What’s fair and what’s foul is still to be determined in the play Macbeth by Shakespeare. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both want the same thing, and that is for Macbeth to become King. It has been prophecized to Macbeth by the weird sisters that he will become king, and Macbeth takes that and decides to make it happen. The contrast established by the main characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth through their traits as a heartless, power hungry maiden and a reasonable, conflicted, warrior foreshadows that either Lady Macbeth will surely force Macbeth to kill Duncan or do it herself, and Macbeth if he goes through with killing Duncan, he will live with a guilty conscience.
Macbeth’s character development plays a big role in the unraveling of the plot. Macbeth is known by his kinsmen as loyal, trustworthy, and brave. He has a good reputation, and a strong relationship with the king. It comes as a shock when he even considers killing Duncan, as he is aware that this is wrong, and that he may become king anyways. “It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness, To catch the nearest way.” (Act 1, Scene 5) Even Lady Macbeth is aware of Macbeth’s seemingly inability to kill in cold blood. This contrast in the characters sets up a problem that may come up later in the story. Macbeth knows what the Weird Sisters had prophecized, and that was that he
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Lady Macbeth and Macbeth both have different moral grounds. Lady Macbeth has no control over her desire and Macbeth has more reasoning and self control. However they both want to be King. By what we have analyzed about these main characters we can see what actions are foreshadowed in the play. Whichever way the plot takes it’s course, the moral goes, as fair is foul, and foul is
In William Shakespere’s tragedy Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s ambition and support of her husband's actions of murder makes her fall guilty. In act 1, scene 7, Lady Macbeth’s husband, Macbeth is in a debate battle with his thoughts not knowing if he should kill King Duncan or leave him be. He has been dreaming about the killing of Duncan so he can become king and live his happiest life the way he always wanted. The act of murder seems crazy but Lady Macbeth thinks otherwise and instead makes a plan for Macbeth so he can execute it correctly, leaving no evidence behind.
It’s the witches revealment of Macbeth’s position as Thane and King of scotland that we see the beginning of his insanity and his want to gain more power than anyone around him, resulting in the murder of the King for his own personal gain. Macbeth is more of a character study into a man's psyche and how
Eventually, Macbeth became king, began a descent in to madness, and unknowingly planned his own murder. All of this was done because Macbeth loved his wife, Lady Macbeth, and through supernatural prophecies given by Three Witches. The Three Witches laid the foundation and set the tone and theme of the entire play in the very beginning of the play. They do this by declaring “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (Shakespeare, Act I, Scene I).
Filled with backstabs, murderers, and long soliloquies. The Murder of King Duncan is foul. The first murder of the play, that kick starts the play. Macbeth believes the prophecies of the three Witches and listening to his wife, he commits a murderous crime. Macbeth said “ Methought, I heard a voice cry.
Because Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s decision to murder Duncan, Both face the guilt of the power they abused portrays on the shadows that reflect on them as well as the natural consequences they will face. During the first half of the play, Lady Macbeth expresses her unnatural feelings and this is demonstrated through the corruption of power when she want’s to hire people to kill Duncan because she thinks that Macbeth is too scared. At first, when Lady Macbeth hinted “Their drenchèd natures lies as in a death”(1.7.78). This demonstrates that Lady Macbeth is characterizing corruption of power due to the fact that she want's to kill Duncan, therefore she can be queen of cawdor while Macbeth is king.
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a well known story that revolves around the word “ambition” but this ambition isn’t always self driven by someone, but rather through the influence of someone else who maintains control of the situation. The story is about a man whose desire to be the king and have power leads to the murders of those who might stand in his way. Throughout the story we see many characters who play major parts in how one event follows another, and how some characters seem to completely have control of the events in the story. Although in Macbeth the Three Sisters and Macbeth exhibit some control over the events, Lady Macbeth has the most responsibility.
Because of the number of people required to become king, he kills the king and those in line to become king, and in order to do this, Macbeth needed to know what was going on, so he became involved with these witches, but he finally realizes, after killing a family and losing his wife, that he has done something very bad and feels awful and doesn't know how to fix it. Macbeth no longer wanted to slaughter the Innocence; he had spilled too much blood. With everything that Macbeth has done to this kingdom and the people, he desired to die with honor, and the only way he could do so was to die with good morals, but Macbeth had already lost his good morals after killing Duncan the king and also Macbeth murders the servants, Banquo, and Macduff's entire family in cold blood. These actions are not from a good man. In the beginning, Macbeth was a fine man, but as the witches began to feed him prophecies and things he didn't know he wanted, it got to him and turned him into a treacherous, lying liar.
