Macbeth Essay, Research Paper

Macbeth Essay: Nemesis Many of the characters in Macbeth were punished for their sins fairly early in the play. The ones who committed the worst sins, however, were punished towards the end of the play. Macbeth, for example, was one of the most insane, yet most brilliant characters of the play. The title makes you assume that his is the main focus in this tragedy, as he is one of the most cunning criminals. At first, Macbeth doesn t intend to kill anyone at all, just get King Duncan out of the way of the throne that Macbeth thought should belong to him. After Duncan was murdered by Macbeth and his wife, he aquires a taste for blood and is desensitized by his first murder. Macbeth was constantly being punished throughout the play. Maybe his conscience knew that what he did was wrong, or maybe it was more of a spiritual thing, having to do with his Christian faith, people are still arguing about whether Shakespeare meant it to be this way, but no one will ever know for sure. Due to the state of which his conscience/faith was in, Macbeth was up many nights suffering from horrendous nightmares due to his sins. Macbeth ends up killing a lot more people in order to clear the way for him to the throne. Macbeth receives his final punishment from Macduff at the end of the play, when he parades around with Macbeth’s head, announcing that the tyrant is dead. Lady Macbeth seemed to be one of the most conniving and sinister of all the characters in this play. She lacked any sense of regret for any of the sins that she committed because she got the evil spirits to unsex her and take away any emotion that a woman could possibly suffer due to the terrible crimes committed. She was the one that put the idea of murdering the king into Macbeth s head, and actually persuaded her reluctant husband into doing the dirty deed himself.

Lady Macbeth only wanted the best for her husband and then Macbeth became so obsessed with the throne, that he no longer paid any attention to her. She was driven mad by the guilt and fear of the next life that she got so sick that she ended up dying in the middle of the play. Duncan, as far as the reader knows, had not committed any major sins. Being human, he most likely did have some faults, but the only thing that was wrong with him was that he happened to be in the throne when Macbeth thought that he should be king, and didn t let anything or anyone, get in his way. Banquo was loyal to his king for pretty much the whole time that he was in the play. The thought of killing Duncan, and becoming extremely wealthy had crossed his mind in the form of dreams subconsciously, but at the end of the play, he proved his loyalty to himself and his faith, and was killed unfairly by Macbeth s murderers. Banquo tried to be a loyal friend to Macbeth, but when Macbeth had gone too far, Banquo s loyalty to his faith grew stronger. The punishment in this case did not suit the crime. In many of the cases in this play, people were killed unfairly for no crimes in particular, but that is why Macbeth is considered to be a tragedy. Life is like that in many cases, not sugar-coated as how many stories and plays ends, creating a false sense of reality. Macbeth seems real because it isn t written in that way.