Macbeth Essay Example: A Victim or a Monster

📌Category: Literature, Shakespeare
📌Words: 1014
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 13 April 2021

The play ‘Macbeth’ was written by Shakespeare in 1606 which is one of his most famous and successful plays. In this play Shakespeare shows the changes of Macbeth’s character which moved from a loyal soldier to a monstrous character. The changes in Macbeth’s character started when he was told that he is going to be the Thane of Cawdor by the witches, which after then his ambitious character started to show up more after that. In the next few paragraphs they will be describing how Shakespeare implies Macbeth's changes in his character. 

Macbeth was a loyal character known for his bravery. Lady Macbeth was Macbeth’s wife which took a big part in the play and in leading him to be a monster. He also had a best friend called Banquo which was his right hand, he was always by his side. The first scene starts with the witches, “foul is fair, and fair is foul” the witches said, this is one of the most important quotes in the play which suggests that everything good has a bad thing, and everything bad has a good thing, describes many parts in the play “The tragedy of Macbeth”. After that Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches, “all hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Glamis!”, “All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!”, “All hail, Macbeth, Thou shalt be king hereafter!” this proves that the witches had taken a part in convincing Macbeth to be more than what he is. When they arrived at their tents when all the other fighters were there, Rose comes to tell and congratulate Macbeth for becoming the Thane of Cawdor, this implies that the witches were right with their prophecies. Since then the changes in Macbeth’s character started to change.  

Relationship Between Macbeths

Macbeth becoming the thane of Cawdor was not enough for lady Macbeth, she wants him to become the king, king of Scotland. Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to kill Duncan which he got an idea of it before but because he was a great soldier he needs to show loyalty to the king, then he says to Lady Macbeth “if chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me” this support the idea that he does not want to become a king by murdering someone, if chance wants to become the king he will with no effort from him. At this point Macbeth was more like a victim than a monster because he was under his wife Lady Macbeth’s control, but that does not mean that he was 100% a victim because he has a mind to think with, he had the choice to say no when Lady Macbeth told him to kill king Duncan.

Not only Lady Macbeth tells him to become the king but also one of the witches’ prophecies to Macbeth in Act 1 scene 3, is he shall generate a line of kings, which had a great impact on Macbeth. Those devil ideas have stolen Macbeth’s mind which he later thought that he should become the king of Scotland. After listening to what he is supposed to do which is killing king Duncan he decided to murder the king of Scotland. When he wanted to murder king Duncan he had a sense of confusion about if he should kill the king or not, but then later on through the play he started hallucinating a dagger which leads to king Duncan’s chamber “is this a dagger I see before me, the handle toward my hand?

Come, let clutch thee; I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight” this supports the idea that Macbeth at this point started hallucinating the dagger, which the idea of killing Duncan has got into his mind and murdered Duncan. After murdering king of Scotland he had a since of regret and fear of what he did, so he could not go back and leave the dagger there when Lady Macbeth told him to do so, so Lady Macbeth had to go there herself and put it back. Lady Macbeth in this scene was a monster so is Macbeth.  

After Murdering Duncan, the king of Scotland, Macbeth started to become a monster which he is no longer between being a monster or a victim, which proves that Shakespeare intends the audience at this point to change their mind and be sure that Macbeth is a monster because then Macbeth tries to kill anyone that stands on his way for example, killing his friend Banquo. He wanted to kill Banquo and his son Fleance, because he heard the witches’ prophecies and noticed Macbeth’s interest in the witches’ words, not only that but also because Fleance was going to generate the line of kings, the first reason illustrates that Macbeth does not trust his best friend Banquo. So, Macbeth decided to send two murderers behind Banquo and his son Fleance to kill them when they leave the chamber. When the murderers had their mission done, Macbeth killed them so they can’t tell anyone about how bad the new king is. Murdering Duncan will make Macbeth the king which is good for him, but it brought him to his downfall and becoming a monster. 

Conclusion

There is a lot of confusion between people about was Macbeth a victim or a monster, the previous three paragraphs explain the important three bullet points which work as in evidence to Macbeth’s crime and to support that Macbeth was a monster. Macbeth was not a monster at the very beginning, he was a victim, he played the role that Lady Macbeth and the witches wanted him to play, so, he was under control by his wife and the witches. But he still has his own thought, if he was loyal enough to the king he would not do it, but because he actually thought about it as a great idea, he just looked forward to what he will be when he murders Duncan the king of Scotland. The witches took big part in making Macbeth the King, but not only them but also, his wife Lady Macbeth, Lady Macbeth leaded him to be how she was at the beginning but then she became how Macbeth was after killing the king, this suggests that they have swap their roles in the play, from being brave to coward and all the way around. Macbeth leads himself to be a monstrous character. Macbeth takes most of the blame for becoming a monster.

 

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