Is Macbeth in control of himself, or are the witches and Lady Macbeth in control of him?
At the beginning of the play Macbeth is portrayed as a loyal soldier who is respected and in control of himself.
By the end of the play, he is portrayed as no longer being in control of himself.
The witches are portrayed as having more control over Macbeth than he does of himself.
Lady Macbeth is portrayed as having more control over Macbeth than he does himself, but less control over him than the witches do.
quotes
"valiant cousin"
'noble' man and 'lion'
this means that he has a good leadership and soldier
"and fixed his head upon the battlements
Macbeth beheads a traitor on the battlefeild which foreshadows his own death at the end of play
"double redoubled strokes ups foe"
At the beginning of the play Macbeth is praised for his bloodthirsty behaviour. the irony is that the violence will eventually have its downfall.
his respect from Duncan and his people gave him his control over himself.
he can use his respect to get away with Duncans murder
'lost' and 'won' mirrors the witches language in act one scene one. this suggests that the witches can predict the future, and it hints at their power
"noble Macbeth hath won"
"then cut him from the nave to the chops"
The phrase ‘nave to the chops’ emphasises his masculinity seeing that he had ‘killed his way to Macdonwald’ from the descripted phrase.this shows the witches that he is capable of killing Duncan with just the right motivation.
"is it too full of the milk of human kindness"
lady Macbeth uses his kindness and lack of masculinity against him because she knows that he honours Duncan too much to even think of killing him.
lady Macbeth is not in full control because If she did not call on the 'spirits' she would not have been in her evil state
He kills more and more people - far more than he planned to - as the play goes on