Just so you know i made an 85 on this so you may want to look over it Thecharacter Macbeth in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth In 1606 William Shakespeare(1564 – 1616) (Truex, 289), the Bard of Avon (Taylor, notes), wrote a tragedy,Macbeth, for his new patron, James I (James VI of Scotland), following the deathof Queen Elizabeth (Truex, 289). The play is a tribute to James in the fact thatone of the characters, Banqou, was an ancestor of James(Truex, 299). The playitself tells the story of a man (Macbeth), urged by his wife and foretold byprophecy, who commits regicide in order to gain power. In Shakespeare’s playMacbeth, there are many characters with which undergo a character change. Thecharacter that changes the most from beginning to end is the tragic hero,Macbeth.
At the beginning of the play Macbeth is seen as a courageous soliderwho is loyal to the King but is corrupted from the witches prophecies and by hisand Lady Macbeth’s ambition. This is because of the weakness of Macbeth’scharacter and the strong power of Lady Macbeth and how she is easily able toinfluence him. Her strength motivates him at the start but after he realizeswhat he has done it is himself that continues in his murderous, bloody path. Inthe beginning of the play Macbeth is a strong solider who fights for the Kingwithout mercy but his strive for ambition and his curious nature leads him tothe witched who give him a prophecy (I. 1). Macbeth is a little ambitious atfirst, but Lady Macbeth’s far exceeds his and so she is able to get Macbeth toagree with her to kill King Duncan.
Macbeth still has a conscience at this stagebecause he is very hesitant about killing the King but his weak nature overcomes him. He has a conscience throughout the entire play as the hallucinationsof the dagger (I. 3. 1-69) and the ghost of Banquo (III.
4. ) and his vividimagination see this and his constant worry also provokes him. Throughout theplay we see the character of Macbeth change not from just the way he thinks andwhat we hear from the play, but from the actions he takes in the play, fromkilling Banquo (III. 3.
), then having Lady Macduff and her children murdered,shows the insecurity that was present in Macbeth. After the murder of Duncan,Macbeth becomes quite paranoid and his first step of killing the guards is oneof many that Macbeth takes to secure himself. Macbeth is also very superstitiousand this is shown when he believes the prophecy the witches told him thatBanquo’s offspring would become Kings. Towards the end of the play whenMacbeth’s wife has dies and the battle is drawing closer Macbeth shows some goodthat may have been. He wishes for a normal life for which he would have lived toan honorable age but he recognizes that he has denied himself of this. Even whenMacbeth hears that the prophecy has become true of Birnam Wood coming toDunsinane, he rejects this idea and fights on until he realizes that Macduffwasn’t born in a natural birth but instead was “Untimely ripped” fromhis mother’s womb.
When Macbeth realizes what he has done and how the witcheshave tricked him but instead he realizes that it is useless and so he fights ononly to be slain. Macbeth can be summarized into a character although strongphysically he is very weak mentally and it is this weakness, which causes thedownfall and change of Macbeth. Other factors do however also contribute to thischange such as his wife whose ambition is very strong at first and is much morestronger mentally than Macbeth but it is also Macbeth’s ambition and his trustin the witches which ultimately change him. BibliographyMacbeth, William Shakespeare. Elements of Literature, Sixith Course:Literature of Britain. Megan Truex, et.
al. Austin: Holt, Reinhart and Winston,1997.
