Essay: Macbeth Q & As – characters, destiny & Act 2 Scene 1

The play Macbeth is written by William Shakespeare and was published approximately in 1606.
Macbeth is a shorter play, but it includes a lot more violence and bloody scenes than other plays by Shakespeare.
The Play Macbeth is a about a Scottish general that meets the weird sisters, who are some kind of a fortuneteller.  The weird sisters give Macbeth a prophecy that he will be king of Scotland. Through the play Macbeth gets more tyrannical, violent and egoistic. Manipulated by his wife Lady Macbeth, Macbeth kills King Duncan king of Scotland.
Banquo suspects Macbeth for being more murderous after that Macbeth has received the prediction, but gains comfort from the second part of the Witches’ prediction — that his own children will be kings. “The greatest is behind. – Thanks for your pains. – (To Banquo) Do you not hope your children shall be kings, when those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me Promised no less to them?”.
Task Number 1)
How are Banquo and Macbeth presented in the play?
In Act 1 scene 3, Macbeth is presented as a brave soldier, with a big sense of justice but also a man with a lot of power. In the beginning of the play Macbeth is presented as a loyal, courageous. Even though Macbeth is considered as a great man he is twofaced, by the fact that he isn’t very virtuous and instead very naive and easy to seduce and convince when it come to power and his own sake of happiness. After the meeting with weird sisters, who gives him the prophecy, that he will be king.  Macbeth becomes slowly obsessed by thought of being king and win power, which later in the play develops a tyrannical personality at Macbeth. Due to the beginning of act 1 scene 3 Macbeth isn’t very comfortable in his new role, that creates another trait of Macbeth Character – in secureness witch perhaps leads to some kind of faint and results in many of his dark sides later in play and also the manipulation from his Wife Macbeth. The in secureness is also seen because he does not doubt anything, that the Weird Sisters are saying and  gets easily  convinced by what the Weird Sisters prediction. This has a consequence; he is not showing any allegiance to Duncan and said between the lines the evilness is growing inside Macbeth: he must kill King of Scotland.
Completely opposite to Macbeth does Banquo appear as an important character to understand the  tragic history of Macbeth and his faith.
Like Macbeth himself, Banqou is  a brave soldier, companion and best friend to Macbeth.  Different from Macbeth Banquo is more skeptical especially when he meets the Weird Sisters, whom also gives him a prophecy about his destiny. But instead of being obsessed and try  to seek or avoid his destiny, Banquo is focusing on keeping his allegiance clear. Even though Banquo is Macbeth best friend he keeps on maintain the great sense of justice, sympathy and loyalty for the king but begins questioning  Macbeth. Shakespeare has created the two different characters to make contrast in the story – a tool to show the moral in the actions of Macbeth.
Task 2)
In one hand Macbeth has no free will not to follow his destiny, but is Macbeth a plaything for the weird Sisters? They don’t predict how he shall fulfill his destiny it is up to himself to decide or is it?  This is question is double, I’ll think that Macbeth somehow is guilty because he shows over – confidence, and it is him who does the psychical murder not the witches or Lady Macbeth, but that is of course manipulation from his wife Lady Macbeth who convince him to kill Duncan when he doubts it.  So one thing is for sure; Macbeth did kill King Duncan. Shakespeare does make it very clear that Macbeth is the murder who stabbed King Duncan. But you can ask yourself if it just was Macbeth, that was responsible for the murder or if Macbeth was driven to become murder by Influence from the Weird Sisters? Shakespeare is very ambiguous here perhaps on purpose to make the audience think self? It seems like Macbeth’s goals are an opportunity to make the murder possible. On the other hand, if Macbeth’s fate is that he has to kill, Macbeth becomes a victim of his own destiny. Many authorities could have brought Macbeth to commit this Murder, but I think it’s interesting to suspect the strong female characters: Lady Macbeth for having some of the responsibility for the murder, because she manipulates and take advances of Macbeth when he is the most vulnerable. I do also think that the Weird Sisters somehow are responsible for the murder. Well founded that it is after the prophecy predicted by the Weird sisters that leads Macbeth to the Thane of Cawdor and afterwards to the title “King”.
Task 3: Why is Act 2 Scene one so dramatic?
The reason why act 2 scene 1 is so dramatically is because the director, Shakespeare uses indirectly picture so the audience get the feeling that the murder of king Duncan is near and the evilness is growing inside Macbeth. The relations between the characters begins also  to change, for example the  friendship bound between Banqou becomes more strained because of Banquos knowledge makes a threat to Macbeth position of power.  Which creates drama. The scene has also a very dramatic effect because the dialogues takes place at midnight which creates some kind of mystique and tension, when does Macbeth kill king Duncan? Shakespeare uses the technique to let the audience wait to create fear therefor the audience doesn’t see the actual deed, (when Macbeth is killing king Duncan) – perhaps to created pictures in people head – pictures of a brutal murder and to think self. Shakespeare is inspired by the greek tragic comics where the violence is kept of stage.  When it comes to inspiration it is clear that Macbeth is inspired by the Antique Greek stories because phenomenon’s as hypris and nemesis is a central theme in story, fx, when Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are entering king Duncans chamber to kill him – they commit hypris and therefor are they hit by nemesis (death) which come in form of suicide and the kill on Macbeth. It is a tragic story because Macbeth looses his honor because he has no sofrosyne  (self inside)