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Essay: Explore Macbeth’s Downfall from Honourable General to Murderer and King

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  • Subject area(s): Essay examples
  • Reading time: 3 minutes
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  • Published: 23 March 2023*
  • Last Modified: 22 July 2024
  • File format: Text
  • Words: 775 (approx)
  • Number of pages: 4 (approx)
  • Tags: Macbeth essays

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Shakespeare’s play Macbeth is about a military general who murders his country’s king, Duncan, and ascends to the throne, but is eventually killed himself. Macbeth is an honourable man as shown at the start of the play, but an ambition that was planted into him, by Lady Macbeth, leads to his sudden downfall and eventually his death. At the start of the play, Macbeth is shown to be a high-ranking, respected general in the military with no urge to become king. Later, despite deciding not to murder Duncan, Lady Macbeth manages to convince Macbeth to murder him. After becoming king, Macbeth shows he would do anything to stay in power, and ultimately getting killed, showing his ambition is a major weakness in his character.
In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is shown to be a high-ranking general with no desire to become king. He is respected in the military, as his qualities were admirable for a military leader. The king praises Macbeth for defending Scotland and decides to make him the Thane of Cawdor. When he meets the witches, he doesn’t believe they are telling the truth and dismisses it. He shows he is not desperate to become king and would see would become heir to the throne. He receives praise from the captain as “…brave Macbeth- well he deserves that name”, after Macbeth fights bravely against the rebels, and King Duncan calls him “valiant cousin, worthy gentleman.” This shows that Duncan is impressed by Macbeth’s actions to try and defend his country, and “What he (Thane of Cawdor) hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won”, effectively giving the title to Macbeth as the Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth, thinking back to the witches, states “If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me/ Without my stir”, displaying that he would try becoming king fairly, and will not put any real effort into becoming king. It shows that initially, Macbeth is an honourable man with no urge to become king.
Secondly, Macbeth’s ambition was planted into him by Lady Macbeth and the Witches and convinced to kill Duncan. The thought of becoming king was first mentioned by the witches, so when Macbeth became the Thane of Cawdor, he was undoubtedly thinking back to the witch’s predictions. Later, Lady Macbeth calls Macbeth a coward and to prove his courage, he was pressured to kill Duncan, in which he agreed. Macbeth told Lady Macbeth that “I dare do all that may become a man; who dares more is none.” This shows he is willing to as much as he can to prove he is a man, but suggests that killing Duncan is too much, and someone killing the king is not human. He tries to stop Lady Macbeth by telling her “We will proceed no further in this business”, and doesn’t want to murder Duncan, partly because “He hath honour’d me

of late…” but mostly because it is too much. Lady Macbeth shows her frustration, telling Macbeth “When you durst do it, then you were a man”, and would kill a baby and “…dash’d the brains out” in order to be the king/queen of Scotland. This shows how the witches put the idea in Macbeth’s head, later telling Lady Macbeth, which later makes Macbeth an ambitious character who becomes king.
After becoming king, Macbeth quickly becomes unpopular over suspicions he killed Duncan, and kills innocent people. Macbeth is worried about his position, and one of the most dangerous people that could jeopardise his position was Banquo, who was there with Macbeth at the witches. Banquo shows his suspicions when Macbeth becomes king, in act 3 scene 1, Banquo states “Thou hast it now, King, Cawdor, Glamis, all…and I fear thou play’st most foully for’t.” Macbeth later arranges for Banquo’s death, killing him without any regret until the dinner party. Macbeth also arranges to kill everyone in Macduff’s castle as he rebels against Macbeth, telling the murderers to “…give to th’ edge o’ th’ sword/His wife, his babes and all unfortunate souls/That trace him in his line.”, showing that Macbeth will do anything to stay king.
Overall, it must be said that at first Macbeth was a honourable man with no plans to commit murders, but the witches and Lady Macbeth gave him ambition to become king, kill countless people and eventually get killed himself. With the combination of his ambition of staying king and his fear of getting killed, Macbeth suffered a quick downfall after becoming the evil character he was made to be by Lady Macbeth.

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