King Macbeth
Mr. Oza
English 4
May 3, 2013
Hair-Trigger or Heir-Trigger When you hear the word “Trigger,” What comes to mind? A gun, a game console controller, the classic pinball machine? How about chaos? If not then let me brief you on some small, yet powerful, knowledge I learned from a wise man named William Shakespeare. Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright with numerous plays, sonnets, and poems. He was no “One hit wonder.” Shakespeare’s work was constantly enjoyed as a hobby of the people of his time. One of his many widely known plays is Macbeth. Macbeth is a play about a Scottish ruler who becomes obsessed with power. He begins causing all these killings recklessly. During all this he has one thing in mind and one thing only, power. He’s not aware that what he’s doing not only comes along with power but also with a little something called guilt. One major occurrence that really affects Macbeth is the killing of King Duncan. This is displayed in the play in many ways. One of these reasons being that the killing of King Duncan is the starting point of the corruption. It is when Macbeth realized that he can make the witches prophecy fall into place himself. The witches had told Macbeth “All hail King Macbeth” when they first gave Macbeth a visit. He replied questioningly with stating he is not king. The witches replied “But thou shall’t be king hereafter” (1.3). That gave Macbeth enough ambition to follow up with all that was said by the witches. He knew the king was alive and that his ruling was stable so he figured it was his duties to apply change. Not only did the witchs’ prophecy contribute to this but also Lady Macbeth was obsessed with power and influencing Macbeth. As shown by this quote from the story, “Unsex me here!” Lady Macbeth would rather not be a woman to have equal power and opportunity as a man (1.5). Lady Macbeth was going to commit the murder herself at first but she could not do it as the face of King Duncan resembled her
English 4
May 3, 2013
Hair-Trigger or Heir-Trigger When you hear the word “Trigger,” What comes to mind? A gun, a game console controller, the classic pinball machine? How about chaos? If not then let me brief you on some small, yet powerful, knowledge I learned from a wise man named William Shakespeare. Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright with numerous plays, sonnets, and poems. He was no “One hit wonder.” Shakespeare’s work was constantly enjoyed as a hobby of the people of his time. One of his many widely known plays is Macbeth. Macbeth is a play about a Scottish ruler who becomes obsessed with power. He begins causing all these killings recklessly. During all this he has one thing in mind and one thing only, power. He’s not aware that what he’s doing not only comes along with power but also with a little something called guilt. One major occurrence that really affects Macbeth is the killing of King Duncan. This is displayed in the play in many ways. One of these reasons being that the killing of King Duncan is the starting point of the corruption. It is when Macbeth realized that he can make the witches prophecy fall into place himself. The witches had told Macbeth “All hail King Macbeth” when they first gave Macbeth a visit. He replied questioningly with stating he is not king. The witches replied “But thou shall’t be king hereafter” (1.3). That gave Macbeth enough ambition to follow up with all that was said by the witches. He knew the king was alive and that his ruling was stable so he figured it was his duties to apply change. Not only did the witchs’ prophecy contribute to this but also Lady Macbeth was obsessed with power and influencing Macbeth. As shown by this quote from the story, “Unsex me here!” Lady Macbeth would rather not be a woman to have equal power and opportunity as a man (1.5). Lady Macbeth was going to commit the murder herself at first but she could not do it as the face of King Duncan resembled her