Stars, hide your fires!

Let not light see my black and deep desires

(Macbeth) Act 1, Sc iv
Is Macbeth really evil? Do you agree?
The selected text Macbeth explores many themes relating to this time including Uncheck
Ambition, Tyranny and Violence. These three themes are used to describe protagonist of the story,
Macbeth whom of which participates in murderous acts to reach the throne. However he is
pushed by external factors that cause him to become this cruel tyrant. However these external
factors are the reasons he turns into this cruel man, this is why Macbeth is evil but not on his own.
Lady Macbeth is the one of the external factors that act as a catalyst setting Macbeth on his evil
path. Being Macbeths wife, Lady Macbeth can get into his head like nobody else can. Lady
Macbeth ambition is what drives her to encourage Macbeth, she even goes to far as to question
Such account thy love as he was having second thoughts about murdering Duncan. Meaning
why would she love this man, he is nothing but a coward and as a man he should be okay with
violence. As in shakespeares time violence was encouraged as they were seen as brave and
violence being a way to defend their honour, Macbeth himself gets rewarded for his fights in
battle by being given the title of thane of Cawdor . However even with this strong, manly side
that he does show, he still gets knocked down by his wife. As said prior Macbeth about Macbeths
second thoughts about killing the king, eventually he came to the conclusion that he wasnt going
to and tells lady Macbeth that "Well go no further in this business," however we see how this
really turns out. Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth once again into changing his mind, as her
own ambition at this time overshadows his and all reason that he is set to present. From this we
can see that Lady Macbeth is a major factor that contributed to leading Macbeth to turn into an
evil man.
Gender roles of his society are another major influence into Macbeths evilness. Gender roles of
this time included a fairly dominant and ambitious male figure, this figure presented violent
qualities and an overbearing nature. Macbeth turns into this dominant character near the end of
the play, but in a much more extreme matter, an evil one. This path was lead by constant
reconfirmation of these male gender values. The repetition of the Are you a man? question Lady
Macbeth asks Macbeth, making him wonder if he is. Does hit fit into the set of values that a man
possesses, or is he simply a woman in a mans body. It is quite possible as Macbeth does constantly
show the feminine quality of submission to power and authority. This is most commonly to Lady
Macbeth as she extudes strong male qualities, as she want to be unsexed and made a man.
From this we see that the gender roles at this time at the start of the play are completely
switched. However after the killing of Duncan then Banquo we see a change. A change that allows
Macbeth to grip this masculine qualities and lady Macbeth conform to her feminine ones.
However Macbeth goes far beyond these masculine qualities so much as he is described as a
cruel tyrant, because he is infact evil. The gender roles of the elizabethian era show that with
this factor effecting Macbeth helped change him, and make him evil.
The Witches prophecy is also a major contributor in shaping Macbeth into his evil form. When
Macbeth receives his first prophecy he instantly starts thinking of ways to control fate and climb
the ladder faster. From this he knows what he has to do, kill the king. This is the first sign that the
prophecy has changed him, banquo notices how his partners rapt. Meaning that he is distracted
from what is going on, almost daydreaming about what he plans to do. Yet Banquo received a
prophecy as well as Macbeth yet he is not affected the same way as Macbeth. Banquo was
prophesied through paradoxes Lesser than Macbeth and greater and Not so happy, yet much
happier, yet he realised to obtain this position Thou play'dst most foully for't, which was a thing
he was not willing to do. This realisation from Banquo makes him suspicious Macbeth throughout
the rest of the story, and this suspicion of Macbeth is the reason why he is killed. The prophecy for
Macbeth starts his ambition and fuels it along the story, this fuelling to the large number od
murders he committed. Macbeths next prophecy makes him feel smart, as the knows that all
children are of women born technically and trees cant move on their own. He doesnt see the
symbolism found in these apparitions. So he feels quite snug in himself continuing to rule over as a
evil tyrant. We can see how the external factor of the witches prophecy have effected Macbeths
character and made him into the evil man seen at the end of the text.
From the arguments prior we can see how Macbeths evilness was not sought by his own regard.
Many external factors fumed his characteristic in Macbeth. Add