Macbeth

Macbeth

1. Culpable ( Guilty )

   • Ex1) Macbeth feels extremely guilty, once he kills Duncan. He expresses this guilt by becoming mentally unstable for a short while after the killing. The blood on his hands makes him feel highly guilty.
     • Macbeth: "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine Making the green one red." ( 2. 2. 72-75 )
   • Ex2) Macbeth is feeling guilty for his actions. He is feeling guilty for killing Duncan and sending murders to kill Banquo and his son. As a result of his guilt Macbeth is having nightmares and trouble sleeping.
     • Macbeth: "Better be with the dead, whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, Than on the torture of the mind to lie In restless ecstasy." ( 3. 2. 22-25 )
   • Ex4) Macbeth is guilty of killing an innocent family. He killed Macduff's family to get back at Macduff for a few reasons, however the main reason would have been that Macduff was planning against Macbeth. Macbeth was warned to beware of Macduff therefore he killed Macduff's family to try and stop Macduff. He is guilty of this crime, however he does not feel guilt for doing it.
     • Macbeth: "The castle of Macduff I will surprise, Seize upon Fife, give to the edge of the' sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool. This deed I’ll do before this purpose cool." ( 4. 1. 166-170 )
   • Ex3) Macbeth is also guilty for killing Banquo and trying to Kill Banquo's son; Fleance. He is guilty of this crime and that is why he see's Banquo's ghost at the Banquet. Banquo's ghost was a possible hallucination that his guilty subconscious formed.
     • Macbeth ( To Ghost) : "You can't say i did it. Don't shake your bloody head at me." ( 3. 4. 55-56 )

2. Cunning

   • Ex1) One of Macbeth's most cunning moments is when he kill's Duncans Chamberlins to keep them from saying that they were framed. He states that he killed the guards out of fury for what they had done to his king and cousin, but in truth he killed them to keep them quiet.
     • Macbeth: "O, yet I do repent me of my fury. That i did kill them" ( 2 . 3 . 113-114 )
   • Ex2) Another cunning moment was when Macbeth requested Banquo's presence at the feast. By asking for Banquo's presence he was making sure he looked freindly and loyal to his friend in the eyes of others. He wanted to make sure he looked innocent, in case something happened to Banquo. It was a way to have Banquo killed without seeming as a suspect. The feast was Macbeth's alibi for Banquo's murder.
     • Macbeth: "Tonight we hold a solemn supper, sir And i'll request your presence" ( 3 . 1 . 15-16 )
   • Ex3) Macbeth was also cunning in Act 3 scene 1 when he makes sure the murders truly and utterly hate Banquo. He makes them beleive that he is innocent and that Banquo is the one that has truly made their lives a living hell.
     • Macbeth: " Know that it was he, in the past times, which held you so under fortune, which you thought had been our innocent self' ( 3 . 1 . 85-87 )

3. Gullible

   • Ex3) Macbeth was also guallible, in a way for falling for his wife's; Lady Macbeth's tricks. She was able to make him believe that if he didn't kill Duncan, he wouldn't be a man. She questioned manhood.
     • Macbeth: " What beast wasn’t, then, That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the man. " ( 1. 7 . 52- 56 )
   • EX4) He is gullible for believing what his wife said about how a little water will was away their guilt. However nothing can erase their guilt.
     • Lady Macbeth ( To Macbeth ): "A little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it, then! Your constancy Hath left you unattended. " ( 2 . 2. 80-83 )
   • Ex1) Macbeth is extremely gullible when it comes to the witches. After the first prophecy came true, he trusts them completely, they however will be his downfall. Macbeth believes the second apparition during his visit to the witches. He believes that no man born from a women will harm him.
     • Second Apparition: "Be Bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of women born Shall harm Macbeth." ( 4. 1. 86-89 )
   • Ex2) Macbeth also believes the third apparition during his visit to the witches. He honestly believes that as long as the Great Birnam Wood doesn't move he is safe..
     • Third Apparition: "Be lion mettled, proud and take no care Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until Great Brinam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill Shall come against him." ( 4. 1. 98-102)

4. Gluttonous ( Greedy )

   • Ex1) After the first prophecy of the witches came true, Macbeth became greedy and wanted the second prophecy to come true.. He wanted more power then just being the Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth was reluctant to kill Duncan however with the pressure from his wife and his inner greed for power, he ended up killing Duncan.. He wanted the power that came with being king.
     • Lady Macbeth: "What thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou'dst have, great Glamis, that which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou have it; And that which rather thou dost fear to do Than wishest should be undone." ( 1 . 5 . 18-24 )
   • Ex2) Even though Macbeth is now king, he is still greedy for more power and to keep his power for as long as he lives. In order for that to happen he has to stop the prophecy of Banquo's children becoming kings. Out of fear for his crown and greed for power, Macbeth will kill Banquo to keep him from interfering or his children becoming kings.
     • Macbeth: "Come, seeling night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, And with thy bloody and invisible hand Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond Which keeps me pale!" ( 3. 2. 53-57 )
   • Ex3) Another moment where Macbeth makes his greediness known is when he visits the witches the day after the banquet. He wants to know his future will be good and once they tell him about it, he wishes to know more. He isn't satisfied with their answers, he wants to know more and if they don't satisfy him, he says he an eternal curse will fall upon them. He isn't happy with what he gets, he is greedy for more
     • Macbeth: "I will be satisfied! Deny me this And an eternal curse fall on you!" ( 4. 1. 115-116 )
   • EX4) Macbeth admits his greed for power even before he kill's Duncan. He said that he had nothing personal against Duncan, but he wanted the power, that Duncan's position as king offered. Macbeth was basically greedy for only power.
     • Macbeth: "Vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself And falls on the other." ( 1. 7. 26-27 )

