Asher Period 2 Team 6 Raymond Yonami

MACBETH ESSAY

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Shakespeare conveys the idea of how man’s perception of fate affects a man’s actions. Though wisely using many literary devices, his use of characterization on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth stood out the most. In the beginning of the play Macbeth is characterized as a strong and bold warrior until he engaged with the witches and was told a prophecy that brought him to his demise. On the other hand, Lady Macbeth uses her knowledge to think everything through and plan everything out. Lady Macbeth being able to manage and pull Macbeth into her plans, Shakespeare creates a theme to show the idea that man’s perception of fate controls his actions.

Starting from Macbeth, when the witches appeared and predicted for him that he will soon become the king, Macbeth was in distrust: never hearing that there was a new title for the king and the fact that he was going to become king sounded ridiculous to him. However, Macbeth eventually became the Thane of Cawdor, realizing his new fate. After this event, Macbeth feels indestructible and starts to become ridiculously arrogant. At the end of the play he raced into the battlefield confident enough to think that he wouldn’t get killed. His arrogance and cockiness that Shakespeare characterizes him eventually led him to his demise.

Aside from Macbeth, Lady Macbeth strictly uses her knowledge to maneuver through her obstacles. To show this, when she received a notification that Macbeth could be king, she immediately thinks of a plan to make him King in order to get her position has a queen. Shakespeare characterized her in a way that she would never back down from her own plan. From the way she is characterized you can see that Lady Macbeth is predominately stronger. Though she controlled everything, eventually, she completely lost her mind and became insane, leading her to commit suicide and ending up in a similar fate to that of Macbeth.

In conclusion, Shakespeare’s characterization of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth clearly shows the result to their actions. Though clearly different characters, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth fell to their demise in a similar way. Due to Macbeth and his arrogance, and Lady Macbeth’s action Shakespeare was able to end his play with his famous tragedy.