Influence Of Prophecies In Macbeth

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It only took three tempting prophecies, three weird witches, one ambitious thought, and one murderous deed to change the destiny of one character’s life forever. The play, Macbeth, follows Macbeth, an honorable and high ranking person who is influenced by three witches and their three enthralling prophecies that grant him noble titles. After Macbeth is deemed Thane of Cawdor, he is influenced by his wife, Lady Macbeth, who wanted power, to kill King Duncan and achieves the second prophecy of being king. While Lady Macbeth is contempt with her new position, Macbeth fears the security of his throne and orders murderers to kill Banquo and the family of Macduff. In the end, Macbeth becomes a corrupt tyrant and dies at the hands of Macduff, Malcolm, …show more content…
After the murder in Act 2, Lady Macbeth still felt innocent and pure when she states, “My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white.” (2.2.82-83) She also made it seem like it was easy to hide the deed they had committed by simply saying, “A little water clears us of this deed.” (2.2.86) What she did not know was that what goes around, comes around, which makes those lines in Act 2, her fatal flaw because she thought she can just toss aside the deed simply and still be innocent and pure. In Act 5, however, Lady Macbeth’s character is evidently weak for readers. Her weak character is shown in 5.1.33, which states, “Yet here’s a spot,” (5.1.33) and in 5.1.53-55, which states, “Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. O,O,O!” (5.1.53-55) By saying these lines during her sleepwalking, which recounted all of the events of the night of the murder in Act 2, Lady Macbeth says nothing will make her hands clean and pure again and she will always be haunted by the smell and stains of blood on her hand, which shows she is scared and weak and how her character went from powerful to weak. This contrasts with Lady Macbeth’s supposed innocent and pure attitude and character in Act 2, which made the murder seem so simple to get rid of but, now it is haunting her and she feels guilty and that she will never be pure again. The contrasts in characteristics in these two acts and scenes shows how drastically Lady Macbeth’s character changed and developed from feeling innocent, pure, and powerful in the beginning ,to guilty, impure, and weak by the

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