5. Maddness

   • Ex3) Another sign is when Macbeth believes an old saying that say's the dead will have their revenge. He thinks Banquo's ghost has come back to claim his revenge. Lady Macbeth then makes the situation seem as though Macbeth is just tired and isn't thinking straight. However it is most likely from the guilt he feels that is always present in his subconcious and the fact that his mind is slowly deteiorating
     • Macbeth: "It will have blood, they say. Blood will have blood. Stones have been known to move and trees to speak;Augures and understood relations have By maggot pies and choughs and rooks brought forth The secretest man of blood." ( 3. 4. 146-151 )
   • Ex4) Macbeth is obsessed with the witches he believes, trusts and rely's on them to tell him his future.. When Macbeth meets the witches a second time he shows his source of mental instability, the witches are the source because he acts on what they tell him is his future. They have made him mentally unstable.
     • Macbeth (To Witches):"I conjure you by that which you profess Howe'er you come to know it answer me. Though you untie the winds and let them fight Against the churches, though the yeasty waves Confound and swallow navigation up, Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down, Though castles topple on their warders' heads, Though palaces and pyramids do slope Their heads to their foundations, though the treasure Of nature’s germens tumble all together, Even till destruction sicken, answer me To what I ask you." ( 4 .1 . 50-61 )
   • Ex5) Act 5 scene 2 also shows the extent of Macbeth's insanity. He is relying on the witches prophecies to keep him safe, he refuses to believe soldiers are coming for him. H e rufuses to beleive it because he is under the inpression that as long as the Great Birnam Wood doesn't move and his enemy Macduff is born from a women, he has nothing to fear. This goes to show how mentally unstable Macbeth has become.
     • Macbeth: " Bring me no more reports. Let them fly all! Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane, I cannot taint with fear." ( 5. 3. 1-3 )
   • Ex1) In Act 2 Scene 2 Macbeth displays sings of losing his mind because of killing duncan.. The fist sign we see of Macbeth beginning to lose his mind is when he hears a voice that doesn't exist crying out things.
     • Macbeth: " Still it cried, "SLeep no more!" to all the house. "Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more."
   • Ex2) Macbeth over time Macbeth's mind has been deteriorating because of the dreadful actions he has done. He is guilt- ridden, which is slowly leading him to insanity. When Macbeth see's Banquo's Ghost at the Banquet, his friend that he had murdered, we can see how much he has began to slip into insanity.
     • Macbeth ( To Ghost) : "You can't say i did it. Don't shake your bloody head at me." ( 3. 4. 55-56 )

6. Ambitious

   • Ex2) Macbeth's ambition is to gain and keep the throne as well as gain power. The first thing he does to get the throne is kill Duncan. Macbeth desires power. He admits that he only killed Duncan for Power.
     • Macbeth: "I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself, And falls on the other" ( 1. 7. 25–28 )
   • Ex1) Macbeth's ambition leads him to do things he wished he didn't have to do, but because he is ambitious he will do anything to succeed King Duncan proclaims Malcom as the heir to the throne, so Macbeth plans to kill Malcom to keep him from gaining the throne..
     • Macbeth (aside) : "The prince of Cumberland! That is a step On which I must fall down, or else overleap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see." ( 1. 4. 56-61 )
   • Ex4) Macbeth's ambitions to succeed have gotten him to the point where he would the kill innocent family's of those that defy him or on the suspicion that they plot against him. Macbeth kills Macduff's family and those he knows because he thinks it will keep Macduff from plotting against him. He kill's them, to keep Macduff from threatening his power and position.
     • Macbeth: "The castle of Macduff I will surprise, Seize upon Fife, give to the edge of the' sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool. This deed I’ll do before this purpose cool." ( 4. 1. 166-170 )
   • Ex3) Macbeth's ambitions are violent. The violent deeds Macbeth does, he prefers to do them without thinking about them. He says he can no longer go back to being good since he has found it easier to kill and succeed then to be good and succeed. It goes to show that his ambitions for power have turned him violent.
     • Macbeth: "I am in blood Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er. Strange things I have in head, that will to hand, Which must be acted ere they may be scanned." ( 3. 4. 162-166 )