Friday, November 5, 2010

Act 1 Response

EQ: How far is one willing to ''go'' to get what they desire most?




          In act 1 of Macbeth, there are several conflicts that arise. Many of them happen to Macbeth. At first, Macbeth is seen as a noble, trustworthy warrior, and indeed he is. However, when Macbeth comes across three witches, his desires change. The mysterious witches tells Macbeth that he will eventually be the king. ''All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter.'' (pg 23) This idea imposes a critical change of mindset for Macbeth. His desire now is that he clearly wants to be king. He instantly understands what needs to happen in order for this to come true. He realizes that he will have to plan out an evil deed and murder King Duncan. He ponders the thought of killing the king, but he realizes he is the king's kinsman, and he should stay loyal to that. The only reason he considered assassinating him was because of his own ambition. He wanted to be king so bad he actually thought of killing the king. However, Lady Macbeth gives him even more motivation for killing the king, telling him he would be more manly if he did it. This sparks a fire in Macbeth's motivation, and he ends up assassinating King Duncan.


          At first, Macbeth made up his mind that he would not kill the king. He chose to be loyal. However, when you have so much desire to do something, even just a little bit of extra motivation will carry you through something. Lady Macbeth provided that little motivation which caused Macbeth to fulfill his ambition and desire. Macbeth understood the circumstances, but his desire and ambition were too strong to let things get in the way. Lady Macbeth's motivation was the icing on the cake for Macbeth's decision to kill the King. Macbeth is a perfect example of how far one is willing to go in order to get what they desire.

1 comment:

  1. Do you think he really realizes what he has to do to be king? You are right when you say he understands the importance however of his loyalty to the king. It is in part his wife who pushes him along. Do you think he would have gone through had she not been involved. Try and bring in more quotes to back up some of your key points eg LM convinces M or when you say M makes up his mind. you want to develop thises points with support and to connect back to your EQ. A great start adn you understand the play so far.

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