Preview

Macbeth: The Good and Bad Side

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
917 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Macbeth: The Good and Bad Side
Macbeth Essay

How does Macbeth change during the course of the play?

Macbeth dramatically changes throughout the play, especially his behaviour;
In the beginning of the play, Macbeth knows the right from wrong, even when he does wrong he can’t justify to himself why he is doing wrong.
When the witches tell Macbeth about him becoming the King of Scotland he was interested in this idea but he never thought of killing the king to make the witches idea true, Macbeth couldn’t think about such wrong doing, he always had to get advice and be told by somebody else what to do, so he wrote to Lady Macbeth and she suggested to him to kill the king. Macbeth was very reliant on his wife in the beginning almost like a young child towards a teacher.
Lady Macbeth is a very dominating character and can easily persuade Macbeth to do what she says – this dramatically changes throughout the play.
Macbeth takes a lot of persuading to do the killing of the King, he asks Lady Macbeth to the deeds but Lady Macbeth called him a coward, in those days the men was meant to be the stronger one, Macbeth couldn’t have that name so he took the courage and killed the king.
After the killing Macbeth was very anxious of what he had done, he didn’t want to do it he was pressured into it, he was nervous and frightened– he couldn’t pluck up the courage to put the dagger back, this suggests that Macbeth couldn’t face what he had done, he felt so terrible and scared– this shows that Macbeth was fearful about what he had done and had a lot of guilt.
‘No ocean will wash this blood from my hands’ – Macbeth quotes this after the killing, this shows remorse for his actions, he suggests that he will never get over the killing and will never live with it. Every time he looks at his hands he will always see the Duncan’s blood smothered in them.
‘No ocean’ – The Ocean is the whole world wide sea this truly shows that nothing will ever change how he feels about the murder and the guilt.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Macbeth was happy with how everything had been going and said that if it was actaully destiny for him to be king, then he would wait and let it happen. Lady Macbeth was very controlling throughout the story she pretty much made every decision for macbeth. His wife is the reason he killed the king…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lady Macbeth plays a major role in influencing her husband to take the path that he does. She is the catalyst that effectively unleashes Macbeth’s true side of evil. Throughout the play we can see that she has a strong influence on him and is a primary cause for increasing Macbeth’s ambition. Lady Macbeth’s words to her husband as well as her many powerful soliloquies show us her great desire to become Queen and hence urge Macbeth to murder Duncan as well as begin his reign of tyranny. However, in no way can Lady Macbeth be seen as the sole influence on Macbeth. Although Macbeth appears to be greatly subordinate to his wife in terms of levels of evil, he is still an extremely ambitious and powerful character. She greatly helps him throughout the play to get him through various problems. In the earlier acts of the play we can see that Lady Macbeth’s words mean a lot to her husband, giving the impression that she is definitely the dominant figure in the relationship. Lady Macbeth has a strong influence on her husband and is a sole reason why Macbeth acts as he did.…

    • 409 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mac Beth Essay

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Macbeth is delirious with power now that he is king, and he intends to make sure he stays at the top of his mountain. He hires two assassins to murder Banquo and his son. If they are murdered than no one can destroy his power. Banquo quickly realizes that he is poisoned and pushes his assailants out of the way so his son…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth: A Tragic Hero

    • 106 Words
    • 1 Page

    Even now knowing that MacDuff and an entire army is on their way to storm his castle, Macbeth refuses to flee. Soon you will find out what will happen to Macbeth and what his downfall will be. “Why should I play the roman fool and die on mine own sword?” (V. VIII.1-2) this means that Macbeth is saying was the point in me fighting Macduff because he already killed his whole family why would MacDuff be any more different. In a turn of events MacDuff kills and beheading Macbeth in order to end his rule as king and get revenge for Macbeth having his family…

    • 106 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    As the story progresses Macbeth begins to contemplate murdering the king more and more. Each act he comes closer and closer to killing the king. He also says “I won’t let my eye look at what my hand is doing, but in the end I’m…

