Shakespeare’s tragedy ‘Macbeth’ has had many adaptations from when it was written in the 1600, although the timeless idea of how power and ambition can corrupt a person’s mind remains the same. We as the audience get to watch Macbeth go from being a well-loved warrior and thane become a ruthless tyrant ruling over Scotland. As Macbeth sate of mind deteriorates throughout the play, Shakespeare demonstrates the abstract ideas of ambition through metaphors, symbolism and dramatic effects.
When we are first introduced to Macbeth it is established that he was considered a good person. His friends and family referred to him as a brave warrior. He was praised for killing MacDonald with his “brandish’d steel, Which smoked with bloody execution,” by Shakespeare using this metaphor he is giving the audience a visual representation of how fast and forcefully his sword moved. Meaning that his blade smoked when Macbeth killed one of his enemies, so of course, people would refer to him as a valiant soldier. Macbeth was also known to be kind, although Lady Macbeth feared that Macbeth was “too full o’ the milk of human kindness” to pursue the powerful title as king. Milk is known to warm and nurturing and is mainly connected to women. Lady Macbeth is saying that Macbeth is too feminine to take the crown, and throughout the play she is constantly testing his masculinity to get what she wants. Shakespeare has shown the audience that Macbeth is kind, compassionate, sympathetic, brave, valiant and well-liked by all, this is the starting point for Macbeth; a good person, but because of his ambition we get to watch his slow descent into hysteria.
By the forceful encouragement of lady Macbeth, Macbeth has to kill Duncan in order to become king. At this point in the play, he is still not sure about eh the whole situation and before he commits the act, Macbeth hallucinates a dagger floating before him. This dagger symbolises the guilt and the major consequences that will follow if he goes through with killing Duncan. Macbeth calls the dagger a “fatal vision” acknowledging that this is the manifestation of all his worry and guilt. During the scene, Macbeth is shown to be very uneasy and anxious caused by the obsessive thinking regarding the murder, which he concludes to be the reason that he’s seeing this dagger “a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain”. Further into the play, Macbeth had Banquo killed secretly because he was paranoid that Banquo would expose his crimes against the crown. Although, Macbeth still feels very guilty for killing him. Later, Macbeth hallucinates the ghost of Banquo taunting him from beyond the grave. Banquo represents the paranoia and regrets Macbeth is feeling. Shakespeare has used this dramatic effect to give insight into Macbeth’s mind so the audience can understand where Macbeth’s mental state is. Hallucinations are a recurring theme in the play to showcase to the audience the psychological and emotional damage Macbeth is undergoing because of his ambition.
In the final act of the plat, Macbeth learns about his wife’s suicide and falls into a pit of despair. This is because the has now realized that all his sinful actions were for nothing and now he has nothing to live for. As the whiches foretold, Macbeth will never have children who will be king, and so his royal bloodline will not continue. His only supporter in all of Great Britain has now killed herself because of all her guilt and regret that he caused and as a result, he is left all alone fighting against the rest of the world. Macbeth has been told that when he will be beaten by the whiches, but it has only become apparent in recent events that he will die on that day. Shakespeare has Macbeth deliver a soliloquy about how meaningless life is by using a metaphor to compare it to a “brief candle” which are only viable for a short period of time. when a candle is lit it is known that it won’t burn forever and eventually the wick will go out. Which is similar to life because death is inevitable, especially in Macbeth’s case. All Macbeth has ever loved or hoped for has been ripped away from him because of hi dire ambition. All of his sins and crimes have caught up will him causing the guilt and regret to sink in, bringing him to insanity.
Towards the end of the play, all of Macbeth’s friends and subjects refer to him as a horrible tyrant ruling over Scotland. Macbeth was already a thane of Cawdor and Glamis, which means he held land granted by the king although the witches toyed the idea of being king in front of him and of course he couldn’t resist. Macbeth didn’t have to experience being a king so when took the king’s place he had no idea what he was doing and because of this, the whole country suffered. Towards the end of the play, all the people who used to be his friends branded him as a tyrant because of his greed and awful ruling. Tyrant meaning an oppressive or unjust ruler. It was selfish of Macbeth to choose his own desire to be king over the people who he was supposed to take care of. His ambition blinded his logic and consequently, his country went into chaos and he paid for his mistakes with his life.
Macbeth started off as an amiable person who wanted too much and as a result, his mental state got entirely damaged. Shakespeare bought to light how dangerous ambition can be by using language features to make his ideas clearer for everyone to understand. The concept of ambition and power being harmful has been around a long time before and after the play was written, although Shakespeare puts it into an easily digestible experience. Over the course of the play, Macbeth had to choose between his own desires and what is morally right, he picked himself and as punishment, his mind was forever tortured by his guilt, anxiety and regret.
