Shakespeare's Influence On Macbeth

Words: 1270
Pages: 6

Throughout our lives, many people will influence us to follow different paths. They may be people who we trust, such as our parents, and our friends, and they may be the people who we do not get along with. We will grow close to the people around us, and they will often impact how we act, even when we do not realise it. If one has a positive relationship with someone, they may value what that person does, and try and act more like them. On the other hand, if one has a negative relationship with someone, one may try and avoid acting the way that that person acts. Whether you like it or not, the people who you live your life around will influence who you are, for the good or for the bad. For instance, take William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The main …show more content…
Shakespeare makes it clear that Lady Macbeth has strong influence over Macbeth’s actions. This is shown when he refers to Lady Macbeth as his “dearest love” (I.v.63). This implies that he has a positive relationship with his wife, meaning that he trusts her and values what she says. Lady Macbeth uses this steadfast love to her advantage, by convincing Macbeth to kill his king. She hints heavily towards what she wants, by telling Macbeth to look like a “flower”, but instead act like “the serpent under’t” (I.v.65-66). After contemplating the idea of killing his own king over the night, Macbeth decides that he will “proceed no further in this business” (I.iiv.29). Here we can see that Macbeth is trying to live up to his values and put up resistance against doing that which is evil. After hearing this, Lady Macbeth resorts to insulting Macbeths manliness - even suggesting that she may be more of a man than Macbeth (I.iiv.54-59). This seems to be the final straw as Macbeth, once again, has the courage needed to kill the king. Lady Macbeth caused Macbeth, at the time he was most unsure of his decisions to push forward and do what was needed to be done in order to be …show more content…
At the beginning of the play, we can see that Macbeth is fighting for his king, proving his loyalty and earning him the title of Thane of Cawdor. His wife also hints to Macbeths kindness, as she knows his character well after being married to him for a period of time (I.v.14-16). These positive traits show that Macbeth is not the horrible that monster that many people think he always was. The main reason that Macbeth turned into the vile king he was at the end of the play is because of the manipulation shown above from the witches and Lady Macbeth. In a sense, he began to beleive that “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (I.i.12). What this quote is trying to say is that what Macbeth originally thought was “foul”, or immoral, now becomes “fair” or justifiable in his mind because of the benefits it brings him. The first example of this is when Macbeth kills Duncan in his sleep and blames it on his guards. Obviously, this is “foul” because he is killing his own king, an innocent person who he is supposed to be indebted to. However, Lady Macbeth and the witches convince him to believe that is “fair”, because he will earn the title of king. After this point, Macbeth begins committing heartless deeds of his own accord to protect his power - such as when he murders Banquo and Macduff’s family. Banquo was a threat to Macbeth because the witches prophecy said that