Macbeth Essay -- essays research papers

Macbeth is an epic tragedy inspiring pity and remorse because the hero, though flawed, is also shown to be human. The play portrays a journey of self-discovery and awareness as both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth pass from happiness to misery. Their punishment is well deserved but the retributive price is enormous.Evil, both internal and external corrupts their minds, distorting their positive traits and exaggerating their worst. Both line of descent victim to vaulting ambition, pride and greed, tempting them to acts of treason and betrayal of friends, kinsman and the nation itself. Warfare on the battlefield mirrors the metaphorical warfare being vie out between the forces of good and evil within them.Spurred by ambition, supernatural solicitation and by the taunting of his wife, Macbeth deliberately chooses to embark on what he knows to be an evil course. From the moment he listens with rapt attention to the witches, he allows himself to be drawn further and further into a vision of h ell. The audience accompanies him into a slop of nightmares, ghosts, bloody visions and false prophecies. Abnormal conditions of mind such as insanity, sleep walking and hallucinations demonstrate his chaste and emotional decline.We are given insight into their feelings of agitation, anxiety, fear, goal and regret which minimises the horror of the murder. Macbeths soliloquies voice his inner thoughts, making him an object of pity as well as a fascinating portrait of evil. A psychological change takes place as we witness the valiant general become a ruthless murderer. Although conscious of this evil transformation, he cannot resist the process. aspiration has become a powerful drug, usurping his reason and will as he lurches towards personal disaster. Brutality hardens him and his misrule brings suffering and chaos to Scotland. MacbethMacbeth exhibits many of the traditional attributes of a tragic hero. Courage, determination, intelligence and moral awareness are clearly evident in his actions in the early scenes. His reputation is high and he holds a noble, naughty position of power and influence. He is introduced as a courageous general, worthy of respect and honour, brave, valiant, noble, imaginative, kind, ambitious, loving and artless. Brave Macbethwell he deserves that name. He is ambitious for human race acclaim, recognition and wants to appear great and adm... ...cating Macbeth with his first words "So foul and fair a day I have not seen". His actions unsettle the moral and natural order, consequently his authority is repudiated and overthrown. Macbeths usurpation is not rewarded "upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, / And put a barren sceptre in my scream" (III.i.60), he committed an unnatural act. Lady Macbeths precipitation of these actions is punished accordingly, ironically after the murder of Duncan she suggests that "These deeds must not be thought / subsequently these ways so, it will make us mad" (II.ii.3 3). The entire mood of the play is effected by the disruption of nature. Repeated images of darkness, blood, and violence contribute to this nuanceThe vision of the dagger, the murder of Duncan, the murder of Banquo, the sleep-walking of Lady Macbeth, all occur in the darkness of night and evoke for Macbeth a feeling of fear and horror . over again the dramatic verse intertwines the language and themes. The theme of transformation was apparent in Macbeth, the hero esteemed by his peers, however through his desire for power he transformed into a man obsessed with his desires, his tragedy was his downfall