Macbeth

Macbeth Essay
Macbeth is a play filled with murders and lies, but it is not the murderer who is responsible for the most evil in the play. The main character Macbeth kills two important characters in the play, and is responsible for the death of a third. Macbeth is still only the instrument carrying out these evil actions. Other main characters in the play are the three Weird sisters, or the three witches. They are supernatural creatures that prophesize that Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor and eventually king. They stir Macbeth’s ambition to ascend the throne. Lady Macbeth is Macbeth’s strategic wife that plans the murder of King Duncan. She uses Macbeth’s ambition to acquire more power. Lady Macbeth is responsible for the most evil in the play because she convinces Macbeth to kill the king, and sends Macbeth on a path of destruction.
The witches are not responsible for the most evil in the play because they do not force Macbeth to act on his prophesy. They do not even try to persuade him to believe that his prophesy will come true. The witches are only responsible for telling Macbeth the future. Macbeth forces the witches’ prophesy to come true with his irrational actions. The prophesy states that Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor and king of Scotland. He becomes Thane of Cawdor after messengers tell him that the old Thane of Cawdor was killed for inciting a rebellion. Earning this title makes Macbeth believe that if the witches prophesy was accurate enough to predict that he would become Thane of Cawdor, he would become king of Scotland as well. The ambition to become king consumes Macbeth’s thoughts. The witches did not tell Macbeth that he had to kill the king to wear the crown. The witches don’t influence Macbeth or Lady Macbeth. They merely give information that is usually misleading. Later in the play the witches’ prophesize that Macbeth will die when the trees at Birnam Woods move, and he meets a man not born from a woman. These two impossible things do happen and the witches prophesy comes true. The trees do not actually move, but it looks like that when rebel soldiers carry branches on their march to Macbeth’s castle. Macbeth dies while fighting a man born from a C-section. He is not technically born from a woman. This shows that the witches mislead Macbeth by telling him part of the truth. From the witches’ words, it might be safe to assume that Macbeth could have gotten the crown on a technicality. The witches didn’t plan for Macbeth to kill Duncan. They don’t decide if their prophesizes should be taken literally. They tell Macbeth that he will become king, yet Macbeth would never have killed Duncan if he hadn’t been heavily persuaded.
Macbeth commits many heinous deeds, yet is only a pawn that gets used for his wife’s ambition. For example, Macbeth grudgingly agrees to murder Duncan after Duncan has been so kind to him. He argues that Duncan’s “virtues will plead like angels”. This means that he can’t kill Duncan because he is such a noble man with many good virtues. Macbeth convinces himself that he has to stop thinking about his ambition. Even after his wife persuades him to follow his ambition, he decides that he won’t kill his virtuous king. Macbeth is constantly tempted to follow his ambition and finally gives in. The first murder is not Macbeth’s fault as he tried extremely hard to resist his ambition. After the first murder, he is forced to keep killing to stay in power. He kills the two chamberlains that guarded Duncan’s chamber in order to erase any suspicion that he is responsible for murdering Duncan. He cannot admit the truth because that would result in his death. He is then forced to murder his old friend Banquo. Macbeth is told that Banquo’s family line would become kings, and he could not risk being overthrown. Macbeth becomes obsessed with defending his power. He begins the play as a pawn of Lady Macbeth, and is forced to keep killing because of Lady Macbeth’s initial commands.
Macbeth was once a fearless Scottish general that defeated many rebel forces. For him to become a treasonous murderer shows that even the strongest men can succumb to ambition and greed. Macbeth wouldn’t have started his killing spree without the insistence of Lady Macbeth the whole way. Lady Macbeth brings Macbeth to his own destruction by repeatedly tempting him.
Lady Macbeth is the main source of evil throughout the play. She gets Macbeth to consider killing Duncan by scheming a devious plan. She knows that Macbeth does not have the strength to kill Duncan on his own. That is why she asks dark forces to “unsex” her and make her as strong as a man. When Macbeth rides home to his castle, Lady Macbeth greets him with cold words. She formulates a plan to kill Duncan and tells Macbeth to “Look like th’ innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t”. (I Scene 6, lines 76-77). She tells her husband to look innocent on the outside, while being as deadly as a serpent on the inside. She convinces Macbeth to kill the king after he decides he won’t be part of the murder. She threatens Macbeth’s manhood and tells him that murdering Duncan is his chance at redemption. Lady Macbeth says, “What beas’t was’t then that made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do, it then you were a man; And to do be more than what you were, you would be so much more a man.” (I Scene 7, lines 55-58). Lady Macbeth is threatening her husband’s masculinity by saying that he is not a man since he won’t do the deed. She tells Macbeth that he promised to kill Duncan and he is breaking his promise to her. She also says that by killing Duncan he would be more of a man. Lady Macbeth does everything but stick the actual dagger in Duncan herself. She would have even killed Duncan if he hadn’t looked like her own father in bed.
Lady Macbeth is not a killer, but she is responsible for every act of evil that takes place in the play. The witches told Macbeth words that he wouldn’t have acted upon without his wife’s motivation. Macbeth repeatedly convinces himself that he won’t kill Duncan. He would not have killed him if Lady Macbeth hadn’t constructed an evil plan. Macbeth was a noble general that needed a lot of coaxing to murder his king. Lady Macbeth is the reason her husband did not live a noble life at Duncan’s side. Lady Macbeth is a powerful woman figure that uses her power to control her husband with influential words. There is a connection between her and wealthy businessmen today that can affect change without using force. Macbeth can be related to an everyday person today that can do many good deeds, yet is always tempted by greed and ambition. Recently, the witches can be seen as representing powerful figures that use their power to toy with others. They are the politicians that decide people’s fates, and do not care about the consequences.
Word Count: 1207