Macbeth

macbeth How and why does Macbeth turn from war hero into evil murderer? William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright regarded as the greatest writer in English language. Shakespeare produced most of his work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories. Then he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608. This included Macbeth and other. Macbeth play is about the history of England, Scotland and Ireland. It’s about three witches and Macbeth, who does everything to become and then stay the king of Scotland. There are also other inmportant characters in the play. In this essay I will show how and why Macbeth turned from war hero, which meant he was a brave and honest man, into evil murderer. At the start of the play Macbeth is a brave, honest and powerful man who kills Macdonwald himself in battle. Every one is happy and especially King Duncan who is overjoyed and decides to make Macbeth his new Thane of Cawdor. This proves Macbeth that he is someone everyone will now love and respect. The witches’ predictions of becoming ” Thane of Glamis!”, ” Thane of Cawdor!” and ” king hereafter” made him feel happy and excited because he will finally get what he dreams of. He knew that he couldn’t become the king before the actual king is dead, so immediately the idea of murder jumps into his mind. Now we don’t think about Macbeth as selfless, loyal and patriotic person anymore. We kind of get this feeling that he can not be trusted. Macbeth believes the witches so easly because he likes what he hears and so he is predisposed to believe. Another reason he might believe the witches is because many people of Shakespeare’s time had an almost hysterical fear of witches. They thought that witches know everything and that everything they say is true. In Act One Scene Seven Macbeth is slightly reluctant to kill the king as he’s worried people might find out and their trust towards him will be gone forever. He also considers the good and bad sides of killing the king. He knows that if he kills the king he will be able to take over the king’s place and this is what he would like to happen. On the other hand he knows that killing such an important person will not be easy. Macbeth decides against murdering the king but Lady Macbeth belittles him for not being able to murder. She also threatens him that if he won’t do it she will leave him and she will not love him anymore. This threat wins Macbeth over and Lady Macbeth outlines her plan which is to kill King Duncan in his sleep while he is a guest at their castle. Macbeth turns from war hero into evil murderer when he kills one person, then he just have to continue with it. He had to keep on killing people so no one would that he is the murder. He started it because the three witches convinced him that he will become ‘Thane of Glamis’, ‘ Thane of Cawdor’ and ‘king hereafter’. Another reason which changed Macbeth was that he was sure about the three things that the witches has also told him. They showed him three apparitions. The first one was saying: ” beware Macduff;/ Beware the Thane of Fife” . The second apparition reassured Macbeth that ” none of women born/ Shall harm Macbeth” which meant that none born of women will hurt him. Therefore Macbeth was convinced that no one will hurt him because obviously everyone was born of women, but this is where the trick was. The third apparition tells Macbeth he has nothing to fear until ” Great Birnam wood moves to hight Dunsinane hill” near his castle. He also ignorned this vision because who obviously knew that wood can’t walk, but the witches tricked him again. So to the very end he was sure he will not die because no one is able to kill him. This is how Macbeth turned from honest, loyal and trusted war hero into evil murderer.