11A MACBETH PRACTICE ESSAY!
Macbeth is a play portraying the downfall of a brave soldier, Macbeth. Macbeth was a loyal, honest, heroic man who turns to deceit and murder as a result of not only his great ambitions, but also his wife’s. The three witches and their prophecies are also a catalyst to Macbeth’s downfall, provoking action to his embedded ambition. As minor as their characters were, without their presence Macbeth may have not fallen as brutally as he did. A number of different factors contributed to the Thane of Cawdor’s disgrace, both natural and unnatural factors, both of which are depicted in this tragic play.
Macbeth was a weak character, despite his noble and strong reputation. It was weakness that allowed him to be enticed by the witches’ prophecy and his weakness that made him fall into his devious, power hungry wife’s scheme. After listening to the witches’ prophecy Macbeth pictured himself as King and imagined how he could fulfil this prophecy. However his conscience surfaced when he was picturing his future, in the form of images; a bloody dagger, a voice crying “sleep no more”, and hallucinations of evil images. At one stage Macbeth wishes to “proceed no further in this business”, however his inability to follow his conscience allowed him to be controlled by Lady Macbeth and her encouragement to kill King Duncan. Macbeth’s inability to listen and act upon his own thoughts and morals shows he is a weak character who is easily manipulated. His conformity due to his lack of individuality and vulnerability are a major cause in his spiraling fall.
Lady Macbeth, the protagonists loving wife were truly happy together as portrayed in Act I Scene V when she is first introduced. However as Lady Macbeth reads about Macbeth’s day and how “the Witches met him in the day of victory”, she began to devise a plan to eliminate King Duncan. She calls on the “spirits” asking them to “unsex her here”, to take away her womanhood and leave her...