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Themes from Macbeth - Essay
Subject: English Studies and Film and Media
12 Documents
Students shared 12 documents in this course
School: Normanhurst Boys High School
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Shakespeare dramatizes Macbeth's descent into villainy, where he descended into a violent,
blood-thirsty butcher from a loyal and brave soldier, whose ambition took over conscience.
Shakespear presented Macbeth with different angles which displayed his unique phases, which
contrasted as time went on. This Aristotelian tragedy displayed Macbeth’s development where
he descended due to his fatal mistake: ambition. It demonstrates a suppressing play that spread
fear to the audience who felt empathy for Macbeth, who watched a heroic figure killing his
comrade, themselves feared they could be the same.
Macbeth was displayed as a hero at the start of the play. He was ‘ Like valour’s minion carved
out his passage’ , mentioned in Act 1 Scene 2. Similes (Like valour’s minion) and exaggeration
(carved) are both used to present the audience with the figure of an iconic medieval hero,
presenting a strong sense of masculinity and military might. Also in Act 1 Scene 2, ‘For brave
Macbeth—well he deserves that name—’ highlights Macbeth’s braveness, and with use of
colloquial language, the statement seemed more realistic and valid toward the audience, which
would soon experience an unexpecting and fearful downturn.
Shakespear explains Macbeth’s doubting mind as a result of receiving temptations and his
desire for power overtook his conscience. The witches symbolise temptations and rumours,
providing Macbeth with misleading prophecies: prophecies which give a false sense of security,
including the guarantee of Macbeth being ‘rightfully the king, and later on the suggestion of
killing Macduff. These temptations combined with Macbeth’s ambition caused the murder of
King Duncan. The murdering of King Duncan was extremely unnecessary, unholy and pure evil,
as King Duncan was a humble and well-respected leader. Macbeth knew well that his ambition
was driving him into unturnable,’ as he said in a soliloquy: ‘To prick the sides of my intent, but
only Vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself And falls on the' other.’ Personification and
exaggeration were used to highlight his understanding of the consequences he would receive
after such an unjust act, which he almost aborted the crime as his consciousness trapped him
with self-doubt and guilt. ‘Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand?’
This is a rhetorical question which created suspense and displayed Macbeth’s paranoid mind,
and the mentioning of dagger also symbolised the bloody and violent outcome. It more or less
suggests that King Duncan would be murdered, because soldiers would usually pick up the
blade. ‘I go, and it is done’. Macbeth determined the murdering after the ringing of the bell,
pulled by lady Macbeth. His ambition overtook his conscience, defining his official descendent to
villainy.
Late in the play, Macbeth’s villainy was interpreted as pure evilness and blood-thirsty. The
injustice from the killing of Duncan and Banquo resulted in Macbeth losing his ambition and
dignity, where he blankly murder for the sake of his safety. ‘I am in blood stepped so far, that
should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er’. The metaphor of the ‘sea of blood’
states that Macbeth was conscious about his brutal killing, but he decided to go on as he
realised he will never go back to the state of being respected, being clean and free of guilt. He
had lost his hope, as confessing his murder would be ‘tedious’, which made him a merciless and
cold butcher. ‘Something wicked this way comes’.The mentioning of witches emphasizes
Macbeth’s evilness from a supernatural view. Witches, representations of natural evilness,
