Macbeth Essay

Josh Liu

Humanities 9

6/4/15

Macbeth Essay

            Most murderers who are sent to court after their crimes, have an accomplice who works with them. However, the murderers are still the people who are most at guilt during the deeds because they must have careless and bold hearts that lead them to the road of death. In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the witches and Lady Macbeth both gave Macbeth supports to kill the king. However, when Macbeth first knew his fate of being the king, his greedy heart had already given him a thought of killing the king Duncan when Macbeth was still a loyal general of him. Macbeth was the cruelest and most ambitious one because he did all the crimes himself and kept on going along the river of blood without looking back. Thus, despite the fact that the witches and Lady Macbeth promoted Macbeth’s motive of committing crimes to get power, Macbeth was the person who was most at fault.

            Lady Macbeth was one of the accessories who helped Macbeth on his way to getting power. However, Lady Macbeth was not the guiltiest person in the murders because she first had the thought of killing the king Duncan only after Macbeth brought the news of him being the king back to her. In the letter from Macbeth to Lady Macbeth, Macbeth said to her, “While I stood spellbound, messengers from the king arrived and greeted me as the thane of Cawdor, which is precisely how the weird sisters had saluted me before calling me ‘the future king!’” (31) According to the precise prediction from the witches, Macbeth became the thane of Cawdor after the battle. Because of that, Macbeth believed he would also be the king in the future. Lady Macbeth knew if Macbeth is the king in the future, she would be the queen of the country. Power was in front of Lady Macbeth’s eyes, so she decided to help Macbeth get on the throne of the country and made herself the queen of the country by murdering king Duncan. Lady Macbeth was also ambitious, but she felt despair and repentant for her thoughts after the murder went wrong. When Lady Macbeth was sleep-walking, she said to herself, “Come out, damned spot! Out, I command you! One, two.”(181) The “damned spots” on her hands were invisible blood splatters, which she thought she got after the murder of Duncan. Although she convinced Macbeth to kill Duncan in order to get the title of queen for herself, she felt repentant and wanted to wash off her guilt and live a good life. After rubbing her hands, Lady Macbeth said, “I still have the smell of blood on my hands… What’s done cannot be undone.”(183) Lady Macbeth felt very guilty for being an accomplice for Macbeth in the murders, and she knew that things had gone wrong. She also realized that the first murder made Macbeth to commit more murders. Finally, Lady Macbeth couldn’t find herself a spot to live in this world, and she committed suicide because of the guilt in her heart. In a word, Lady Macbeth was a person who knew to be introspective herself after a mistake. Just the opposite, Macbeth made his crimes bigger and more dreadful, as the action progressed.

Although the witches have magical power to know the future, and they lure Macbeth to commit crimes, their success is still based on Macbeth's ambitious heart. As three evil servants for the goddess of hell Hecate, the witches’ duty was to destroy the peaceful world. The witches knew that Macbeth was a very violent and ambitious man. At the beginning of the story, the captain described how Macbeth killed the rebel of the country Macdonwald, “Brave Macbeth, laughing at Luck…… before Macbeth split him open from his navel to his jawbone and stuck his head on our castle walls.” (5) In the battle against a rebel of the country, Macbeth got the chance to kill Macdonwald himself. Macbeth was so bloody that he chopped Macdonwald’s body in half and hung his head on the castle walls. The witches noticed the violence of Macbeth, so they thought their evil plans would succeed on Macbeth. In addition, the witches heard of Macbeth’s dreadful plan of killing Banquo, who was a royal general of King Duncan. Macbeth didn’t want Banquo and his descendants to be the kings of Scotland, so he told the murderers about his bloody plan, “It must be done tonight, away from the palace. Always remember that I must be free from suspicion. For the plan to work perfectly, you must kill both Banquo and his son, Fleance, who keeps him company. Getting rid of Fleance is as important to me as knocking off Banquo.” (95) Macbeth was afraid of suspicion, so he decided to kill Banquo as well as his son Fleance. The witches knew that Macbeth was a bold man because he could decide to kill someone so easily, and he would kill anyone who was standing in front of him and blocking his road. Last but not least, the witches showed Macbeth his least favorite thing of Banquo’s descendants being the kings of the country. The witches knew that Macbeth was worrying about Banquo’s sons being the kings, so the witches showed Macbeth that Banquo’s sons, grandsons, and even great grandsons would be the kings in the future instead of Macbeth’s descendants. This message was dreadful to Macbeth, so Macbeth screamed, “You look too much like the ghost of Banquo. Go away! (to the first) Your crown hurts my eyes. (to the second) Your blond hair, which looks like another crown underneath the one you’re wearing, looks just like the first king’s hair. Now I see a third king who looks just like the second. ” (141)  It is clear that the witches knew how to motivate Macbeth’s brutal heart once again, and this time Macbeth put himself to death because of his great anger and envy to Banquo’s sons. Clearly, the witches were one of the most enormous accomplices of Macbeth in his murders, but their successes were based on Macbeth’s ambitious and imprudent mind.

