Macbeth

Macbeth is a character unlike any of the other characters presented in Shakespeare's plays. Instead of being fueled to get to the top by slaughtering off his enemies like Richard III, Macbeth is coaxed into becoming a killer and tragically when he starts, he can not scramble his way out of this path. This tragic sort of genre is one in which the reader can almost sympathize for. Every human understands the power of temptation and humiliation and in order to not be looked down upon by his own wife, Macbeth turns to murder in order to fight their way to the top. But, as tragedy would have it, being a murderer only gets Macbeth and his wife death, too, not the throne.

"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 afeard? 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?" (Act V scene i lines 30–34)
These lines, stated by Lady Macbeth while sleep walking, sort of resembles both her and Macbeth's descent into tragic madness. Lady Macbeth was the reason her husband became a murderer in the first place. She challenged him into winning themselves power and fame, and she told him the only way was to get rid of those who may try to beat them there. Yet, in these lines, she is shown as a weak subject falling from reality because of the guilt welling up inside of her. Macbeth who was once portrayed as the one who could not "wash his hands clean of blood" reverses his role with his wife. Once she begins a descent into chaos and wishing she could take it all back, Macbeth has no driving force behind him anymore except the killer his wife had created in his mind.

Although Shakespeare's plays are always difficult for me to get into, I found myself enjoying this one the best out of all the plays in the unit. This play showed a man and a woman in reverse roles at the beginning and accurately portrayed the affects of outside pressure on a human being. I find that, if there was a character from this unit we had to connect to, it would be that of Macbeth because he possesses emotions and is weak in the face of humiliation and pressure; like so many people are.