Sydney DeAnda Rough Draft

Macbeth’s character changed throughout the play because he is weak, kind and actually cares about those around him in the beginning. After each event happened to him, he slowly became less and less caring and more and more heartless. He would not have made this downhill transformation without the words of others and some events, he would have been too cowardly to act upon hearing he is destined to become king. I imagine that without the pressures of others, he would have let the prophecies work themselves out. Although, Macbeth starts the play as a seemingly loyal and kind-hearted man, he is soon destroyed by greed through what others say, the events that happen to him, and his own wants which force him to change into a ruthless man.

In the beginning, of the play Macbeth proves to start the play as a kind-hearted man through many things. Lady Macbeth even doubted his evil abilities and his ability to hurt anyone when she said, "Yet I do fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness, To catch the nearest way." i. v. 14-16. And Macbeth is loyal to the King in the beginning, the thought of harming the king in any way seems crazy to him. All of the other people of the kingdom thought he was a good man too, especially the king who stated,  “Go … and tell Macbeth that Cawdor’s titles will be given to him”. i. ii. 63-65. So it is shown that Macbeth did not always possess the power to do the horrible things he does throughout the play.

Throughout the play, Macbeth seems to become more and more evil. I think an influence on him was all of the things other said to him. Especially Lady Macbeth who was constantly telling him how big of a coward he was and I think he felt as if he needed to prove he wasn’t a coward. An example of Lady Macbeth ridiculing Macbeth is when she stated,

“Was the hope drunk / Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since? / And wakes it now, to look so green and pale / At what it did so freely? From this time / Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard / To be the same in thine own act and valor / As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life, / And live a coward in thine own esteem, / Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would, ” i. 7. 36-44.

Next she goes on to continually degrade him while talking about his good qualities in a way to make them seem like they’re flaws by saying,

“Art not without ambition, but without / The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly, / That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, / And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou'ld’st have, great Glamis, / That which cries, “Thus thou must do,” if thou have it, / And that which rather thou dost fear to do, / Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither, / That I may pour my spirits in thine ear / And chastise with the valor of my tongue / All that impedes thee from the golden round, / Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem / To have thee crowned withal. i. v. 3-20.

Without the influence of Lady Macbeth and other characters close to him, Macbeth would be less evil that he turned out to be, he would have never seen any flaws in his kindness and loyalty.

Throughout the play, Macbeth is heavily affected by the events that happen to and around him. After the witches say their prophecy to him, “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” i. iii. 57. Macbeth gets the idea of being king in his mind and kills the King, who was an important person in his life, then he murders Banquo who was his best friend, which proves loyalty means less and less to him as the story goes on and that he will kill anyone who gets in the way of him becoming and remaining king. Towards the end of the play, the witches recite another prophecy to Macbeth about his future, saying, “Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn / The power of man, for none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth”. i. iv. 81-83. He now becomes confident after hearing this and thinks he is invincible so this event has changed his outlook. The power of greed and the greed of power are now beginning to control him.

Towards the end of the play, and even someone in the beginning after he gets the idea of killing the king in his mind, Macbeth starts to make evil decisions and has evil thoughts on his own. “Stars hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires” i. iv. 52-53, which was talking about hiding his wants of killing the king from the light and everyone else. He does not want the rest of the kingdom to know he has thoughts of murdering or they would think less of him. Soon after killing the king Macbeth is realizing he is becoming evil. He tells Lady Macbeth of this, “O, full of scorpions is my mind dear wife” iii. ii. 36. He now knows that his mind is poisoned because he is having thoughts of doing horrible things without the influence of others. Instead of gaining power to make his wife happy, he wants to gain power because he has become filled with greed.

Macbeth finds himself progressively getting more and more evil, having evil desires without the influence of others of events. Macbeth began the play as a full-hearted man and he ends the play as a power-hungry monster. I think that without the input of others, especially Lady Macbeth, and the event of his prophecies, Macbeth would have remained a loyal servant to the king, and maybe the prophecies would have happened on their own with time and patience. I believe that Macbeth would not have become an evil murderer on his own, without the prodding of his diabolical wife. Throughout the play. Macbeth transforms from a caring, loyal, kind-hearted man, to an evil, ruthless murderer. I don’t think Macbeth would have ever been satisfied with the amount of power he had because in the end, his greed for it was the only thing that mattered to him.

“I will not yield, / To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet, / And to be baited with the rabble’s curse. / Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane, / And thou opposed, being of no woman born, / Yet I will try the last. Before my body / I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, / And damned be him that first cries, “Hold, enough!’” v. viii. 28-34