Macbeth Comparission and Contrast Essay

Final Draft

In the Shakespeare´s play, Macbeth, there are two main characters that have many similarities and at the same time many differences. These charachters are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, they are married. At the begining of the play Macbeth was a loyal warrior in a powerfull position, but as the play continues he became into a soft personality man was dominated by his wife and his own ambition. Ambition was the only characteristic he had in common with Lady Macbeth. She was dominant and possesive. These qualities on both characters have different effects on them, as well as on other people. The acts and decissions of these two charachters will define the entire play.

Macbeth, being a warrior, was loyal to his king and to his nation. He was also portrayed as a brave and strong-character character. That is the idea we have at the begining of the play. “Come and what come may time and the hour runs through the roughest day” ( 1, IV, 147-148). Proving with these kind of quotes his straight personality. But he isn´t really as brave as we may think. He was easily convinced by his wife, Lady Macbeth. She took advantage of the position her husband had. She manipulated Macbeth to kill Duncan, his own king. Lady Macbeth´s quality was that she was very possesive, so she took advantage over her husband.

Lady Macbeth was also really dominant, and she had such an effect over her husband, that Macbeth becames into a soft and flexible charachter, giving a one hundred and eighty degrees turn to the entire play. “My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white” ( 2, II, 64-65) Said by Lady Macbeth right after killing Duncan. She is ashamed of Macbeth, because he behavied like a complete coward. And Macbeth´s feeling is logical, he just killed Duncan, his own king, the person that he must be most loyal to. But Lady Macbeth´s dominant charachter was stronger than Macbeth´s loyalty and bravery.

The only common quality between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is their ambition for power, social and economical. This ambition brought Lady Macbeth to convince Macbeth to kill his own king. And also, the same ambition brought Macbeth to listen to his evilish wife and got convinced by her. This ambition is all the time growing in both charachters, it can´t be stopped by anything. The first step was to kill Duncan, their own king. But they have to keep feedng this ambition, and they do it by killing other nobles, like Banquo. They also engaged other people to use them for their purposes. They are all the time wanting more and more, and this is what destroyed Macbeth completely

Ambition is the quality that you can say is the cause of all the events that happen in the play, and also the most important. The other qualities of Lady Mabeth just helped her to do whatever she wanted. But also her husband´s soft personality and ambition helped her a lot. You can conclude that after all, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were kind of made for each other. What Macbeth lacks, his wife has and viceversa. If Lady Macbeth would have been married to a different kind of man, a one with a much more strong and constant charachter, things would have been very dificult for Lady Macbeth.

Work Cited

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth, Adventures in English Literature. Ed.

Keach, Richetti, and Robbins. 3rd ed. Orlando: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1989.