As Macbeth struggles with the decision to kill or spare King Duncan, he displays his intriguing character, rhetorically known as ethos. His wife, Lady Macbeth, also displays ethos when she begins to persuade Macbeth that he should in fact kill the King. Her methods to convince him were less than ethical, as she threatened his masculinity and took advantage of his weak decisiveness. Being Macbeth’s consort, Lady Macbeth knows exactly how to speak to him in order to get her way.…
The thane Macbeth’s ambition drives him to kill the father figure of Scotland and his kin, King Duncan. Macbeth was a hero to Scotland having fought in the war against Norway earning his second prophesied title, Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth’s wife is the biggest force acting on Macbeth's conscious as she convinces Macbeth to kill Duncan after she reveals her physiological inability to kill Duncan herself. Lady Macbeth is seen as a strong and devilish character who plans the murder of the King, she believed her husband is weak and that he doesn’t have masculine qualities if he can't kill Duncan for his own ambition. Killing Duncan causes Lady Macbeth to go mad with guilt, later hallucinating blood, revealing her husband's murder unconsciously until she commits suicide.…
When looking at the desire within humans that gives people the desire to achieve, the desire known as ambition, is ambition the ingredient that is necessary to completing the sweet recipe of success, or is it the drop of poison that causes the ill will of others when ingested? According to William Shakespeare’s tragedy of Macbeth, it appears that ambition can, in fact, be both. In the story of Macbeth, Macbeth is a Scottish general who served under the King Duncan, who ruled Scotland at the time, but Macbeth aspired to be the King of Scotland himself and thanks to Lady Macbeth, Macbeth murders King Duncan and eventually becomes king, but from thereon is when Macbeth is to meet his downfall. In the gist of the story, ambition was what brought…
When Ross came back to inform the King about the battle, he spoke about how Macbeth fought “Point against point, rebellious arm 'gainst arm, curbing his lavish spirit; and to conclude, the victory fell on us” (Macbeth, Shakespeare Act 1, Scene 2). This indicated how well Macbeth fought for his ruler's purpose, he was steadfast, and he gave all that he had for Duncan's cause. Later on King Duncan named Macbeth, The Thane of Cawdor. The conceding of the title had originated from Macbeth’s dependability, diligent work, and genuine goodness to the ruler.…
Macbeth was such a brave, ambitious, and somewhat humble warrior at the beginning of the play. What happened? As we see in many tragedies, the heroes’ traits are often the cause of their downfall. This is much the same as in Macbeth. Our protagonist, Macbeth, is a brave ambitious warrior, but it’s that same ambition that inevitably kills him, when he gets too power hungry and murders king Duncan.…
By going to war and killing someone so viciously, Duncan saw that has he been trustworthy, and loyal, so was fast to think that he was deserving of Thane of Cawdor. “The last Thane of Cawdor lost his title because he helped Norway in the last battle against Scotland,” said by Johnathan Goldberg. Macbeth, by receiving such power so easily made him realize that he could get what he wanted from Duncan. He also jumped to the conclusion that he needed more power, he needed to be king. He longed for the throne, and if betraying his cousin Duncan do achieve what he wanted, then so be it.…
In Act 1 Scene 3 after the witches tell him the prophecy Macbeth steps aside “I am thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair…”. In this moment in the play Macbeth is recapping from what had just happened and he came to the conclusion that he would have to kill King Duncan to become the Thane of Cawdor. As a result Macbeth decided on his own free will that he would do this. Later in Act 3 Scene 1 Macbeth makes a pretty bold choice, “So is he mine; and in such bloody distance That every minute of his being thrusts Against my near’st of life”.…
He ponders the possibility of becoming a monarch and sets his whole heart on the attainment of this goal” (Foster). That quote shows that Macbeth will do anything to become king, even ignoring his best friends orders. At the start of the play Duncan is the king, and he is the only thing that stands in between Macbeth and the crown. At first Macbeth is very hesitant about killing Duncan, and says he won 't do it, but after lots of convincing from Lady Macbeth he decides he should. After killing Duncan Macbeth thinks that his throne is safe, but it’s the opposite.…
Most of the main characters’ characteristics can not be solely judged by looking at their appearance in play Macbth. “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” This is a paradox means things that appear good, can in fact, be bad. Things appear bad,can in fact, be good. Thoughout the play, the appearance vs reality becomes the source of many characters’tragic ending: Lady Macbeth was tricked by her own appearance, Duncan is too trusting of people’s appearance. Macbeth towards to the tragic ending because he uses his appearance to achieve his goal and he is also tricked by his own appearance.…
In the play Macbeth, William Shakespeare uses the Aristotelian definition of a tragic hero as a guideline for the characters and their tragedies. Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero is someone of nobility who has a tragic, fatal flaw. He believed that there are three characteristics of a tragic hero: Hamartia, hubris, and peripeteia. Hamartia is a tragic flaw that causes the downfall of a hero; hubris is excessive pride and disrespect for the natural order of things; peripeteia is the reversal of fate that the hero experiences. In William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, he displays all three of the characteristics of a tragic hero.…
In the beginning of Macbeth, Macbeth is a devoted man and faithful to King Duncan, Duncan saw him as one of his own sons, “the name of most kind hostess”,part of the royal family (II,1,18). Much of the nobles saw him as “...a gentleman on whom [they] built an absolute trust” (I,4,5-6). However, his wife had a change of heart and felt she needed something more. Lady Macbeth poisoned Macbeth giving him the idea of him being king and having all the power.…
As a result of this, he passed the traitor’s title of honor, the Thane of Cawdor, upon Macbeth, a mere captain within his army. One piece of critical information that is often not drawn from this is the king’s impulsiveness. It must be conjectured that a strong and stable foundation of trust must have been built over a period of time in order for the king to be as shocked as he was. The fact that this complete trust was then directly transferred over to Macbeth reveals the moronic mind of the king. Reliance is never transferred, but rather received from proving one’s self through an extensive amount of actions.…
After reading Macbeths letter to her, she expresses that she wants him to hurry to her so she can persuade him to do whatever it takes in order for him to become King. At first, Macbeth does not believe that killing King Duncan for his own personal gain is the right thing to do but he is swayed by Lady Macbeth to do so after she insults his character and his manhood. After Macbeth kills King Duncan, he feels remorse, and guilt, but also realizes that it is too late to stop, and that he has to do more cruel acts to insure his crown, and his survival. On the same night that he kills Duncan, he is very paranoid and fearful that he will be found out, but my…
In fact, after Macbeth is named Thane of Cawdor, he thinks back to the witches’ prophecy, and his first thought is to kill Duncan in order to become the King of Scotland. However, at first he is taken aback at the idea that such a horrendous act came so naturally to his mind. Macbeth is confused because “If good, why [does he] yield to that suggestion” (1.3.144). This surprise can be understood further when Lady Macbeth is mulling over the idea of the possibility of Macbeth killing Duncan, but to her understanding he lacks the “illness [that] should attend” their ambitions of being King and Queen (1.5.19). Apparently, not a single person who knows Macbeth,…
Duncan is the king in Macbeth. Duncan seems to be a person that trusts a lot of people very easily. For example, he trusted Macdonwald (Thane of Cawdor), and Macdonwald betrayed him and turned his back on his own king for their enemies. (Scene 2, 63-68) (Duncan) “No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive, Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth.” (Ross)…