Macbeth lived in a world where salvation was the highest goal of all people. This hope of going to heaven motivated people to be good and virtuous in order to avoid punishment in the afterlife. This is clearly evident in every part of Macbeth, in characters, plot, theme, and dialogue. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are the only ones who act immorally in order to fulfil their selfish desires. They know they are wrong. They know that the path they stride upon will lead to their own destruction. They agonise over the violation of moral laws. They know they will go to hell. But they foolishly forged ahead to their own downfall. T Even the lowly porter fears divine retribution and is bound by the moral code– unlike those in our criminal society. 1 Even …show more content…
3 Even though Kobi Alexander, former CEO of Comverse Technology, was caught embezzling millions of dollars, he now lives like a king in Namibia, unable to be extradited. 4 Even though digital piracy costs the music industry upwards of $12.5 billion in losses annually, 70% of North Americans do not think there is anything wrong with it. 5 Even though 15% of sexual assault victims are children, only 2% of rapists ever serve a single day in prison. T But how did the bacchanalian mess we call a culture evolve from the holy and pious world of Macbeth? In medieval society, the word of the Church was law. When a scientist named Galileo Galilei challenged the widely accepted theory of geocentrism, he was met with accusations that he was in violation of verses from Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and other biblical texts. The people of Galileo’s time did not care about where the heavens were; they only cared about making it into heaven. Galileo was an absolutely brilliant scientist who was especially known for his telescope that he used to discover Io, Callisto, Europa, and Ganymede– the Galilean moons of …show more content…
Firstly, before he even he commits the, “sacrilegious murder,” he feels guilt over his future actions and worries over being caught. Lady Macbeth has to convince him to actually, “screw his courage to the sticking place,” and commit the deed. Macbeth’s indecisiveness is an indicator of his own battle between ambition and what he knows to be moral; he constantly agonises over the killing of Duncan. He begs the stars to hide their light and not see his, “black and deep desires,” almost like he is asking God not to look at what he is doing because he fears divine retribution for his despicable deed. Secondly, Macbeth is well aware of the consequences, in this world and the next, of his actions. He knows that he will face harsh punishment in the, “everlasting bonfire,” after he dies, but he continues to break the moral code. Several times within the play, Shakespeare alludes to the ancient Greek notion of the afterlife as the far bank of a river and this life as the shore we are currently on. Hecate, the Greek goddess of magic, makes reference to Macbeth being at the, “pit of Acheron,” the river that Charon ferried dead souls across in order to reach their ultimate fate in Hades’ kingdom. Macbeth acknowledges that if he could, “jump the life to come,” he would not care about acting immorally in this world. Even the porter makes reference to this fear of the afterlife that looms over their
What goes around comes around no matter who you are. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth did whatever they could to become king and queen. Lady Macbeth mostly made Macbeth do the work. Lady Macbeth was minion on Macbeth. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth betrayed, killed, and lied about every bad deed they did. They both turned cruel, evil, and insane towards the end, but were more hesitant, thoughtful, and innocent in the beginning of the play. The influence of what the witches said was like a deadly disease to their brain. At the end of the play, Lady Macbeth is more worried and guilty while Macbeth is more confident and cruel because of their ruthless actions. From the moment the plan started cooking up from there is when their
Although the witches only play a small role in the play, they have a huge impact on what goes on. The witches are the base of the play, and without the weird sisters, there would not be a play. Throughout the play, the witches tempt Macbeth to do things that will make his fate come true. The witches add fuel to the fire by revealing to Macbeth the prophecies, which drive him to kill many of his friends, change his heart, and ultimately lead to his downfall.
By his desires to be king, hell fell into the trap of doing whatever he has to do to get on top. Macbeth says,” I am in blood Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er” (3.4.159-162). These quotes symbolize that it is too late for Macbeth to be pure. When Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to kill Duncan she know that he will never be the same. Macbeth’s ambition to be king totally consumes his pure heart.
The play Macbeth is set around the rise and the fall of the protagonist, Macbeth. The audience perceives that there are a number of culprits that have caused his eventual down fall, such as Lady Macbeth, the three witches and Macbeth himself. We cannot ignore the thought that each of the factors has played a fairly notable role yet only one is truly responsible for setting off the tumultuous cycle of the play. Personally, when thinking over the causes and consequences I have come to a considered conclusion, that the witches have commenced the tragic fatal downfall of Macbeth. The supernatural invasion in Macbeth’s domestic life has ruptured the balance of nature and created chaos.
By this point, in Galileo’s life, it was clear that medicine was not the right field for him. Due to the discovery of his talents in mathematics and philosophy he dropped out of college without a degree in medicine. Even before he began to look focus on what his new discoveries meant, Galileo considered himself a Copernican or a follower of Copernicus. He especially respected Copernicus’ work in and ideas about astronomy. In 1610, 25 years after he dropped out of university, he became aware of a telescope developed by a regular correspondent of his, Johannes Kepler. Galileo rushed to construct his own, and soon after, he announced many new astronomical discoveries. Some of these included his discovery that the Milky Way is made up of innumerable stars and his observation of the satellites of Jupiter. Already, at a young age, Galileo had begun to
The Downfall of Macbeth Macbeth was a hero to many but turned to evil, fulfilling his drive for ambition and love of power and greed. Macbeth was written in 1606 by William Shakespeare. The play portrays how any human is capable of becoming evil, despite how good they may have seemed. Macbeth was admired, respected and honoured as a brave soldier.
