Motivation and Macbeth

If you didn’t find yourself screaming “whhhhhhhhhhhhhy!” during just about all of Shakespeare’s tragedies- you read them wrong. In particular, reading Macbeth over spring break brought back all of those emotions that I finally recovered from after reading Hamlet so...yay?

Macbeth was given his fortune of ruling the kingdom by the three witches, to which he warily accepted and tried not to think much of. To think that if Lady Macbeth hadn’t gotten her hands on that letter there would be no tragedy. As soon as she finds out the fantastic future Macbeth was just bestowed, she commits herself to making it a reality.

Macbeth alone couldn’t have thought of this plan- he didn’t want to kill King Duncan even when Lady Macbeth first bid him to. It was Lady Macbeth’s continuous and influential persuading that led Macbeth to wield a knife on not only his house guest, but his king.

When given power, Macbeth didn’t even seem to want it. He became paranoid, driven mad. Macbeth decided that he needed to kill everyone of his competitors for the throne- even killing his friend Banquo to assure his place as king. Later, Macbeth would refuse to sit at the feasting table for he saw Banquo’s ghost sitting down there.

Macbeth became a pawn in the hands of an incapable game maker. Lady Macbeth couldn’t truly carry out her plan. She couldn’t direct Macbeth because she was losing her mind herself- seen frantically scrubbing her hands of blood that only she can see. The two both go mad.

Lady Macbeth was driven for power and control-wanting to be queen more than anything else. Macbeth didn’t have this same drive, he was working for his wife. He was manipulated by Lady Macbeth to kill, and in the end, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, themselves, became victims of their own game.