Gonzalez
Eduardo Gonzalez
Mr. Briles
English
23/03/2018
Macbeth changes by the greed and influenced by his wife.
His wife triggered the protagonist's ambition. She pressured him into killing the
King, for her greed, causing his need to become King blossomed. He began killing
everyone and anyone to keep his place on the throne. From his first victim to his last, he
was thrown into a psychotic state of mind and lost touch with his mortality. The author
William Shakespeare is well known for his portrayal of his characters in his plays and is
one of the most well known literary figures. It is accurately depicted in one of his many
biographies. It states “ William Shakespeare has long been recognized as the world's
finest dramatist and a poet of high rank, and most modern critics consider him the
world's greatest literary figure” (Facts On File 1).
His work has been translated into multiple languages and shown in theatres
around the world. In Shakespeare's’ play Macbeth he shows what unchecked ambition
can do to a strong, virtuous hero. Throughout the play Macbeth, the titular protagonist
characteristics change; his goal leads him to lose his morals and sanity, becoming a
murderer undeserving of the throne.
The main protagonist first loses his morality when he decides to kill his house guest,
King Duncan. Macbeth went against his own righteous belief, a subject and kinsman
should not wish for the death of his King, or want to kill his King. He should protect his
Gonzalez
King as a friend, and as a General from any harm or assassination attempts. Lady
Macbeth pressures him to go against his moral belief, and he knew that a host should
shut the door against anyone that wished to harm his guest and give his guest nothing
but safety in his home. The main protagonist then continues to provide himself with
reasons not to kill King Duncan; he states that Duncan has been nothing but a kind and
virtuous leader to all of Scotland. As the play continues Macbeth ambition continues to
grow, a great example is when he is disputing with himself,“To prick the sides of my
intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which overlaps itself And falls on the’ other. “
(Shakespeare 1.7.26-27). Thus the main protagonist ambition causes him to stray from
his ethical beliefs and kill a man who was nothing but good willed. This is a quality of an
undeserving King.
The protagonist has lost his sanity, and his mental health makes him an
undeserving King. He first begins to show that his mental health is deteriorating in 2.1.
He sees this dagger before he kills his house guest King Duncan. He states that the
dagger is nothing but a figment of his fevered brains imagination. “Is this a dagger
which I see before me, ... I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal
vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false
creation Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?” (Shakespeare 2.1.33-34). The
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