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The book Macbeth is a story of great tragedy. Macbeth's whole life is based on his ambition to proceed his life further, even if it is at the expense of others. It is this ambition that drives Macbeth to kill Duncan and all others that oppose him the right to his crown. However Macbeth's great ambition turns him into a vicious moral coward. Macbeth faces his worst nightmare, meeting his fatal flaw face to face the witches.
The witches know exactly how to play Macbeth. By telling him that one day he will be king, his ambition will drive him to achieve that goal as soon as possible. For example, when Macbeth hears he will be king, his first thought is to kill Duncan. However, as he thinks this out logically, he realizes that If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me (Act I, Sc. III, Line 157). Macbeth seems to have a lot of control over his own ambition.
That is, until Duncan's Son Malcolm is crowned Prince of Cumberland. Macbeth has now lost total control over his ambition and decides that the death of Duncan must occur, he says: The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step On which I must fall down or else overlap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my back and deep desires. The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be Which the eye fears, when it is done to see. (Act I, Sc. IV, Line 55) Macbeth leaves and prepares his household for the arrival of Duncan and others.
When it came time to kill Duncan, again his morals caught up with him and he decided not to kill Duncan, and it was Lady Macbeth that pushed Macbeth to do the job by calling him a coward. Macbeth still has a conscience, which makes him feel bad for what he is going to do. Hence the dagger soliloquy Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see the still. 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 II, Sc. I, Line 44) Once Duncan has passed away and Macbeth is crowned king, Macbeth no longer has a soul. He becomes destined to remain king, at all costs. He kills Banquo (his friend) in fear of the we+rd sisters prophecy that Banquo will father kings. When Macbeth visits the we+rd sisters, he again falls for their carefully laid trap. They tell him stories that will come in the future.
They tell him what he wants to hear, and nothing more. For example, when they tell him he can not be kill by a woman born man, they werent lying. Macbeth is later killed by MacDuff, who was not born of a woman, his mother had a C-section to remove the baby MacDuff. Macbeth's fatal flaw is that he is far too ambitious for own good. He believes that nothing can defeat once he has reached his goal. His ambition is so strong that it totally crushed his moral fiber.
By the end of the play, he no longer cared about anything, not even the death of his beloved wife.
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Research essay sample on Act I Sc Prince Of Cumberland