Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
The play Macbeth was written by William Shakespeare. This play tells of betrayal, temptations, ambitions, murder, treason and manipulation. The readers feels sympathetic for MacBeth, as he is stuck in the middle of a situation he can’t get out of. However, sympathy is lost when MacBeth commits evil deeds that he is only responsible for. Macbeth is only persuaded to commit treason, but due to his paranoia he kills many more people. The main focus is Macbeth, being the unfortunate victim, from the 3 evil witches to Lady Macbeth. His downfall is caused by other people around him.
Macbeth is the unfortunate victim of other people’s greed and for this the reader sympathises. The three withes are a physical presence of evil. They conspire to kill as many people as possible, under their superior, Hecate. Using their evil gift to see into the future, they can tell that by using Macbeth as a tool for destruction they can fill him with evil. To get Macbeth to do their evil biddings, they first influence him by planting a seed of evil into his mind. By giving Macbeth that prophecy, they ensure that their plans will work. Macbeth is a good and loyal kinsman who would never harm his King. Were it not for outside forces, he would have lived happily as Thane of Cawdor, a high position title in itself. Macbeth does not even want to kill King Duncan. He says “chance may crown me without my stir”, which means that if he become king, he would not commit any evil to get there. Fearing the witches’ message means that he will kill the king in the future, he says “Present fears are less than horrible imaginings.” Three evil withes foretell that Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor and even King of Scotland. Macbeth ignored their prophecies, but after he was promoted to Thane of Cawdor for his brave fight in the war, Macbeth wonders if he could become king, and than his ambition takes over. Up until this point, sympathy is lost, as MacBeth takes a turn for the worst, obeying to his wifes commands, and being tempted by the thought of becoming king.
Lady Macbeth is an ambitious woman like her counter-part, but there the reader never feels sympathetic for her. She is an evil women, blinded by her greed, she makes MacBeth commit evil deeds, and leads herself and MacBeth to their self destruction. Macbeth writes to his wife, telling her about the witches and how one prophecy has already come true. As soon as she hears about it, she calls on evil spirits to fill her full of cruelty, she says “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here.”; she says that so she will kill the King if necessary. Macbeth, one the other hand, does not like a possible future by the witch’s prophecy: that he will kill his King. This shows the difference between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It is only after much nagging and manipulation from his wife that he decides to go through with it, and then half-heartedly, his wife uses insults, criticizes him, and makes him feel less than a man, so Macbeth finally gives in. This shows how evil Lady Macbeth is, and how manipulative she is.
As we see the changes from the start of the play to the end,