Macbeth’s character Essay

It is a moderately assess ment of Macbeths character to key him zero point barely a beastly and remorseless villain?In Shakespeares Macbeth, Macbeth is a very analyzable character dis fulfill umpteen different traits in his many appearances throughout the cinch. The story starts aft(prenominal) a battle Macbeth then meets three witches who foresee that he go a vogue become force of Scotland. These witches knew all about(predicate) Macbeths bleak flaw, his greed for part. This fatal flaw, as a typical tragic hero was the puzzle of his downfall. T here is no doubt that throughout the work Macbeth is a brutal and merciless villain, al cardinal it is surely questionable to say that they are his only qualities forrader Macbeth is dismantle introduced to the audience, we are already told of his capacity for heinousness. The maitre d describes Macbeths actions to the queen when he says, Like politesses minion, carved out his passage / trough he faced the slave. The captain goes on to say, Which neer shook men, nor disadvantageouslye fare salubrious to him, / bank he unseamed him from nave to chaps.This statement alike shows the brutality and barbarity of Macbeths character very well as he did non skillful halt this mans life in an venerable and quick way, but instead sliced him all the way from his project to his jaw. Macbeth is also obviously very highly regarded among his colleagues and therefore enemies as macrocosm two brutal and stand, as the captain again says to Malcolm, For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name), masking that others thought of him as a very brave man. There is a lot of irony in this point as at this point in the play, Macbeth is being very highly regarded as being brave and ruthless, whereas later on these same qualities go forth lose him all his respect.As the play unfolds Macbeth finds it increasingly easy to kill unobjectionable people, which shows all the way the pitilessness and the bruta lity of his character. The first person that Macbeth kills in the play is King Duncan. Shakespeares audience would consider taken this particular byensive of regicide very seriously as they believed in divine right, that the king was chosen from divinity and any hotshot who overlyk that power away was defying God and it was the ultimate wrong. King James would have been very pleased at this element of the play, as it showed that any person who connected regicide suffered corkingly as a consequence of it. withal the feature that Macbeth bump offed a King turn he was sleeping and was utterly defenceless would have been seen as being very dishonourable.The most innocent of all of Macbeths victims of his barbarity is doll Macduff and her son. Macbeths other victims are all directly mental block his path to supreme power and so one could argue that they were necessary, but Lady Macduff and her family are just a precaution that Macbeth took to try and get to Macduff. . In th e scene where Lady Macduff and her son are killed, the white of the child is emphasised in his language and the questions that he asks his mother. When his mother questions how he will live aft(prenominal) his fathers death he replies, As birds do, mother, clearly demo his naivety and vulnerability. This further enhances the barbarity, as Macbeths victims were so unaware of Macduffs business and also Macbeth was non even honourable enough to do the deed himself.Although Macbeth is unaware of his fatal flaw, he still ack immediatelyledges that he is becoming often and more ruthless as the story progresses. He uses a metaphor of ariver of blood to clearly show how he feels inside. Macbeth saysI am in bloodStepped in so far, that, should I walk no more,Returning were as tedious as go oer.By using this metaphor, Macbeth is maxim that he has killed so many people now that it would be easier to carry on being ruthless and barbaric then to go back and repent. Macbeth is here admitt ing that he has done wrong and thinks of himself as a lost cause that has no hope of doing right ever again. Macbeth also says, We are yet but young in deed, suggesting that Macbeth sees the deeds he has committed so far as dispirited in comparison to the deeds that he will commit in the future. Finally in figure out Five Macbeth says that he has forgotten the taste of care, showing that because of the witches telling him that no man born of a woman can harm him, he does not fear anything anymore.The character that was the driving force rear all his wrong doings starting from the murder of King Duncan was Macbeths married woman, Lady Macbeth. Therefore one would imagine that when she died, Macbeth would be devastated, but in naturalism when she does die Macbeth shows no remorse at all. When Seyton informs Macbeth that his wife is dead, all Macbeth can say isShe should have died hereinafterThere would have been a time for much(prenominal) a word Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and to morrow.In this Shakespeare is trying to emphasis just how much Macbeth has changed throughout the book, from sacking from a loving husband to not even caring about the death of his wife. It is almost as if Macbeth at this point is incapable of human emotions anymore, wish well he has turned into the beasts that first gave him these apparitions.Macbeth is an extreme arrogant ruler of Scotland and chooses to rule with fear rather than opinion out of respect. When Malcolm and Macduff are describing Macbeths rule, they use incarnation to emphasise the amount of damage that Macbeth is doing to Scotland. Macduff says, Bleed, bleed, poor country, / abundant tyranny. Lay thou thy basis sure. This makes Scotlands paltry seem human and the use of personification enhances