Mrs. Dean
English
January 12, 2017
Macbeth
Throughout the play Macbeth written by William Shakespeare, Macbeth shows himself to be a man of many sides. Lord Macbeth shows three character traits –bravery, ambition, and self-doubt – during the play. Lord Macbeth is an example of the terrible effects ambition and guilt can have on a man who lacks strength of character. Although some people may make out Lord Macbeth as an evil person, his weak character shows that he is not strong enough to conquer guilt and self-doubt. Great warrior though Lord Macbeth is, he is badly equipped for the mental consequences of crime. He is terribly manipulated by his wife, Lady Macbeth during the beginning of the play. She overshadowed him, but eventually …show more content…
Lord Macbeth’s wife’s influence on him in the beginning is completely outrageous in the beginning. When Lady Macbeth is talking to him, although he is plagued by worry and almost doesn’t commit the crime, Lady Macbeth, with her strong sense of purpose, pushes him into the deed. Lady Macbeth threatens his manhood by saying, “When you durst do it, then you were a man; and to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man” (1.7.50-51) Lady Macbeth makes him feel like he is not good enough and he is not a real man since he won’t do what she is asking of him to do. Lady Macbeth uses this plan of manipulation to get him to do what she wants him to do because she knows Lord Macbeth will do it because he will do anything to show that he is the greatest man there ever was and he isn’t afraid to do anything. But slowly throughout the play, Lady Macbeth loses her control over Lord Macbeth. She gets consumed in guilt and Lord Macbeth doesn’t have as much guilt about their murders and dirty deeds as Lady Macbeth does. She feels so bad that she ends up killing herself. Lord Macbeth on the other hand, gets killed the hard …show more content…
He does feel bad about his deeds in the beginning but going through the play, he starts to not care and Lord Macbeth becomes power hungry. Lord Macbeth won’t stop until he gets the throne. In Macbeth, ambition is presented as a dangerous quality. Ambition is a quality Lord Macbeth completely has. Lord Macbeth’s ambition causes his downfall, his ambition is driven by a number of factors. Prophecy is one ambition Lord Macbeth has in the play, the witches tell Lord Macbeth he is going to become king and he believes them. Ambition has a series of consequences in Macbeth, Lord Macbeth is a slain tyrant and Lady Macbeth commits suicide. Shakespeare does not give either character time to enjoy what they both have “achieved” possibly because Shakespeare is saying it is more important to achieve goals fairly rather than doing it through cheating and