    • 217 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tizbeth slumped down and an arrow struck the ground where she had been standing. She swore and rolled away. Syd, on her feet, created a protection bubble.…

    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth Vs Banquo

    • 916 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Throughout the text, Macbeth’s internal concerns are repeated and emphasized as he toddles between right and wrong. At the beginning of the soliloquy, he worries about worldly punishment. “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly… But in these cases we still have judgment here.” He then considers his duty and loyalty to Duncan, pondering, “as his host, who should against his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife myself.” Macbeth even goes on to state, “I have no spur.” He describes that his ambition is the only part of him that causes him to even consider such a horrible deed. He concludes his soliloquy by stating, “To prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself and falls on th' other.” Even after this, he remains unconvinced until his wife persuades him that he is obligated to murder the…

    • 916 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Role Of Guilt In Macbeth

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages

    At the beginning of “Macbeth”, Macbeth is a true soldier who has no guilt within himself and he is proud of killing people fighting in battles. Once he has murdered King Duncan, his is haunted with guilt, he cannot sleep, enter a room and he is full with agony. This leads him to further consequences. But surly, no one can murder some without pay the consequences.…

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Guilt is one of the hardest emotions to control. It implants itself in one’s mind and is almost impossible to get rid of. Shakespeare’s Macbeth as well as Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart demonstrate how murder can lead to unexpected guilt. The main characters from both pieces commit murder and feel guilt for killing their victims, and also feel nervous about getting caught so much that they spell their own doom. Guilt is a very hard feeling to get rid of. Both Macbeth and The Tell-Tale Heart demonstrate how people live with guilt. After Macbeth murders Duncan, he feels like he made a big mistake. “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.” (II, ii,ll 60-63) This quote reveals how Macbeth feels guilt about killing Duncan. He feels as if he will never get the blood, which is his guilt, off of his hands. Macbeth utters this quote out of sheer remorse for murdering Duncan because he believes that he was a good king and did not deserve to die. In addition, Macbeth feels like the dried blood stained on his hands is similar to the guilt fallen on him by Duncan’s murder, it is very difficult to get rid of, and will leave its mark if he tries to find someone to talk about it with to relieve his remorse. He must bottle up his guilt and only speak of it with Lady Macbeth who shows him no sympathy. In addition to feeling guilt, Macbeth is so nervous after he commits murder, that he ultimately spells his own doom by giving himself away. “O, yet I do repent me of my fury, that I did kill them.” (II, iii,ll116-117). Once it is found that Duncan is murdered, Macbeth says that he killed his guards because he was so angry with them. What really happened was Lady Macbeth killed them after Macbeth killed Duncan so that the evidence could not be traced back to Macbeth. Macbeth gives himself away by saying that he killed the guards, as there was…

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth was not keen on killing his loyal king, up until Lady Macbeth persuaded him to do it. After a long standoff with his wife, Macbeth finally proclaims, “I am settled, and bend up/Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. /Away, and mock the time with fairest show. /False face must hide what the false heart doth know” (Shakespeare 1.7.79-83). Macbeth expresses that he is settled on killing the king and will go through with the plan established by Lady Macbeth. Although he was initially against the idea, for there were a lot of risks, his wife was able to convince him, thus demonstrating how easily persuaded Macbeth can be. Lady Macbeth, on the contrary, is quite influential. She uses strong rhetoric to convince Macbeth that he must become king, questioning his masculinity, and explaining the various benefits of becoming king. Lady Macbeth states, “What beast was ’t, then, /That made you break this enterprise to me? /When you durst do it, then you were a man;/And to be more than what you were, you would/Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place/Did then adhere, and yet you would make both. /They have made themselves, and that their fitness now/ Does unmake you” (Shakespeare 1.7.47-55). Lady Macbeth calls Macbeth a coward which makes him reassess his initial decision of not killing the King.…

