Macbeth 7 Essay, Research Paper

In the Shakespearean play, MacBeth, A Scottish nobleman starts off by killing one man to become king but in the end has left a whole path of destruction behind him. MacBeth, is the main character who alongside his wife, Lady MacBeth, kills just to become king. Then kills again just so he can keep the throne, and once he becomes suspicious of another person he kills them. So I will try to show the advancement of MacBeth s aggression. At first MacBeth is rather nervous to commit the first murder, and Lady M. isn t affected but after that MacBeth begins to have no remorse. In the first 2 acts of the play, MacBeth, Lady M. keeps on urging MacBeth to kill Duncan, The king. So I will compare and contrast the beginning attitudes of MacBeth and L. MacBeth and as the story goes on.

In 1.3 of MacBeth, MacBeth and Banquo meet the Weird Sisters and they greet MacBeth, Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and King hereafter. This is the beginning of the demise of MacBeth s sanity. As the story goes on and MacBeth is at Duncan s castle, 1.4, Duncan names his son, Malcolm, the new Prince of Cumberland, meaning he shall be king. MacBeth then says, The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down or else o erleap, For in my way it lies. Stars, Hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires. I think this is when he gets the first ideas of murder into his head. But when he goes home and tells L. MacBeth that Duncan is coming to stay for the night she says, O never, that sun shall morrow see. (1.5) She is getting the same ideas of MacBeth of killing Duncan, but MacBeth begins to think it is a bad idea. And MacBeth even says, 1.7, We shall proceed no further in this business. But L. MacBeth seems to want it more when she said back in 1.5, Come, you spirits, That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me to the toe top-full of direst cruelty. Implying that she wants to become cruel and evil enough to commit the deed herself. Finally in 2.2 MacBeth kills Duncan.

After the murder of Duncan MacBeth becomes real jittery and nervous. He shows his nervous he was when he was killing Duncan when he said he heard voices, Sleep no more, MacBeth does murder sleep Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor. He feels he won t be able to clear himself of the murder when he says, Will all great Neptune s oceans wash this blood from my hands? L. MacBeth on the other hand, is the complete opposite, showing at this point that she is more ruthful. She says, My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white. A little water clears us of this deed.

After the murder of Duncan Banquo suspects MacBeth of killing Duncan in, 3.1, Thou hast it now King, Glamis, Cawdor, all as the weird sisters promised, and yet I fear thou has played most foully for it. MacBeth knows of this so he hires people to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance. That murder is committed in 3.4. When MacBeth finds out they have only killed Banquo and not Fleance he gets angry. When he returns to the table none other than the ghost of Banquo greets him. He gets pretty freaked out by this and he says, Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake thy gory locks at me. MacBeth is trying to point out the fact that he didn t murder Banquo, he may have been responsible for it but didn t do it.

As the story continues you see the gradual rise of MacBeth s aggression. He started off by nervously murdering Duncan to nonchalantly setting up the murder of Banquo and his son. And at this point L. MacBeth doesn t even know this is going on. So, in the Shakespearean play, MacBeth, the character MacBeth starts off nervously murdering to not even thinking of it as wrong.