Macbeth As A Villain Essay Example

No person is born evil, it is the combination of genes, personality, traits, and different experiences within someone's life that shapes one's behavior.  The specific genetics a person receives will make a person more open to regain iniquitous actions. People are continuously surrounded by the internal pressures of violence and evil humanality. Villains get the natural instinct to commit evil crimes and even kill others such as in Macbeth by Shakesphere. In this book, there were many times when people were murdered. These killings amongst others wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for the influence of others. Macbeth was a part of the Thane of Glamis and was perceived as an honest and reliable man by his fellow peers. Macbeth had been granted three prophecies from three witches that pledged to award him with great power. These prophecies were Thane of Cawdor, King hereafter, and for Banquo to be the son of kings. Soon, Macbeth became starved for power, and his wife, Lady Macbeth, motivated him to push anything out of his way from getting that power. Due to his power-hungry madness, Macbeth went from a sincere and reliable man to a lying animal that couldn’t control himself from killing others. Macbeth endeavored to obtain this power and Lady Macbeth and the three witches took control over his mind to make him think he was capable of accomplishing anything he wanted to. Macbeth used to be an innocent spirit but the influence he got from others changed him to have an evil and villain like characteristic. 

Villains can be moral and pure before they become who they truly are. Villains do evil actions due to the damaging experiences they could have gone through and from the influence of others. Lady Macbeth truly put an impact on Macbeth to kill Duncan. She manipulates Macbeth by making him think he is guilty and unmanly for not striving for his personal goal. Lady Macbeth overrides all the objections Macbeth has about killing Duncan. When Macbeth hesitates to take the life of Duncan, Lady Macbeth constantly questions Macbeth's masculinity. She continuously decides to make Macbeth feel unworthy until he can commit the murder to prove himself. In order to convince Macbeth to kill Duncan she had to impact him in a certain way by saying, “When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the man” (Macbeth 1.7. 49-51).  Slowly, Lady Macbeth takes more and more control over Macbeth. She influences him to do horrible things to others just so he can get what he wants. When Macbeth completes the deed of killing Duncan he comes back feeling much regret due to his horrific actions. Macbeth is filled with so much guilt, that he begins to hear voices that over take his life. He will never again have the same mindset as he did before the murder. Macbeth thinks that killing Duncan is the right thing to do because of the words Lady Macbeth used to manipulate him. Sometimes free will is not always a choice that people can freely make, “... the choices we think we are making, expressions of our freedom, are being made subconsciously, without our explicit control” (The Choice is Yours: The Fate of Free Will). Lady Macbeth threatens Macbeth in many ways to get him to kill Duncan willingly. Though he is not completely under his own control he agrees to commit the murder in order to make his wife happy. She explains to him many times that it was essential for him to kill to gain power. Macbeth had to try and convince himself that killing Ducan was the right thing to do and this led him to think it was okay to kill anyone in order to gain power for himself. The amount of guilt and regret Macbeth had after killing Duncan was obscure, but he would not have killed him in the first place if it was not without the influence of others. Evil people, like Macbeth, can suddenly be created due to the environmental factors around them that influence their thinking in many different ways.

Macbeth was overly influenced by the prophecies and his desire to over take the throne that his mind spiraled out of control and that led him to the killing of Duncan. The witches are responsible for the downfall of Macbeth's innocence by influencing the intentions of nature and presenting him with misleading prophecies. Macbeth enjoyed hearing his dream come true when the three witches exclaimed him with three sayings, “ ‘Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter’ “ (Macbeth 1.3 48-50). Macbeth had always had the dream of becoming king, so to hear his aspiration said aloud, he was astounded. This created a boost in confidence for Macbeth, he realized all he had to do to become king was to murder Duncan. In connection to this quote from Macbeth, Adrian Raine, a neuro criminologist at the University of Pennsylvania states, “violent offenders often seem to spring out of nowhere” (How to Explain Serial Killers Who Come from Good Homes). This relates to Macbeth because before the witches appeared in Macbeth's life, he was a pure and sinless soul. He then had the sudden urge to kill for power. His actions were very unexpected just like many other violent crimes committed around the world. 

Villains are made throughout the course of their life due to the people they are constantly around and the traumatic experiences they have gone through. The moment Macbeth turned to a villain was when he found out his prophecy from the three witches. Macbeth had murdered one of peers, Duncan, due to the influence he got from his wife, Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth put the thought into his mind that it was okay to kill others. Macbeth got too caught up into the thought of gaining all power, that he obtained the thought that it was the right thing to do in order to get the thing he wanted most. Macbeth had much regret after killing Duncan, but would not have done the killing without the influence he got from others around him. Villains can quickly be adapted into the environment due to the environmental factors that influence their train of thought.