The significant factors influencing Macbeth to kill Duncan Essay Example
Macbeth is presented as a tragic hero. The influences on his character are crucial in bringing about his demise.
Macbeth's fatal flaw is his obsessive ambition. By going against the natural order of the Elizabethans, he brings about his own destruction. His wife is a significant influence because he loves her and they both trust each other entirely. When he is speaking to his wife he is open and talks freely.
When she speaks to him he often lets himself be persuaded by her. He values her opinion as a wife and as a loyal companion. The witches influence him more than any one else in the play.They point him in the direction of treason, however they do not push him.
The witches represent evil in the play. Macbeth knows this but still lets them guide him and influence his decisions. T
...he Elizabethans had a strict social order; this play is about a Thane becoming King, which by Elizabethan standards was totally unacceptable. Elizabethans believed in the divine right of Kings. This meant that killing your king in Elizabethan times was, morally, socially and religiously unacceptable.
The first act sets the wheels in motion for Macbeth's swift demise. This act is about setting the scene of his moral disintegration.Macbeth's "vaulting ambition" is the most significant factor when he makes all his important decisions. At the start of the play he is an honored hero of war and Thane of Glamis. His burning ambition however is still pushing him on.
As well as being the initial factor in persuading himself to kill Duncan his wife picks up on it. So Lady Macbeth persuades him to kil
Duncan. This could be for two reasons, firstly, she could want to be queen, secondly, she could think he deserves better. Macbeth has too much ambition inside of him so he is never happy he always wants that little bit more which is just outside his reach.He chances everything on being king and it turns out to be a very empty title, which just brings around his death.
At the start of the play everybody likes him and admires him as a war hero. Macbeth on the outside seems like an honorable warrior the audience is always receiving violent undercurrents. "Smoked with bloody execution" although the audience interprets he is fighting for king and country, by slaughtering the enemies of then King. The audience forms an opinion that Macbeth is very brutal and merciless. The audience perceives this evil undercurrent because Shakespeare use the words "smoked" and Bloody".
Bloody" is a short sharp word "Smoked" is associated with burning and death. Both words are usually associated with malevolence and killing. He is very good at killing, almost too good. In scene three Macbeths evil ambitious nature is revealed when the witches tell him he is going to become king, "The greatest is yet to come. " In Macbeths Soliloquy in this scene he is considering what he should do about the witches prophecies. He thinks he should do nothing and let kingship come to him unaware like the Thaneship.
"chance may crown me without my stir".However he is already having doubts that may happen in the language he uses when he says "may" he is already thinking on how he may become king. In Scene four
Duncan is congratulating Macbeth this scene is all about dramatic irony. Macbeth also realizes he will have to Malcolm as well as Duncan "establish our estate upon our eldest Malcolm" Macbeth is not at all worried that he will have to murder again even after he has killed Duncan. This shows his most ambitious and malicious nature.
Macbeth's ambition allows his sense of what is right to be overcome and hence is doomed to disaster.Lady Macbeth is a very important person in Macbeth's life "my dearest partner of greatness". When Macbeth writes to her he tells her everything. This can be interpreted that they are very close and they trust each other completely.
Lady Macbeth's reaction to the letter is shock. However she recovers very quickly and she is already working out how to overthrow Duncan. She immediately interprets (like Macbeth) that they will have to kill Duncan, to become King. However she is worried that Macbeth is too kind and loyal to do this treasonous act "too full o' the milk of human kindness".Lady Macbeth knows Macbeth more than any one else. She knows how to persuade him and together with the fact that he trusts her.
Lady Macbeth is ruthless cunning and ambitious for herself and Macbeth. This makes her one of the most significant factors when he is deciding to kill Duncan. Duncan is portrayed as the just and fair King. However in the audience's eyes he is actually very weak and gullible.
In the second scene Duncan is very far away from the battle. This could be him trying to keep the kingdom from coming apart or he is weak and
a coward just waiting to be killed.His weakness is a very significant. Macbeth may not have murdered Duncan, if Duncan was a strong and warrior like King. Even he says he is not strong "our gentle senses".
He also lacks judgment, the last thane of Cawdor who was a close friend and somebody he trusted completely was a traitor and in league with the Norwegians. He trusts Macbeth so completely Macbeth almost doesn't kill Duncan. When Duncan arrives he says how fine the castle is "This castle hath a pleasant seat. " But he doesn't know this place is going to be the place of his demise.The fact that Duncan is unaware makes the audience slightly sympathetic, however he should be more on his guard he knows Macbeth is very cable of killing anybody. He is also King so he should be suspious of everybody.
