Betrayal And Paranoia In Macbeth
The story of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragic one indeed. Full of betrayal and paranoia, this play ranks high on Shakespeare’s list of plays. Macbeth tells the story of the Thane of Glamis, Macbeth. He learns prophecies from three witches and seeks to fulfill them. In this quest, he gets what he wants, but loses what he had before. Macbeth’s main reason for committing the heinous act against Duncan in act II is his vivid imagination. The definition of imagination is the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses. Macbeth’s imagination both hinders his ability to kill and enables it, because he hallucinates, is ambitious, and thinks of failure. One way that Macbeth is held back
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He is preparing to kill Duncan and waiting for Lady Macbeth to ring the bell so he can enter. Macbeth says,“Is this a dagger I see before me…”(344). He is mentally preparing himself, with his vivid imagination, to execute Duncan and take his crown for himself. The knife leads him to the crime which he is certain he wants to commit after Lady Macbeth bullies him into the idea. Macbeth’s imagination also convinces him to do the deed through ambition. When the witches give him and Banquo the prophecies, he flinches in a way. To the audience it’s almost like someone is reading his mind. After they address him as king, Macbeth has many asides and in one he says this,“Let light not see my black and deep desires…”(333). He was clearly already thinking of becoming king long before these three weird sisters came to him with their prophecies. As Macbeth continues into the story he is overcome by his ambition and Lady Macbeth even uses it against him to convince him to kill the current king. Macbeth has an overly active imagination. While some consider an active imagination good, Macbeth’s was the downfall of him and his family. He is manipulated and confused by it until his brutal end in act five. His imagination taunted him with thoughts of his future, failure, and vivid hallucinations of the unspeakable act committed against King
He is preparing to kill Duncan and waiting for Lady Macbeth to ring the bell so he can enter. Macbeth says,“Is this a dagger I see before me…”(344). He is mentally preparing himself, with his vivid imagination, to execute Duncan and take his crown for himself. The knife leads him to the crime which he is certain he wants to commit after Lady Macbeth bullies him into the idea. Macbeth’s imagination also convinces him to do the deed through ambition. When the witches give him and Banquo the prophecies, he flinches in a way. To the audience it’s almost like someone is reading his mind. After they address him as king, Macbeth has many asides and in one he says this,“Let light not see my black and deep desires…”(333). He was clearly already thinking of becoming king long before these three weird sisters came to him with their prophecies. As Macbeth continues into the story he is overcome by his ambition and Lady Macbeth even uses it against him to convince him to kill the current king. Macbeth has an overly active imagination. While some consider an active imagination good, Macbeth’s was the downfall of him and his family. He is manipulated and confused by it until his brutal end in act five. His imagination taunted him with thoughts of his future, failure, and vivid hallucinations of the unspeakable act committed against King