Macbeth: How To Lose Yourself In Willing For Power

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 In the play Macbeth (1623), Shakespeare focuses on the consequences of one man’s evil thrust for power. It all begins when the three ‘weird sisters’ plant an evil seed in Macbeth’s mind prophesying his reign as King of Scotland. This seed causes ‘The Thane of Cawdor’ to act on bad impulses which bring about several repercussions. Consumed by ambition and spurred on by his wife Macbeth kills King Duncan to take the throne. Shakespeare makes it clear that once Macbeth’s zeal for power has been inflamed, people around him will have to pay. In the end, Macbeth receives justice for all the monstrous, self-indulged, deceitful things he has inflicted.

Macbeth has a greedy, narcissistic personality who has a constant longing for power showing what a monster he is. Macbeth proves his wickedness when he pretends to be innocent, to find favor from King Duncan just to betray him. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are talking about their plan to deceive the King. “Beguile the time, Look like the time. Bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, Your tongue. Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under” This quote shows that for Macbeth to become king he will have to trick King Duncan, so he can gain the king’s trust then murder him. Macbeth does not do this for anybody but for himself which shows what a monster he is. He also says that he will gladly kill the king. “If assassination could trammel up the consequence, and catch With his surcease success; that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all here, But here upon this bank and shoal of time, We’d jump the life to come” This monologue where Macbeth is speaking to himself reveals that he would not think twice to kill the king if there were no consequences to follow. The phrase “upon the bank and shoal of time, We’d jump the life to come” conveys that Macbeth would even put his afterlife at risk just to become King. Macbeth’s crave for power has crossed the line where he now does not care about the people he is ruling only of himself who then has his first taste of guilt immediately after killing king Duncan.

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Macbeth has let the fame get to his head by this he does not care about the people in his kingdom, not even his wife. Macbeth seeks knowledge from the witches to tell him what his future holds, “though you untie the winds and let them fight Against churches, though the yeasty waves Confound and swallow navigation up”, is showing that as long as he knows what is going to happen to him, he does not care if they have to unleash winds that will crumble churches or destroy his kingdom, he must know his fate. This magnifies how monstrous he has become. Macbeth has now been overtaken by his fame that he does not care that his wife, whom he once loved, had died responding with “She should have died hereafter”.

Macbeth who now seems like a madman starts to kill everyone who threatens him or who he does not like proving his monstrosity. Macbeth fears everyone who he this and takes all the power away from him or people who know that he killed Duncan. After Lennox tells Macbeth that Macduff has fled, Macbeth answers by telling him everything he is going to do. “The castle of Macduff I will surprise, Seize upon Fife, give to th’ edge o’ th’ sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate should that trace him in his line” Macbeth is afraid of Macduff; this quote shows that he will destroy everything or anyone that has anything to do with Macduff because he fears that he knows of the crimes he had committed. Macbeth also fears Banquo who was once a good friend of Macbeth but now plans to murder him and his family because he sees them as a threat to his reign after the witches prophesied that Banquo will have a line of kings from his roots. Macbeth says, “I will put the business in your bosoms, whose execution takes your enemy off, Grapples you to the heart and loves of us, who wear our heard but sickly in his life, which in his death were perfect” Macbeth is scared of Banquo that he suspects Macbeth murdered Duncan and will find peace when Banquo is dead. He is also forcing other people to do his dirty work making him more of a monster. But after he learns that Banquo is murdered, he sees an apparition of Banquo during his dinner with his new subjects after becoming King. He sees a bloody Banquo at his banquet and begins ranting and all the thanes are confused as to why he is seeing Banquo as a ghost then Lady Macbeth tells the thanes to leave because Macbeth is ‘unwell’. Macbeth suffers from his own guilt and he deserves what he got.

Macbeth shows what a self-absorbed monster with an endless want for power and security will do. Macbeth killed royalty to fulfill his dream. He puts himself over his wife and kingdom. He kills anyone who poses a threat to him so nobody can come in between him and the throne. Shakespeare aimed to show that a deceitful, greedy, insecure person will always suffer for what one has done. Macbeth made choices that destroyed himself and the people around him wholly from his own ambitions, eventually paying with his life. 

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