Macbeth, as in every tragedy, describes the life of a good man, who by influence of others and by his own imperfections turns into darkness and ambition, killing other people. Throughout the play, Macbeth in order to get more power and later on to get the crown of Scotland goes loosing his humanity until the point of perpetrate any kind of dishonourable acts just to get what he wants (power). And that desire for power is in which I am going to base my essay.
Greed; in my opinion, is the cornerstone of the entire play, it is resembled in the character of Lady Macbeth, but mainly in the character of Macbeth (for further references “our hero”). Greed is our hero’s flaw, what will bring chaos to his personality and at the end will destroy him along with his reign.
At the beginning of the play, this weakness is not represented in our hero, who by the way is presented with a strong personality and temper; on the other hand, we have got the character of Lady Macbeth. She is the representation of greed and ambition during the first chapters, she influenced our hero to act in an ambitious way.
Before continuing, I have to mention an important part in the play, the meeting of the witches with Macbeth and Banquo, they prophesied that Macbeth will be thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland; this is the trigger for Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s greed and desire for power. The witches foresaw what will come and our two characters began to desire the power that was presented. Like a burning match in the middle of a forest, that started a reaction which destroyed the entire forest (in the case of the play, the life of our hero).
Returning to my previous point, the character of Lady Macbeth was the main influence in our hero during the first chapters, she convinced her husband to kill king Duncan in searching for power and obviously to consummate the prophesy of the witches.
Until this point our hero had not self command and all his movement where under his wife’s orders, but after killing King Duncan, he become somebody else, he gain confidence and independence (at least independence of action)** now greed started to grow inside him like a parasite, feeding on Macbeth’s soul. In chapter three we can see that Macbeth no longer needs his wife, now he is taking action by himself and not by someone else desires, he even hid his plan of killing Banquo and his son Fleance to Lady Macbeth, with this action the dramatist shows us that our hero is free of any influence (at least human). Now, by killing Banquo our hero makes sure that all the power is going to be his, and it will be extended forever. Until that point in the story the ambition that our hero had was in control, after that, greed started to grow inside our hero, and as a consequence Macbeth feels that he needs to know more of what is coming to gain control of the situations. In order to do that, he went back with the witches to get more information about the future. They make another prophesy, which gave Macbeth more confidence in his actions. The centre of my essay is based in this part of the play. This prove my thesis that ambition and greed is good, it moves us everywhere in life and helps us to accomplish and achieve our goals, but ambition without perspective leads us to a different point, it moves us out of our real intentions. This is the case of Macbeth, during this act, as I said; the witches gave Macbeth another prophesies, which were fulfilled at the end of the play, but not in the way that our hero was expecting. Why? Ambition and Greed were blind, with no perspective, he just wanted to know more and at the end what happen all the time, you just hear what you want to hear. He miss read the real intentions of the witches and the prophecy’s real meaning. Obviously the witches mislead Macbeth, but were his blindness and longing for power what make the final job.
To conclude, I would like to say, that maybe the character of Macbeth under other circumstances, would have take a different position, after all he was a good man!
“”(Pearl Bailey)
A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classic of William Shakespeare MACBETH , www.penguin.com/academic
“But now I’m cabined, cribbed, confined bound in
To saucy doubts and fears” (Act III, Scene iv, p89, lines 24,25 Macbeth, Parson Education Limited, 1999)
“Look like the innocent flower,
But the serpent under it” (Act I, Scene v, p27, lines 64,65 Macbeth, Parson Education Limited, 1999)
(Act I, Scene i, p3, line 11 Macbeth, Parson Education Limited, 1999)
“I’m afraid to think what I have done” (Act II, Scene ii, p49, line 48, Macbeth, Parson Education Limited, 1999)
“Come and what come may time and the hour runs through the roughest day” (Act I, Scene iv, p19, lines 148,149, Macbeth, Parson Education Limited, 1999)
“All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, King of Scotland” (Act I, Scene iii, p11, line 48, 49 & 50, Macbeth, Parson Education Limited, 1999)
“That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you where a man;
And, to be more than what you where, you would” (Act I, Scene vii, p35, lines 48, 49 & 50, Macbeth, Parson Education Limited, 1999)
** Maybe by killing such an important figure as the King of Scotland, Macbeth lost fear to death, fear to life. (personal note)
“Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck
Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,” (Act III, Scene ii, p83, lines 45 &46, Macbeth, Parson Education Limited, 1999)
“The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth”
“Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill
Shall come against him.” (Act IV, Scene i, p115, lines 80 & 81, 92, 93 & 94, Macbeth, Parson Education Limited, 1999)
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