Explain how Shakespeare represents the change in Macbeth throughout the play.
Macbeth is introduced as a hero, a soldier who has earned great honour from his fame on the battlefield. Although he is naturally a man of ambition, supernatural elements as well as the goading from his wife influence him to commit murder, in turn driving him to commit further evil deeds. His thoughts and actions became ruled by an increasing sense of excessive pride and invincibility, decreasing his humanity and moral conscience. Through the use of aside and the motif of blood, Shakespeare represents the change in Macbeth throughout the play.
Initially contemplating the possibility of murder, Macbeth struggles to overcome the temptation of power despite his recognition of immorality. In the beginning of the play, Shakespeare depicts Macbeth as a valiant warrior yet a man more than capable of slaughter. In Act1 Scene 2, the Captain, as he reports the latest battle to King Duncan, describes Macbeth as ‘cannons over-charged with double cracks;/…Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds.” Whilst commenting on Macbeth’s bravery, Shakespeare includes imagery of bathing in blood. This paradox of killing as honourary clearly defines Macbeth as a man practised and capable of committing murder, already hinting that he is blood-thirsty. Furthermore Macbeth’s displayed eagerness and capability of bloodshed foreshadows the bloodbath that Macbeth finds himself in at the end of the play. When confronted with the witch’s prophecy, Macbeth immediately thinks of the possibility of killing. His ambition feeds an immediate intense desire for the power that the witch’s describe. Macbeth, revealing through an aside, says, “My thought, whose murder yet is fantastical,/ Shakes so my single state of man that function / Is smothered is surmise.” Macbeth admits that his own natural tendency to turn towards the possibility of murder frightens him. Furthermore, this line demonstrates Macbeth’s existing...