Deception and Betrayal in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

How far is one man willing to go to fulfill his desires? William Shakespeare wrote the drama titled “The Tragedy of Macbeth”, which took place in Scotland1606. The main character, Macbeth receives a fateful prophecy that causes a conflict in the various interactions of the main characters. One of the main themes of Macbeth is honor vs. disloyalty, and it affects mostly everyone in the story. Throughout this drama, it tends to focus on the disloyalty from Macbeth towards the King, Banquo and Macduff.

From the first scene of the play, the reader immediately gets a glimpse of the deception meshed into Macbeth’s world. The quote “Fair is foul and foul is fair” is a commonly used by the three witches, spoken in their equivocal language. This same language of vagueness is used when the witches encounter Macbeth and Banquo on the

    This preoccupation of mind of Macbeth is clearly seen as the play develops.  We see that this obsession to power is accomplished by Macbeth by any means necessary.  "Sacrifice any and all if necessary" would be a good portrayal of his state of mind.  He kills to cover up his earlier murder victims.  He has let this fixation take him on a one-way path, a path of no return.  It is exactly the same as lying.  The problem with a lie is that one must lie to make the first lie believable.  The more one lies, the more they become convicted to not coming clean.  This is exactly what happens to Macbeth.  He kills to cover up his first murder.  "The death of each day's life...Give me the daggers...This my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine." (Act 2, Scene 2).  He commits himself deeper into this passion of gaining power and status.  This inevitably leads up to his downfall.

With attention to the murder of King Duncan, Macbeth struggles with the morality of his actions. Before the murder takes place, Macbeth begins to believe that the murder will “be the be-all and the end-all” to his clear conscious and would risk him to eternal damnation (Act I, line 5). Yet, the murder would bring him power over Scotland and he “shalt be kind” as told by the Weird Sisters(Act 1, line 50). Macbeth goes off of his ambition to murder King Duncan. The internal struggle of choosing mortality over motives brought forth an intense shift of loyalty to betrayal. The murder caused for Macbeth to turn on Scotland and only care for his own selfish motives. The betrayal causes for the play to become horrific and have a double meaning. Macbeth must put on a face to hide his murder to become the king. The double meaning is how Macbeth looks like a hero to all of Scotland, but only the people on the inside know of his horrific actions. He had to murder to to get the position of King, but the

Away, and mock the time with fairest show. False face must hide what false heart doth know¨(1.7). In this quote, Macbeth is telling Lady Macbeth that he is now willing to murder Duncan for power. This shows the power of others as discussed earlier, but also how power itself can lead people to do terrible things. The desire for power drives Lady Macbeth and Macbeth to cross a line they probably never thought they would cross, murder. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth were also fearful of losing their power, driving them to kill again and again. Through these actions, Shakespeare shows how because the darkness in both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth was left unchecked, it got out of hand and made them lose their

First, it is Macbeth’s thirst for power, coupled with Lady Macbeth’s manipulation of him, that drive the murder of KIng Duncan. As Banquo becomes suspicious and as Macbeth becomes increasingly troubled by the witches’ proclamation that Banquo will be the father of kings, Macbeth convinces himself that Banquo must be killed, proclaiming “For Banquo’s issue I have filed my mind [...] the seeds of Banquo kings (III.i.70-75).” Macbeth is paranoid of losing his new-found power to Banquo. This fear is so stout that it drives him to solicit the murder of his most loyal friend. As his morality devolves further, Macbeth senses disloyalty from Macduff, and he resolves to murder MacDuff’s entire family. In Act IV, Macbeth says, “But yet I'll make assurance double sure,/ And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live; (IV.i.94-95).” Even though the prophecy seems to assuage Macbeth’s fears of losing power, he still plans to kill MacDuff, supporting his further descent into corruption and evil- all driven by his thirst for

The first time deception is shown in acts one and two of the play, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, is in scene six of act one. In this scene, King Duncan arrives at Macbeth’s castle. He is staying the night there as a guest to the honorable man that saved his kingdom. Upon arriving, Lady Macbeth greets him and is the best host. In this scene, Duncan says to Lady Macbeth, “Fair and noble hostess, we are your guest tonight.”