    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    To begin with, Macbeth is greatly influenced by Lady Macbeth. She “is depicted by Shakespeare as an equal of Macbeth in the realm of ambition and ruthlessness; without her, in fact, Macbeth's courage may never have reached the ‘sticking-place’” (Moss & Wilson 7). She convinces him to commit the murder of King Duncan, as well as convinces him that murder is the only way to achieve their ambition. Rather than listening to his own conscience, which tells him to “...proceed no further in this business” (Shakespeare I.VII.34), Macbeth allows his wife to manipulate and convince him by accusing him of not being a man and expresses that she would “...dashed the brains out...”…

    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth was a noble and loyal man, who would never harm his King. If it wasn't for the influences of the witches and his wife, Lady Macbeth, he would have lived happily as Thane of Cawdor, an honorable title in itself. The downfall of Macbeth was ignited by the actions by those around him, mainly, and eventually, his ambitions took over. Macbeth never had the intention of killing his king, but was ultimately persuaded that it was the correct thing to do. With his wife’s cajoling, and the three witches’ foretelling of his future Macbeth, will stop at nothing to gain position as King of Scotland.…

    • 737 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The two main characters in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, are Macbeth himself and his wife Lady Macbeth. Their marriage seems to be mainly one of convenience for Lady Macbeth, but for Macbeth it is clearly more than that. He loves his wife, and she takes advantage of that for her own gain. She is continuously making him feel guilty, for being weak, and for not being able to give her a child, as is suggested by her words, "I have given suck and know how tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me". She also challenges his manhood, through words such as, "When you durst do it, then you were a man, and, to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man.", which loosely means, Be a man, and then I will admire you.<br><br>Macbeth is originally a hero to Scotland, and a strong character. He is a Lord under the rule of King Duncan, and has no reason to feel unhappy with his position. It is only after the prophecies of the Weird Sisters, that he begins to long for the throne of Scotland, and even then needs Lady Macbeth to convince him to commit the murder.<br><br>Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, begins as pure evil, and remains that way. She has previously been married, and is therefore presumed older and trickier than Macbeth. She appears to always be using him for her own gain, by using her femininity to seduce him into doing the wrong thing, and in this way she persuades him to kill the king.<br><br>When Macbeth hears the prophesies of his future, he appears to disregard them, but when he is made Thane of Cawdor (as foretold), he already is considering murdering the king: "My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man that function is smothered in surmise and nothing is but what is not.". It is perhaps for this reason that he writes to Lady Macbeth, as though prompting her for some persuasion for him to kill Duncan, and she later refers to this as his agreement on the murder:"Nor time nor place did then adhere, and yet…

    • 1270 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Guilt In Macbeth

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Through out the entirety of the play, Macbeth goes through numerous changes. In the end he seems very distant to how a normal human would act. But one trait he expresses early on is a trait that we all can relate to, guilt. Guilt is a trait that is experienced at all ages of life, its a trait that everone has no matter who you are.…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Overview of Macbeth

    • 1759 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Not surprisingly, Macbeth has received volumes of critical commentary over the years. Not only is the play an audience favorite, but its complex characterization, deeply woven themes, and characteristic Shakespearean style make it rich ground for scholarly inquiry. Critics such as Harold Bloom have remarked on the importance of Macbeth in the context of Shakespeare 's works. In Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, Bloom writes, ' 'The rough magic in Macbeth is wholly Shakespeare 's; he indulges his own imagination as never before, seeking to find its moral limits (if any). ' ' Bloom also remarks, ' 'Macbeth is an uncanny unity of setting, plot, and characters, fused together beyond comparison with any other play of Shakespeare 's. ' ' Bloom is not alone in his admiration for this enduring play. In his article ' 'Macbeth: The Pattern of Idea and Action ' ' for Shakespeare Quarterly, Irving Ribner states, ' 'Macbeth is a closely knit, unified construction, every element of which is designed to support an intellectual statement, to which action, character, and poetry all contribute. ' '…

    • 1759 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics