MACBETH

     Macbeth is the protagonist of the play 'Macbeth'. It is a very complex character. Macbeth's motives cannot be clearly analysed and labelled. His imagination and sensibilities are better elements in his character. His ambition is his tragic trait.

     Macbeth is a man of ambition. It becomes the root cause of his downfall. This ambition draws him to commit severe crimes. He wants to be the king of Scotland. The witches and Lady Macbeth play important roles to make Macbeth a man of high ambition. To achieve his aim he kills king Duncan, Banquo and many others. His weakness of will is responsible for his crime.

     Macbeth, no doubt, is a great warrior. He is loyal to the king. He is a very good man at heart. But the witches exercise a subtle influence upon him. It means that Macbeth has not a strong will. That is why he comes in the grip of evils. It is Macbeth's weakness of will that throws him into the power of witches and of Lady Macbeth. Due to this weakness, he easily surrenders before the agents of evil.

     Macbeth is a man of strong imagination. It is said that a man of strong imagination cannot be wholly bad. Thus Macbeth is also not a man bad man in Toto. When he meets the witches, his imagination visualises it:

                                                             " If good, why do I yield to that suggestion

                                                                Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,

                                                                 And make my seated heart knock at my ribs

                                                                 Against the use of nature".

     Macbeth always argues before he agrees to commit murder. It shows that he was a man of reason and intellect also. He is a thinker and philosopher. When Lady Macbeth dies, he speaks in a philosophic mood:

                                               "Out, out, brief candle!

                                                 Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

                                                 That struts and frets his hour upon the stage".

                                                  And then is heard no more; it is a tale

                                                  Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury

                                                   Signifying nothing".

     Macbeth fulfils his ambition by murdering a lot of men. He becomes a tyrant. He plays the game of suppression. He pays heavy cost of his crime. He suffers a lot. He losses his wife and his throne. At last he is killed in the battle- field.

     Thus Macbeth is a memorable character of William Shakespeare. He is fine mixture of good evil. When he is not an ambitious man, he is a very good man. When he becomes a man of ambition, he becomes a Satan