Acts one, two, and three all provide proof that the nobles are loyal to Macbeth. In act 1, Macbeth has not done anything to break their trust or show signs of becoming a tyrant. The same is for act two. The king was killed by Macbeth yet everyone was convinced that the guards who were protecting the king’s chamber were at fault. This is shown by Lennox’s line in act two scene 3, lines 97-101. Because the guards were killed by Macbeth, they were unable to be questioned which still kept Macbeth’s hands clean so all of the nobles are still loyal to him and his newly acquired kingdom. Act three shows the same reaction from the nobles when Banquo is murdered. Although there is no evidence that clearly pins the murder on Macbeth, his strange actions may cause some suspicion when Macbeth claims he sees the ghost of Banquo sitting in his chair in scene four of act 3. Ross, one of the nobles from Scotland, states that Macbeth is unwell and the rest of the company at the dinner also start to notice his strange actions. At this time Lady Macbeth associates his behavior to an illness of sorts and the nobles believe it and wish him health and wellness. Act four is the turning point of the play where the nobles are beginning to realize what is going on in the kingdom and they know something needs to change before Macbeth destroys the whole kingdom. Act four scene three is when Ross goes to Macduff to ask him to influence the citizens to become soldiers against the armies

Betrayal is the act of building trust and then using that trust for personal gain. It often involves breaking the trust and often involves lying. Banquo suggests an option, patience may well make Macbeth

Throughout time the act of accepting the truth has been a struggle for several thousands of generations, these struggles have formed something that we know now as deception. The subtlety of deception has been inserted into characters traits and plots to add depth and characters in all sorts of literature. To add a certain depth and mystery to plays, novels, movies, and other forms of entertainment, characters would use deception to add a sense of ambiguity to their works. These literary techniques have been used for decades, in fact in biblical times it was used to teach and highlight the significance of truth and total honesty as supposed to lies and deceit. Over the course of his life Shakespeare has created several plays that emphasized the impact and importance of deception.

The “Tragedy of Macbeth” by William Shakespeare tells a tale of deceit, murder, and ambition, beginning with a cutthroat rise to power, followed by calamitous downfall. At the start of the play, Macbeth is a brave and loyal captain in King Duncan’s army, but after three witches prophesize that he himself will become the king of Scotland, and that those born of a friend, Banquo, will be king after him, Macbeth is overtaken by ambition and gluttony. Instigated by his wife and his own lust for power, he murders Duncan, assumes the throne, and subsequently sends mercenaries to kill Banquo’s sons. While awaiting battle, Macbeth addresses the death of his wife in Act V, scene 5. Throughout the

After Macbeth becomes king he became worried that his position would be compromised by a traitor. He is increasingly worried about Banquos prophecy and has Banquo murdered to protect his power. “My lord his throat is cut, that I did for him” (Shakespeare III.iv.41) Macduff one of the nobles leaves the county to organize a revolt against Macbeth. Macbeth has Macduff’s family and castle staff killed to protect against further betray. “The castle of Macduff I will surprise; Seize upon fife; give to the edge o’ the swords his wife, his babes and all unfortunate souls that trace him in his line. (Shakespeare IV.ii.56). This choice to kill Macduff’s family led to Macbeth’s fall.

Deception was an essential element in most of Shakespeare’s plays, whether they are comedies, histories or tragedies. The question here is; What is the dramatic effect of deception? Does it always lead to a downfall? And did deception always inherently evil? In Shakespeare’s plays, deception had many different faces, it could be accidental, well-planned, or self-inflicted, it also can be evil and pure. Obviously, using deception for evil seems always to let to downfall, however, deception is not always inherently evil, but can also be pure and used as a means to good ends. In each of Shakespeare’s four plays — Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like It, Hamlet, and Macbeth — deception as a theme took many different forms, and lead to different ending in each play, happy ending as it which is used for good, and downfall as it used for evil.

The saddest thing about betrayal is that it´s never from your enemies. In Macbeth by William Shakespeare there is many people that turn against Macbeth, but which one is the antagonist. There is many options on who it could be, but did you think it could be his wife? Lady Macbeth.

All through the play Macbeth becomes obsessed with what the witches have for-told. He always follows this the obvious way. Macbeth thinks that he should kill Banquo because the witches say that there will be a line of Banquo kings. Macbeth doesn’t want to loose the crown to Banquo or his son, so he tries to kill them both so the line will continue in his family. Macbeth also chooses to kill Macduff anyway, even though the witches said know one would kill him. The witches did not really mislead Macbeth; they only put an idea into his head, and left him to decide what action to take. Banquo tries to warn Macbeth away from the prophecies.