Macbeth Themes
Macbeth is the story of a Scottish warrior lord (or Thane) called "Macbeth". A brave fighter and member of the nobility, Macbeth is admired by all. His weakness however, is his ambition which, when tempted, prompts him to pursue the assassination of his King, Duncan. As a result, Macbeth gains control of the monarch. The play traces how Macbeth's guilty conscious leads him to pursue further murderous acts. Slowly we see the world of Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth (who goes insane) fall apart, culminating in a fight to the death between Macbeth and Macduff another Thane who seeks revenge on Macbeth for the slaughter of his family. Shrouding all of this is the element of the supernatural, represented by the three witches whose ambiguous prophecies at first tempt and then confuse Macbeth. The play is a "tragedy" and, as such, concerns the notion of divine punishment of a noble but a mortal man who through his pride (hubris), expressed as a weakness in Macbeth's case, commits an act which upsets the natural order of the world, culminating in punishment from God or the gods (tragedy comes from the ancient Greeks) of the man and thus restoring the natural order once again (this is called "catharsis").
This point is superseded by the fact that he has already interfered with the course of his fate by killing Duncan: an action of the supernatural. Ironically, in the final act her conscious' awakening drives her insane trying to wash of the guilt (metaphorically portrayed as a delusion of blood) of her hands, "Out damned spot! Out I say!" (5. The theme of the play, according to G. Macbeth kills Duncan's servants, blaming them for the crime. 51) and his fear to let his eyes see the reality of what he is about to do " which the eye fears, when it is done, to see" (1. Here the blood symbolically represents the blood of Duncan, that bears witness to sin they have committed. Unlike Duncan and Malcolm, Banquo is not an immediate threat; it is only his children who will be the "future kings". "A little water clears us of this deed: How easy is it, then!" (2. In this period of time Lady Macbeth's mind suppresses the reality of the situation to fanaticize of the "fair" things that are to come. However, her remorse is too prolonged to wash away her guilt for her previous desire of power, eventually her struggle between appearance and reality leads to her suicide.
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Acceptance Essays
