Commentary on Macbeth Essay

In Shakespeares play Macbeth, one could argue that Macbeth was not solely to blame for his moral and political actions there was plenty of other people helping him and wanting to see him fail. Macbeth all in all was a weak character, despite his noble and honorable reputation. Weakness would let him down in the end, the weakness that allowed him to be seduced by the witches, the same weakness that aloud his determined and power hungry wife to take hold of him. It was ultimately this weakness that resulted in Macbeths downfall. However, despite this flaw Macbeth was not solely to blame for his demise, his wife Lady Macbeth was even more ruthless and more determined than her husband and the witches prophecy ignited Macbeths ambition, but lets starts with Lady Macbeth.

Lady Macbeth is a huge factor in Macbeths evil acts. For instance, she is the one who really starts him off to killing. She pushes him for her satisfaction of being queen. Lady Macbeth, We see that she is much stronger, more ambitious and more ruthless than Macbeth throughout the entire play. Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth that he must commit acts of murder so that he can become more powerful and take over as king. Also we see a more complex side to her personality; we see her battle with herself when she has to balance her ambition with the social struggles that have been placed upon her throughout the play as a woman. We see many instances of Lady Macbeth being much stronger and more determined to achieve her aspirations of becoming powerful and important than Macbeth. When Macbeth is first confronted with a situation where he will have to commit a murder to continue his rise to king, he is very uncertain and struggles with the idea. He says that he is not afraid of the crime itself, but instead the consequences of such a violent act, When Lady Macbeth discovers that her husband isnt mentally ready for this she becomes determined to make him change his mind, manipulates her husband with remarkable effectiveness, overriding all his objections. She denies him his manhood and his courage. This makes Macbeth commit the murder, despite still holding doubt and fear inside. Lady Macbeths strength of will is shown throughout the murder of King Duncan, as it is she who steadies her husbands nerves immediately after the crime has been perpetrated. Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth to convey the theme of the relationship between gender and power. Lady Macbeth uses female methods to achieve power, that is, manipulation, and dominance to further supposedly Macbeths ambitions. Macbeth did not want to kill his king, although he wanted the throne he did not really want to do that because he swore an oath to protect his king. Also he had no problems with the king. But Lady Macbeth just wanted the title of being queen so she convinced him to murder the king and start this whole mess, that didnt need to be started.

In the play Macbeth The role of the witches would be hugely underestimated. In actual reality in the opening scene Shakespeare creates a mysterious atmosphere, foreshadowing that Fair is foul and foul is fair suggesting that evil will be present throughout the play; also that nothing is as it seems to be. In act one scene three the witches greet Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor. This prophecy by the witches leads Macbeth to genuinely imagine how good it would be to have control and a huge amount of power. Although the witches cannot force Macbeth to do anything that he does not want to do. They basically reveal the future and chose to approach Macbeth when he is most vulnerable to attack, so therefore they certainly did have a role to play in Macbeths downfall, but if Macbeth had been more concerned with morality and ethics and less concerned about having power, control, and becoming king, he would have ignored the witches prophecy.

However before meeting the witches Macbeth had already consider about becoming king. He was a very ambitious man and a well respected soldier. Macbeth, was always a selfish character. Macbeth has a conscience, but ultimately is not strong enough to let it guide his actions. In the end, Macbeth was a selfish, jealous and ambitious character, all signs of wickedness. The witches may have provoked his ambition along with Lady Macbeths persuading words, but deep down there was evil brewing with in Macbeth. However if it was not for Macbeths weakness and unassertiveness he would have been strong enough to say no. Ultimately each character played a significant role in Macbeths destruction including Macbeth himself.

In conclusion, Macbeth did have three forces that motivated him to commit his evil acts and bring a whole lot of shit to Scotland. The three forces; the witches prophecies of him being king and planting the seed, his own ambition to be king and hold that title and Lady Macbeths constant pushing and well thought of plans all added to his motivation of committing these many evil crimes. Although in the end Macbeth dies, his carnage and chaos still left a mess behind. All in all, Macbeth should be blamed for these acts, but without just one of these motivations wasnt there, then none of this would have worked