Cody Banaszak Essay

Dakota Banaszak

Mrs. Wood

English 11A - 1st Hour

21 February 2016

Although introduced as an innocent and strong hero, Macbeth allows himself to become vulnerable to Lady Macbeth’s manipulation and his own fears of what is to come in the near future as foretold by the three weird sisters.  Macbeth is initially represented as an honorable, strong, brave and trustworthy warrior and the Thane of Glamis, but we very quickly see the role Lady Macbeth is going to have in this play.  Lady Macbeth is able to almost dictate everything that Macbeth does, “My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white”, this is Lady Macbeth talking to Macbeth, she means on the outside they might be the same, but she is telling him that she cannot go about life like he “Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters. To beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue; look like th' innocent  flower, But be the serpent under't.”  - Lady Macbeth to Macbeth, she’s telling Macbeth that he needs to almost be “fake” on the outside, show no fear, show no guilt, this is her manipulating him and taking advantage of him when he is his weakest, because she believes he vision is what’s best for the both of them. might, she wants him to kill the king, she is willing to do the worst to get him the throne.  

One of the reasons all of this is happening is because Macbeth was visited by the three weird sisters who told him he would be The Thane of Cawdor but they did not tell him how he would achieve that status.   “We are yet but young in deed.”  -  Macbeth’s innocence shines through here, “young” meaning the are new to what they have done , but also “young” meaning they have a very long road ahead of them, that with the deed they have performed, it will not be easy at all to move on and complete the vision Lady Macbeth has in store for the both of them.  “With all great neptune’s ocean wash this blood from my hand? No: this is my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red.”  - His guilt shines through in this passage, he knows that he has done a wrong deed but there is nothing he can do now to go back on it, he is forced to live knowing he killed the king because he allowed his wife’s manipulation and influence to get the best of him.

This is where we finally start to see the results of what has happened thus far into the play.   The castle of Macduff I will surprise”, Macbeth is told that Macduff has fled and is planning an attack, Macbeth becomes scared and panics and orders the execution of Lady Macduff and her child.  “I have almost forgot the taste of fears.” - Macbeth is not who he once was, we finally see that here, the tone of which he uses now is that of almost no regret, he is not afraid of anything at this point, not even his own inevitable death.   

At this point Lady Macbeth has died and Macbeth has come to accept his inevitable death. “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time; and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the  way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”  Macbeth sees death as a release from life’s sufferings and he is finally expressing his feelings at this point in the play, we finally see the true Macbeth for what he has become.