Commentary on MacBeth Essay

Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare. In Macbeth things are not always as they seem and good and evil is confused.

When three witches tell Macbeth that he will come into greater power, he, and his controlling wife, seize the opportunity to become king and queen. But after they kill the current king, king Duncan, the guilt overpowers the two which results in the suicide of Lady Macbeth, and the insanity of her husband.

At first, Macbeth is known as a brave soldier who fights for his country. In act one, scene two, the captain is having a discussion with Duncan about Macbeth:

for brave Macbeth - well he deserves that name, Here the captain is sincerely telling the king how much he respects Macbeth and that he deserves his noble reputation. At this point, Macbeth is seen as a fair person who is very patriotic.

In act five, scene seven, Young Siward is angry with Macbeth:

The devil himself could not pronounce a name more hateful to mine ear, Here, young Siward is comparing Macbeth to the devil, this illustrates his hatred toward Macbeth, this is also the general consensus of Macbeth. This also shows that Macbeth has gone through a complete change of character as the result of power which he and his wife have gained.

Fair is foul and foul is fair, at first, Macbeth is a respectable man, then power corrupts his personality and turns him into a tyrant.

At the start of the play, Macbeth discovers three witches who inform him that he cannot be destroyed by anyone born from a woman. Macbeth sees an apparition and discovers his immortality:

for none of a woman born shall harm Macbeth Obviously Macbeth is delighted at this news, he now believes that he is invincible because everyone is born from a woman. Also, in act four, scene one, Macbeth is still watching an apparition and his belief in his immortality grows stronger:

Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him This is also impossible because trees cannot move, so this now strengthens his visions of him being invincible.

However, these visions are shattered because what he thought was impossible came true. Macbeth believed that he was invincible because the thought of trees moving seemed impossible, however in act five, scene five, a messenger is informing Macbeth of the actions taking place outside the castle by Macduffs army:

I looked toward Birnam and anon me though, the wood began to move, Macbeth, thinking back to what the witches has told him, now sees the apparitions in a different light, what seemed impossible at first, actually happened. Also, in act five, scene eight, Macbeth and Macduff are fighting when Macduff reveals what Macbeth had been dreading. Macduff was not born from a woman, he was born from his mothers corpse, he was born through a caesarean section, hence Macbeth could be killed by Macduff:

Macduff was born from his mothers womb, untimely ripped, Macbeth now knows that the cruelty of fate has gone against him and that he must now accept death.

Fair is foul and foul is fair These two situations which at first seemed impossible, did occur, not in the way that Macbeth had first thought, but these prove that words are dangerous and that everything is not always how it first seems.

When this play first begins, Lady Macbeth, is an evil woman who is determined to become queen. In act one, scene five, Lady Macbeth is trying to persuade Macbeth into murdering King Duncan:

look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't, Here, Lady Macbeth is telling Macbeth to act innocent on the outside, but vile on the inside, no righteous woman would say this, thus proving that she is a wicked, sinful woman.

However, in act five, scene one, Lady Macbeth is hallucinating and is having flashbacks to the night she and her husband killed Duncan:

all the perfumes in Arabia will not sweeten this hand, oh, oh, oh! Here, the mental state of Lady Macbeth is shown and it now becomes obvious that the murder has had a greater effect on her than she first thought. She feels she still has blood on her hands, which is why she is confessing to it, trying to bring closure to her overpowering guilt.

Fair is foul and foul is fair At first, Lady Macbeth is an evil woman who will not let anyone stand in her path to greater power, but the power gets the better of her and she cannot handle it. Thus, things are not always as they seem.

I feel that Lady Macbeth is to blame for this tragedy because Macbeth was not willing to carry out this murder until his wife persuaded him to, thus ending both their lives. Overall I feel Macbeth by William Shakespeare is a great didactic play which warns us about the dangers of words, and how they should be processed thoroughly before being believed.