“It’s so hard to forget pain, but it’s even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace. (- Chuck Palahniuk) There are times in which people feel ecstatic or overjoyed for some reason. We may ask them why but their answer would probably be “because I’m happy”. People might not think about it but we might ask ourselves, what does it mean to be happy. In Macbeth his happiness was to have the throne of his cousin while in Federigo’s Falcon it was to have the woman he loved by his side. In the video, The Science of Happiness, gratitude is what makes us as humans truly happy.
The play of Macbeth is about a man called Macbeth who got a prophecy that he was going to be king. Once his first prophecy, being a cawdor, came true he did everything in his power to make sure he would be king. He strongly believed that taking the throne would his life better or happier. He had already had land because he was already a cawdor, the king even went as far as to give Macbeth more land for his services. All that land meant nothing to Macbeth because he wanted it all. His decision to complete the prophecy led him to be consumed by greed. He was convincing himself that he was doing this for the happiness of him and his wife. These thoughts led Macbeth to murdering the king, his cousin, Duncan. Macbeth’s best friend Banquo knew of his prophecy and soonly discovered that Macbeth killed the king. Paranoid about being discovered Macbeth ordered the murder of Banquo. Macbeth thought that now he could rein the kingdom of Scotland without anyone to accuse him of murder and for a while no one did. They should be happy now right? On the contrary Macbeth and his wife began going insane. In the end, Macbeth was killed and his wife died of insanity. Macbeth believed that having everything that his cousin had would make him happier than he was earlier on in the story but instead he was constantly consumed with guilt of his actions and died a horrible death. The story of Macbeth proves that having everything doesn’t make people happy. Having money and fame like celebrities isn’t going to make you happy. If Macbeth was just content with what he had he might’ve been king eventually without the
Macbeth is the main character in this Play, he is at the beginning a guy who seems emotionless and cold. He wants to be king and to have the ultimate power, he wants his wife to be happy and proud of him.To achieve all his goals he tries everything to become a friend of the king, duncan, and is really nice to him even thought he just has the ultimate power in his mind. After a while Macbeth is getting tired of always being nice and faking everything so his wife is trying to persuade him to keep doing everything to be king. Macbeth is getting help from three witches who set them all the thoughts about being king in his mind, with his wife many people want to convince him to kill duncan, so Macbeth is under a lot of pressure. At the end of the play when macbeth killed duncan and reached his goal to be king,he is really confident and full of himself what makes him think he can get anything and win everything, but when he fights against Mcduff his head got cut off and he dies.
With attention to the murder of King Duncan, Macbeth struggles with the morality of his actions. Before the murder takes place, Macbeth begins to believe that the murder will “be the be-all and the end-all” to his clear conscious and would risk him to eternal damnation (Act I, line 5). Yet, the murder would bring him power over Scotland and he “shalt be kind” as told by the Weird Sisters(Act 1, line 50). Macbeth goes off of his ambition to murder King Duncan. The internal struggle of choosing mortality over motives brought forth an intense shift of loyalty to betrayal. The murder caused for Macbeth to turn on Scotland and only care for his own selfish motives. The betrayal causes for the play to become horrific and have a double meaning. Macbeth must put on a face to hide his murder to become the king. The double meaning is how Macbeth looks like a hero to all of Scotland, but only the people on the inside know of his horrific actions. He had to murder to to get the position of King, but the
Greed always has its negative consequences, and in Macbeth’s case, it took a drastic negative effect on him and his kingdom and it took a strong toll on him. This play is about a noble warrior and his downfall. After an encounter with some witches, he was informed about his future, causing something to snap in his soul. Now that we know of his future, he will do whatever it takes to accomplish his future even if it means crossing over to the dark side. After many murders to get what he wants, he becomes greedier, unstable. A psycho with unlimited power, and with this much power, he is definitely going to make a mistake, which he eventually did, and that mistake is that he made enemies. His greed ultimately caused corruption in
The writer, Shakespeare, illustrates to the audience that the consequences do not just affect the person who have the ambitions, but it also affects the people around them. He does this by expressing the ambition through the characters of Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are shown to be ambitious and their ambition feeds off of each other. Macbeth is initially shown to the audience as a brave and selfless soldier who is loyal to his king till the day he dies. But, once Macbeth hears the prophecy of the three witches’, (that he will become the King of Scotland), Macbeth changes. He develops a deep, dark and horrible ambition of ruthlessly murdering the king and taking his place. Macbeth then writes to Lady Macbeth telling her of his ambitions. This leads to Lady Macbeth provoking Macbeth’s ambitions instead of telling him to forget about it. As she provokes Macbeth the audience can clearly see that this woman is bad news. “Was the hope drunk?Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?... and wakes it now, to look so green and pale which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, and live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting 'I
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragedy in which the main characters are obsessed by the desire for power. Macbeth’s aspiration for power blinds him to the ethical implications of his dreadful acts. The more that Shakespeare’s Macbeth represses his murderous feelings, the more he is haunted by them. By analyzing his hallucinations it is possible to trace his deteriorating mental state and the trajectory of his ultimate fall. Throughout the play Macbeth is never satisfied with himself. He feels the need to keep committing crime in order to keep what he wants most: his kingship. The harder Macbeth tries to change his fate the more he tends to run into his fate. His ambition and struggle for power was Macbeth’s tragic flaw in the play.
