...Macbeth Paper (Two-Faced Metaphors) After reading the story of Macbeth I found the two-faced metaphors to be more interesting. Two-faced metaphors are hypocritical or double-dealing; deceitful. In other words a two-faced metaphor is basically like when people are deceitful and not true to what they say, they often switch up and are not at all trustworthy. To me this is what make these type metaphors amusing to me. The way they were presented says that they were very direct and straight forward which helped carry along the emotions being felt at that time. A few quotes stood out to me in Macbeth were when the witches would say, “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”(I.I.12). Here in this scene the witches were repeatedly saying a quote with many meanings. This quote meant that what seemed to be right isn’t really right and what seems wrong really isn’t wrong. To me the whole play was about false faces and how someone that seems to be normal and innocent really isn’t and is the complete opposite. It also seemed to be as if the witches weren’t even real and that they were just illusions in human form, but at the same time fake or two-faced and greedy. And the reason that I say this is because they would...
Words: 707 - Pages: 3
...In the tragic play script ‘Macbeth’ written by William Shakespeare, we follow Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as their ambition turns from good ambition like respecting their country and fighting for their King, to evil ambition, as they develop an evil flaw by performing evil acts like murder and deceitfulness. At the beginning of the play script, Macbeth is determined to do good works so that he will be well known and remembered. Then Lady Macbeth’s longing for the crown causes her to be very manipulative. She persuades her husband to do evil and once Macbeth does what she wants, they are caught in a spiral of evil doings. At the beginning of this play script, Macbeth does well in the war against the Norwegians. King Duncan orders the death of the...
Words: 901 - Pages: 4
...Macbeth is presented as a suffering victim, who then plummets into a downward spiral where he becomes a symbol of evil. When we first encounter Macbeth, the witches have just foretold the three prophecies. Macbeth is enamored with the idea of becoming king one day. Looking for advice Macbeth confided in his wife, Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth’s immediate reaction is that she has always pinned for the throne and was going to find a way to obtain it. Ultimately Lady Macbeth conjured up the idea to kill King Duncan. She later presents her matoltocal plan to Macbeth. At first Macbeth is not willing to go through with her plan. He thinks it is unjust and that there are other ways to obtain the throne. However Lady Macbeth uses her power of persuasion and lores her husband into a trap. She does this by stating, “When you durst do it, then you were a man.”(Shakespeare 1.7.49) Lady Macbeth tries to take away Macbeth sexuality by saying in the quote that if he does not complete this deed he will be less of a man in her eyes. She continues to go into more depth and say that she will no longer love him either. Lady Macbeth picks apart Macbeth until there is nothing left. She took away Macbeth...
Words: 2011 - Pages: 9
...Was Macbeth’s murder of Duncan an act of fate or free will? In Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, a Scottish general who becomes king after three witches report his future to him, murders the King of Duncan to obtain the throne. Shakespeare utilized the philosophy that free will is paramount in the development of the character and clearly Macbeth chose his own path causing his ultimate demise. Throughout the story, Shakespeare uses his tone to show how Macbeth’s future is determined by his free will. In plenty of instances, like the murder of Duncan, Macbeth chose to act upon this in order to further his chances of obtaining the throne. The Witches proclaimed to Macbeth, explaining his fate but he denied it, preaching this, “For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires” (29.55). This quote is evident because Macbeth's motivation to become king represents his free will in possessing the throne. Macbeth knows that being king is meant for him, but is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure it remains in his grasp. As well as that, Macbeth also states that he will commit to anything to...
Words: 460 - Pages: 2
...English Macbeth Essay Macbeth by William Shakespeare is a very dark and powerful tragic play. There are many characters in this play that are two faced, loyal one minute, and deceiving the next. One of the individuals who immensely represents these attributes is Macbeth himself. Macbeth is a warrior who is manipulated by his own wife and the three witches which leads him to become a greedy, ambitious and brave king. Ultimately because of his overconfidence, he dies devastatingly. . Macbeth bumped into three witches after his battle. The three witches tell Macbeth he will become thain of cawdor and glamis, and then king. He then becomes the thain which opened up an opportunity for him to become king. He then writes a letter to his wife in which he wrote to her about everything that was going on and she decides they need to kill the king in order for him to seize the throne. Macbeth kills the king but his wife has to return the daggers to the guards, to frame them for the crime, because Macbeth did not. After all that the King Duncans' sons run away becuase they fear that they were gonna be put to blame. Macbeth then becomes king. Once he became king, he did not want anyone else to have the same power as him or to do the same thing to him, as he did to King Duncan. Also he remembers one of the prophecies of the witch where they told Banquo the his children will be king. So he then orders the murderers to kill his best friend, Banquo and his son, Fleance . Macbeth is then...
