Critical Essay on Shakespeare's MacBeth

Introduction

Macbeth is a general from Scotland who is considered to be wise hence commonly known as brave Scottish General. Similarly, he gets a revelation from sorcerers telling him that one day he will assume the role of the king of Scotland. Macbeth takes the law into his hands and kills King Duncan, forcefully taking over the Scottish throne. Additionally, to guard his self against hostile people he resorted to killing many people explaining the reason why he became a dictator. Macbeth was a faithful soldier, but later on, he became disloyal by killing many innocent people so that he guards his dictatorship leadership against critics. Macbeth welcomes and embraces mortal thoughts of Lady Macbeth, similarly, magical work dwells in his thinking, and he desires to kill and kill again (Favila, 2001). Therefore, this work will focus on the character traits of Lady Macbeth.

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The first character trait of Lady Macbeth is that she is a killer who convinces her husband to kill King Duncan for him to become the King of Scotland. Correspondingly, she was very determined and ambitious in ensuring that King Duncan is dead. Additionally, her evil character is portrayed when she wrongly advises Macbeth to assume the role of King of Scotland. Lady Macbeth had other selfish ambitions of becoming a queen, and she knew very well that she would not become a queen if King Duncan was not dead.

Secondly, she hid her feelings, and she was very cunning. This is clear when she says to her husband that, "Leave all the rest to me." Because she knew very well that being the master mine of all evil plans she could easily plot and carry out the untimely killing of King Duncan. Normally, as a queen of Scotland she was supposed to take care of the people by considering those who have different opinions about how leadership in Scotland ought to be.

Thirdly, Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth when she writes a letter and sends it to him which contains some prophecies. Lady Macbeth courageously tells the spirits to give her powers of being cruel and equally strength to manipulate Macbeth through the transfer of cruel ambitions to him. Moreover, she manipulates Macbeth when she told him that she is the master mind of King Duncan's killing. Furthermore, she makes sure that Macbeth will not change his mind by not associating himself with the murder of King Duncan (Paffen, 2017).

Lady Macbeth is selfish, it is revealed when she gets a letter from her husband, and the letter contains details how he will ascend to power as the king of Scotland. The person who brings the letter gives her another message that King Duncan is visiting her. After receiving that message of King Duncan visiting her castle, she quickly comes up with a plan of killing King Duncan so that her husband becomes the King of Scotland and also her as a queen.

Lady Macbeth is a wicked woman, in act 2 scene 2, Lady Macbeth engages in a conversation with Macbeth, she walks up to the place of the murder and tries to make the guards resemble as if they are guilty of killing King Duncan. Lady Macbeth tries to confess as a witness that the guards are the ones who killed King Duncan yet they are not guilty of committing murder. However, to lady Macbeth becoming the queen and controlling power in the kingdom is more important than anybody because to her as a queen that will change their lives. Having everything under control is her main agenda.

Lady Macbeth is a character that I will not prefer not to act as my role model because it is clear that her main ambition is to become a queen and her husband to become the king. Therefore, since Lady Macbeth is selfish, she does not have the interest of people at heart in the kingdom. From my own experience, a person who wants to be a leader should first consider the interests of his people and not his/her self-interest. Moreover, to assume to the position of power then one should convince the people that she/he is capable of leading them to success. However, leadership is not all about using evil ways just like Lady Macbeth who planned to kill King Duncan to become a queen.

Lady Macbeth is a character I will not prefer to be associated with because she commands her husband to kill King Duncan and afterwards falsely accuses the guards of committing murder. Selfish leaders in different countries have at times planned to kill the people whom at times they feel to be barriers to them ascending to leadership positions. Moreover, this is evident when Lady Macbeth claims that after killing King Duncan their lives will change.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Macbeth is a play written by William Shakespeare to shed more light on the individuals who ascend to power and also the consequences of ambitions of seeking power. Correspondingly, at the beginning of the play Macbeth is a general who is considered to be strong, but later on, he turns to be wicked after receiving a prophecy from sorcerers telling him that he is capable of becoming a king.

References

Favila, M. (2001). Mortal Thoughts" and Magical Thinking in" Macbeth. Modern Philology, 99(1), 1-25.

Paffen, C. C. (2017). Wicked Witches and Powerful Plots: The influence of the supernatural in the ancient world as a guide to the supernatural in Macbeth.