Why Macbeth was Good?

A detailed Summary of Why Macbeth was Good?


What does it mean to be good? Is it to do and say the right things? To cast away temptation and act only on what benefits others for the better. In William Shakespeare's play Macbeth the main character is seen as the essence of evil. While Macbeth's life ended at one of the lowest points of evil we can still find spots of goodness in him such as courage, guilt, bravery, honor, and love.

Macbeth's life up until the time when the play begins has been one of honor and duty. He loved his King and served him with great valor. We see this at the beginning of the play when the Captain says;

And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,/ showed

like a rebel's whore. But all's too weak:/ For brave

Macbeth - well he deserves that name - / Disdaining

Fortune, with his brandished steel, (I.2. 14-17).

From this I believe that while Macbeth had made the disastrously wrong decisions and basically condemned himself to hell, he still is a good man underneath. You can never take away the good from someone's life even if it has been smeared over in blood.

Guilt is something that comes only to a person who has some form of goodn


Is heard no more. It is a tale / told by an idiot, /

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that /

It is because of this love that Macbeth has for his wife which most easily displays the inkling of good left in Macbeth. By the end of the play all the good that Macbeth was, is gone except for this one thing.

Macbeth truly did love his king which makes it hard to see why he would commit such heinous crimes. Throughout the book you can see his ambition continuously wins out over his conscience, which can easily be seen as Macbeth's biggest downfall along with his wife's influence and the prophecies of the three witches. His initial honor towards his king cannot be overseen. It would be unfair to judge him on his sins of loyalty when everyone at one point or another has been unloyal in some form or another.

I believe love is something that shows true goodness in a person. Love is one thing that Macbeth never corrupts in this play. We can see throughout the entire play that Macbeth truly and deeply loves his wife. You see his love for his wife in the beginning of the play when he greets her saying, "My dearest love, Duncan comes here tonig

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 786
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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