Words: 1532 - Pages: 7
...Duncan was brutally killed by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth so that they could take his throne. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth were very thorough when killing the king. To execute this plan to kill the king so perfectly one person has to take charge and make things happen. I believe that Lady Macbeth was more responsible for Duncan’s death than Macbeth. The reason I believe it is Lady Macbeth was more responsible for Duncan’s death is that she starts the whole process of killing Duncan out by making the guards getting the guards drunk. “That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold / What hath quench’d them hath given me fire.” (2.2.1-2) Lady Macbeth in this quote is setting up Macbeth for failure because she is basically saying I just got the guards drunk so that their defenses are down all you have to do Macbeth is kill Duncan. This shows that Lady Macbeth is more urgent to kill Duncan by taking the first steps of the plan....
Words: 519 - Pages: 3
...throughout the play Macbeth. The play Macbeth, is another brilliant written piece by the famous playwright William Shakespeare. The play is about a great warrior, who gets the wrong idea about ambition after being told that he will become King of Scotland. Macbeth believed that the only way to achieve power and wealth is to kill anyone who gets in his way to the throne. Specifically, the use of irony, motif and characterization all prove that negative ambition can...
Words: 1524 - Pages: 7
...‘[Macbeth Aksar JanMacbeth Macbeth is a courageous Scottish general who is not naturally inclined to commit evil deeds. Yet he deeply desires power and advancement. He kills Duncan against his better judgment and afterwards stews in guilt and paranoia that there are others who will come next in heirs as he has no child to carry on the monach. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, pursues her goals with greater determination, She spurs her husband mercilessly to kill Duncan and urges him to be strong in the murder's aftermath. But she is eventually driven to distraction by the effect of Macbeth's repeated bloodshed on her conscience. In each case, ambition-helped, of course, Prophecies of the witches is what drives the couple to ever more terrible atrocities. the problem, the play suggests, is the once decided to use violence to further one's quest for power, it is difficult to stop there are always potential threats to the throne. Quote 1 Third Witches: All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter! (A1.S111.L 51) The witches prediction that Macbeth will become monarch and that Banquo's heirs will be future kings sets the plot in motion. Up until this point, Macbeth doesn't seem to have kingly aspiration. Banquo was strong minded and laughed off the witches, but the witches spoke in riddles to Macbeth and told him very little. They addressed him as an upcoming king. This intrudged Macbeth. As we’ll find out that Macbeth had already had evil aspirations in his head. ...
Words: 670 - Pages: 3
...FRAME 5: THE DAGGER The blood-stained dagger may be an over-used symbol in Macbeth, but it is an universally acknowledged symbol for the play and would be the most effective in reminding the audience of the Macbeth’s first abuse of free will: the murder of King Duncan. A board game must be relatable and it would be no assumption to believe that all of Scotland remembers the murder of Duncan with a dagger. This step is further speeds Macbeth’s corruption by the prophecy and his own ambition. His illusions of the dagger can also be linked to fate since the hallucination indicates that he doesn’t want to commit the murder, but feels that he must. This self-fulfilling prophecy continues to make him believe that he is being guided by...
Words: 620 - Pages: 3
...At the beginning of the fifth scene of the first act of Macbeth, we are introduced to the character Lady Macbeth, the mistress of Macbeth; she receives a letter from Macbeth telling her of a prophecy he was given by the three sisters. From this point, we see Lady Macbeth dominate Macbeth and his decisions including the murder of King Duncan in order to fulfill the prophecy of him taking the throne. After other interactions we seen between the two, Shakespeare wants us to conclude that Lady Macbeth is power-hungry, manipulative woman interested in Macbeth obtaining the throne so she could grow in power, although we learned that her guilt of the murder of Duncan drives her to the point of committing suicide. One quote that justifies this argument...