Initially, Macbeth’s ambition for power is subdued by his longing to hold onto his honor and dignity. Unfortunately, Macbeth lets go of his integrity and kills the unguarded Duncan and so in an attempt to keep the guilt of his deeds to himself, distances himself from not only his wife but also has one of his closest friends murdered. Finally, Macbeth’s thirst for power and greatness emptied him of everything he had; dignity, respect, and honor. Ultimately, motivation that is founded on selfish reasons leads one down a path that strippes one of everthing they have and so takes away any meaning to
In the play, The Tragedy of Macbeth written by William Shakespeare, the main character, Macbeth, chases after power by going after the king position in Scotland. In the play, Macbeth changes from basically not worrying about whether or not he will be king, to going after the king so that Macbeth will rule the kingdom. At the very beginning, Macbeth encounters the evil witches and the witches greet Macbeth as the Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and King hereafter. The funny part about this is that Macbeth is the Thane of Glamis but, not the Thane of Cawdor because the current Thane of Cawdor is still living, and Macbeth certainly is not the king of Scotland because King Duncan is king. The things the witches say to Macbeth gets into his head and this is where the desire for power originates. Macbeth decides to kill the current King and Macbeth continues to murder people. Macbeth hires goons to kill Banquo and Banquo’s son, Fleance, because the evil witches hint that Banquo will not be king but, Banquo will heir kings. Macbeth is a character that struggles to free himself from chasing after power due to him wanting to rule the kingdom and Macbeth will do whatever possible to keep the throne. Macbeth performs multiple murders just to keep his throne from falling into somebody else’s hand.
Macbeth, a character that is ruthless with power takes action to get that happiness fulfilled. Even if it harms individuals. The tyrant receives three prophecies that will ensure happiness. “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis! All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! All hail, Macbeth! That shalt be king hereafter.” (Act I, scene iii, 50-53). With the three prophecies in mind Macbeth is persuaded to do such deeds that are no less than inhumane. Macbeth knows that these prophecies grant one step further towards happiness, as well one step further towards compromise. “That is a step On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, for in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires:” (Act 1, scene iv, 55-58) From this quotes, it learnt that Macbeth is willing to go to some extent to sabotage anyone to get the throne, ensuring the prophecy. With the death of the King, and the knowledge that Macbeth committed the crime there is a step further taken toward happiness among Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. This is the
Ambition has been a driving force of humanity since the beginning of time. Emotions have always had a strong influence on humanity, specifically emotions that tend towards the ruin of others and the gain another. Throughout the history of humanity there have been many examples of people abusing their position of power, to gain something they more than likely did not deserve. Whether it be Hitler and his repulsive ascension to becoming chancellor of Germany, or Kim Jong Un’s obsession with obtaining nuclear weapons at the cost of the people, humanities struggle with greed is unceasing. No one better illustrates this unrelenting thirst for power more than Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth is a good, brave, and beloved man at the beginning of the play with the end of his latest battle heralding a new title for him. Fate though, seems to have different plans for the good, albeit, ambitious Macbeth. He is told by the 3 weird sisters that he will one day become king. Thus igniting the flame of greed within Macbeth, signaling his descent into madness and the guilt he feels towards the deeds he has done. Lady Macbeth is much the same in the sense that once she knew of Macbeths own ambition, it hatched her own deep seeded desire for the crown as well. However, there various similarities end with the death of Duncan and the way they both deal with the guilt over what they did. In the play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have similarly great ambition, but this intense avarice in the end leads to their ruin in differing ways.
