Ray Ivens Essay

Ray Ivens

19 February 2015

5th Block

Macbeth Characterization Essay

       I think that Macbeth in the beginning of this book was a very noble, brave , and loyal person who wants to be king sometime in the future. But then lady Macbeth manipulated and corrupted him to kill the king because the witches told him that he will be king in the future. During the book he gradually got more and more evil, He even killed his best friend just because the witches told him that he will be king and his kids will be king too. He fits into the tragic hero figure because he was a great hero before he got corrupted by lady Macbeth. Although macbeth was a great heroic brave leader, he got corrupted just because of greed and trying to be king he did unspeakable and very evil things just for his own sake.

In the beginning of the play Macbeth was a brave, fierce, noble leader. He was a very well known soldier. For example, in 1:2 16-18 “For brave Macbeth, well he deserves that name, Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel. This shows that they really respected him. Another example is 1:3 128-142. This is when Macbeth is actually well minded and not planning anything.

Around the 2nd Act Lady Macbeth tries to make Macbeth kill the king Duncan because the witches have said that Macbeth's kids will be king so he needs to be king. He gets corrupted and his thoughts generally keep going darker and darker. For example, 1:5 13-38 he says that the 3 weird witches told me what my future is and I should do what it takes to make it come true. He does a lot of unspeakable things to the people that was in his life, for example, in 3:1 1-10 Banquo says that he is worried that Macbeth is getting corrupted and not feeling the same as he was before he was king and he thinks that he killed the king. Macbeth tells his servant to kill Banquo and his sons so that they can not be king one day but one gets away.  

Macbeth was once a loyal, brave, and heroic leader and was very loyal to the king. But when the three witches told Macbeth about his future it corrupted him and his mind to do unspeakable things. He did these things for his own greed and for power. He should've just waited until Duncan had died some other way to be king and not have killed him.  If you are in a situation for an opportunity for more money or power you should ask yourself how far you would go to get that money or power.