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Macbeth Critical Annalysis

Michelle West
Ms. Riahi
ELA IV-6
16 May 2008
Macbeth Critical Analysis
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth illustrates how greed for wealth and power can destroy a person’s logic or reason. Macbeth proves that providing someone with a small amount of power leaves him striving for more. Lady Macbeth is loving to her husband but at the same time ambitious, as shown by her immediate determination for Macbeth to become king. The acts that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth perform cause them to become sleepless; sleep that would help to comfort their guilt and lies. Lady Macbeth appears to be kind and gentle, however, she embodies underlying sinister intensions. Shakespeare, through the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth demonstrates that appearances can be deceiving. Macbeth’s tragedy of continuing on a path of shame relates to that of powerful members in modern society. Enron’s former chief executive, Jeffrey Skilling, was found guilty on counts of fraud, conspiracy, and on making false statements about his company. The traits that Jeffrey Skilling, shows mark him as a modern day Macbeth.
In the course of the Scottish tragedy, Macbeth repeatedly misinterprets the guilt that he suffers as being a specimen of fear. Consequently, his characteristic way of dealing with his guilt is to face it directly by committing still more misdeeds, and this, of course, only generates further shame. When Macbeth is alone, we discover that he is a loyal thane to Duncan, explaining that “[he and Lady Macbeth] will proceed no further in this business: [Duncan] hath honor’d [him] of late…” (Shakespere.I.VII.31-35). Macbeth makes a decision not to kill the King. The character of Macbeth displays many signs of guilt throughout the play, showing his “…unnatural character of evil in order to gain an immediate end…” (Introduction to…) to his guilt and shame. Macbeth’s actions of guilt are not brought upon himself by his own course of action. Lady Macbeth is the overriding...