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The Tragedy of Macbeth is one of Shakespeare s greatest works, and is a # chilling ghost story, and a psychological thriller. Macbeth, who is the main character begins as a noble, good-natured person, but falls prey to the will of the three witches who predict his fate. # The waning of Macbeth s conscience gives rise to his immoral behaviors and becomes the cause of his ultimate undoing. The play opens up with the three witches prophesying to Macbeth that he will become Thane of Cawdor and then King of Scotland, which is just the start of Macbeth's greed. Consequently, as a result of his courageous actions in battle, King Duncan gives him the title of Thane or Cawdor, verifying the first prediction of the witches. This increases his greed and makes him want a position more then just Thane of Cawdor. He believes that since the first prophesy came true that the prophesy of him becoming king will also be fulfilled.
He realizes that the only way for him to become King is to have King Duncan murdered. Then coming to grips with himself, he realizes that having King Duncan killed is an outrageous idea and is astounded that he could have even thought of such a thing. Being the honorable man that he is, he decides to just let # fate takes its course, and if he is meant to be king, it will happen. However this idea did not last long. When Lady Macbeth his wife and # dearest partner in greatness hears of this prophecy, she is even more excited by the idea of killing King Duncan so that Macbeth can rise to power and she can become queen. It is she who pushes in Macbeth, persuading and influencing him to murder King Duncan.
Macbeth agrees with his wife and gives her the permission to go ahead with the plan to kill Duncan. Macbeth s conscience, makes the thought of killing the King unbearable, for Macbeth is a good man at heart and always sees the good side of people. He knew in his heart that Duncan was nothing but an admirable and modest king. He told his wife # We will proceed no further in this business. The strong-willed women Lady Macbeth does not listen to what she considers the nonsense that her husband is telling her.
She attacks his # manliness and calls him a fearful coward, in sharp contrast to the brave warrior that he believes himself to be. The reader realizes that Macbeth is not afraid of killing someone due to the many people that he has killed in battle, but this, his conscience reminds him, is an innocent man who has his respect, and he is now going to murder him for his own selfish ambition. Macbeth to listen to his conscience and stand up to his wife and tell her that he shall not go on with the plain. Lady MacBeth is a lot more self-assured then her husband and guarantees him that they will not fail. Lady Macbeth is very overpowering to the extent that Macbeth can no longer hear and listen to his conscience, ignores it completely, and it was the one thing that was telling what was right and wrong.
He now only focuses on the goal, to become King. In the end she sways him to believe that, for him to be King the plan to kill King must go on. When Macbeth gives permission to proceed with the plan to kill King Duncan, it is as though he is selling his soul, he no longer has control over anything and his conscience begins to wane. After he takes power and becomes king it brings nothing but misery. It weighs on his conscience continually and he cannot bare the thought of what he has done to accomplish his goals. # For he is riddled with guilt over the murder and fearful of being discovered. Macbeth begins to worry that Banquo, who was a good and close friend, suspects something.
Macbeth fears that his deadly secret will be revealed, so he plans the murder of Banquo. These two murders are now on MacBeth s conscience and are more then he can bare. At the banquet he starts to hallucinate and thinks he sees the ghost of Banquo sitting at his table in his seat. Not being able to control himself he starts to go crazy and shouts out # Thou canst say I did it. With that being said he admits to everyone that he is the one who had King Duncan killed.
He begins to lose control of his sanity and of reality because he ignores his conscience. Macbeth then contains himself and once again seeks the witches. They proceed to tell him his fate. They say # you will be harmed by no man born of women, and will not be vanquished until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane.
MacBeth takes this as a good sign, but his sanity is leaving him, and he is now completely paranoid. Macduff, who was very suspicious of the role that Macbeth played in the killing of King Duncan from the beginning, fled to England after Macbeth had is outburst at the banquet. He goes there to encourage Malcolm to go back to Scotland to gain the crown that is rightly his. When Macbeth hears of this plot he immediately goes mad and has all of Macduff s family killed. Macduff promised that when he returns he will personally get revenge and kill Macbeth. Macduff gets Malcom, and about 10, 000 other Englishmen to return to Scotland to overthrow Macbeth.
They attack the Scottish loyalties and easily take back power, and promise that Macduff made to Macbeth comes true when Macduff # beheads Macbeth in revenge for the murder of his family. Macbeth s own greed for power, that was largely influenced by his wife s greed, brought him to kill King Duncan to gain the power of the throne. This was something that he thought would give him much satisfaction in life. In reality all it did was lead to continues murder to protect and save himself from being discovered. But # Macbeth had much trouble distinguishing between truth and appearances, and his confusion lead to his fear and his death.
Free research essays on topics related to: lady macbeth, plan to kill, macbeth conscience, thane of cawdor, kill king duncan
Research essay sample on Kill King Duncan Plan To Kill
