feel a certain degree of sympathy for the protagonist through to the close of the play. In my opinion, however, Shakespeare fails to retain this in his timeless classic, “The Tragedy of Macbeth”. From the start of the play it is clear that Macbeth is a reckless warrior, almost barbaric in nature. He is a weak character, who is easily manipulated by his ruthless wife and the three malevolent witches. He ignores the advice of his shrewd, loyal friend and abandons his own moral instincts;

Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare in the year 1606, is a prominent tragic play that is notoriously recognized for its excessive use of violence. The author mainly elaborates how Macbeth, who used to be a proud hero of Scotland, spreads his turmoil throughout the whole kingdom. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is widely regarded as an honorable hero because he is a valiant warrior who wants to protect the kingdom to the best of his abilities. As the play progresses, however, Macbeth’s personality, motives, and character start to vary dramatically. His personal greed and overconfidence to fulfill his ambition for power leads him to commit malevolent actions that brings upon remorse, despair, and guilt within him and for the

Macbeth realizes that in obtaining the crown by foul play he is devaluing it as the king is meant to be appointed by God. By now, Macbeth is able to have the courage to look into the heart of fear; Lady Macbeth on the other hand is unable to do this.