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Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare divided in 5 acts, it was written in the first decade of 1600, and published in 1623. The play is about MacBeth's actions, driven by his ambitions, that will lead him into his rise and fall.

Macbeth is a general who visits the Weird Sisters, they are witches who will prophesy that Macbeth will become thane of Cawdor, then king, and that Banquo, another general who went with MacBeth, will beget kings. When Macbeth becomes thane of Cawdor, he starts to believe to the prophecy, so, when he gets invited to the castle, spurred by his wife, he kills King Duncan, and becomes king. He then procedes to haunt Banquo to kill him , but his son escapes. Banquo’s ghost haunts Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth is driven to madness by her guilt. The witches assure Macbeth that he will be safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane and that no one “of woman born” shall harm him.

When he learns that MacDuff, Than of Fife who discovered the regicide , is joining Malcom's army, the son of king Duncan, he kills the wife and children of the latter. When the army, using branches from Birnam Wood as camouflage, advances on Dunsinane, Macbeth sees the prophecy being fulfilled: Birnam Wood has indeed come to Dunsinane. Lady Macbeth dies, Macbeth is killed in battle by Macduff, who was “from his mother’s womb untimely ripped” by cesarean section and so he was not “of woman born.” Malcolm becomes the rightful king.

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Macbeth is a Scottish general and thane of Glamis who is cursed by three witches. This leads him to wicked thoughts, especcialy when the prophecy of him becoming thane of Gawdor comes true. He is bloodthirsty , and his first kill will make him king of Scotland; during this period of time, he prefers the battlefields rather than the political duties of a ruler, and his reign turns into a tiranny.

Unlike other sheakspereans villains, he doesn't fit the role of a villain, and due to his actions he experiences psychologycal consequences, which he is unable to bear.

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Macbeth’s wife, a deeply ambitious woman who lusts for power and position. Early in the play, she seems to be the stronger and more ruthless of the two, as she urges her husband to kill Duncan and seize the crown. However, Lady Macbeth falls victim to guilt and madness to an even greater degree than her husband. Her conscience affects her to such an extent that she eventually commits suicide. She and Macbeth are presented as being deeply in love, and their marriage only grows stronger when they become partners in crime.

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MacDuff is a Scottish nobleman hostile to Macbeth’s kingship from the start. He eventually becomes a leader of the crusade to unseat Macbeth. The crusade’s mission is to place the rightful king, Malcolm, on the throne, but Macduff also desires vengeance for Macbeth’s murder of Macduff’s wife and young son.

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The good King of Scotland whom Macbeth, in his ambition for the crown, murders. Duncan is the model of a virtuous and benevolent ruler. His death symbolizes the destruction of an order in Scotland that can be restored only when Duncan’s son, Malcolm, occupies the throne.

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The brave general whose children, according to the witches’ prophecy, will inherit the Scottish throne. Like Macbeth, Banquo thinks ambitious thoughts but he doesn't turn them into violence. In a sense, Banquo’s character represents the path Macbeth chose not to take: a path in which ambition need not lead to betrayal and murder.

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We don't know much about the three witches mainly because their true identities are unknown. They are servants of Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, and they enjoy destroying human beings with their knowledge. In some ways, they resemble the mythological Fates, who impersonally weave the threads of human destiny.

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Malcom is King Duncan's son, who, when his father dies, he escapes Scotland. He doesn't represent a threat to MacBeth until Macduff joins his army. He doesn't know how much power he has, but he has England's support. In the end, his restoration to the throne signals Scotland’s return to order following Macbeth’s reign of terror.

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William Shakespeare's Macbeth is set primarily in Scotland, and follows the character of Macbeth from being a noble Scottish general into a regicide who commits two murders to ensure his position as King. Some of the scenes are also set in England and Ireland but the major setting is Scottish.

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Macbeth commits a regicide, considered an act against nature according to the Great Chain of Being: it is God's ideal order of the Cosmos, and it includes everything, from God and angels at the top, to kings and humans in the middle, to animals, plants, rocks, and minerals at the bottom. It moves from beings of pure spirit at the top of the Chain, to things made entirely of matter at the bottom

This regicide brought chaos to God's order and its balance will be restored only, with Lady Macbeth and Macbeth death. This shows how, one of the central themes in Macbeth, total destruction when ambition is not kept in check by moral limits, finds its greatest expression in the two protagonists.

Another important theme is free will; Shakespeare believed that destiny is predicted by otherworldly, forces (three witches), despite that the ways in which that destiny, is fulfilled. always depend on the free will of the subject.

