The context of Macbeth is both current to today's world and the world that existed when Macbeth was written. Macbeth is a historical tragedy, the historical element of Macbeth applied to the 17th century, Macbeth was a message for what could possibly happen in England to the royal hierarchy. Like most of Shakespeare's plays, there was an underlying message, or warning, where fate was seen as the reason for most occurrences. There was a possibility that what happened in Macbeth could happen in England, someone could try and take the throne. Macbeth showed the royal hierarchy and the people at the time, the consequences of what would happen if something like that occurred. In the 17th century Macbeth had a different meaning to what it does now, it has gone from being a possibility and is now seen as something to learn from so that people may understand human nature and the themes that manifest themselves in the play of Macbeth, as well as how they apply to people today.
People in the 17th century would have regarded Macbeth as being a warning, but today Macbeth is analysed so that people may see the different ways Macbeth can be applied to our everyday lives. It shows how greed, ambition and desire can drive people to being their worst selves, it shows how people can be pressured into doing things (this could apply to the workplace, and how people will do things even if they do not want to, just because someone of higher authority told them to). It is something to learn from, not only about the play itself, but the people around you and yourself. Not many people turn into rampaging murderers, but even the less severe acts of humans, can have the same motives and incentives. Most crime in the modern world starts out with the criminal not being a criminal, and a series of events has shaped their lives into becoming what they are in the present moment. That is a likened to Macbeth, he started out an honourable soldier, with golden opinions from all sorts of people, and then he was told by the witches what he could become, told him that it was his fate. At that moment he wanted it, and then started the transition from innocence to guilt, and Macbeth goes beyond guilt, he is so consumed in the evil things he has done that he succumbs to a numbness that further pushes him to committing more of the crimes that ruined his life.
Lady Macbeth is an influence of Macbeth, she has the ability to sway his views on things, she turned his idea into a reality. Macbeth saw the thing he wanted, and Lady Macbeth could only see the way to get it. Murder wasn't even on the mind of Macbeth until Lady Macbeth mentioned it. It was inevitable that murder was going to occur, but it was never guaranteed that Macbeth had fully considered committing the actions to achieve what he wanted. People want things all the time, and most often they are the things you cant have, you may think about it, but who actually sets out to achieve most of the things they want? Sometimes its too hard, takes too long or the person just brushes it away thinking that it isn't even possible, people discard their wants as easily as they acquire them. Furthermore Macbeth had never considered becoming the Thane of Cawdor prior to the three witches mentioning it, did Macbeth actually aspire to become King, was it the deepest desire of his heart? Probably not. He was only eager to accept this fate because the outcome had already been determined for him, and because it was his "fate" it was obviously going to happen anyway. But that didn't mean Macbeth had to speed it up.
Lady Macbeth had the notion that since Macbeth had mentioned his "fate" of becoming the Thane of Cawdor, he was going to go through with doing what was needed to achieve the title.
Honourable Macbeth, torn between following his "fate" and following his heart, takes the easy option and lets Lady Macbeth con him into believing he has these false desires. She talks about how great life would be if he was Thane of Cawdor, how happy she would be, how honourable he would be. How honourable he was.
People in the 17th century would have regarded Macbeth as being a warning, but today Macbeth is analysed so that people may see the different ways Macbeth can be applied to our everyday lives. It shows how greed, ambition and desire can drive people to being their worst selves, it shows how people can be pressured into doing things (this could apply to the workplace, and how people will do things even if they do not want to, just because someone of higher authority told them to). It is something to learn from, not only about the play itself, but the people around you and yourself. Not many people turn into rampaging murderers, but even the less severe acts of humans, can have the same motives and incentives. Most crime in the modern world starts out with the criminal not being a criminal, and a series of events has shaped their lives into becoming what they are in the present moment. That is a likened to Macbeth, he started out an honourable soldier, with golden opinions from all sorts of people, and then he was told by the witches what he could become, told him that it was his fate. At that moment he wanted it, and then started the transition from innocence to guilt, and Macbeth goes beyond guilt, he is so consumed in the evil things he has done that he succumbs to a numbness that further pushes him to committing more of the crimes that ruined his life.
Lady Macbeth is an influence of Macbeth, she has the ability to sway his views on things, she turned his idea into a reality. Macbeth saw the thing he wanted, and Lady Macbeth could only see the way to get it. Murder wasn't even on the mind of Macbeth until Lady Macbeth mentioned it. It was inevitable that murder was going to occur, but it was never guaranteed that Macbeth had fully considered committing the actions to achieve what he wanted. People want things all the time, and most often they are the things you cant have, you may think about it, but who actually sets out to achieve most of the things they want? Sometimes its too hard, takes too long or the person just brushes it away thinking that it isn't even possible, people discard their wants as easily as they acquire them. Furthermore Macbeth had never considered becoming the Thane of Cawdor prior to the three witches mentioning it, did Macbeth actually aspire to become King, was it the deepest desire of his heart? Probably not. He was only eager to accept this fate because the outcome had already been determined for him, and because it was his "fate" it was obviously going to happen anyway. But that didn't mean Macbeth had to speed it up.
Lady Macbeth had the notion that since Macbeth had mentioned his "fate" of becoming the Thane of Cawdor, he was going to go through with doing what was needed to achieve the title.
Honourable Macbeth, torn between following his "fate" and following his heart, takes the easy option and lets Lady Macbeth con him into believing he has these false desires. She talks about how great life would be if he was Thane of Cawdor, how happy she would be, how honourable he would be. How honourable he was.