Macbeth Essay, Research Paper

At the beginning of the play Macbeth is seen as a courageous soldier who is loyal to the King but lead on by the witches and Lady Macbeth’s ambition. This is because of the weakness of Macbeth’s character and the strong power of Lady Macbeth and how she is easily able to influence him. At the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth appears as a kind wife of Macbeth’s but underneath lies a scheming and treacherous woman. Her strength motivates him at the beginning but after he realizes what he has done it is himself that continues in his murderous, bloody path. But remember in the beginning of the play Macbeth was a strong soldier who fought for the King without mercy but his strive for ambition and his curiosity leads him to the witches who tell him about what he will happen.

Banquo realizes that there must be a trick hidden in the witch’s knowledge of the future somewhere but Macbeth refuses to accept that, and when Lady Macbeth finds out about the witches her strong desire and her cold nature leads Macbeth astray. Macbeth is a little ambitious at first, but Lady Macbeth’s far exceeds his and so she is able to get Macbeth to agree with her to kill King Duncan. Macbeth still has a conscience at this point because he is not sure about killing the King but his weak nature over comes him.

Macbeth has a conscience throughout the entire play as the hallucinations of the dagger and the ghost of Banquo, its his crazy imagination that sees this, and his constant worry also provokes him. This is also evident in his terrible dreams that don’t allow him to sleep. Throughout the play we see the character of Macbeth change not from just the way he thinks and what we hear from the play, but from the actions he takes in the play, from killing Banquo, then having Lady Macduff and her children murdered, shows the insecurity that was present in Macbeth.

After Macbeth murders Duncan, Macbeth becomes paranoid and the killing of the king’s gauds proves it. Macbeth is also very Superstitious and this is shown when he believes the prediction that the witches told him that Banquo’s offspring would become King. Towards the end of the play when Macbeth’s wife has died and the battle is drawing closer Macbeth shows some good. He wishes for a normal life for which he would have lived to an honorable age, but he realizes that he has denied himself of it.

Even when Macbeth hears that the prophecy has become true of Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane, he rejects this idea and fights on until he realizes that Macduff wasn’t born in a natural birth but instead was “Untimely ripped” from his mother’s womb. When Macbeth hears of this he realizes what he has done and how the witches have tricked him but instead he realizes that it is useless and so he fights on only to be slain.

There were many things that contributed to Macbeth’s character change throughout the play, such as his wife whose determination is very strong at first and is much more stronger mentally than Macbeth but it is also Macbeth’s drive and his trust in the witches which ultimately change him. Lady Macbeth is the person who is able to persuade Macbeth into killing Duncan, assuring Macbeth that it will succeed, as Lady Macbeth’s determination is far greater than that of Macbeth. She goes to the extent of planning the murder of Duncan and assumes full responsibility of this. She exerts a lot of power over Macbeth in this part of the play and even calls him a “coward” and this shows just how determined she is and how much drive she has for her husband. It is this confidence in her plus the persuasiveness on her words that makes Macbeth act on her words without hesitating.

Over the course of the play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth greatly change with respect to their characters and their personalities. Although Macbeth was weak at first it was the strong Lady Macbeth who helped him through the first murder but in sacrifice to controlling Macbeth and his conscience she lost control of hers and in consequence turned insane and killed herself. So in the end it would be right to call Macbeth and his wife cold blooded murders, but don’t forget that at the beginning of the play Macbeth and his wife were two ordinary people at the time.