MacBeth

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”MacBeth” is a play written by the famous British writer William Shakespeare (1504-1616). The play is about MacBeth, Thane of Glamis, and how his life changes after three witches predicted that he would be king of Scotland one day. The story takes place in Scotland and is a drama.
The whole story begins when MacBeth and his friend Banqou meets three evil witches who predicted that MacBeth would be king. At this time, MacBeth is a well-respected soldier who is admired and famous for his courage and good heart. But when he hears the witches’ prediction, he begins to want to murder the king of Scotland, Duncan. He writes his wife, Lady MacBeth, a letter, telling her about the witches and his plan on killing Duncan. She likes the idea, and soon convinces him to do it. They then together perform the murder and make the king’s servants look guilty. But after that, Macbeth’s good personality disappears and he becomes cold and paranoid. Lady MacBeth on the other hand, is quite happy with the situation. For her, everything went as planned. But soon, other obstacles appear and by the end of the play, several innocent people have been murdered. Only because of Macbeths and his wife’s desire for power and attention. This is basically what the play is about; yearning for power, fallen love, bloody murders and superstition. The play shows how MacBeth goes from a good man into a cold psychotic murder, loved by no one.
I have chosen to write about two interesting relationships and how they develop and change during the play. Both of them involve cold-blooded murders, which are strange considering that they were all good friends from the beginning. I am going to write about the relationships between MacBeth and Banquo, and MacBeth and MacDuff.


From the very beginning, MacBeth and Banquo are quite good friends. They live equal lives, since they’re both thanes. All in all, they like and are comfortable with each other. But all this changes when they meet the three witches one night. They are greeted with the words “Hail, Macbeth! Hail, Thane of Glamis! Hail, Macbeth! Hail, Thane of Cawdor! Hail, Macbeth, who will be king one day!” (Page 3). This surprises Macbeth, but his friend Banquo stays calm and asks what the witches have to say about his future. They answer him “Your children will be kings, although you won’t be king…” (Page 5). This statement puzzles both Macbeth and Banquo a bit, but to begin with, it’s nothing serious. They laugh about it, but then Ross, another thane, enters and tells Macbeth that he now has become the thane of Cawdor as a reward for his courage when defending Scotland. He now decides to kill the king as a final step to realize the predictions, but without telling anyone about it. The relationship between the two friends now starts to get a bit tensed. They don’t quite know what to believe, when the first prediction has come true. It’s just the two of them, and Lady Macbeth who knows about the witches. I think that Banquo didn’t believe the witches predictions from the beginning at all. He appears to be a very calm, down-to-earth kind of person. But when he hears about Macbeth’s new title, he gets confused and unsure about what’s real and not. But Macbeth on the other hand, is soon to blind with his desire to become king, to even think about his old believes about supernatural things. He gets so blinded that he gets his own friend killed.
Just before his own death, Banquo was thinking about what Macbeth may have done, which is killing the king, but he’s not sure that Macbeth is the guilty one. But that’s not Macbeth’s motive for killing him. His motive was his own thoughts. He thought that if he hadn’t killed the king, would Banquos future sons still become kings? The answer, that made him kill Banquo, was: probably not. Therefore, he convinces three men that Banquo is evil and makes the want to kill him. In my opinion, this is a result of pure and clear madness caused by a burning desire from Macbeth’s side. He kills his own friend, without any compassion, as a step on his way to become a psychotic, lonely man.


Now, I would like to talk about the feelings that appeared between Macbeth and MacDuff. To start with, it doesn’t really exist any feelings between them. They are quite neutral to each other. MacDuff’s first real contact with Macbeth in the play is when King Duncan has been murdered. Like everyone else, MacDuff hasn’t got a clue that Macbeth is the guilty one, so all of the participating thanes together concluded a pact, swearing that they together will find and kill the murderer “But with God on my side, I will fight the traitor who carried out this terrible murder! And I! And all of us!” (Page 20). This was the perfect thing for Macbeth to do. Because, back in those days, a promise was a promise, so by agreeing to fight the one who killed the king, he cleared himself from every little possible suspicion against him.
After this, MacDuff goes to England for a while, and when he returns, things have changed. Macbeth is now hunted and wanted for several murders, including the ones on MacDuff’s own family. Macbeth hired the same men that killed Banquo, to kill the family of MacDuff. He did this, because he was scared of him, because the witches told him to. “Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth, be careful of Macduff! Be careful of the Thane of Fife!” (Page 36).
So, when Macduff comes home and find out about his now dead family, he goes mad with grief and is convinced by his men to go after Macbeth. MacBeth himself, on the other hand, has had his second meeting with the evil witches who told him, not only to be careful of Macduff, but also that he “couldn’t be harmed by any man born from a woman” and that he “would never be beaten until Birnan Wood marched against him to Dunsinane Hill” (page 36). He then thinks he’s invulnerable, but soon sees that he isn’t. The first sign came when Banquo’s men was on their way to attack his castle in which he was hiding. They cut down one tree for each soldier and carried it in front of them so Macbeth’s men would be confused. It worked, and that was when Macbeth realised that he was one step longer on the way to his fall. Later on, when MacDuffs troupes have reached the castle and taken over it, MacDuff kills Macbeth after his last struggle. When Macbeth claims that ha can’t be hurt, MacDuff say the magic words: “I was not born naturally. I was cut from my mother’s body!” And then, Macbeth is killed.
You can say that their non-existing relationship turned into a really bad one. MacDuff soon hated Macbeth, mostly because he killed his family. That can make you hate anybody, no matter who did it, so I understand why MacDuff acted the way he did completely. He went from believing his innocence, to understanding that he wasn’t and killed him with his own hands.


To summarize things, you could say that Macbeth really wasn’t a strange man. He was just misled by three old evil women who played a game with his life and feelings. And by analysing two of Macbet...