Themes Of Macbeth Essay Research Paper Themes — страница 2

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. A paranoia that actually leads to all the rest of his murders including that of the chamberlains. He is so worried that someone might find him out that he kills anyone that could challenge him even in the slightest way. It is actually quite surprising to me that he never tries to kill his wife, because with her insane behavior, she must have been a challenge to his throne. The paranoia that sets in which causes him

to attempt a murder upon Banquo and Fleance is twofold. Firstly, the witches that predicted his kingship also said that Banquo?s descendants would take the throne, which he holds, and secondly that he had mentioned to Banquo that he might attempt to kill Duncan. So Macbeth sends out two murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance. The third murderer has a questioned identity; some think it was Macbeth himself while others assume it is another hired hand. In short terms the murderers kill Banquo, but young Fleance escapes. In the next scene, that of a banquet that was to honor Banquo, Macbeth sees his friends ghost. The ghost of Banquo was bloodied and looked horrible. It is another example of Macbeth feeling the guilt of his murder but this time the bloody theme is shown in a different

manner. He says to the ghost ?Avaunt and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee! Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; Thou hast no speculation in those eyes which thou dost glare with (Shakespeare 321). At another point he says ?Never shake thy gory locks at me?(Shakespeare 289). Macbeth again is having visions of the gore that he has caused. He can not shake the guilt from himself and throughout the play the blood represents his guilt and all the death his ambition has caused. The bloodshed in the play does not stop at that point though. In another set of predictions the witches inform Macbeth to ?Beware Macduff.? Macbeth?s extreme sense of Paranoia sets in, and he sends another set of murderers to kill Macduff at his home. The murderer finds that Macduff has fled

Scotland to try and convince Malcolm and England to fight Macbeth. The murderer takes it upon himself to kill Macduff?s son. Macduff, enraged finally makes Macbeth pay for his mindless aggression. Macbeth is left to defend his castle alone against Macduff and Malcolm. Before this happens though, Macbeth considers ending his own pain and guilt by drawing his own blood, he says ?Why should I play the Roman fool and die on mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes do better upon them?( Shakespeare 272). He goes on to tell Macduff that he feels no pain in killing him because the guilt of his soul is already stained with his blood, for he had ordered his family to be killed. Macduff then calls Macbeth as a bloodier villain than any word could describe. Macbeth tells Macduff that

his blood cannot be shed by anyone that was born of a woman. All these quotes lead back to the theme of bloodiness. They concentrate on how their lives our sealed by blood the material that keeps them going. They never talk about killing; they talk about the loss of a man?s blood. So if Macbeth?s soul was stained with blood, it was clear how his lifeended. He could not avoid this metaphor throughout the play, how he caused so many peoples blood shed, that it is his blood in the end which is drawn by Macduff that kills him. The Tragedy of Macbeth is a story that has been told and acted for hundreds of years. It was one of the first works that had murder as the basis for its plot. Shakespeare has been dissected by many great scholars and taught to millions of people. It has taught

the lesson that ambition can become a fault. Macbeth?s ambition causes him to do many things he would not otherwise have done, a fault many of us have; he just took it to the extreme. The blood that stained Macbeth reminded him of all the wrongdoing he had done. The blood represented the errors in his ways. Blood represents life, and when you are bleeding in such a way that the sea could not soak up your blood you are a man destined to die. The blood represented the life death and purgatory of the great Macbeth. In today’s society, greed, jealousy, and envy is the root of all evil and I believed that this was true in this story along with the theme of blood which represents guilt. Scott Eckers belived in this also. “Because of greed, Macbeth (and Lady Macbeth) want more power