We see this throughout the entirety of the play. From the very beginning we know that Scotland is at war and that Macbeth appears to be a valiant and loyal soldier of the king. However, his loyalty is almost immediately compromised when he is told he may hold a higher place of power if only he killed the king, he questions himself in the first act "If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success, commending in a truth?" (1.3. 131-133.). Though he was intrigued by the prophesies of power told by the witches, it was his wife that had ultimately convinced him to betray- her actions were fueled by selfish desire to gain power by any means. She tells herself how ruthless she would be for power:
"Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;
Stop up th'access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers,
You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark
To cry “Hold, hold!” (1.5.44-54.)
For her own self and status, she would be willing to murder cold-bloodedly. However, she fails to see the possible consequences these actions would have on her own self.
As you see actions take place, characters unfold. Duncan, the king of Scotland, is murdered by Macbeth- Macbeth's road to the corrupt pursuit of power has begun. At the moment following the king's death, you can see Macbeth begin to lose himself,
"Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep”—the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.
Still it cried, “Sleep no more!” to all the house.
“Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor
Shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more.”" (2.2.35-44.).
His hysteria comes with realizing the fact he had murdered the very man he served. It had caused him more pain than gain. Now Macbeth has a trail that he feels he has to continuously cover up, paranoia causes him to take the lives of several others in order to save his own skin. Banquo, his companion, would soon lose his life when Macbeth decides he is a threat to security,
"To be thus is nothing,
But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo
Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature
Reigns that which would be feared. Rather than so, come fate into the list,
And champion me to th' utterance." (3.1.47-50, 70-71.).
Rather than ruling happily as king, Macbeth finds himself living in fear. His actions and power vigorously change his state of mind as well as his character.
After numerous murders were conducted by Macbeth and his hired killers, a force between Macduff (a soldier that previously fought by Macbeth's side), Duncan's son, and others planned to take back the throne by force. The whole kingdom was in despair. During this time, Lady Macbeth had lost her mind to the crimes she had taken part in, "she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, that keep her from her rest" (5.3.38-39). Lady Macbeth, who initially seems to be strong-willed and collected in ambition, has finally come to a place of doom. Earlier in act 5, Lady Macbeth was experiencing hallucinations, vividly going through murders while asleep. This goes to show her selfish actions weren't as rewarding as thought to be. The play ends with the death of Macbeth, at the stake of Macduff. The kingdom is given back to those by which Scotland was previously governed by, making all of the deaths in the journey of Macbeth pointless and without virtue. At the end of the play, you see Macbeth in a completely raw, desperate state,
"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."(5.5.19-28.).
In the play "Macbeth", you see transformation in the main characters. Macbeth goes from being a man of honest integrity, to a man that betrayed and murdered for power. Before he became the character of wickedness that only served himself, he was a good man that put his nation and his king at high priority. Selfishness and greed can be only the roots of poor circumstances. When you place yourself and your level of status above all else, you fall- and those effected by you fall to hardships as well.
I would like to see a stronger start than the phrase The play Macbeth is a tale told by william shakespeare. Other then that I think you did a good job with your evidence and your reasoning
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