Words: 317 - Pages: 2
...Clayton Prescott Macbeth Final Essay Macbeth’s life was great in the beginning, but turned into a disaster in the end. Macbeth was in a situation of power and success and ended up throwing it away due to greed, envy and power hunger. One could call his story a success because he got the power he wanted and was respected and feared by many of his people. Macbeth also had controlled and manipulated people he thought could be of service to him, and he ruined their lives also. Lady Macbeth was changed completely and was the sole reason that they would not be able to keep their murders hidden. Lady Macbeth was sleepwalking and a worker had heard her talking of the tragedies that she and Macbeth had committed. Macbeth was very regretful of the...
Words: 703 - Pages: 3
...THEMES OF GUILT – MACBETH In the story of Macbeth, guilt is an important theme due to the fact that it unstiffens Macbeth’s ambition and coldness. His brutality is balanced by his guilt, a trait that enables the audience to identify with Macbeth throughout the play despite his oppressiveness. MACBETH AND LADY MACBETH: The two main characters who experience extreme feelings of guilt throughout the play are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth’s guilt is caused by the ghosts of those who he murdered and of the consequences that follow their murders. For example, Macbeth is visited by the ghost of Banquo, who he murdered to protect his secret. The apparition embodies Macbeth’s guilt and therefore causes Macbeth to nearly reveal the truth about King Duncan’s murder. Macbeth’s guilt prevents him from enjoying his gain of royalty but it does not stop him from committing more than 1 murders. This perhaps indicates a lack of morality, which is Macbeth’s key character flaw. Lady Macbeth on the overhand is driven crazy from the adrenaline of watching her husband commit such murders and is the force behind his actions. Unlike Macbeth’s...
Words: 1025 - Pages: 5
...In the play, The Tragedy of Macbeth, William Shakespeare develops the theme of hunger for power through the use of irony, foreshadowing, and symbolism. Shakespeare ultimately proves that hunger for power can mislead a person from situations and turn good intentions, to bad intentions all because of there blind lust. Power, as grand as it may be, can always be misleading. William Shakespeare, often called the English national poet, is widely considered the greatest dramatist of all time. Known throughout the world, the works of William Shakespeare have been performed, taught, and studied for more than 400 years. William Shakespeare was born in 1564 to a successful middle-class glove maker in Stratford Upon-Avon, and created the play “Macbeth” in 1606. In 1582 William at the age of 18, married an older woman named Anne Hathaway. They had three children, Susanna, Hamnet and Juliet. Their only son Hamnet died aged just 11. By the early Seventeenth Century, Shakespeare had begun to write plays in the genre of tragedy. These plays, such as Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear, often hinge on some fatal flaw in the lead character, and provide intriguing insights into the darker aspects of human nature. You can now see where this comes into play in other situations Macbeth is a play of contradiction and ambition. Macbeth, a well-known war general driven to become King, killed not only King Duncan to receive his kingship, but also all the heirs to the thrown which happened...
Words: 874 - Pages: 4
...Macbeth, Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and King of Scotland, acts in such a malicious manner throughout Shakespeare’s play Macbeth that one may conclude the character to possess evil qualities. Shakespeare exhibits this evil quality through the use of literary devices such as metaphors, personification, and foreshadowing. In the beginning of the play Macbeth shows the qualities of a loyal and courageous man willing to fight for his country and king. However, by the end of the play his ambition and hunger for power overtake these traits, causing him to become an apathetic and dishonorable leader of Scotland. Macbeth’s unfortunate downfall begins with the witches’ prophecies. The long list of evil things that Macbeth does throughout the...
Words: 539 - Pages: 3
...marginal costs. I also learned that the only way a decision will be made is if the benefits outweigh the costs. The play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, and the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding have many things in common, especially the use of how fear does not actually force certain decisions to be made. Although many people will contend that the beast and the witches in Lord of the Flies and Macbeth caused the irrational decisions to be made, in reality it was Macbeth and the children on the island that made their...
Words: 806 - Pages: 4