The fact that the audience knows something the king doesn't know is dramatic irony used to make Duncan look even more unintelligent or some one who needs sympathy. At the start of Macbeth's soliloquy in scene seven he is discussing whether or not he should murder Duncan. There are lots of reasons why he shouldn't murder Duncan "his virtues will plead like angels".This makes Duncan innocent and chaste like an angel it emphasis how much of a victim he is. The language Shakespeare uses when he is describing Duncan always emphasizes how honest and delicate Duncan is. This is reinforced when Macbeths says "virtues" this shows that Macbeth still thinks that Duncan is a good King.
The only reason why he should kill Duncan is because of his own "vaulting
ambition". He finally decides that he is not going to murder Duncan because there are to many motives not to. He tells Lady Macbeth this, "We will proceed no further is this business". Lady Macbeth is furious and insults him.She tries to persuade him to kill Duncan "live a coward" this is particularly hurtful because he is a great warrior and she is his wife. In nearly thirty lines she has him faltering Macbeth reveals this when he says "if" this shows he is considering the idea.
In another ten he is telling her how he will setup the guards. Lady Macbeth has a variety of persuasion techniques to use on Macbeth, which she must have used before. She insults him, she says how brave she is and how she would keep a promise, however evil it was, unlike Macbeth she claims This argument could mean three things.Firstly Macbeth is weak and easily persuaded. Secondly he does everything his wife tells him to. Thirdly Lady Macbeth is a very skilled person at manipulating Macbeth till he does what she wants.
Lady Macbeth doesn't have any concerns about the murder only that if Macbeth does not do it now he will regret it and if he doesn't do it he wouldn't be a man and she wouldn't love him as much "when you durst do it then you were a man". Macbeths biggest apprehension is that what will happen of they fail "If we should fail? " Lady Macbeth tells him have courage (even though she knows he has courage).The witches create a very evil atmosphere in which the weave their dark magic spells. In Elizabethan
times people were afraid of magic so at the start they mention Macbeth, which immediately associates him with evil. The Elizabethans believed God had released the world from chaos by creating order and morality, which this play shows no regard of.
You cannot predict the witch's evil intentions because they are deliberately ambiguous "When the battles lost and Won".Their power is that they can manipulate people but they cannot control them. In the sailor story "though his bark cannot be lost though it shall be tempest-tost. This is what they do to Macbeth they manipulate him they do not control him or tell him what to do. They chose Macbeth because he is ambitious and easy to manipulate. The reason no body under stands the witches first time they hear them without thinking about it, is because witches use ambiguous language.
The play's imagery shows this especially when the witches are present in a scene. Banquo calls them the "The instruments of darkness" this could be interpreted as Banquo being jealous of not having being predicted any thing in the future. He has seen through the witch's lies.In this quote he says they are evil however he calls them instruments because like they manipulate Macbeth somebody may be manipulating them or it could be a reference to their power.
The play shows evil being present in nature, "Hover through the fog and filthy air", the language Shakespeare uses when he is describing nature is usually almost the same as when he describes the witches this reinforces that the witches can control Nature. Man "I dare do all that may become a man" Shakespeare uses two
sorts of language when he is describing men. The first he uses to describe deceitful men like Macbeth.The second he uses to describe honorable people like Banquo.
Animals "the raven himself is hoarse. " The raven himself is supposed to be the death bird the fact that it is crowing means someone is going to die. I conclude that there are three main factors which influenced Macbeth the most they are his own ambition driving him on and on. The Witches which first manipulated him to think about killing the King.
Finally Lady Macbeth who persuaded him when he was almost ready to give up. Without any one of these three main factors Macbeth would not have committed the murder or would not have even thought about killing the King.However there are a lot of smaller factors without two or three of these he wouldn't have committed the murder. All of them become less and less important towards the end of the play, as Macbeth becomes more ready to commit crimes. However all these factors help bring about his downfall.
Shakespeare has written a dramatic and tragic play where a bold and courageous warrior is destroyed by his own ambition. It is cleverly balanced to allow the audience sympathy towards Macbeth and to identify the forces that were manipulating him such as the witches his wife and his own ambition.