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In Macbeth, blood symbolizes the guilt that sits like a permanent stain on the consciences of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and it serves as a continuous indicator of characters’ emotional progression: their reactions to blood underline their inverse attitude changes. Macbeth moves from immeasurable guilt to callous killer, while Lady Macbeth starts as the callous killer and falls to a state of despair. Thus, the blood symbol allows the reader to not only see the character changes of Macbeth’s two main characters, but also compare these changes.

Ex:

The dialogue between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth after Duncan’s murder

-Macbeth: “Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas in incarnadine, Making the green one red."

-Lady Macbeth: "My hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white."

After that, Lady Macbeth had told him, “A little water clears us of this deed”.

However, later, she starts to hallucinate about blood on her hands and how it won’t come off.

"Out, damned spot! out, I say! One, two. Why then 'tis time to do't. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and afeared? What need we fear? Who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?".

In this question “What need we fear who knows it when none can call our power to account?” she is asserting that as long as she and her husband retain power, the murders they committed cannot harm them. But her guilt-racked state show how hollow her words are.

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In Shakespeare's Macbeth, clothing, and costumes help to display an observable change of character between the beginning of the paper who is easily considered as play full; and the end result of a less formal surrounding. They are a reflection of the status, identity and morals of the characters.

1. Kingship and Authority: Clothing imagery is directly tied to Macbeth's ascension to the throne. When he is fighting the notion of coming into his kingship, it metaphorically symbolizes buying "clothes" of being a king. This is reflected in his anxiety and guilt, as he feels unprepared to be in a position of responsibility.

2. Disguise and Masquerade: Lady Macbeth uses clothing as a symbol for her ambition and deceit. For example, she famously advises Macbeth to "look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under," and this illustrates that things are not always what they seem.

⁠3. Guilt and Madness:

Macbeth gets more guilt and madness makes him looks worse. He continues to unravel, in his mind as he does physically becoming more and more disheveled and broken. Lady Macbeth's psychological breakdown is also represented through her irrational hand-washing, as she tries to purify herself

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Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a very ambitious character and suggests through his portrayal that his desire to be king drives and shapes his behavior. It is his ambition that makes him vulnerable to the witches and to Lady Macbeth. Evidently both the witches and Lady Macbeth recognize his ambition, as Lady Macbeth says ‘art not without ambition”, and the witches captivate him, He is filled with a “burning desire” to know more about the prophecies. However, ambition immediately causes a great deal of conflict in his mind because it also fuels evil thoughts and “imaginings” and fuels his “black and deep desires”.

He recognizes that the murder of King Duncan will have implications that are likely to disrupt his moral equilibrium and undermine his honour. His conscience alerts him to the evil nature of murder; he is fully aware of the “even-handed justice” or “judgement” which instructs people about good and evil.

Macbeth is also aware that his ambition is excessive and perhaps uncontrollable. Twice Shakespeare describes his ambition as “o’erleaping”.

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J. Freud on Macbeth:

In his essay "Those Wrecked by Success," Sigmund Freud analyzes Macbeth's character in detail and

explores the complex psychological aspects of the character. Freud regarded Macbeth as one of his favorite

literary works, and after considering Hamlet, he delved into the psychological disorder within Macbeth's

character.

Freud's central idea revolves around the conflict between wishes and the defense mechanisms of the ego

when these wishes approach fulfillment. He suggests that the ego can tolerate harmless wishes in fantasy, but it

will vehemently defend against their realization if they pose a threat to becoming reality. In Macbeth, Lady

Macbeth serves as an illustration of the ego's defense mechanisms, as her collapse after achieving success suggests

that the forces of conscience may restrain individuals from attaining long-desired advantages when faced with the

actual fulfillment of their wishes.

At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is a dominant and cruel character who maintains control

over Macbeth. However, as the play progresses, she reveals a more human side, experiencing remorse and guilt

for her actions. Freud's analysis implies that one of the causes of this change is the impact of a fulfilled wish on her psyche.

In Macbeth, the titular character's superego is shaped by dreams, fantasies, and fears. Macbeth's

encounter with the three witches and their prophecy distorts his perception of reality. The conflict between

ambition and conscience is evident in Macbeth's soliloquies, where he grapples with the desire for power and the

fear of consequences.

Overall, Freud's analysis of Macbeth emphasizes the intricate interplay between the ego's defense mechanisms, the superego's influence, and the impact of unfulfilled and fulfilled wishes on the psyche of the characters. Macbeth's tragic flaw, stemming from unchecked ambition and the psychological turmoil within him,

aligns with Freud's broader psychoanalytic framework, providing a more nuanced understanding of the character's

motivations and actions