Macbeth - william shakespeare

 Ambition and Greed as a sinfull Nature

Shakespeare's nature and the type of art which he does is not comparable to any other writer in terms of tragedy. He had made the fiction at a point that we feel every thing as real and not of fictious. But Shakespeare's plays have also served as important sources of adaptation.

(Many critics says that Macbeth was written in 1605 or 1606 and performed at Hampton Court in 1606 for King James I and his brother-in-law, King Christian of Denmark.)  

The play is generally classified as tragedy rather than a history. This derives perhaps from the fact that the story contains many historical elements including the entire character of Banquo, who was invented by a 16th-century Scottish historian.In addition to such fictionalization, Shakespeare took many liberties with the original story, manipulating the characters of Macbeth and Duncan to suit his purposes. In Holinshed's account, 

"Macbeth is a ruthless and valiant leader who rules competently after killing Duncan, whereas Duncan is portrayed as a young and soft-willed man. Shakespeare draws out certain aspects of the two characters in order to create a stronger sense of polarity. Whereas Duncan is made out to be a venerable and kindly older king, Macbeth is transformed into an indecisive and troubled young man who cannot possibly rule well".

There are other reasons why the play is considered a tragedy rather than a history. One reason lies in the play's universality. Rather than illustrating a specific historical moment, it presents a human drama of ambition, desire, and guilt. Like Hamlet, speaks the emotional and intellectual anxieties with which many audiences identify easily. Macbeth is a character who often seems infinitely real to audiences. This powerful grip on the audience is perhaps what has made Macbeth such a popular play for centuries of viewers and it also gives the reality aspect of life.

If we get a look over the whole play we can see that there are some loose ends in the text of the play that would seem to support the imagination of readers. In fact, the play's length gives it a crutial ending.The action flows from scene to scene, speech to speech, with a swiftness that draws the viewer into Macbeth's struggles. As this  play itself also begins to spiral towards to its violent end. Its a normal and also important aspect of mankind that when tragedy happens there is always a counter part happens. 

Theme derived from various illusions

Divine Inspiration:

The detailed play is set in motion of divine inspiration of the three witches. The inspiration fans the flames of ambition within Macbeth an lady macbeth serving as the primary couple to plan the death of the king and subsequently Banquo. But here a question arises that,

 What if he had ignored the witches’ statements? 

Such doubts however interesting, ultimately appears victorious, since the imagination itself is self-fulfilling. The witches know Macbeth’s tragic flaw and gives the irresistible temptation to become King, he will choose to commit murder even though he could simply discard their words. As it turns out, the imaginations are not only fated but fatal, as Macbeth's confidence in the witches leads him to fight a rash battle in the final act and also made him commit that he must have to do so.

Guilt and sorrow :

 We can have a look over the important lines which gives a view of fantacy are expressions of remorse. 

“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand?”

 exclaims Macbeth after he stabs Duncan .Similarly, Lady Macbeth is plagued by a “spot” that she cannot remove from her hand .At first physical remainders of a regrettable crime, the royal blood leaves permanent marks on the psyche of the couple, forever staining them with guilt and sorrow. The different ways in which the Macbeths cope with their crimes show how their characters develop.whereas Lady Macbeth is initially the one without scruples, urging Macbeth to take action, it is an overpowering sense of guilt and remorse that drives the Lady to her untimely death. Macbeth, on the other hand, seems to overcome the guilt that plagues him early on in the play and gives it an everlasting pain.

Views of Witches :

It was not expected just to use one as an personal earning but the overwhelming guilty conscience drives Lady Macbeth mad . In what concerns ghosts and visions, the relation of the natural to the supernatural in Macbeth is unclear. The three things that the witches summon are usually taken to be as“real”even if only as supernatural occurrences. But the matter is less clear when it comes to Banquo’ ghost. Macbeth is the only one who sees the ghost in a crowded room is this yet another projection of his mad gone mind or is it real to speak, a supernatural occurrence? Such ambiguities contribute to disgusted mood and sense of wireadness that pervade the play from the very opening scene with the three bearded witches and it shows that what type of influence had gone through the mind of Macbeth to the witches.

