Macbeth: The Struggle Against Evil.

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Macbeth: The Struggle Against Evil

Shannon Johnson

Sr. Marian Davis, O.S.B.

English 11

12/7/2003

Macbeth: The Struggle Against Evil

Thesis Statement: In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the character Macbeth constantly battles against his evil nature. As the play progresses, Macbeth seems to have become a completely evil tyrant, but he never fully ends his struggle against evil.

Introduction

  1. Macbeth: a noble and virtuous character
  2. Struggle with temptation and evil
  1. Witches
  2. Himself
  3. Lady Macbeth
  1. Murder of Duncan
  1. Before the murder
  2. Effects of the murder
  1. Murder of Banquo
  2. Murder of Macduff’s family
  3. Lasting nobility and signs of conscience

Conclusion

William Shakespeare’s primary source for Macbeth was Holinshed’s History of Scotland.  The fictional character, Macbeth, is based mainly on the actual Macbeth who Holinshed writes about.  This Scottish play is, “Shakespeare’s chief tragic gift to the world at large” (Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher 279).  Although it is his shortest play, it is often considered to be his best.  In it he depicts the “corruption of a soul” in a way that both excites us, yet at the same time brings fear to us (Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher 279). He is a character with whom, we are strangely able to identify, and whose destruction we cannot watch without feelings of fright and pity (Alden 276).  It is a play, which becomes the personal tragedy of Macbeth, a noble character whose flaws cause his downfall.  In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the character Macbeth constantly battles against his evil nature.  As the play progresses, Macbeth seems to have become a completely evil tyrant, but he never fully ends his struggle against evil.

        Initially, Macbeth is portrayed as a brave, noble, and loyal man.  He is well known and praised by many, including Duncan, the King of Scotland, who praises him for his loyalty and successes in battle.  Macbeth seems to be the quintessence of nobility.  Walter Curry states, “He knows what it is to be actively loyal to king and country, to accept duty, to promote justice, amity, and piety” (112).  Before meeting the witches, he seems to have a “definite disposition”, to be resolute in his choices, and free from ambiguity (Curry 104). According to Raymond Alden, “The principle point is that Macbeth is presented to us at the outset in a nobly attractive form and is actually, in some sense, a good man” (276).  

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        When he meets the witches, they help instill evil thoughts into his mind.  They see, “what passions drive him and what dark desires await their fostering” (Curry 116).  He struggles with these evil thoughts which are already rooted within him.  His real temptation begins after hearing

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the witches’ predictions saying that he will become king. Curry says that the witches’ prophecy, “arouses his passions and inflames his imagination to the extent that nothing is but what is not” (78).  Realizing his flaws in character and that he wants the kingdom, they feed his strong sense of ambition ...

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