Throughout reading the play, Macbeth changes a lot from being a man of loyalty and honesty, to a man of whom is power hungry and greedy. This shows how the more power you receive the more power you want; which in many cases, such as this one leads to destruction. Many of the choices that Macbeth made were influenced by the power that he had, and this power began to take over him. This then lead to greed and destruction of not only others, but himself as well.
Both themes in the play have a connection to real life situations that are relevant to today’s society. All of us have moments in our lives in which we must choose between goodness and greed, and, when we choose poorly, our lives, our families and even our countries turn out to be just as fragile. It is in the blood of most people to desire more power but it is some that take it further into an obsession which leads to improper actions. Macbeth shows us what the lure of power can do, and how it can make a person blind to moral reason and common sense. The envy and desire to possess and people’s willingness to do anything to get it is something that relates to any setting. The main moral message is about naked, unchecked, almost brutal ambition, and the lengths that a person will pursue it to achieve ultimate power. A modern equivalence that can be drawn to this scene is Hitler during WWII. Hitler had a lot in common with Macbeth, including the steady history of betrayals and will willingness to commit unspeakable crimes against other human beings to advance his cause. Another characteristic of Macbeth is his paranoia which results from the predictions of the witches. Because
This angers Macbeth and enables him to follow Lady Macbeth's scheme to kill the King easier. Macbeth's first murder is definitely a trying experience for him. However, as the play progresses, killing seems easy and the only solution to maintain his reign of the people of Scotland. Macbeth becomes increasingly ambitious as the play goes on. The witches prophecies and Lady Macbeth's influence intensifies his ambition and drives Macbeth to obtain and maintain his title of Scotland by whatever means, even murdering his best friend, Banquo. "Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, ...no son of mine succeeding. If't be so, for Banquo's issue have I filed my mind; For them the gracious Duncan I have murder'd; ...To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings! (Act III. sc.I) At this point Macbeth's passion becomes more and more extreme to the point where no one stands in his way. His greed, violence, and hunger for power drastically declines his character. The witches prophecy, Lady Macbeth's influence, and Macbeth's own ambition all contribute greatly to his deterioration of character which results in his downfall, which was death. All the causes link to one another. If it wasn't for Macbeth's strong will and passion, Macbeth would still be his ordinary self. Because of this, Macbeth's curiosity of possibly becoming king was brought out which led to Lady Macbeth's controlling influence. Macbeth's ambition then builds and causes him to commit a
Macbeth’s Destruction Some have experienced a time when they have done the inevitable in retrieving what they want; however, very few have done appalling actions in achieving their goal. What many do not understand is these actions could guide anyone to their end, along with anyone or anything who has influenced in the process. In Shakespeare’s play, “The Tragedy of Macbeth”, Macbeth’s desperate measures are caused by his influences in gaining what he desires; be that as it may, lead to the foundation of his destruction. Throughout the play, the whole reason why Macbeth begun this deranged plan in becoming king in the first place was caused by the three witches.
Many of people have heard the tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. The story revolves on a sequence of misfortunate events that take place when Macbeth makes immoral decisions to be king. In the play, Shakespeare shows how power can cause corruption in a human’s brain. Macbeth himself was not a very confident person, though he had a kind soul to begin with, he was easily influenced and gullible. Through the prophecies of the evil beings, an insignificant seed was planted in Macbeth. That spark of wealth and fortune caused the tyrant within him to awake. Which eventually lead to his fatal death. His ambition lead him to murder, go insane and become very superstitious.
Said Lady Macbeth, “Nought’s had, all’s spent. Where our desire is got without content: ’Tis safer to be that which we destroy than, by destruction, dwell in doubtful joy.” In Act III, Scene i Macbeth said of the witches and the murder, “For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered; put rancours in the vessel of my peace only for them; and mine eternal jewel given to the common enemy of man.” In those sentences, we can see the irony in the witches’ prophecies. The implied meaning of the witches’ prophecies was that Macbeth would be king. Macbeth took this to mean that he would be a happy king, and so dreams of him on the throne appeared. He thought that becoming king would be easy, he just had to get Duncan out of the way. Everything turned out as Macbeth had imagined, except that he was not happy as the king. The guilt from Duncan’s murder, not to mention that of Banquo’s, made being the king a horrible experience for Macbeth, all because of the witches. This irony would make the audience mistrust the witches in the back of their minds, and therefore also put a vague fear over the whole play, because of the realisation of the witches’ relentless sinister determination to disrupt peace and order in Scotland.