The witches play an important role in corrupting Macbeth. Throughout this play, Macbeth received many prophecies from the witches. The witches played with the words for the prophecies to make them sound better than they truly were. Macbeth believed the witches, which caused him to become evil and he only gets more evil as time went on. Most of the evil things Macbeth did were influenced by the witches, and the prophecies they gave him. He became greedy for power, and killed people that he thought were in his way. Macbeth chooses to kill because the two other prophecies came true. When Macbeth found out that the witches were lying to him and that they told the prophecies wrong, he realized that all of this evil was a waste of time and he started to be good again: “The instruments of darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray us in deepest consequences.” (1.3.133-135) Banquo warns Macbeth after hearing the first set of prophecies. He didn’t want to believe the witches when he heard the prophecies, but Macbeth believed them, even though they were evil. By choosing to trust in evil, Macbeth himself became evil. Nothing good came from believing the witches and the prophecies.
Macbeth was corrupted by his own ambitious desire for power. Macbeth wanted more and more power, which caused him to do evil things. He killed many people that he thought were going to take away his power. Macbeth first killed Duncan because he wanted to be King. Macbeth didn’t want to kill him, but Lady Macbeth convinced him too. After killing Duncan, Macbeth felt guilty and couldn’t believe he had killed someone. But soon that didn’t matter because Macbeth was excited about becoming king:
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?”(2.2.77-78) After Macbeth kills Duncan, Macbeth believes nothing will get the blood off his hands. This shows how guilty Macbeth is and how he regrets killing Duncan.
Macbeth’s evil starts to corrupt him which leads him to kill more people. Macbeth wants to stay King for a long time, and he doesn’t want Banquo’s prophecies to come true. Banquo’s prophecies are that one of his children will become King, and Macbeth doesn’t want this to happen. He hires three murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance. Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost and starts to act crazy. He feels guilty, but it doesn’t matter to him because he is already going to hell, so he can kill as many people as he wants. He gets another three prophecies from the witches and because of it, he kills the Macduffs. This is such a tragic event because he kills Lady Macduff and her son. This murder shows how ruthless Macbeth has become. Even though Macbeth kills a lady and a child, he doesn’t care at all. He has no sense of what is right or wrong, he only cares about power.
Throughout the play, Macbeth, the title character has to make many decisions between good and evil and always chooses the evil decision. He is known to everyone as a heroic soldier, and has a lot of respect for and from King Duncan. But he is soon corrupted by evil because of his want for power. The witches give Macbeth prophecies that influence him to kill people and do evil things for power. He chooses to trust this evil, which causes him to become evil himself. Macbeth kills many people and has no guilt in what he has done. He has become very ruthless throughout the play and has no sense of what is right or wrong. Macbeth only cares about power. He has shown many evil things throughout this play, but what shows his evil the most would be the killing of all those innocent people. Macbeth returns to good when he realizes the witches have betrayed him. Everyone has good and evil in them, and Macbeth truly shows it.
Works Cited:
Shakespeare William. Macbeth. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Toronto: 1988.
