Role-Reversal in Macbeth

When Macbeth first receives the prophecy predicting he will be king and Banquos heirs will be kings, he is satisfied with the idea of being king. Banquos heirs do not care him at this point. Once he assassinates Duncan and is crowned king, however, this isnt enough. Now he wants his heirs to be king. He asks himself, wherefore should he have taken all this risk just to put Banquos heirs on the throne? Unsatisfied with just ruling himself, he plots to kill not only Banquo, but Fleance. His opposition has grown and become even more menacing.Banquos reach without consulting his wife because he wants to protect her from the corruption that he has involved himself with. His employment is now on the whole changed and there is no turning back for him. Macbeths evil deed causes him to suffer from fear and guilt, which leads to even more evil crimes. Then Macbeth becomes paranoid, anguish from hallucinations and sleeplessness. He becomes less human as he tries over and over to establ ish his manhood. His ruthlessness in killing Banquo and Macduffs family shows how perverted his idea of manliness really is.As Macbeth goes off on his own course during this clipping, doll Macbeths guilt is overwhelming and, cut off from him, she descends into madness. Her guilt emerges in consummation III, perspective ii when she says she would quite a be dead, and it grows from then on until her death. Lady Macbeths character change is also evident in Act III, Scene ii when she backs out of Macbeths mysterious strike plan and tells him, You must leave this. The relationship between the couple is being torn apart by this time. And Macbeth allows the witches to take the place of his wife by allowing them to elevate his ego, thinking he cannot be harmed by any man.Macbeth is, of course, mistaken about the witches prophecies, but this just that he now allows his evil nature to control his actions. By the end, Macbeth has degenerated into evil personified, totally inhumane When Macbeth first receives the prophecy predicting he will be king and Banquos heirs will be kings, he is satisfied with the idea of being king. Banquos heirs do not concern him at this point. Once he assassinates Duncan and is crowned king, however, this isnt enough. Now he wants his heirs to be king. He asks himself, why should he have taken all this risk just to put Banquos heirs on the throne?Unsatisfied with just ruling himself, he plots to kill not only Banquo, but Fleance. His ambition has grown and become even more menacing. in his actions. They are headed in separate directions Macbeth towards a breeding of evil and Lady Macbeth towards insanity and grief. As Shakespeare create the characters of Macbeth and his wife, their changing roles ironically ended up resembling the some other ones role. At the beginning of the tragedy, Macbeth was the hesitant character with a strong conscience, respected general, a devoted husband, and a loyal subject of the king part Lady Macbeth was powerful and firm.However, by the time these two characters were completely changed, Macbeth ended up being decisive and greedy, as Lady Macbeth turned out to be weak since her guilty conscience drove her insane. Shakespeares exchange of roles in Macbeth is clever tho unusual, but after all, things arent always what they seem. In Shakespeares tragedy, Macbeth, the characters and the roles they play are critical to its plot and theme, and therefore many of Shakespeares characters are well developed and complex. Two of these characters are the protagonist, Macbeth, and his wife, Lady Macbeth.They play fire roles in the tragedy, and over the course of the play, their relationship changes and their roles are essentially switched. At the beginning of the play, they treat each other as equals. They have great concern for each other, as illustrated when Macbeth races to tell Lady Macbeth the news about the witches and she immediately begins plotting how to gain for her husband his d esire to be king. At this point, Lady Macbeth is the resolute, strong woman, while Macbeth is portrayed as her indecisive, cowardly husband.He does have ambition, but at this point, his conscience is stronger than that ambition. Lady Macbeth explains this characteristic of her husband in Act I, Scene v, when she says, Yet do I fear thy nature it is too full o th milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way. The next stage of change developing in the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is in Act II. This is the act in which Macbeth kills King Duncan. Macbeths character change is apparent because it is obvious that he has given in to his ambition and has slay the king.He is not entirely changed, though, because he is almost delirious after he has committed the crime. He exclaims, Will all great Neptunes ocean wash this inventory clean from my hand? No this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red. He believes that instead of the ocean cl eaning his give, his hands would turn the ocean red. Macbeths role has changed somewhat but not entirely, since he has committed the crime but his conscience is still apparent after the murder. Lady Macbeths role similarly changes somewhat in Act II.The reader sees a crack in her strong character when she tells Macbeth in Scene ii of Act II that she would have murdered Duncan herself if he had not resembled her father as he slept. Her boldness is still evident, though, when she calms Macbeth after the murder and believes a little body of water clears us of this deed. Unlike the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, their relationship remains unchanged from Act I to II. Their relationship is still very close as seen through Duncans murder a product of teamwork.At the end of Act III, both the roles and the relationship of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have reached the final stage of their change. Now that Duncan is dead and Macbeth is hopelessly headed toward a life of immorality, Lady Mac beth fades into the background. Macbeth takes it upon himself in Act III to plot Banquos murder without consulting his wife because he wants to protect her from the corruption that he has involved himself with. His role is now completely changed and there is no turning back for him.As Macbeth goes off on his own course during this time, Lady Macbeths guilt is overwhelming and, cut off from him, she descends into madness. Her guilt emerges in Act III, Scene ii when she says she would rather be dead, and it grows from then on until her death. Lady Macbeths character change is also evident in Act III, Scene ii when she backs out of Macbeths mysterious murder plan and tells him, You must leave this. The relationship between the couple is being torn apart by this time in Macbeth. They are headed in separate directions Macbeth towards a life of evil and Lady Macbeth towards insanity and grief.As Shakespeare developed the characters of Macbeth and his wife, their changing roles ironically ended up resembling the other ones role. At the beginning of the tragedy, Macbeth was the hesitant character with a strong conscience, while Lady Macbeth was powerful and firm. However, by the time these two characters were completely changed, Macbeth ended up being decisive and greedy, as Lady Macbeth turned out to be weak since her guilty conscience drove her insane. Shakespeares exchange of roles in Macbeth is clever yet unusual, but after all, things arent always what they seem.