beloved husband, she doubted that he would be able
to actually make his fantasy a reality, " I fear thy
nature, it is too full o'th'milk of human
kindness".This is the first point in the play where
Lady Macbeth is introduced and it shows her evil
and greedy character. Lady Macbeth is a very strong
character in the play as she has a huge influence on
Macbeth and his decisions. In each attempt to
provoke Macbeth, Lady Macbeth has a pure evil
intention to get what she wants and thinks she and
her husband deserve. During the period when
Macbeth was written, women had a very weak
position in society. They were considered as house
wives who were only good for cooking, cleanig and
taking care of children. However, Lady Macbeth did
not fit into this category. We understand that Lady
Macbeth was involved in witchcraft and sorcery.
This is because on the arrival of King Duncan she
had got on the roof of their castle and called evil
spirits to asist her in killing the King.
However, despite Lady Macbeths pressure and
torment on Macbeth's selfesteem, Macbeth was
having regrets on killing the king "Hath borne his
faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great
office, that his virtues will plead like angels,
trumpet-tongued against the deep damination of his
taking off". During the king's stay at their castle
Macbeth had told his wife of his desision of aborting
the plan and she strongly disagreed questioning him
whether he was a man or not "Wouldst thou have
that which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, and
live a coward in thine own esteem". Macbeth
believed that killing Duncan would make him go to
hell. Evidently Macbeth had been brainwashed with
images of success and triumph and wanted to prove
his manhood to his wife so he went along with the
plan of killing Duncan. This had been assisted by his
wife by giving the bodyguards of the king drink to
make them sleep so that Macbeth could get past
them.
Whilst Macbeth was in the position of killing
Duncan he had hallucinations of a blood-stained
dagger. The speech in which this is included is a
very important speech for the understanding of his
character. It is a soliloquy and the passage is written
in verse. The fact that it is a solilequy is also
important because it means that what we are hearing
is heard by no other character in the play and
Macbeth can speak his mind and his true feelings.
The only interuption throughout this passage is the
bell and the only character present is Macbeth.
After killing Duncan Macbeth is filled with panic
and regret. His conscience tears away at him.
Macbeth is filled with many emotions, but the main
emotion is fear. Macbeth is even afraid of fear itself.
He is afraid that he will no longer be able to
pronounce "Amen" and afraid that he will not be
able to sleep at night. This shows that he has a guilty
conscience, and he knows what he did was wrong.
Macbeth cares a lot about what other people think
of him, especially Lady Macbeth. His actions and
their consiquences are a reflection of that.
Beofre Duncan's murder Banquo tells Macbeth that
he has dreamt of the witches whilst thanking the
Macbeths' for their hopitality towards
Duncan. Macbeth has replied with a lie.
When everybody had found out about Duncan being
murdered they started to ask questions everywhere,
even to Macbeth. This also scared him a bit but
Lady Macbeth had fainted to take the attention of
others off Macbeth, which shows that she is
protecting him and looking out for him. She cares as
much about the crown as Macbeth does, if not more.
Macbeth has now become King. However, Banquo
has started to supect that Macbeth has become king
by evil means, "playedst most foully". Macbeth
realises this and invited Banquo to attend a banquet.
This shows that Macbeth is a sharp and clever
character, he always has another plan up his
sleeve.Macbeth decides to kill Banquo. This came
about because he was paranoid about losing the
crown if anybody found about Banquo's suspicion.
Banquo's murder shows Macbeth's determination
and greed to stay as king and have all the riches his
greed has persuaded himself that he deserves. Lady
Macbeth is still protecting Macbeth in her own way.
The prophecies told Banquo that he would father
kings and this worried Macbeth because he believed
that the prophecies were true. At the end of the
banquet, after Banquo had been killed, Macbeth
says, "We are yet but young in deed." and he meant
that two murders aren't enough, there are more to
come. He had planned who was next to die, keeping
in mind that Fleance who had been with Banquo
when the murderers attacked had escaped.
Killing Duncan had triggered a huge transformation
in Macbeth's character. After the murder he found
himself doing things that he wouldn't have
considered for one moment before he killed Duncan.
Killing Duncan was not in Macbeth's nature,
however, he was used to killing because he faught a
lot in battles. He was considered a warrior, not a
murderer.
Macbeth strongly believe the witches and their
prophecies. They had said to him that "no man born
of woman" would have the strength and power to
kill him and he was completely convinced that this
was the case.
Throughout the rest of the play Macbeth's character
doesn't really change much until the end.
Throughout the second half of the play he is
described as "tyrant" by the other characters and not
a good word is uttered about him from that point
onwards. This is because there are still continuous
murders happening because of Macbeth's constant
greed to want to be high in life. However, Lady
Macbeth falls ill and eventually commits suicide.
This is a huge shock to Macbeth because Lady
Macbeth was like his second voice guiding and
supporting his decisions. As a result of Lady
Macbeth's death Macbeth falls depressed and begins
to give up. He wants to die. This is when we see the
goodness Macbeth had at the beginning of the play
return to him. He decides that if he is going to go
down he might as well go down fighting, this way he
will still have a shread of dignity left in him. This is
a true quality of a hero.
I believe that Macbeth is a tragic hero. Despite the
fact that he killed so many peope to become king
and maintain that position, he entered the play as a
hero defending his king and upkeeping a good name
with the people of the kingdom. He also left the play
as a hero, fighting in order to die with at least a bit
of dignity and self respect since he had lost
everything else that was important to him including
his wife Lady Macbeth and his friends. The tragic
part is when he let his greed and ambition overruled
his life and his thoughts. He has a week character
because he allowed himself to be influenced by
others.
