Macbeth Essay

Student name

Ms. Mckinley

Period

Macbeth Essay prompt # 2

The play Macbeth is about subterfuge and trickery. Macbeth, the three Odd Sisters, and his

wife are related in their collective unwillingness to go straight out and explicitly say things. They

depend instead on assumptions, riddles, and ambiguities to escape the facts. Macbeth's

capability to manipulate his words and reputation to hide his hideous activities makes him an

extremely modern-looking politician (Ellis, 2016).

Macbeth is a tragic play that narrates the terrible story of a once a revered and powerful general

who is destroyed by his own selfishness and greed. Macbeth, the lead character who once was

the hero of many, becomes unethical because of a desire for power that drives him to commit

heinous offenses against his own nation. Shakespeare beautifully describes how the character is

guilt-ridden and then he adapts massacring paranoia before resigning entirely from his life. In the

meantime, the deeds of Macbeth, motivated by his desires and aspirations, have led others to hate

him. As her friend, however, she discovers that when she is on the road of destruction, she

cannot turn back. In reality, Lady Macbeth is becoming even more thirsty for blood than her

husband, and she enables him to use his power to exploit others. Lady Macbeth's character

analysis reveals that she is a complex character which adds depth to an otherwise straightforward

power dynamic play (Fowler, 2018).

The Corrupting Power of Unchecked Ambition

Macbeth's principal theme of devastation brought about when greed goes unchallenged by moral

restrictions finds its most strong expression in the two main characters of the play. Macbeth is a

noble Scottish general who is not instinctively inclined to commit evil deeds, but desperately

yearns for influence and change. Against his better instincts, he kills Duncan and then stews in
remorse and fear. He descends into a form of frenzied, boastful madness towards the end of the

play. On the other hand, Lady Macbeth pursues her objectives more determinedly, yet is less able

to withstand the consequences of her immoral actions (Stephenson, 2019). One of the most

vividly portrayed female characters of Shakespeare, she mercilessly spurs her husband to kill

Duncan and encourages him to be strong in the aftermath of the assassination, but she is

ultimately forced to despair by the effect of constant bloodshed on her conscience by Macbeth.

In each scenario, ambition helped, of course, by these witches malign prophecies is what pushes

the pair to ever more gruesome massacres. The issue, the play indicates, is that it is hard to stop

when one decides to use brutality to further one's pursuit of power. The throne Banquo, Fleance,

Macduff are always theoretically threatened and it is always tempting to just use violent methods

to get rid of them (Highley, 2018).

The Relationship Between Cruelty and Masculinity

Characters in Macbeth also focus on gender issues. Through challenging his manhood, Lady

Macbeth tries to manipulate her husband, wishes she could be "unsexed" instead and does not

refute Macbeth when he insists a woman like her must only give birth to boys. Similarly, Lady

Macbeth tries to intimidate her husband for murder., In challenging their manhood, Macbeth

provokes the killers he hires to kill Banquo. These facts indicate that both Macbeth and Lady

Macbeth are equating masculinity to naked aggression, and violence usually follows if they talk

about manhood. Their perception of manhood permits a fall into the anarchy of the political

system portrayed in the play (Macdonald, 2017).

Ultimately, an updated and less damaging description of manhood is put forward by the play

Likewise, the scene in which Macduff discovers the murders of his children and wife, Malcolm

encourages him by urging him to handle this situation in "manly" fashion, by seeking vengeance
on Macbeth. Macduff shows to the teenage heir that he has an erroneous view of masculinity. To

the suggestion from Malcolm, "Dispute it like a man," Macduff replies, "I'll do that. But I have to

feel it like a guy, too. At the end of the episode, Siward gets very apathetic news of his son's

death. Malcolm replies: "It's probably more grief than you said and I'm going to spend it on

him." Malcolm's comment reveals that he has learned a lesson that Macduff taught him about the

importance of genuine masculinity. It also means that peace will be returned to the Kingdom of

Scotland, with the crowning of Malcolm (Highley, 2018).

The Difference Between Kingship and Tyranny

Duncan is always called a "king" in the play, while Macbeth eventually is known as the "tyrant."

The distinction between the two styles of leaders appears to be reflected in a discussion that takes

place in Act 4, scene 3 when Macduff meets Malcolm in Britain. To measure Macduff's

allegiance to Scotland, Malcolm tries to pretend that he would be a leader even worse than

Macbeth (Rigney, 2017). He informs Macduff of his upbraid qualities, one of them is the thirst

for power and a violent disposition which all seem to ideally describe Macbeth. Under his power,

subjects are compensated as per their qualifications, as if after Macbeth's triumph over the

invaders, Duncan makes Macbeth thane of Cawdor. Most notably, towards his own desires, the

King should be loyal to the Kingdom of Scotland. By comparison, Macbeth brings only misery

to Scotland signified by the poor weather and strange paranormal occurrences and offers no true

system of justice, just a practice of freakishly killing those who possess a threat. Malcolm should

defeat him as the symbol of injustice so that Scotland can once again have a true king (McIntyre,

2018).
Conclusion

Macbeth is an exemplary story of unchecked desire. It tells us how an individual can be

corrupted by unchecked greed and lure of power. This reveals how great men and women are

fallible, and why they have the same emotions and feelings. Even today, one of the reasons

Macbeth is famous is because it interacts with the common topic of human feelings. The

mysterious prophecies of the dishonest witches quickly fueled the passion which he always had.

In conclusion, William Shakespeare's adversity "Macbeth" makes the demise of a glorified

and respected man who is overthrown in six stages by his violent greed. Initially, Macbeth

retains control and uses his passion to support those he is faithful with but he strives for more

after realizing what could be. When he takes the extreme initiative to try and accomplish his

ambitions, he is overcome by remorse to feels he has been cursed for his actions forever. The

determination of Macbeth drives him to protect his power, he disregards his remorse and

concentrates on doing whatever it takes to keep onto his power.

Ellis, E. S. M. (2016). The Eternal Macbeth: A Tale of Wicked Transformation. University of

California, Santa Cruz.

Fowler, E. (2018). Macbeth and the rhetoric of political forms. In Shakespeare and Scotland.

Manchester University Press.

Highley, C. (2018). The place of Scots in the Scottish play: Macbeth and the politics of language.

In Shakespeare and Scotland. Manchester University Press.

Macdonald, J. R. (2017). ‘A deed without a name’: Evading theology in Macbeth. In Forms of

faith. Manchester University Press.

McIntyre, M. (2018). A Textual Analysis of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth from William

Shakespeare’s play Macbeth Using Judith Butler’s Theory of Gender Performativity

(Doctoral dissertation).

Rigney, J. (2017). The Tragedie of Macbeth: The Folio of 1623. Routledge.

Stephenson, J. F. (2019). Review of Shakespeare’s Macbeth (directed by Robert Hastie for

Shakespeare’s Globe) at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London, 10 January and 12

January (Matinée) 2019. Shakespeare, 15(4), 431-433.