Macbeth’s personality as a dynamic character changes throughout the play as opposed to a static character like Lady Macbeth, whose fixed goal is to kill King Duncan. A dynamic character allows Shakespeare to create a tragic hero, since Macbeth is of noble birth, goodwilled and transitions to evil natured and faces his downfall. The alterations Shakespeare makes for King Duncan and the events that surround his demise, reveals Shakespeare’s feelings regarding the monarchy, which serves dramatic and thematic purposes. These changes exemplify Duncan’s kingly virtues and underlines the calamitous ramifications for slaying the monarch. Shakespeare’s
Macbeth should be taught in every high school class. While this play in unique in many ways, it also displays many morals along with it. Every single teenager encounters peer pressure at some point during high school. This play shows peer pressure from an extreme view. Macbeth is peer pressured by Lady Macbeth into killing King Duncan.
His easily impressionable nature causes him to not form his own thoughts, but rather listen to the words of Lady Macbeth and the three witches. At the point of this play the audience can note the change in Macbeth's character. Macbeth's first murder was a trying experience for him, however after the first murder; killing seemed to be the only solution to maintain his reign of the people of Scotland. Through this ambition Macbeth is able to organize these murders without a drop of remorse. This lack of remorse is his shrill that pushes him to continue with his evil conspiracies.
Macbeth more than aptly demonstrates the theme "fair is foul and foul is fair". A courageous soldier leading his king to victory should have no part in criminalistic and foul activities. However, Macbeth's behaviour proves that even the most heroic can have a villainous core and once provoked, as Macbeth is by his wife, even the most fair may turn foul. Macbeth shows great struggle killing king Duncan and feels deep remorse after the murder questioning if, "all of great Neptunes oceans will wash the blood clean from [his] hands [ate]", therefore expressing that fair can be foul, but foul can become fair once more furthers demonstrating this theme. Macbeth fells guilty of his actions demonstrating that even something dark and evil can have
Macbeth was introduced as a hero and everyone thought very highly of him. King Duncan trusted and was comfortable around Macbeth. He considered him as his friend and someone he could confide in. Macbeth’s love for the King and for Scotland makes him not seem wholly evil. It was Lady Macbeth who influenced Macbeth into killing King Duncan.
Macbeth 's confidence diminishes and when he begins to meet his true fate. A powerful theme shown in Macbeth is that anyone can be susceptible to being both good and evil; this is shown through the snowballing effects of Macbeth 's potential idea of evil, to his guilt of murdering Duncan and Banquo, and his and Lady Macbeth 's eventual downfall due to committing worse deeds for power. Anyone can be capable of good or evil, and in this case, Macbeth was shown as becoming potentially evil towards the beginning of the play. This is introduced when the witches first told Macbeth the good fortunes that were going to come to him. In the first spell they cast they chanted, “Fair is foul, and foul is fair,” (1.1.12).
Background: Macbeth is a Tragic Play which was written in 1605 or 1606 by The Famous Writer William Shakespeare who has written many Plays, Poems and sonnets. As in the 11th Century there was a King Called Macbeth actually and Shakespeare made Macbeth (Play) based on a realistic person. Macbeth is a play which revolves around Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, as the Story goes on Macbeth’s Character changes frequently and there is a downfall in his character as well as Lady Macbeths Character. Body- Macbeth and Lady Macbeth share a very professional Relationship which changes throughout the Play as in Act 1 Macbeth writes a letter about the Witches and their Prophecies where we can see that Macbeth cares about Lady Macbeth’s opinion in the situation
This perversion of one of the most sacred acts of motherhood enhances the horror of the length she would cross to achieve her goal. However, it also implies that considering Lady Macbeth as merely a brutal, malicious woman stirring her husband to slaughter a poor old king- is a misevaluation and understatement of this character. In Defense of Lady Macbeth An attempt to investigate who actually planned the murder of Duncan, can be referred to the findings of A. C. Bradley in the essay, “When Was the Murder of Duncan First Plotted”, in his Shakespearean Tragedy: A good many readers probably think that, when Macbeth first met the Witches, he was perfectly innocent; but a much larger number would say that he had already harboured a vaguely guilty ambition, though he had not faced the idea of murder.