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Shakespeare’s Macbeth, is a twisting, turning, very dramatic play. There are characters whom may seem honorable one minute and villainous the next. The play goes through many scene and setting changes, but the overall theme remains the same. The dark envious nature of Macbeth plays out through the play's entirety. The chief character in the tragedy, Macbeth himself, is progressively isolated, and increasingly cut off from his family, friends, the public, and even with himself. The play begins with Macbeth shown as a strong fighter and a hero. This image, however, is challenged once Macbeth interacts with the witches; which proves him to be weak minded but at the same time ambitious. While being in an inner turmoil of clashing qualities, Macbeth allows himself to put his guard down and thus to be easily manipulated by the witches and his wife. At the end of the play, a cycle seems to form in which Macbeth returns to the battle field and dies in combat. Macbeth is a dynamic character: in the beginning, he is a loyal, trustworthy warrior and Thane to Scotland’s King Duncan, until, that is, he meets the witches, who prophesize of his greatness, and becomes weak minded and frantic about keeping his throne to the point of collapsing. Act I, scene 2 of Macbeth, presents the captain’s gory descriptions of the battle where he depicts Macbeth to have “unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops” (Shakespeare, 1. 2. 24); revealing the strong and fearless qualities that Macbeth possesses. He continues to glorify and praise Macbeth by remarking that, “For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name),/ Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel,/ Which smoked with execution,/ Like valor’s minion, carved out his passage/ Till he faced the slave […]” (1. 2. 19-22). Also, the captain’s description of Macbeth’s fighting style – “Which ne’er shook hand, nor bade farewell to him, / […]/ and fixed his head upon our battlements” (1. 2. 23-25) – leaves little room for imagination and impresses Duncan greatly. By overstressing the under qualified soldiers on the other side – “[…] from the Western Isles/ Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied […]” (1. 2. 14-15) – the captain naturally exaggerates about the qualities of Macbeth. Nonetheless, King Duncan is struck by the Captain’s over-glorification of Macbeth’s power and fearlessness, and feels impelled to reward Macbeth with the title of the Thane of Cawdor.
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