Tragic Imagination: Shakespeare's Macbeth Essay

     A Shakespearean tragic hero starts out as a noble person; a great exceptional being who stands out. A tragic hero has a tragic flaw of an exaggerated trait that leads to their downfall and eventually to death. William Shakespeare often made his main characters tragic heroes in his plays. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the role of the tragic hero is given to the main character: Macbeth. This is because he starts off as a loyal and well liked man in the beginning, but has a tragic flaw of ambition which ultimately leads to his downfall.

Coincidentally, Duncan, honoring the hero, decides to stay at Macbeth’s castle overnight. Lady Macbeth believes that this is a perfect opportunity given by fate to kill Duncan and usurp his power. Exhibiting extreme ambition and masculinity, Lady Macbeth orchestrates the entire scheme and persuades her husband into committing evil deeds, chiding him for behaving like a feminine and coward. Macbeth eventually yields to his wife’s pressure and manipulation. After the murder is discovered, Malcolm and Donalbain, Duncan’s sons, flee to England and Ireland, respectively, while Macbeth assumes a dictatorial sovereignty of Scotland. Macbeth, however, becomes insecure about his power, for the witches have prophesied that Banquo’s descendants will be kings and Macduff, another Scottish nobleman in England, may threaten him. Hence, the vicious tyrant assassinates Banquo and Macduff’s family. As a result, Macduff, with aids from Malcolm and England, vows to retaliate against Macbeth. Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth is greatly agonized by guilt, sleepwalking, rubbing her hands as if trying to wash away the bloodstains, and finally committing suicide. The downfall of Macbeth immediately succeeds when the English army invades his castle and is marked by Macduff outplaying Macbeth in a fierce

    Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's more popular plays, and nearly everyone knows about the abundant blood and gore, the witches, Lady Macbeth's ambition, and the ghost of Banquo. However, not as many people know about the superstitions that surround this play.  There's a long-standing belief that the play is jinxed, than any company that produces it is courting disaster, and that quoting from the play (or even saying the title) leads to serious bad luck.

In the play Macbeth, many events happen that determine the outcome of its ending. In this play, Macbeth, an insane serial killer goes on a killing spree and offs many innocent people. A recurring theme in this work by Shakespeare is madness. Shakespeare creates both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to be characters that lose their minds by the end of the play. A big turning point in this play that changes its game is scene 2 of act 4. This scene starts out with Ross delivering a message to Lady Macduff, whose husband, Macduff has left her to escape Macbeth’s evil wrath. Lady Macduff’s young son wonders if his dad is a traitor. His mother answers yes. However, Macduff’s disappearance can be interpreted in many different ways; this goes to show the importance of this scene. The three reasons Act 4:2 of Macbeth is so crucial are: It draws all the major scenes into one, it is a pivotal moment of the action in the play, and in it, we realize how evil Macbeth actually is.

By lying to Macduff it shows that he still wants to fulfill his side of the prophecy by becoming the King of Scotland. This means that Macbeth is no longer so devastated about the killing of the King as was first indicated in the play and demonstrates the alluring sexual power of Lady Macbeth who is ambitious to become the Queen. Macbeth is easily led by his wife, because had she not been there to push him along with the murder then in all probability, Macbeth would not have killed Duncan. His actions also show his greed and ambition by killing someone he apparently dearly loved. By Act 3 Scene 1, Macbeth is becoming more ruthless and determined, in that he is

One of the main focal points of William Shakespeare’s epochal play, Macbeth, centers around the power and manipulation of the main character along with the greed that accompanies it. Macbeth is centralized about vigor overriding inhibitions and the conscious awareness of its characters. The power of the female character in Macbeth is feasibly one of the most intriguing aspects of the entire play. Lady Macbeth acts as the play’s catalyst that aids in Macbeth’s treacherous acts. Through the nefarious actions of Lady Macbeth, she dexterously cajoles her husband into committing unspeakable actions and hence showcases the power of the female character in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Macbeth wanted a lot of people gone and Macduff happened to be on that list so Macbeth sent assassins, three murders kill Macduff. When the murders thought they were killing Macduff they saw he wasn’t home, but his son and wife was there so they killed the kid and the wife. Macduff does not find out till later, but when he does, he wants to kill Macbeth badly. And macbeth doesn't know that Macduff will get his revenge. Cause he is the prophecy and he kills Macbeth, but Macbeth has no clue to his obsession that no man born of women could kill him but little does he know Macduff kills

Macbeth’s ambition gets in the way of his conscience which leads to his eventual downfall. Macbeth at the beginning of the play seems a very loyal and honourable person. Macbeth’s complete infatuation in the security of his throne means that he enacts revenge against Macduff for fleeing to England and orders the deaths of Macduff’s lineage. Macbeth orders the death of Macduff’s family in Act 4 Scene 1 when he says “His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls, that trace him in his line." Macbeth shows in the play to become ever more mentally unstable even to a point insane.

