Effects Of Conscience Essay, Research Paper
In the play MacBeth written by “William Shakespeare” shows the deterioration of MacBeth and Lady MacBeth’s conscience. At the beginning of the play Macbeth is seen as a courageous soldier who is loyal to the King but is corrupted from the witches prophecies and by his and Lady Macbeth s ambition. This is because of the weakness of Macbeth s character and the strong power of Lady Macbeth and how 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. Macbeth is a strong soldier in the start, but his strive for ambition and his curious nature lead him and his wife into an evil and corrupt life.
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 give him 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. Macbeth is a little ambitious at first, but Lady Macbeth s far exceeds his and so she is able to get Macbeth to agree with her to kill King Duncan. Macbeth still has a good conscience at this stage because he is very hesitant about killing the King but his weak nature overcomes him. He has an uncertain conscience throughout the entire play as the hallucinations of the dagger and the ghost of Banquo and his vivid imagination see this and his constant worry also provokes him. Even those who appear good and trust worthy can easily become sinister.
Lady Macbeth seems to be almost opposite compared to that of Macbeth in physical and mental power. Lady Macbeth is the person who is able to persuade Macbeth into killing Duncan, assuring Macbeth that it will succeed, as Lady Macbeth s ambition is far greater than that of Macbeth. This change in the character of Lady Macbeth is apparent after she reads the letter from Macbeth as she goes and talks to the evil spirits to make her evil with lines such as “Fill me from the crown to the toe-top full of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood”. She goes to the extent of planning the murder of Dun
After performing the necessary acts in preparation for the murder of Duncan she thinks of performing the act herself but shows a sign of humanity and doesn t because it resembles “My father as he slept”. After the murder has been done Lady Macbeth shows just how strong a person she really is by using kind words and confidence to clam Macbeth down and prevent him going insane. Lady Macbeth however jokes with Macbeth about forgetting the incident as “These deeds must not be thought after these ways: so, it will make us mad”. Afterwards she gets the daggers that Macbeth had brought with him and smeared them with blood and then told Macbeth to change into a nightgown. At this point Lady Macbeth is in complete control and has tried to make Macbeth free of guilt even though he in fact did perform the deed. Even though she may be a strong character greatly supporting her husband she has become corrupt by her deeds and her conscience, which she was able to hide from Macbeth, eventually drives her insane. She then kills herself. As a result Macbeth has already thrown away his conscience, so much that Macbeth commits even more evil acts afterwards.
Despite being a strong soldier Macbeth allowed himself to fall apart due to his ambition and trust in Lady Macbeth. Over the course of the play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth greatly change with respect to their characters and their personalities. Although Macbeth was weak at first it was the strong Lady Macbeth who helped him through the first murder but in sacrifice to controlling Macbeth and his conscience she lost control of hers and in consequence turned insane and killed herself. At the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth appears as a kind wife of Macbeth s but underneath lies a scheming and treacherous woman. Thus in the end it was worthy to call Macbeth and his wife “a dead butcher and his fiend like queen” but it must not be forgotten that at the beginning of the play Macbeth and his wife were ordinary nobles at the time.
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