Redeemable Qualities In Macbeth

Macbeth, of Shakespeare’s play by the same name, is not a redeemable character. For Macbeth to be redeemable there would need to be enough positive attributes of his personality to offset his power hunger and bloodthirst. At the outset of the play, Macbeth has redeemable qualities, and because of these it would be possible for people to believe he could be saved, but by the end he has lost all hope of being redeemed. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is described as “noble” after he heroically wins the battle. His brave, although extremely violent, heroic acts are praised by King Duncan. At this point in the play Macbeth is still fighting for his King and not his own selfish reasons. His acts of courage and bravery from Act 1 Scene 1 to …show more content…
He talks about his loyalty and duties toward King Duncan. He says that he know how bad regicide is and the impact that is would undeniably have on his life. Further into this scene he officially alerts Lady Macbeth that he does not plan to go ahead with the murder. He tells her that killing King Duncan would take away part of his humanity, a prophecy which certainly comes true. On the contrary, the fall of Macbeth’s redeemability begins when Lady Macbeth pressures him to go through with the murder (Emily McNellis). His shortcoming is allowing himself to be so easily persuaded by her. He cannot stand up to her and she makes the choice of regicide for him. This, however, is not the first example of how easily Macbeth is influenced. This has been occurring since the very beginning of the play, for example, when Macbeth met the witches for the first time (Tom Vicenzi). His ambition blinds him from seeing the destructive path he has set out on, ruling as a tyrant rather than a king. His easily impressionable nature causes him to not form his own thoughts, but instead listen to the words of Lady Macbeth and the witches and apparitions. These tragic flaws go on to play a major role in Macbeth’s demise. Macbeth officially proves that he has no redeeming qualities when he kills Macduff’s family, a ruthless and unnecessary murder of a mother and her …show more content…
The first was before he had committed any murders. He had a second chance after Duncan had been murdered, but before he killed the watchmen. His chances continue as before each murder he could stop and end his killing spree permanently, but he chooses not to, showing that Macbeth is not redeemable. Furthermore, Macbeth is fully aware that he has taken steps that ensure he cannot be redeemed. “I am in blood stepp’d in so far, that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er” (Shakespeare