In the famous Shakespeare play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and her husband planned out the murder of Duncan, the King of Scotland, so that they would be the king and queen. She desired power and was very manipulative of her husband in order to fulfill her needs. Lady Macbeth is a strong-willed, ambitious, and ruthless character. Lady Macbeth’s ambition and willpower drove her to work with her husband to kill the king of Scotland. She knew she would not be able to kill the king on her own and she needed to push Macbeth to do the dirty work: “We fail? /
Within one’s life we often face a choice that we make out of impulse because of what the result may be. Whether the outcome may seem good, the consequences of what could happen are blindly acknowledged. In William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, the plot revolves around the main character Macbeth fulfilling the three prophecies given by witches which involve murder. Macbeth is faced to make decisions that he cannot make on his own - his wife, Lady Macbeth aids in these choices. Lady Macbeth is portrayed as being manipulative, ambitious and eventually mentally unstable.
In the play Macbeth, multiple drastic and dramatic events occurred that lead to the ultimate self-destruction of Macbeth himself. Following his death, not only did the kingdom become irrevocably corrupt, but the order was undoubtedly damaged. The trust between one and other was broken due to Macbeth's prior actions. In result of his death, a new king had to be appointed whom was Malcolm. The play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, portrays Malcolm as the new kind, who is given new challenges to bring the peace back.
In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the title character’s downfall is brought about by his failed attempts to change fate throughout the play by committing his three great crimes are due to his hubris and desire to control and maintain his kingship. Killing King Duncan as the stepping stones to obtaining power and making the witch’s prophecy he would become king true, leading to the downfall of his moral conscience, hiring murders to kill Banquo and Fleance out of Macbeth’s ambition to keep kingship leading to his mind deteriorating with hallucinations, and killing Macduff’s family out of rage causes a war against Macbeth, leading him to his death and the witches’ deception of Macbeth’s fate causes the downfall of his character. Firstly, Macbeth’s
Lady Macbeth is presented as multifaceted in the play Macbeth because she seemed evil for wanting to kill Duncan, persisting Macbeth to go through with the deed, making herself maleficient but towards the end is faced with guilt.
In the very beginning of Macbeth, Shakespeare paints the main character to be a great man. Macbeth was viewed as an honorable war hero and beloved kinsman before he killed Duncan. After the fact, the tragic hero believed himself to be of the highest honors and authority; a greater version of the man he was. Shakespeare tampers with this idea by maintaining a battle between Macbeth’s ending state of evil and his prior state of goodness. Macbeth’s guilt for killing Duncan haunts him until the very end of the play. Every action he does no matter how indirect, killing Banquo and all of Macduff’s family, is to escape his original wrongdoing. He was trying to ensure that he was never caught in treason, and his nonchalance surely supported that reasoning. However, all of the blood eventually catches up with him in the end when he loses his mind and is subsequently murdered. This loss of oneself is foreshadowed right after Duncan is murdered. Macbeth’s wonders, “Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red” (2.2.57-60). He knows that what is good in him will be overtaken by the bad, and his paranoia about the situation only worsens the outcome. His obsession with his guilt turned his honesty into omission when questioned by his wife about Banquo’s
In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth the main character has a dramatic rise to kingship but suddenly loses it in his tragic downfall. Characters in works of literature usually have a downfall due to a certain event or trait they possess, in this case Macbeth has too much greed. Early on in the play, three witches give Macbeth a prophecy, this entails that he will become the Thane of Cawdor and then king. They also tell him that he will never be defeated from a man that was born from a women. Throughout the play Macbeth sticks to this and ends up becoming king but in an inhuman manner. Macbeth kills the previous king Duncan to gain his power just like the prophecy, once he has the power it gets used to his advantage. Next, as Macbeth gets too greedy with his belief in the prophecy he feel unstoppable and accepts a fight with Duncan who has a strong army ready to defeat Macbeth who is slowly breaking down. Macbeth's excessive amount of greed is responsible for his downfall because of his hunger for power, abuse with
In the final Act, Macbeth prepares for the battle he only will face, even though he knows about his soon-to-be downfall. He puts on his armor and waits for his final destination, as known as, Macduff. In the arrival of Macduff, Siward, Young Siward, and Malcolm, Young Siward charges to the castle to find the Thane of Glamis, but was killed by him immediately. Now it was Macduff turn to have vengeance;
If you were to make a mistake on a team sport wouldn’t you only have yourself to blame? Most of the time, it is easy to point fingers at other people. In life, people must have the integrity to take responsibility for their own mistakes. Macbeth, a play by William Shakespeare conveys the journey of Macbeth’s descent into evil. Macbeth has no one to blame but himself for his downfall, because he ignores his ability to reason, and his willingness to believe in the supernatural.