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Macbeth Conflict Essay

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Macbeth Conflict Essay
“Choose a play in which there is a conflict between key characters. Explain how the conflict arises and, by referring to appropriate techniques, go on to say how the conflict adds tension to the play, and whether is it resolved.”

William Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy ‘Macbeth,’ charts the rise and fall of the titular character and his wife, Lady Macbeth. Macbeth is one of the kings most trusted thanes, a “worthy cousin,” but he betrays that trust and murders the king after being manipulated into agreeing to commit the crime by his ambitious wife. This conflict drives a wedge between the characters and creates tension at a number of points in the play. Eventually all of their treachery is discovered, and Macbeth and his wife both face terrible
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After the battle Macbeth came across the “weird sisters,” who hailed him as “king hereafter”. His ambition is immediately made known to the audience in his soliloquy where he admits his “black and deep desires”, although he reasons with himself and comes to the conclusion that: “If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me without my stir.” However, Macbeth’s “dearest partner of greatness” is extremely ambitious and is already set on murdering the king so that herself and her husband can claim the crown and is angry when she discovers that he has had a change of heart. Lady Macbeth soon overcomes this, as she is as cunning as she is ambitious, manipulating her husband by questioning his manhood and calling him a …show more content…
Macbeth’s psychotic break during which he see’s Banquo’s “bloodied” ghost causes tension as it is viewed by his royal lords and kinsmen and gives them reason to believe there is something amiss. Lady Macbeth tried to pull her husband together, asking him “Are you a man?”, again trying to manipulate him by challenging his manhood. Although this worked before, it doesn’t now. This could be due to the murder of the king changing Macbeth as a man, but murder is not new to Macbeth so it is much more likely that the conflict earlier on in the play has caused a loss of respect and closeness between himself and his

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