Deceiving Characters In Macbeth Essay

Deceiving Characters In Macbeth:

Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and the witches

In the play Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare there are many characters with appearances that are deceiving. The three characters that are deceiving are Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and the witches. Macbeth shows loyalty to King Duncan in the beginning of the play. Macbeths appearance is deceiving because later on in the play he ends up killing Duncan. Besides Macbeth, Lady Macbeth also shows her character is deceiving by planning how Duncan will be killed. At the end of the play she dies because the guilt from helping to kill Duncan was too much of a burden on her conscience. Lastly, the witches are deceiving characters because they give confusing prophecies. Macbeth misinterprets the confusing prophecies which later lead to his tragic death. There are many appearances that show characters in the play Macbeth are deceiving, ultimately leading to tragedy.

The first example of a character whose appearance is deceiving in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare is Macbeth. Macbeth shows the he is an honorable man in the beginning of the play. Macbeth also shows he is loyal to king Duncan by having him spend the night at his castle and fighting in war for him. More is thy due than more than all can pay (1.4.21). King Duncan says this to show how he is grateful of Macbeth for wining the war. As events unfold, Macbeth shows his true character when he kills Duncan to become king. This shows he has a false appearance because Duncan thought the two were friends and Macbeth would not kill a relative. Towards the end of the play Macbeth gets caught up in a killing spree by hiring people to murder Banquo and his son, and by having everybody in Macduffs castle killed:

The castle of Macduff I will surprise,

Seize upon fife: give to th edge o th sword

His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls (4.1.150-153)

When Macbeth says this he wants everybody in Macduffs castle to be killed, his wife, son and the peasants that live there. Macbeth is an excellent example of a character whose appearance is deceiving.

Lady Macbeth is a character in William Shakespeares play that has a deceiving and misleading appearance as well. In the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth shows her strong will by planning how king Duncan will be murdered. Leave all the rest to me (1.6.73). In this quotation she is telling her husband that she will do all the planning and he does not have to worry about anything. When Macbeth has second thoughts, Lady Macbeth insults his manhood.

[] Art thou afeard

To be the same in thine own act and valour,

As thou art in desire? []

And live a coward in thine own esteem,

Letting I dare not wait upon I would,

Like a poor cat i the adage?(1.7.39-45)

Lady Macbeth calls her husband a coward and says the he is like a cat that does not want to get its paws wet. After the killing of Duncan, Macbeth could not carry out the plan to leave the daggers with the poisoned guards. Instead Macbeth brings back the daggers with him. To Lady Macbeths dismay, she takes the daggers back to the guards as planned and calls her husband a coward once again. Later on in the play her false appearance is evident; she was once a strong willed, determined woman, and becomes someone who feels guilty for taking part in murdering Duncan. Lady Macbeth demonstrates a guilty conscience when she begins sleep walking and she says she cannot wash the blood off of her hands. Lady Macbeths servant observes her confession of how Duncan was killed: It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus/ washing her hands. I have known her continue/ in this quarter of an hour (5.1.29-31). The Gentle Woman explains to the doctor that Lady Macbeth has given some clue to that she helped kill Duncan. The guilt of planning and executing Duncans murder is too much for Lady Macbeth to handle and she ends up killing herself. One of the peasants in the castle inform Macbeth the bad news of his wife: The queen, my lord, is dead (5.5.16). Although Lady Macbeth shows she is deceiving in the play by acting as a strong willed woman, determined to kill Duncan, and pressuring Macbeth in to helping her, her guilty conscience is too much to handle and she begins to sleep walk and talk in her sleep.

Another example of characters whose appearances are deceiving are the witches. The witches give misleading prophecies to Macbeth, that are easily misinterpreted. For example, the witches predict Macbeth will become king, and as a result Macbeth and his wife, kill the king so Macbeth can rule Scotland. Another prophecy revealed to Macbeth is that he will not be defeated until Birnam Wood comes to his castle: Macbeth shall never be vanquished be/ until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill /Shall come against him(4.1.92-93). After hearing this prophecy, Macbeth thinks that he is safe from harm because it is impossible for a forest to move, therefore it is false and the witches deceive him. To Macbeth the prophecy sounds impossible but it is not, Birnman wood comes to Duninane because the Macduffs army uses the trees to hide how many soldiers there are. Macbeth is deceived by the prophecy that states he cannot be defeated or destroyed by any man who was born from a woman. From a false claim Macbeth thought that nobody on the earth could ever harm him in any way. The witches are to blame because, Macbeth died because Macduff stated that he was not born from a woman: Macduff was from his mothers womb/ Untimely ripped(5.8.16).

This quotation means that Macduff was not born from a woman his mother had a sea-section to save him. All of the prophecies show that the witches are deceiving because they give information to Macbeth that he takes at face value, when actually it means something entirely different.

In the play Macbeth written by William Shakespeare there are many appearances that are deceiving. Three characters that are deceiving are Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and the witches. Macbeth is deceiving because in the play he shows loyalty and that he is an honorable man. However, towards the end of the play he turns into a mean and evil monster. Lady Macbeth is another misleading character because in the beginning of the play she is portrayed as a strong willed person, but at the end she decides her own fate by taking her life. Lastly, the witches give prophecies to Macbeth, which are deceiving because they say one thing and turns out to mean something totally different. All three of these characters are proved to have deceiving appearances in William Shakespeares play Macbeth.