Macbeth

Shelly Moy

AP LIT 4th hour

Shakespeare draws an amazing psychological portrait of a man who became a villain by means of ambition, desire and an imbalance of good and evil. "Macbeth" is a play composed of the disintegration of a noble man's world. The play begins by offering the audience Macbeth, a war hero, with a high regard from Duncan, the king of Scotland. By the end of the play Macbeth transforms into a universally despised man without a place in the social community. Shakespeare draws an amazing face of a man made to be a villain by ambition, desire and an imbalance of good and evil.

Macbeth, unhappy and unsatisfied with his social position, caused his feelings to snowball into the ambition that led him to the murder of Duncan.

"I have no spur

To prick the sides of my intent, but only

Vaulting ambition, which O'erleaps itself

And falls on th'other" (Act 1 sc. 7 pg 41)

By using an aside, Shakespeare allows Macbeth to reveal his ambitions. And uses Macbeth's ambition to create irony, in that his ambition was what brought him to power, yet it also leads him to his tragic downfall. Ambition is what allowed Macbeth to become more powerful, and helps him to overcome obstacles and come closer to his final goals. It is this ambition that is the direct cause of the tragic incident of Duncan's death.

The encounter with the three witches summons Macbeth's innermost imaginative desires, eventually pointing him in the direction of Duncan's murder.

"Art thou not fatal vision, sensible

To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but

A dagger of the mind, a false creation

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?" (Act 2 sc. 1 pg 53)

Here Macbeth's imagination precedes his rational thought, he is stolen in the grip of his fantastical imagination. It is as if the dagger is actually pulling him towards his desires to murder Duncan, rather than being persuaded by an actual inner passion for that motive. Shakespeare uses this scene to demonstrate to the audience that Macbeth's conscious act of knowing that his desires are immoral and still acting upon them proves him quite the villain. This symbolism brings the audience to savor the play's hidden meanings and also allows for leeway in the interpretation of the plot.

Macbeth's inability to balance the forces of good and evil cause him to reach an insecure state of mind, causing him to make many malicious decisions.