the bad spots that the reader has for Macbeth and also the feelings that Scotland is a victim is enhanced.Macbeths brutality and ruthlessness leads to him being very minuscule of loyal followers as they all scorn of his tyrannical ruling methods. The few that do perch do so only out of fear of what Macbeth would do if they did not obey him. When Rosse and the courier remonstrate with Lady Macduff that Macbeths murderers are on the way to kill them, Rosse says, I am so much a fool, should I stay weeklong and the messenger says, I dare abide no longer. These two statements clearly show the fear that these men have for their lives in disobeying Macbeth. The fact that even Macbeths own men fear him enhances the plague feeling that the reader has for Macbeth.Shakespeare strengthens the image that Macbeth is a ruthless villain by the opinions that others have for him. In Acts 4 and 5, the English leaders refer to Macbeth as a fuckup, a hell-hound and an abhorred tyrant. This shows the disrespect that the neighbouring countries felt for Macbeths reign. Shakespeare also uses pathetic phantasm to emphasise the evilness of Macbeths crimes, when the porter says, This place is too cold for hell. Il l devil-porter it / no further, this is quite an extreme statement showing that Macbeths castle is even worse than hell,indicating evil and wrong doing is present in some way. every last(predicate) this imagery is use by Shakespeare to further total to the evil feelings that the reader has for Macbeths crimes against the King.It can withal be argued that Macbeth has certainly not been a brutal and ruthless villain all throughout the play. originally we even meet Macbeth we are presented with a ascertain of him being a noble man as we are told this by the king when he describes Macbeth as a valiant cousin and a meritable gentleman The captain also says brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name. These two accounts of Macbeth clearly show both the Captain and the Kings respect for Macbeth. Shakespeare builds up Macbeth like this so that when he does fall, it will be so much extensiveer.Macbeths first major crime is the murder of King Duncan. Although this in itself could by al l odds be seen as brutal and ruthless, Macbeth did show a lot of anxiety about performing the crime before and he did show a great deal of regret after the deed. Macbeth hears knocking after he has murdered Duncan and Macbeth says, Wake Duncan with thy knocking I would thou couldst, it is apparent from this that Macbeth has certainly got a conscience, as he wished that he could reverse his actions. Shakespeare also uses a metaphor of blood on Macbeths hands to emphasise his guilt when Macbeth saysWill all great Neptunes ocean wash this blood fair from my handMacbeth is experiencing the feeling that no matter what he does, he can never wash off the stain of his guilt.Macbeth is not the only one to shoot for his crimes and had it not been for Lady Macbeth it could certainly be argued that Macbeth would not have acted on any of his ideas of murder. Lady Macbeth says that Macbeth is too full o the milk of human charity, using the word too to make it endure like it was a weakness on M acbeths part, showing that she feels Macbeth is too pleasant to be committing these types of crimes. too Lady Macbeth uses all her powers of persuasion to get Macbeth to do what he wants.She questions his manhood, she uses flattery when she says, And, to be more than you what you were, you would / Be so much more the man, and she also uses excited blackmail to twist Macbeths mind. With this constant antecedent of irritation always near him, it is no interrogate that he gave in in the end. It is not impress that Macbeth eventually gave in to his wife as she is such(prenominal) a tidy and dominating character in the book Shakespeare re-enforces the idea of Lady Macbeth being powerful and evil when Lady Macbeth saysCome, you spiritsThat tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me hereThis statement makes Lady Macbeth sound like the witches and therefore enhances her evilness and fudge of Macbeth.Macbeth would not be considered ruthless and brutal had it not been for the forces of evil in the three witches. Macbeth was merely a puppet in their plan. They knew his weakness for power and used it against him. They told him exactly what he wanted to hear and that so led to the death of the king. Macbeth would have remained faithful to king and country, if the witches had not filled his head with thoughts that he could not escape. Therefore Macbeth was not the evil and villainous one, he was merely a victim of the witchs evil. The evil in the witches is emphasised by Shakespeares use of pathetic fallacy. At the beginning of the play Shakespeare says in the stage directions Thunder and lightning, using pathetic fallacy to make the witches seem even wicked and their power emphasised as it almost seems that they have control over the weather.As there is so many factors that show that Macbeth is not just merely a brutal and ruthless villain, it would be wrong to call Macbeth nothing but a villain. The very fact that Macbeth is a tragic hero is endorse in itself that Macbet h has the potential for good but is merely unmake by his fatal flaw, because tragic heros have to start with power and respect and little by little lose that throughout the play. This is summed up perfectly in Act 4 Scene 3 when Malcolm saysThis tyrant, whose fix name blisters our tongues,Was once thought honest you have loved him well.Despite all the crimes that Macbeth has committed, Malcolm is still precept that this was not always the case, showing further evidence that Macbeth is more than just a brutal and ruthless villain.