Themes within Macbeth

Themes within Macbeth

Corruption
Macbeth is driven by by a secret desire to advance and gain power. after getting a prophecy from the three witches that he shall be King of Scotland he near enough instantly kills King Duncan to achieve this. Lady Macbeth is also driven by the same desires but does not think about the later ramifications of her actions. The only difference between the two characters is that lady Macbeth uses deception and manipulation, in contrast to Macbeth and his violence, to gain power. Macbeth is at first slightly hesitant to go through with the plan to kill the king but she pushes him to commit the crime without thinking ahead, and surprise surprise she doesn't like the man this immoral deed eventually turns Macbeth into. He is suppressed with paranoia and deals with it by spilling the blood of anyone he sees as an enemy, and she is driven to madness by shouldering all of the blame onto her for his actions. all of this eventually leads to her own death. This could be seen as Shakespeare's most misogynistic play as all of the evil within the play can be traced back to woman.

Kingship 'V' Tyranny
Duncan and Malcolm - king's
Macbeth - Tyrant
Tyrant- a ruler who has no regards of their subjects
The play of Macbeth shows us two different types of rulers, a king like Duncan and a Tyrant like Macbeth.
In act 4 scene 3 there is a conversation between Macduff and Malcolm. Malcolm wants to know he can trust Macduff and so tests his loyalty to Scotland saying he will be a worst king than Macbeth and see Macduff reaction to this. He lists some of Macbeth's qualities like personal power and a violent temperament.

shows Macbeth turn from a good abiding citizen to a tyranny leader

its impossible to be a perfect king. Duncan trusted everyone around him, even threats and he let his personal feelings let him fail to see danger. On the night that Macbeth killed him, Duncan referred to him as a "valiant cousin" Duncan is regarded as a good leader even by his enemies, however its ironic that he saw Macbeth's ambition as loyalty rather than a increasingly powerful threat.
Duncan remains king as long as he did through love and support which as stated above can be blinding to threats but Macbeth's way of ruling through paranoia and fear wasn't defiantly not any better.