In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, is seen as a courageous soldier who is loyal to the King but is corrupted by the witches prophecies and by Lady Macbeth’s and his own ambition. This is because of the weakness of Macbeth’s character and the strong power of Lady Macbeth as she is easily able to influence him. Her strength motivates him at the start but after he realizes what he has done it is himself that continues in his murderous, bloody path. At the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth appears as a kind wife but underneath lies a scheming and treacherous woman. Both Macbeth and his wife go through many changes throughout the course of this play. They go from being honored, noble people to being reduced to nothing. They both have tragic flaws such as ambition and greed which bring them to their down fall. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a strong soldier who fights for the King without mercy but his strive for ambition and his curious nature leads him to the witches who greet him with a prophecy. Banquo realizes that there must be a trick hidden in the witches prophecies somewhere but Macbeth refuses to accept that, and when Lady Macbeth finds out about the witches her strong desire for ambition and her cold nature leads Macbeth astray. Lady Macbeth’s ambition far exceeds Macbeths and so she is able to get Macbeth to agree with her to kill King Duncan. Macbeth still has a conscience at this stage because he is very hesitant about killing the King but his weak nature over comes him. He has a conscience throughout the entire play as this is seen by the hallucinations of the dagger and the ghost of Banquo. His vivid imagination and his constant worry also provokes him. This is also evident in his terrible dreams which gives the solid theme that he has indeed “murdered sleep". Throughout the play we see the character of Macbeth change not from just the way he thinks and what we...
