Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Act Two

Does the murder of Duncan signify the moral downfall of Macbeth?


12 comments:

  1. Macbeth's choice to murder King Duncan does signify his moral downfall. Although his wife planted seeds of wickedness in his brain, Macbeth couldn't control his lust for power and control. His narrow-mindedness to only see where he would be and not how he would get there resulted in his downfall. If Macbeth simply stole a cookie from the cookie jar it would in no way be described as a "moral downfall", but he killed the king, a man who had just promoted him to one of the highest positions in Scotland. If killing a friend, a king, and a great man for self gain not a downfall morally, then what is?

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  2. The murder of Duncan symbolizes the moral downfall of Macbeth. Once he has thoughts of killing Duncan, his morals start to decline. Macbeth has a morality battle with himself and the moral side wins, until he talks with Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth convinces him to sacrifice his morals to kill Duncan. After Duncan’s murder we see Macbeth is emotionally all over the place, even making rash decisions. He holds onto the knife and can’t return it to where it belongs. He leans significantly on Lady Macbeth for support, allowing her to cover up the murder. The reader can see a definite character change with Macbeth after he murdered Duncan, signaling his moral downfall.

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  3. The murder of Duncan does symbolize the moral downfall of Macbeth for numerous reasons. To us , the audience, Macbeth seems like the perfect person. He would be a great king as well as a moral figure for the people of Scotland. When he murders Duncan, the audience begins to understand that he does have the drive to do bad things. His moral character begins to plummet because he starts to make unrational decisions. It seems with Macbeth like everything was on impulse. Lady Macbeth drives him to do everything and she seems okay with everything bad that she tells him to do.

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  4. When Macbeth decided to murder Duncan, his morality died alongside Duncan. Macbeth comes off to the audience as very kind and would not hurt a soul. When Lady Macbeth convinces him to kill Duncan, at first he says no. He tells her it is too crazy. Eventually Lady Macbeth convinces him to do the deed not only for her, but for his own sake. After he kills Duncan he immediately cannot say "Amen" when a prayer was said and he feels as if he is damned. This is a perfect representation that shows that Macbeth is a changed man from the beginning of the play. Now, Lady Macbeth could convince him to do just about anything if she can convince him to kill the king. Macbeth shows that when he murdered Macbeth, his morality went down with him.

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  5. The murder of Duncan was the start of Macbeth's downfall. When Duncan was killed nature fell out of balance, horses were eating each other, as well as other strange occurrences. Before Macbeth killed Duncan he was hallucinating and he was trying to resist the outside forces driving him to kill his friend Duncan. In Macbeth's defense he had to get many outside forces to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth and the witches told Macbeth half-truths in order to gain his trust they then fed him with evil thoughts he had already suppressed, causing them to resurface. He wanted to do the right thing, but his situation and ambition held him back. Lady Macbeth acts as an anchor to Macbeth holding him back from making the right choices. This shows how Macbeth is a tragic hero because he does not want to be a villain, he wants to be an honorable man.

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  6. The crime of murdering Duncan was Macbeth's downfall through morality and reality, and we only see him further devolve as the play goes on. When the play starts, we see the Captain reporting on the battle to Duncan and he has all good things to say about Macbeth. Macbeth is heroic, he is brave, he is loyal, and he won't leave until he has won the battle. This high praise of Macbeth shows us the readers that Macbeth is perceived as a hero in the public's eye and is generally loved by all. But when we see him commit the crime of murdering Duncan, we see not only his morality failing but his reality come crashing down all around him. After the murder, Macbeth begins to unravel morally by behaving unnaturally, making questionable decisions, and slowly becoming paranoid of all who surround him. This in turn leads to his fall from reality in the fact that he was the perfect man before this, he was going to be the most powerful noble under the king, and after doing the deed not only can he not trust anyone around him, Macbeth can not even be happy with is new found power because of his fall from the moral high ground. This shows us the readers how Macbeth is indeed a tragic hero and shows how even the best of us can fall.

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  7. When Macbeth murders Duncan we can start to see the gradual downfall of his morality. Macbeth killed Duncan so that he could gain Duncan's crown. As Macbeth was committing, he was consumed with the thoughts of success which blinded him from the reality of his acts. Lady Macbeth had a lot to do with feeding Macbeth ideas of being king, and gaining total success. In battle, Macbeth had slain many before, but it was hard for him to kill Duncan, maybe he held back a bit because he knew it was wrong.

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  9. The murder of Duncan sparks the eventual downfall of Macbeth. When he kills Duncan, Macbeth realizes that he is somewhat closer to becoming King; however, Banquo’s sons were still alive and, according to the witch’s prophecy, their future was of the royal line. This caused tension between Banquo’s family line and Macbeth’s road to Kingdom. The murder of Duncan lead Macbeth one step closer to becoming King, so he had to take away any and all people standing in his way. This murder caused Macbeth to kill Banquo and attempt to kill his son, sending him further in to darkness and madness by killing his fellow comrade.
    The murder of Duncan also paved the way for Macbeth to become King, and so he did. Once he was King he was haunted by Banquo’s sprits and other figures that caused him guilt. The people saw his madness, which caused a revolt and a war to take Macbeth out of his throne. He became even more self-obsessive and threatened throughout the end of the play. When Macbeth murdered King Duncan, he caused a domino affect of greedy and power-hungry deeds that caused his descent into madness or his moral downfall.

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  10. The murder of Duncan does spark his moral downfall. He had given into Lady Macbeth's wishes, and killed a great king. He didn't want to commit this murder, but he was persuaded to. Soon after the murder, Macbeth had heard that Banquo was beginning to build suspicion that Macbeth committed the murder. Banquo and Macbeth were best friends, but because of Banquo's suspicion, Macbeth had him killed.
    The murder of both King Duncan and Banquo gave Macbeth the crown, and others began to see how corrupt and evil of a King he was. Eventually, Macduff killed Macbeth. Looking back, what started the downfall of Macbeth's morality was the killing of Duncan. His moral downfall was also the reason for his own death.

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  11. The murder of Duncan does spark his moral downfall. He had given into Lady Macbeth's wishes, and killed a great king. He didn't want to commit this murder, but he was persuaded to. Soon after the murder, Macbeth had heard that Banquo was beginning to build suspicion that Macbeth committed the murder. Banquo and Macbeth were best friends, but because of Banquo's suspicion, Macbeth had him killed.
    The murder of both King Duncan and Banquo gave Macbeth the crown, and others began to see how corrupt and evil of a King he was. Eventually, Macduff killed Macbeth. Looking back, what started the downfall of Macbeth's morality was the killing of Duncan. His moral downfall was also the reason for his own death.

    ReplyDelete
  12. The murder of Duncan does spark his moral downfall. He had given into Lady Macbeth's wishes, and killed a great king. He didn't want to commit this murder, but he was persuaded to. Soon after the murder, Macbeth had heard that Banquo was beginning to build suspicion that Macbeth committed the murder. Banquo and Macbeth were best friends, but because of Banquo's suspicion, Macbeth had him killed.
    The murder of both King Duncan and Banquo gave Macbeth the crown, and others began to see how corrupt and evil of a King he was. Eventually, Macduff killed Macbeth. Looking back, what started the downfall of Macbeth's morality was the killing of Duncan. His moral downfall was also the reason for his own death.

    ReplyDelete