In Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare in 1606, the text portrays power to be all consuming. This is shown through the themes of freewill vs fate, violence and tyranny and the supernatural vs natural. Macbeth follows Macbeth, who at the beginning is the protagonist, until power consumes his mind, leading him to do evil deeds and turning into the antagonist.
The supernatural play a big part in Macbeth since they are the reason in motivating Macbeth’s desire for power. When Macbeth falls upon the witches, they say, “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to you, thane of Cawdor,” (1.3.50) prophesising his fate as king. This is just the beginning of his desire for power since all the series of events that occur after this are due to his need to seize power. …show more content…
When Macbeth receives his prophecy, he thinks not much of it at first, thinking it is false until Lady Macbeth influences him. When Lady Macbeth sees that he is doubtful of becoming King and murdering Duncan, she believes it is because he is “too full of human kindness,” (1.5.5) to seize the crown. Once Lady Macbeth’s words influence him to carry out the murder, he says he will “exert every muscle in my body to commit this crime.” (1.7.79-80) Despite being influenced by Lady Macbeth into murdering Duncan, Macbeth made this choice by his own freewill and gained full responsibility for his actions. To ensure his fate becomes a reality, Macbeth results to violence and tyranny to seize it and when it does become a reality, he will do anything to maintain …show more content…
After much uncertainty since Macbeth is Duncan’s “kinsman and his subject,” (1.7.14) and “should always try to protect him,” (1.7.14-15) Macbeth goes through with Lady Macbeth’s plans to murder Duncan, thus maintain power since he becomes Thane of Cawdor, like the witches prophecy had predicted. Though the witches do tell him he will become King, they also tell Banquo that his “descendants will be kings,” (1.3.68) which concerns Macbeth, leading him to admit that he is “very afraid of Banquo” (3.1.51) and believing that if “to be the king is nothing if I’m not safe as the king,” (3.1.50) so he orders the murder of Banquo. He is also worried that Banquo is suspicious of Duncan’s death since he was with Macbeth when he received his prophecy, knowing he would soon become king. In order to avoid a “fruitless crown,” (3.1.63) he also wants Fleance dead, though this is unsuccessful since he ran away. This also shows that Macbeth values power, over his best friend and his thirst for power has caused him to loss part of his sanity and