Macbeth Essay

Cassie 1789: Your Macbeth essay has many good points, and I encourage you to read Shakespeare. There are reasons why he is considered the greatest writer in the history of the world. I am offering you this detailed critique of your essay because you do have some mistakes in your reading, and also so that you have a chance to go over your work in detail.


"In the play, Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, a virtuous leader and loyal nobleman named Macbeth becomes a maniacal murderer when his ambitions become tainted with the desire for power and advancement. This sudden alteration in behavior supports the theme, ambition vs. greed and is proven through several significant scenes of violence."


The way you have structured your opening, you do not need a comma before "Macbeth." As to your characterization of Macbeth, I rather question it. Macbeth is brave, but notice that he has fought valiantly against an invasion. But virtuous and loyal is rather unproven. Most dramatists who have approached the play view Macbeth as someone whom the witches could work very easily. In this reading of the play, Macbeth already had all of the vile traits that he showed later in the play. It merely took the witches showing him the opportunity to push him to murder. So the transformation is sufficiently subtle that Banquo, who was with him at the first appearance of the witches, does not realize what is happening. Finally, is this a struggle of ambition against greed? Or is it a struggle of greed and ambition carried to murderous extremes?


"Macbeth is a strong good hearted man who is not naturally inclined to commit any kind of offensive acts but when the three witches tell him that he is destined to reign over Scotland and Cawdor his vision becomes clouded with greed. In Act 1 Scene 7 Macbeth murders king Duncan against his better judgement stating "The only thing motivating me is ambition, which makes people rush ahead of themselves toward disaster." Macbeth contemplates going through with the murder claiming that the king trusts him both as a kinsman and a host but in the end he is willing to do anything to secure a spot of prestige and wealth."


You should have a comma after "strong," and "good-hearted" is a compound. After "Cawdor," you need a comma. The murder occurs in Act II, between scenes 1 and 2. Your quote is not from the play; what you have is a rather flat paraphrase of the lines, "I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent, but only/ Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself/ And falls on the other."

You mentioned the witches' prophecy, but your phrasing is curious: "Scotland and Cawdor." Cawdor is a part of Scotland. At the time of this play, historically believed to be about 1,200-1,300, Scotland was divided into various feudal territories, ruled by "thanes." In England, these might have been dukes, barons, or earls - noblemen below the king. In Act I, scene iii, before the witches vanish, Macbeth musters the courage to speak to them, demanding an explanation of their prophecy which hailed him as thane of Glamis, thane of Cawdor, and to be king hereafter. Macbeth says:


Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:

By Sinel's death I know I am thane of Glamis;

But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives,

A prosperous gentleman; and to be king

Stands not within the prospect of belief,

No more than to be Cawdor.


So Macbeth is already thane of Glamis. Sinel seems to have been Macbeth's predecessor, but we do not know the exact connection. (There is a theory that she was the first husband of Lady Macbeth. Late in the play, Macduff will cry out, "he has no children," referring to Macbeth. Lady Macbeth, in Act I, scene vii, says, "I have given suck, and know/ How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me." Reading these two lines together, they seem to imply that Lady Macbeth had a child by someone other than Macbeth.)

A few lines after the witches vanish, Ross greets Macbeth, telling him that the king wants to see him, to reward him for his service, and "As an earnest of a greater honor,/ He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor:"


The thane of Cawdor was part of the rebellion. His treason has been discovered, and he will be executed, and the king has decided that Macbeth should have his title, so Macbeth is now the thane of Cawdor.


That Macbeth is willing to contemplate murder is shown by the letter which Lady Macbeth reads in Act I, scene vii. This is not the letter of a truly innocent man. He is willing to go far to be king.


"Once Macbeth murders the king, his blood thirsty rage goes into full throttle. New threats continue to obstruct his path to power: the prophecy that all of Banquo's ancestors with take the throne and Macduff's quest to halt his destructive ways. In Act 3 Scene 1 Macbeth orders two men to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance in hopes that their deaths will bring him closer to his goal. Macbeth then viciously murders the Macduffs wife and son just to spite him. In the end Macbeth meets his maker. All his atrocious attempts to become king have failed."


"Bloodthirsty" is a single word. The sentence beginning "New threats" is a fragment. "Full throttle" is a modern idiom, nearly slang, that is questionable in an essay of this sort. You need a comma after Fleance, and a period in Macduff's. More serious, you indicate that Macbeth never became king. On the contrary, with Duncan dead, the kingship was vacant. The Scottish monarchy was not fully hereditary at this point, and when Duncan's two sons fled the kingdom, the thanes would have picked their most powerful member to be king. That was Macbeth, and in Act II scene iv, there is the exchange between Ross and Macduff:


"R: Then 'tis most like/ The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.

Md: He is already named, and gone to Scone/ To be invested."


Scottish tradition required that the coronation of the king of Scotland had to take place at Scone. Notice also in Act III, scene I, that Macbeth there speaks as if he were more than one person: "Here's our chief guest." "Tonight we hold a solemn supper." "We should have else desired your good advice, . . but we'll take to-morrow." "we will keep ourself/ Till supper-time alone." This is what is known in literature as the "royal we." Royalty refer to themselves as plural rather than singular. So Macbeth is king. Finally, the killing of Macduff's family was more than spite. The witches warned Macbeth that Macduff was someone he should fear, and in the end, Macduff kills him.


"A man whose soul purpose was to protect and serve his people has been thrown off the path of righteousness and caged in chasm of pure greed. He was not satisfied with being a loyal kinsman so when he was given a taste of power he became blood thirsty monster. In each brutal murder, ambition, aided with the tainted desire for power, drives Macbeth to commit continuous acts of cruelty."


I am quite sure you mean "sole purpose." Again, I think you overstate Macbeth's innate virtue. He is a man of considerable ambition, so that it is not that far from his original position to his trail of blood.


I hope you do not have the impression that I have written this comment as a putdown. That is not my purpose at all. Rather, I have tried to point out some of the details of Macbeth. It is a wonderful play, probably my favorite in all of Shakespeare, and I think that the more you know of it, the more exciting it is.

Not bad not good...It seems like it was written in a hurry and may be useful for ppl wanting to read the essence of MacBeth from Shakespeare in a few words....more elaboration could be done for sure for this play....it starts with a short description of what happens in the play and then the final paragraph is a short explanation and meaning of what has happened.

The problem is that it should have more analysis but it's not bad.