Alina Jiang
Q: How responsible is Macbeth for who he becomes?
Macbeth is a tragedy that shows fate and free will. In the play, Macbeth killed the old King Duncan and other innocent people. It seems that it is his own willing to do the cruel things, and he should undertake all the responsibility, however, this is not entirely accurate. Macbeth should not take on much responsibility. In fact, there are many external factors that have great impacts for who he becomes.
Firstly, people around Macbeth play a significant part in deciding which kindof man he will be. For example, after hearing the prediction, Lady Macbeth pushed Macbeth a lot in doing cruel killing. She said “Hurry home so I can persuade you and talk you out of whatever’s keeping you from going after the crown. ” (Shakespeare 1. 5. 24_26) And after killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth comforted him. (Shakespeare 2. 2. 28) This shows that Macbeth was an indecisive people and Lady Macbeth just caught this point to make her do the killing. This also indicates that Lady Macbeth took advantage of her husband’s love to satisfy her willing of being a queen. Because of Macbeth’s characteristic that he is a dependent man and also he doesn’t want to become the coward in his wife’s mouth. He killed Duncan but felt regret. In addition, his second encounter with the three witches was also a fundamental transformation. Before this, he always hesitated before doing things, however after hearing the warning of Macduff, he decided to kill Macduff. He even said that "From now on, as soon as I decide to do something I'm going to act immediately." (Shakespeare 4. 1. 147_148) This means that Macbeth became determined and he did the bad crime without thinking twice. This shows that he was more violent, bold and firm. Although he knew that Macduff was just a threat to him, he still chose to killhim. There shows a sharp contrast because he even has no dare to kill Duncan before. As we can see in these examples, the environment and people around Macbeth can really change a person, and also because of his special characteristic, he was more easily gets influences by the external factors. Regardless of the fact that Macbeth was not a villain at first, the environment changed him into a bad guy.
Secondly, desire and ambition made Macbeth even crazy and his human nature gradually faded. For instance, when Macbeth was trying to kill Duncan, there appeared a dagger which led him to the bedroom of Duncan and it was full of blood. (Shakespeare 2. 1. 42_48) This means that Macbeth had a strong willing to kill the king because he even came up with a dagger in his mind to lead him. Dagger represents for evil and it is also the desire of Macbeth. He was driven by the ambition and then produced some evil thoughts. Another example shows how terrible the desire is is The Standford Prison Experiment. As the reading material said, none of the participants who acted as guards showed sadistic tendencies before the study. (Saul Mceod Page3) However while doing the experiment, the actor "guards" began to harass and even maltreat the "prisoners" because there were no one watching them. After the experiment, the researchers came to know that for the guards, it is fun to act with authority and power is a kind of pleasure. (Saul Mceod Page3) This indicates that even a normal people can influence by the power which is the origin of the desire. In fact, power is really seductive, participants hurt prisoners in the experiment, that means they will probably kill Duncan and others if they were Macbeth. Macbeth just did the things that others may do as well. These examples indicate that desire can make people become crazy in doing bad actions for fun, for power. These two elements just lead Macbeth went far from the path of justice and became more immoral.
Thirdly, although we said that Macbeth did kill for many times and he even cheating, he was forced to do so. For instance, he said that "I'm very afraid of Banquo. There's something noble about him that makes me fear him." (Shakespeare 3. 1. 50-51) This states that Macbeth was terrified of Banquo because he knows a lot about what he did. Banquo is a judicial character in the play, so Macbeth worried that he may reveal his secrets and make he and his family be in danger. For this reason, he killed Banquo. The reason that he wished to kill Macduff is similar. Because Macduff was a threaten for him. His presence illustrates that Macbeth still has potentially dangerous. Thus he had to kill Mcduff to make sure that he and his family will out of danger. From this perspective, it seems that what Macbeth can only do to defend himself is killing. Therefore, he should not undertake the responsibility because this is just self-defense.
In conclusion, assuming liability is a quality that everyone should own. However, there are some situations that people don't have to take full responsibility after committing the crime because there are lots of outer pushers. Despite the fact that Macbeth killed many people, he didn't do this on his own initiative so that he should not take all the duty. The story tells us a truth that we can't judge one's behavior only by seeing the surface. We also need to observe the influences from outside.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Ed. Crowther, John. SparkNotes LLC, 2005.
Saul, Mcleod. THe Stanford Prison Experiment. COMMONLIT. COMMONLIT. 2008.