Discussion of Macbeth as a Leader and his Fall into Evil
Uploaded by JayJay on Dec 21, 2004 |
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MACBETH
By William Shakespeare
"Macbeth is a man born to leadership but unfortunately influenced and destroyed by evil forces.” Discuss
Macbeth, one of Shakespeare's timeless classics and most famous tragedies is the story of a virtuous man, corrupted by power and greed. Macbeth is the tragic hero who is led down an unescapable road of doom by outside forces. In this case there are several influences or forces including his own wife, Lady Macbeth, the three witches, and his conscience, which continually eat at him, portraying illusions and performing mind games which send him to the point of insanity. He had no choice but to follow his wife's wishes, the word of the witches and his curiosity, which in turn play on his guilty conscience. Macbeth is a tragic tale of the corruption and downfall of a leader, whose thirst for greed and power, as well as assistance from outside influences, cause his world to come tumbling down around him.
Macbeth was a man born to leadership. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth had everything he could want. He had a noble and very honourable position, and this was further promoted with the reward of his new rank as the Thane of Cawdor. He also had the recognition from King Duncan as being a brave and heroic soldier, addressing him as "My worthiest Cawdor" (Act I, Scene IV, line 55). Macbeth had the full support of his faithful wife, Lady Macbeth, who was encouraging of his every move and supported his actions. Macbeth also had the support of his fellow soldiers, and the township he lived amongst, due to his known bravery and good deeds, and he could have lived a very happy and prosperous lifestyle. But the story takes its first twist with the introduction of one of the evil forces, presented when Macbeth and Banquo had just won the battle. Macbeth could sense a surrounding evil. The witches appear and they greet Macbeth: "All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!" "All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter!" (Act I, Scene III, lines 51-53). Macbeth is startled by their prophecies, and he has no knowledge at this point that he is going to be made Thane of Cawdor, or even more so, that he might become King. With his change from being simply the Thane of Glamis to his elevation and becoming the Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth found that he enjoyed the boost of power. As well, with the support of the fact that the first prophecy had come true, Macbeth contemplates how he can instigate his next prophecy of becoming King. This was the beginning of the end for Macbeth. Essentially, just as his life starts improving and he begins to get a good reputation for himself, his appetite and greed for more power, sends his whole life into turmoil. His desire for power becomes too much and it threw his life into dire trouble, causing all his priorities to become mixed, and making him go crazy.
After Macbeth's desires to become King had been stirred by the three witches, his wife, Lady Macbeth, contemplates how she is going to convince her husband to commit the act of murdering Duncan. Using her feminine persuasion and the temptations of the rewards of power and wealth, as well as the support from the prophecies, the evil forces take control and send Macbeth into a state of madness confusing his priorities and making his judgement impaired. In order for Macbeth to safeguard his existence as King, he had to kill or destroy any single threats that stood between him and his success as a leader. Initially, his first obstacle was killing Duncan, to acquire the crown, which with the assistance of his faithful wife's premeditation and planning, his dream became a reality, hence fulfilling the second prophecy. But from this moment onwards, Macbeth's sanity begins to disintegrate, and he goes mad, seeing visions of dead people, and objects, and hearing voices, which lead him to insanity. The first vision was of the dagger. "Is this a dagger, which I see before me, The handle toward my hand?" (Act II, Scene I, lines 41-42). The second series of murders were to cover up any evidence that linked the atrocities to Macbeth or his wife, and they were committed upon the guards, which shifted the blame onto someone else. And then death also came to Banquo who could prove to be a hindrance in Macbeth's path to the crown, as he was a witness to the three prophecies that the witches enlightened Macbeth of. In this way, Macbeth would have stopped at nothing to get what he wanted, and this was obvious through his actions. Macbeth's greed and hunger for power, impaired his visions of what was right and just, and lets him only see what could increase his own assets. As well, Macbeth tries to prevent the prophecy, which will see the end of his reign as King, and he doesn't consider what was really meant by the witches' words in that prophecies. However, Macbeth was never entirely driven himself, instead influenced by evil forces. Three forces brought on Macbeth's downfall; one was his own inner ambition, the other was the external force of his wife's goal of seeing him become King, and the third was the supernatural forces of the witches. All three of these evil forces contributed to the scheming and maliciousness of his take over to become King Macbeth.
Macbeth is the story of a man's bloody rise to power and the troubles he encounters in gaining and maintaining the crown. The first we hear of Macbeth is with praises to his name. He is called "brave Macbeth", "valiant cousin" and "worthy gentleman," fighting a war for his God, his King and his country. Macbeth is a brave and noble soldier, a true leader. When Macbeth's hunger to retain the crown, as well as other outside influences on his life start taking effect, his dreams and aspirations of being King and successfully ruling are destroyed, causing his whole life comes tumbling down around him. The tragic downfall of Macbeth was not determined by one single cause. It was caused by a combination of forces, supernatural, external, and internal. The supernatural forces are represented by the three witches and the magic powers or black magic they possess. Lady Macbeth is the outside force that pushes Macbeth towards performing the ghastly deeds. Macbeth's own ambition acts as the deciding power in bringing him to his downfall. The fatal combination of the three forces produced the tragic result, and brings Shakespeare's masterpiece to a conclusion. |
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