Saturday, December 25, 2010

Was Macbeth a good man turned evil or was he evil all along?

This is the ultimate Catch-22 question.  Every one of us has the potential to do good or evil deeds.  It is up to us to use our free will to make proper judgments as we see fit for each experience we encounter.

Having said that, Macbeth knows the witches' prophecies will come true. Two of the three are true when he decides to be persuaded by his wife to kill Duncan.  Part of his argument against killing Duncan is that he can wait for Fate to bring him the crown, yet he doesn't do that.  He hears that Duncan has bestowed this honor on Malcolm, and he loses his mind.  The witches plant a seed...the same seed...in both Macbeth and Banquo's mind.  Only Macbeth acts evilly on the information.

The potential for evil was there already.  It depended on Macbeth's choices--he chose to be swayed by the easy road to success than to wait for the right and honorable way to attain the third and final title in the prophecy: KING.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Discuss at least two characteristics of Romanticism in John Keat's poem "Ode toa Nightingale".

The poet in Ode To A Nightingale  is an escapist .He escapes through imagination .On his way the bower of the bliss wher the nightingale is ...