“Macbeth” by William Shakespeare is a play in which the eponymous hero changes from a good to a bad character at the turning point in the play. This is a result of the king being murdered by Macbeth and lady Macbeth. It is the consequences of the murder by the two protagonists that the play is based on and not the murder itself, which is why the murder is not staged. the last scene where lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to murder king Duncan is a very important scene, and this is where the turning point in the play occurs. This scene determines the future course of the play and has a great effect on the development of their characters.
At the beginning of the act Macbeth appears as a brave and noble character. The reader sees this when his captain says:
“for brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name.”
Macbeth has just defeated the rebellion of highlanders and islanders, led by Macdonald. The captain refers to Macbeth as brave in the second scene which makes it clear to the reader straight away that Macbeth is, at this point in the play, an eponymous hero. As the scenes in this act progress the reader begins to see a change in his character.
“so foul and fair a day I have not seen.”
This quotation correlates with what the witches say in the first scene of the play, which shows to the reader that Macbeth is in some way involved with evil. It also creates an image in the readers head of him, which is not the same as first perceived in the previous quotation. This is a build up to the turning point in the play, which shows that Macbeth has an element of evil about him, and that it was not just lady Macbeth and the witches influence which drove him to kill king Duncan.
After Macbeths meeting with the witches, the reader sees his thoughts through Shakespeares use of soliloquy. We see his usage in the following quotation:
“why do I yield to that suggestion, whose
horrid image doth unfix my hair.”
Macbeth is wondering why he is considering the...