Natural and Supernatural illusions :

The illusion that profoundly matters if the witches’ inspiration is understood to be imposing a supernatural order on the natural order of things, the natural order can also be understood as responding with dangerous signs. For consideration  that ,

“The heavens, as troubled with man’s act, threatens his bloody stage” 

 In between the scene, the Old Man and Ross both agree that they saw horses eat each other. Even the events leading to the conclusion of the play can be understood as a negotiation of the natural and supernatural. Whereas Macbeth believes that he will live the “lease of nature” since Birnam Wood cannot possible come to Dunsinane Hill the forest is literally uprooted by the English army in accordance with the prophecy. This difderence between the natural and the supernatural forms a backdrop that suggests the epic proportions of the struggle over the Scottish crown and uplift the whole notion with a great imagination.

Duality and Fallacy :

The logical fallcy that is prevailing in the act is denoted by an important line,

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair Hover through the fog and filthy air”.

The first scene of the first act ends with these words of the witches, which Macbeth echoes in his first line. In a similar manner, many scenes conclude with lines of dichotomy or equivocation. Such lines evoke an air of deep uncertainty: while polarities are reversed and established values are overturned, it is entirely unclear as to whether the dichotomous clarity of “heaven or hell” trumps the equivocatory fogginess of “fair is foul, and foul is fair.” Thus, for Macbeth, this translates into an uncertainty as to whether the prophecies are believable. 

Ambition and Temptation :

Ambition and temptation both play a key factor in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s decision to kill Duncan. Macbeth possesses enough self-awareness to realize the dangers of overzealous ambition.And yet the temptation to carry out the witches' prophecy is ultimately too strong for Macbeth to curb his ambition. In Lady Macbeth’s lexicon, incidentally, “hope” is also another word for “ambition” and perhaps “temptation.” As Macbeth expresses his doubts about killing Duncan, she demands: 

“Was the hope drunk Wherein you dressed yourself” 

 Ironically, Lady Macbeth must herself rely on intoxicants to “make herself bold” before executing her ambitious and murderous plans . Once the intoxication wears off, Lady Macbeth finds that she is unable to cope with the consequences of her own "hope." Ultimately, ambition and temptation prove fatal for both the Macbeths.

Salvation and Damnation :

As a morality tale of sohas as its near contemporary Christopher Marlowe's  Dr. Faustus, Macbeth recognizes the damning consequences of his crime:

 Besides, this Duncan 
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been 
So clear in his great office, that his virtues 
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued against 
The deep damnation of his taking off.” 

And yet Macbeth carries out the crime, thus precipitating his own descent into hell. Later in the play, appropriately, Macduff calls Macbeth by the name of “hell-hound”. Indeed, the story of Macbeth is that of a man who fires in his damnation—in part because he cannot utter words that may attenuate his crime. As Duncan’s guards pray “God bless us” on their deathbed, Macbeth cannot say one word . His fate is thus sealed entirely by his own hands with a victorious battle in which a vailant hero kills a traitor and holds high the severed head. 

Defined result :

One moral of the story is that the course of fate cannot be changed. The events that the Weird Sisters predicted and set in motion at the beginning of the play happen exactly as predicted, no matter what the characters do to change them. Macbeth tries his hardest to force fate to work to his bidding, but to no avail. Banquo still becomes the father of kings and Macbeth still falls to a man not born of woman. The man who triumphs in the end is the one who did nothing to change the fate prescribed for him. The prophecy is self-fulfilling.

The river of time thus flows on, despite the struggles of man. Although Macbeth's reign of terror has made “the frame of things disjoint,” by the end of the play the tide of time has smoothed over Scotland. The unnatural uprising of Macbeth now in the past, Macduff comments that "the time is free. And Macbeth's life proves to be indeed,

"A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing". 

Time washes over his meaningless, bloody history.Banquo's family will give rise to the line of Stuart kings and Malcolm will regain the throne his father left him all exactly as if Macbeth had never this thing again...