Macbeths Progressive Change From Good to Evil
... Macbeth gradually changes from a good to evil person, from a man who is eager for more power to one who kills just because he can. With a little help from the witches and his wife, it is apparent the sudden arrival of power and wealth brings about a nature in Macbeth that not even he knows about. ... In his conquest, Macbeth changes from a loyal soldier to a lethal enemy; his metamorphosis takes place through a series of actions which led to his downfall. When first met in the play, Macbeth has been victorious in battle against an invasion from Norway where the freedom of Scotland has been endangered. He is celebrated as a great warrior, particularly when the Sergeant informs us: For Brave Macbeth, - well he deserves that name, - Disdaining fortune, with his brandish’d steel, Which Smok’d with bloody execution, Like valour’s minion carv’d out his passage, Till he fac’d the slave; Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, Till he unseam’d him from the nave to the chaps, And fix’d his head upon our battlements (I, ii,16-23). ... Though it is facile to blame the witches or even lady Macbeth for the troubles which occur in Macbeth’s life, even to the point to those sources as the cause of evil in the play, it is Macbeth who bears responsibility for the change from honored general to despised tyrant.