Macbeth’s ambitious heart was always active, and the thoughts of committing murders were always hiding in his mind. He was always lurking to kill those loyal noblemen who obstructed his way of being the king of Scotland. Macbeth wanted to commit murder for power even before Lady Macbeth convinced him. After having the conversation with the witches, Macbeth knew that he had the possibility to become the king of Scotland in the future. Macbeth was happy and worried about his fate, so he started to have the thought of killing the King Duncan to get power. He spoke to himself, “To become king myself, I’m either going to have to step over him or give up, because he’s in my way.”(29)  As a loyal soldier of Duncan, he had the thought of killing Duncan and getting his crown. Clearly, Macbeth was a serpent hiding under a beautiful flower, and that was one of the reasons why he was the guiltiest character in the story. In addition, when Macbeth thought he had the chance to murder Duncan for power, he grabbed a dagger and assassinated the great king Duncan in bed. He said, “I’m going now, the murder is as good as done.”(53) For power, Macbeth willed to use other’s lives in exchange. Only ambitious characters like him could make such horrible decisions. Macbeth was a brave warrior in battles, but he was not a very good thinker for his life. Finally, Macbeth murdered Macduff’s family to keep himself in the place of king. As soon as Macbeth heard the message of Macduff leaving for England for help, he made his bloodcurdling decision of raiding Macduff’s castle and killing Macduff’s families. At that moment, Macbeth realized that more soldiers would be coming to capture him, and his life was about to end. As a person who was about to get to the end of his life, Macbeth chose to be selfish and put more people to death before he died. In a word, Macbeth not only had an unclear and ambitious mind, he also had a selfish greedy heart. Without a doubt, Macbeth was the guiltiest person during his journey of being the king of Scotland, and with the help from his evil accomplices, he had become a bloody murderer living in a dark cold shadow.

In reality, a lot of people like Macbeth exchange their clear conscience to fight for power. For example, governors bribe the police to illegally take over an area, so that they can get power. Employees give their boss bribes to get into a higher rank in the company. Just like Macbeth, people think that power is important, but why do people try so hard to get it? With power, a person can be rich and famous, and he can even command others to do him favors. Perhaps, some people don’t have the ability to gain their power in a legal way, or they want more power than they can get in real life. Because of that, people become greedy about power, and they become cunning and despicable like Macbeth, just to get the wealth and fame they want. Even so, most of those individuals end up getting sent to courts or get harmed by others who want power. Clearly, in this modern society, people want to be rich and powerful, but they don’t realize that getting power through an illegal way will harm them and make themselves feel guilty in the end. For those who help a person to commit crime for power, life will never be so clean and enjoyable for them, and some of them will finally get caught by justice. Macbeth was the guiltiest criminal in the story, he always had the guilt in his heart and finally he got killed by the great nobleman Macduff. A person is the only one who can decide for his own fate, and he needs to know that he is responsible for his deeds. Ambition and evil accomplices will make a person’s life darker and bloodier, but they only influence him when he starts to travel toward the wrong direction of his life. Not all the people who do awful deeds to others for themselves will finally get caught and punished by laws, because some of them can in some ways get away from punishments. However, those fortunate criminals won’t live as happily as they could before they did the deeds. Guilt is always a heavy lock of their inner happiness, and they can never unlock their real happiness unless they fix the big hole they made on humanity. However, it is almost impossible to fix the hole on humanity, because what is done cannot be undone. We shall learn from Macbeth’s crimes and thoughts, so that we can be calm and just in front of the attraction of power and wealth.