Macbeth Tragic Themes Essays - Characters In Macbeth, Macbeth

Macbeth Tragic Themes One of the themes in The Tragedy of Macbeth is that of blood. Macbeth is known for his skills as a warrior and his mercilessness that is shown in his killing of MacDonwald, this warrior mentality spreads though into his life and Macbeth begins to make killing a habit. When he is told in a prophecy that he shall be king, Macbeth takes it upon himself to murder, Duncan, king of Scotland, after this murder though he has visions of blood on his hands, blood nothing could remove. As Macbeth becomes more and more ambitious, he also begins to kill more people to get what he wants, more power. The theme of blood is shown throughout the play and it is a problem that Macbeth finds harder and harder to rid himself of after each killing. At the beginning of the play Macbeth is an esteemed member of the army, probably the greatest fighter in all of Scotland. A rebellious tribe led by MacDonwald was defeating the Scots, until Macbeth"single-handedly" defeated the rebels and "unseamed him (MacDonwald) from the nave to th' chops" (Shakespeare 279). This battle gave Macbeth great respect among his peers and even the king himself. Macbeth's savagery at this point in the play was less than at any other time. His barbarity is restricted to the battlefield, but in this the first scene you get a forewarning of Macbeth's future, that of bloodshed and violence. On his way home from the war, 3 witches give him predictions of his future. "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" (Shakespeare 290)! Macbeth was already Thane of Glamis, but he wondered why they would say that he would be Thane of Cawdor and even KING. Macbeth dismissed this as tomfoolery and impossible. But, later Macbeth was told by the king that because of his valiant fighting against MacDonwald that he was given the title of Thane of Cawdor. This made Macbeth think of the prophecy and his chance to be king! The desire for power began to consume Macbeth and his wife, and this ambition caused all of the bloody events that were to follow. Macbeth's tragic flaw, ambition, grew enormously when he heard of his designation as Thane of Cawdor. He wanted the kingship that Duncan held much more, as did his wife, Lady Macbeth. They plotted to hurry Macbeth's reign by killing Duncan themselves. Throughout the play his ambition is a precursor for someone's death. While King Duncan sleeps, Lady Macbeth prepares for her husband to kill the king. Macbeth brutally stabs the king twice, killing him. After the murder, Macbeth is clearly broken, hardly believing what his ambition caused him to do. He says, "What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes! Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No; this mine hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine making the green one red" (Shakespeare 320). Macbeth is troubled by knocking and says that nothing can wash his hands clean, and the blood will make the seas red. Lady Macbeth feels bad to have red hands but to be innocent of the crime itself. She tells him to wash his hands and retire and put on his nightgown so that they will not be suspicious to the watchers. Macbeth wishes he did not know what he had done. The blood on his hands shows that his hands are"stained with guilt", that nothing could be done to change what he did. His guilty conscience is represented by the fact that he will always see his blood covered hands. But instead of this act restraining Macbeth and keeping him from killing again, it causes his ambition to grow and the murders to grow. In the morning when it is found that Duncan was dead, and the evidence Macbeth left shows that the chamberlains killed him. In a false sense of fury Macbeth butchers the chamberlains saying that he did so because in his great love for the king, he felt the need to kill his murderers. The death toll begins to mount as Macbeth's ardor makes him believe that killing is the way out of all his dilemmas. This will eventually cause his own downfall. Macbeth's next assassination comes at the hand of his friend Banquo and his son Fleance. Macbeth's ambition and power has caused him to develop a grave sense of paranoia.