"The Tragedy of Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare in 1604, portrays women in a variety of strengths. In Elizabethan society, women were considered the ‘weaker sex’ but in many of his plays Shakespeare appears to question this patriarchal society. Shakespeare wrote ‘ Macbeth’ intending to flatter King James I, the ruler in this era. James I had very strong opinions regarding women and, particularly, witches. He saw Women as inferior and expected them to be housewives and mothers. Shakespeare portrays the witches as evil, worthless and completely mad. This fits into the view of witches in Shakespeare’s time that they were poor, elderly women who didn’t fit into society. Macbeth was also written to persuade King James I to reopen the

Throughout the play Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, there is a constant theme of questioning what quantifies a good leader and what qualifies someone to lead. These questions, however, are more easily posed than answered because they change immensely depending upon the individual responding. Some follow the school of thought that a king should be selected based on divine inheritance while others focus more holistically on a king who possesses good qualities that would make them a worthy ruler. In Macbeth there are not many examples of decent leadership that the reader can clearly grasp due to the political instability of the setting of the play: Scotland. King Duncan, while presented in a more favorable light than Macbeth, was no angelic being or exemplary ruler. On the other side of the sword, however, King Macbeth was presented as a bloody tyrant hell-bent on putting his wishes above the desires and needs of the people of Scotland. When presented with the few rulers that are shown throughout the play, King Duncan was a better ruler with his mild temperament and placement of his country above self. While choosing what quantifies a respectable king is arduous, it is simple to see that Macbeth was not a good ruler. In fact, he was quite the opposite. Thus, based on contradicting Macbeth’s faults, a good ruler is the physical embodiment of God, maintains command over the nobles, and favors the interest of the country over their own.

Since the beginning of time people looked up to the stars asking Gods their fate. Fate is a belief, that there is a set path for an event that is both unavoidable and inevitable, that there is a fixed natural order to the cosmos. In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, viewers can observe fate or (prophecy) playing a major role. William Shakespeare was born April 1564 and died May 1616, during his life Shakespeare wrote 37 plays, and 157 sonnets, Shakespeare is also known for being the owner of the Globe Theatre. In Macbeth every character has a set fate, to live or to die. Macbeth 's fate was the most interesting, and mysterious. It was foretold that Macbeth will become king, and so he did. Although paying a hefty price for the crown. Macbeth seems to be surrounded by evil people who manipulate him for their gaine. The three witches and Lady Macbeth played with Macbeth using his fate, as their weapon. This play is set in Scotland, during a time of unrest, violence and war. It should also be pointed out that Macbeth is not historically accurate, and that actual historical events that are mentioned in this play are not following the timeline. Macbeth 's judgment was clouded by his ambition in becoming king. The three witches have foretold to Macbeth that he will become king, or did they? Could have witches manipulated Macbeth to murder his Duncan. The three witches seem out of this world, could it be that they selected Macbeth 's fate, for him.

Also known to many as "The Scottish Play", the classic tragedy is a playground of ambition and contradiction. Driven to become the new King after a prophecy by the mysterious Three Witches, Macbeth realizes that he must kill all and any that get in his way. His clever wife, Lady Macbeth, is instrumental in his ascension to the throne, egging him on whenever he begins to think that he has gone too far. Though he successfully kills and succeeds King Duncan, he can fund no peace while his friend, Banquo, still lives. More murder ensues and the bloodied ghost of Banquo appears to Macbeth. Lady Macbeth 's conscience soon begins to torture her and she imagines that she can see her hands covered with blood. Her suicide is largely overlooked by her husband, who is now consumed by further prophecy of his own downfall. Macduff, who has been plotting an uprising against the new king, kills Macbeth. In the end Macbeth’s overconfidence paved the way to his own

Macbeth is a play written by William Shakespeare between the years of 1599 and 1606. The moral of the play is that Macbeth wants to get crowned King of Scotland and goes through many different obstacles to achieve that goal. Throughout the play there are three mysterious witches that appear in Macbeth’s presents multiple amounts of times. They are also known as the three weird sisters (Noone, 2016). These witches are up to no good. They have the ability to see into the future and use that skill to destroy lives of others. Their role in this play is just that, which is portrayed through quotes within the play, the manipulating of Macbeth through the different prophecies they create, and through the change of Macbeth as a person in the play itself.

As a result of Macbeth struggling against his two opposing forces of identity and objectives, his identity starts to take the back-seat figuratively; his goals and ambitions for being king over shadow and change his personality. The intentions Macbeth holds are no longer as pure as before and his desires become selfish. Willing to take down whoever comes into the way of him, instead of protecting his people are what result from Macbeth’s own psychological warfare. The minute Macbeth realizes the actuality of his prophecies it changes him into someone he never saw coming. Struggling in his commitment for power and holding his identity, leads Macbeth into becoming someone different from who he initially was. Macbeth’s struggle not only effects him but also those around him such as Banquo, Macduff, and Lady Macbeth. His inability to balance his identity and goals drives him into a mad fit, unleashing his wrath on everyone around him. As a result of Macbeth’s inner challenges he indirectly causes the downfall of those around him; Lady Macbeth is plagued with guilt and commits suicide, Macduff’s psychological state is put in jeopardy after the murder of his family, and Banquo’s life suffers as a result of Macbeth’s extreme paranoia of being

The plot for this play is organized with the goal that every occasion from the past happen in a steady progression for the peruser. A trouble that the plot has is now and then the audience can't tell the expectations of each character, until the point that we find out about the past. The complication in this play, or I guess one of the complications is this; Macbeth kills the king to secure the kingship. The reason behind this is because after killing the king, it is clear that the only way to hide the murder is to keep murdering, which means that the body count begins to climb.In this play climax happens in the third scene of the third act, where Fleance escapes. Macbeth has in this manner not completely picked up what he was taking a stab at. Diverted by fears and mental trips, he loses his restraint; and now we know he is doomed. Whom the divine beings would annihilate they initially make frantic. The resolution is that Macduff kills Macbeth, yet the denouement happens when Malcolm TELLS the audience his intentions to reestablish Scotland into its previous sorted out society before Macbeth transformed the once-serene kingdom into a murder disorder.