Introduction
We are introduced to Macbeth, Thane of
Glamis,he is a brave Scottish general in King
Duncan's army. However, upon hearing the
three witches' prophecy that he would become
King of Scotland, he becomes tyrannical. With
his wife's help and encouragement he kills
King Duncan, but this fills him with deep
regret and guilt. Even though he can’t do the
deed ,He must carry it out for his own
betterment . though he is scared and wishes
not to do so…..
Analysis
Macbeth is a Scottish general and the thane of
Glamis who is led to wicked thoughts by the
prophecies of the three witches, especially
after their prophecy that he will be made thane
of Cawdor comes true. Macbeth is a brave
soldier and a powerful man, but he is not a
virtuous one. He is easily tempted into murder
to fulfill his ambitions to the throne, and once
he commits his first crime and is crowned
King of Scotland, he embarks on further
atrocities with increasing ease. Ultimately,
Macbeth proves himself better suited to the
battlefield than to political intrigue, because he
lacks the skills necessary to rule without being
a tyrant. His response to every problem is
violence and murder. Unlike Shakespeare’s
great villains, such as Iago in Othello and
Richard III in Richard III, Macbeth is never
comfortable in his role as a criminal. He is
unable to bear the psychological consequences
of his [Link] we first hear of
Macbeth in the wounded captain’s account of
his battlefield valor, our initial impression is of
a brave and capable warrior. This perspective
is complicated, however, once we see Macbeth
interact with the three witches. We realize that
his physical courage is joined by a consuming
ambition and a tendency to self-doubt—the
prediction that he will be king brings him joy,
but it also creates inner turmoil. These three
attributes—bravery, ambition, and self-doubt
—struggle for mastery of Macbeth throughout
the play. Shakespeare uses Macbeth to show
the terrible effects that ambition and guilt can
have on a man who lacks strength of character.
We may classify Macbeth as irrevocably evil,
but his weak character separates him from
Shakespeare’s great villains—Iago
in Othello, Richard III in Richard III, Edmund
in King Lear—who are all strong enough to
conquer guilt and self-doubt. Macbeth, great
warrior though he is, is ill equipped for the
psychic consequences of crime.
Before he kills Duncan, Macbeth is plagued by
worry and almost aborts the crime. It takes
Lady Macbeth’s steely sense of purpose to
push him into the deed. After the murder,
however, her powerful personality begins to
disintegrate, leaving Macbeth increasingly
alone. He fluctuates between fits of fevered
action, in which he plots a series of murders to
secure his throne, and moments of terrible
guilt (as when Banquo’s ghost appears) and
absolute pessimism (after his wife’s death,
when he seems to succumb to despair). These
fluctuations reflect the tragic tension within
Macbeth: he is at once too ambitious to allow
his conscience to stop him from murdering his
way to the top and too conscientious to be
happy with himself as a murderer.
As things fall apart for him at the end of the
play, he seems almost relieved—with the
English army at his gates, he can finally return
to life as a warrior, and he displays a kind of
reckless bravado as his enemies surround him
and drag him down. In part, this stems from
his fatal confidence in the witches’ prophecies,
but it also seems to derive from the fact that he
has returned to the arena where he has been
most successful and where his internal turmoil
need not affect him—namely, the battlefield.
Unlike many of Shakespeare’s other tragic
heroes, Macbeth never seems to contemplate
suicide: “Why should I play the Roman fool,”
he asks, “and die / On mine own sword?”
(5.10.1–2). Instead, he goes down fighting,
bringing the play full circle: it begins with
Macbeth winning on the battlefield and ends
with him dying in combat.
Acknowledgement
I would like to express my profound gratitude
to ma’am Nima Lhakila (class teacher/English
teacher of class XI commerce) of Tashi
Namgyal Academy for giving me an
opportunity to express myself in the form of
this project.
Bibliography
My source for this project presented above
was Google chrome along with these
following websites and the book
“Macbeth by William Shakespare“ provided
by my school . the following websites are :
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
Content
o Acknowledgement
o Introduction
o Analysis
o Conclusion
o Bibliography
Conclusion
Influenced by the witches' prophecies, his wife
and his own ambition, Macbeth kills King
Duncan and seizes the Scottish throne.
Inwardly destroyed by guilt, Macbeth dies at
the hands of his enemies.
