evilmac Comparing the Evil of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth Essay -- compa

Comparing the offensive of Macbeth and brothel keeper Macbeth At the heart of William Shakespeares Macbeth is an examination of the nature of evil and its many faces and facets(Cathell 119). The champion evil offices in the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, are both evil, but the expression of evil is different in each. Macbeths evil is a dynamic character trait. He begins the play as a celebrated hero, loyal to his friends and consecrated to his king. He is strong and noble, a man to be admired by his audience. Macbeth and Banquo are visited by the three witches, who promise him that he will be king. This veiled intimation ignites a secret ambition within Macbeth. Evil has dawned within him, but at this early stage of his transformation Macbeth is repentant of his evil urges. He says, Stars, hide your fires Let not light chance my black and deep desires The eye wink at the hand heretofore let that be, Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. (Shakespeare I, iv, 50) Soon, however, Macbeth is overcome by his ambition and his fall begins. He says, I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but entirely Vaulting ambition, which oerleaps itself/ and falls on the other. (Shakespeare I, vii, 25) As soon as the descision to carrying into action Duncan is made, and until his death, Macbeth is a vessel relentlessly filling with evil. Macbeth is the source of all the cowardly deeds in this play. The witches ignite his evil ambition, Lady Macbeth stokes the fire, but the file for Duncans murder rests squarely on the shoulders of Macbeth. Macbeth may not have held the knives that killed Banquo or Macduffs family, but the agression is his. Lady Macbeth does not descen... ...waits, Macbeth rushes to violence. His evil is brutal and impatient. His weakness is his softness to control his mind. Works Cited and Consulted Cathell, A.L. The Diabolic Evil in Macbeth in Shakespeare mountain Volume 5. modify by Allardyce Nicoll Cambridge Cambridg e University Press, 1996 Elliot, G.R. Introduction On Macbeth as elevation of Shakspearean Tragedy in Shakespearean Criticism, Volume 3. Edited by Laurie Harris (Gale 1984) McElroy, Bernard, Macbeth The pain of the Mind in Shakespearean Criticism, Volume 3. Edited by Laurie Harris (Gale1984) Ribner, Irving. Macbeth The conformation of Idea and Action, in Shakespearean Criticism, Volume 3. Edited by Laurie Harris (Gale1984) Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Edited by Norman Sanders. (Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1984)