Evil Lady Macbeth example essay topic

The play Macbeth was written by William Shakespeare. This play tells of betrayal, temptations, ambitions, murder, treason and manipulation. The readers feels sympathetic for MacBeth, as he is stuck in the middle of a situation he can't get out of. However, sympathy is lost when MacBeth commits evil deeds that he is only responsible for.

Macbeth is only persuaded to commit treason, but due to his paranoia he kills many more people. The main focus is Macbeth, being the unfortunate victim, from the 3 evil witches to Lady Macbeth. His downfall is caused by other people around him. Macbeth is the unfortunate victim of other people's greed and for this the reader sympathies.

The three withes are a physical presence of evil. They conspire to kill as many people as possible, under their superior, Hecate. Using their evil gift to see into the future, they can tell that by using Macbeth as a tool for destruction they can fill him with evil. To get Macbeth to do their evil bidding's, they first influence him by planting a seed of evil into his mind. By giving Macbeth that prophecy, they ensure that their plans will work. Macbeth is a good and loyal kinsman who would never harm his King.

Were it not for outside forces, he would have lived happily as Thane of Cawdor, a high position title in itself. Macbeth does not even want to kill King Duncan. He says "chance may crown me without my stir", which means that if he become king, he would not commit any evil to get there. Fearing the witches' message means that he will kill the king in the future, he says "Present fears are less than horrible imaginings".

Three evil withes foretell that Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor and even King of Scotland. Macbeth ignored their prophecies, but after he was promoted to Thane of Cawdor for his brave fight in the war, Macbeth wonders if he could become king, and than his ambition takes over. Up until this point, sympathy is lost, as MacBeth takes a turn for the worst, obeying to his wife's commands, and being tempted by the thought of becoming king. Lady Macbeth is an ambitious woman like her counter-part, but there the reader never feels sympathetic for her. She is an evil women, blinded by her greed, she makes MacBeth commit evil deeds, and leads herself and MacBeth to their self destruction. Macbeth writes to his wife, telling her about the witches and how one prophecy has already come true.

As soon as she hears about it, she calls on evil spirits to fill her full of cruelty, she says "Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here". ; she says that so she will kill the King if necessary. Macbeth, one the other hand, does not like a possible future by the witch's prophecy: that he will kill his King. This shows the difference between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It is only after much nagging and manipulation from his wife that he decides to go through with it, and then half-hearted ly, his wife uses insults, criticizes him, and makes him feel less than a man, so Macbeth finally gives in. This shows how evil Lady Macbeth is, and how manipulative she is. As we see the changes from the start of the play to the end, we say MacBeth's mental state is horrific, he is full of negative energy, he has gone insane, from the noble man he was, he is in an emotional wreck.

After he meets the witches, Macbeth thinks out the idea of killing Duncan calmly, and then eventually decides not to do the deed. This is both morally good as well as sensible. Some of the evil of the play Macbeth, however, is responsible for him and can't be blamed on no one else. The murders of Banquo and Macduff's family are his fault alone; his paranoid tendencies alone are the reasons for the murder. Macbeth's murder of Banquo is due basically to the fact that Macbeth does not want all of his work to go to Banquo, and he is paid back for this by being tormented by his ghost. Sympathy is felt when he is being torment by Banquo's ghost, and this is basically the beginning of the end for MacBeth.

Macbeth kills Macduff and his family, some of which is unnecessary evil alone. The witches tell Macbeth to fear Macduff, his true enemy, but the murder of his whole family is pointless. This is when we see MacBeth being tormented by himself. The reader loosed all sympathy for him, because he is responsible, there were no outside forces making him commit these horrible deeds. Lady MacBeth has taken the same path as MacBeth, she is in an emotional wreck herself, which leads her to take her own life.

We see her go insane when she starts to sleep walk, she say "Will this blood ever be washed off my hands". Infront of the doctors. The reader sympathies for her at this stage, seeing her being tormented by that horrific night, when Macbeth took King Duncan's life. In conclusion, Macbeth is both a victim of external forces and some of his fate. The witches and his wife are both evil influences on him in the first part of the play.

And the irony is, at the start of the play the reader sympathies for Macbeth, and at the end hates Macbeth, and at the start of the play the reader does not sympathise for Lady Macbeth, and at the end the reader sympathies. So sympathy is lost and gained for these to characters.