Characters in Macbeth Essay

Macbeth Essay

During the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the characters are quite frequently victims of their own emotions. This leads to the downfall of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Also because of these certain characters being victims of their own emotions, other characters like Banquo will die because of a foolish decision based on their emotions. They are victims of their own passions, desires and emotions in how they act, think, and feel.

There are some characters in Mabeth that fall victim to their own actions. A perfect example of this is Macbeth. At the begging of the play, he is a hard working, valiant soldier who does not feel the need for power. After he meets the witches, and they say that he is going to be thane of Cawdor, then King of Scotland. Macbeth, who at this point is still just a soldier, finds it amusing; but when he is told that the thane of Cawdor is a traitor and shall be sentenced to death, and that he is the new Thane, he starts thinking past being Thane of Cawdor. He tells this to Lady Macbeth, and when King Duncan comes to Cawdor for Macbeths inauguration, she tells Macbeth to kill Duncan, so he will become King sooner. Macbeth kills King Duncan, and then frames it on two drunken guards. Macbeth would fall a victim of this killing because then the entire country of Scotland is saddened by the death of Duncan, and Macbeth turns out to be a terrible king and the entire country hates him. Macbeth goes insane after this, and keeps on seeing things that arent really there. The murder of Duncan is his own desire that took him victim and made him commit a stupid act.

Secondly, characters in Macbeth are victims of their own thoughts. Lady Macbeth would be a prime example of this. Ever since Macbeth starts to go crazy, she is slowly going more and more insane in the head. The way Lady Macbeth starts to think is simply crazy. In one scene she is completely naked, talking nonsense, she is going crazy because her brain can not handle what is happening to Macbeth. Lady Macbeth then commits suicide by jumping from a tall tower; this defiantly shows that Lady Macbeths thoughts and actions because of her thoughts were something that was victimized by her emotions. Macbeth also had his thoughts victimized; all his decisions were based on his desires to become a more powerful king, not decisions for his people. For example, killing Banquo because he thought that he was going to try and steal his position as king.

Lastly, people in Macbeth, are victims of their feelings as well. Macbeths feelings told him that Banquos son was going to be king, so Macbeth ordered to have both of them killed, even though they were long time friends of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth was feeling depressed about Macbeth and him becoming insane, so she decided to commit suicide.

In conclusion, the characters in Macbeth fall victim of their acts, thoughts, and feelings, because of their own passions, desires, and emotions. Certain characters died because of their own selfish reasons, or other characters also dies because of the selfish reasons of others.