MacBeth Essay

We are sympathetic towards MacBeth for various reasons. Reasons like that he never wanted to kill Duncan and the witches predictions were to tempting. Or that his wife almost shamed into doing it to prove to her that he was a man. After hearing those reasons you cannot forget about the pressure he received from Lady MacBeth's degrading insults.

If we look at the first reason for sympathy towards MacBeth it shows you that MacBeth was a little interested in what the witches were saying. But MacBeth wasn’t actually considering to kill the king or devising a plan to. Just like anyone else he was curious how it would all become. If he wanted to kill Duncan he would of engineered his own plan to do kill him.

After not wanting to kill the king you should take into consideration how his wife treats him after he considers not killing Duncan. Lady MacBeth ridicules him and his manhood by saying "What beast was't then…." in lines 47 to 59 on page 33. She made must of made him feel ashamed and pathetic to be spoken down to by his wife. With a wife as obsessed about being queen as lady MacBeth, you would think that MacBeth would want to let down the woman he loves by not attempting to become the king. For a man that never showed remorse or never regretted a thing he did it would be easy not to show sympathy towards him. But MacBeth did show remorse and did regret some of his actions. For after he killed the king he showed his remorse in lines 60-66 on page 47. And he did show remorse by when he said "She should have died hereafter;…" lines 17-27 on page 147.

We show sympathy towards MacBeth because he was a good man. MacBeth just couldn’t fight all of the temptations he had to face. He did say no to them in the beginning, but after having to picture himself as king, seeing people hail him, and having his wife insult him he gave in. I feel sympathy towards MacBeth because of how he behaved right after killing Duncan. I also feel sympathy towards MacBeth for that he never really wanted to kill Banquo and the others. MacBeth was afraid and being afraid is human.

Word Count: 389