Contemporary Issues That Arise In Macbeth '

Contemporary Issues That Arise In Macbeth In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth many issues that arise throughout the duration of the play are still relevant in modern society. People can relate life in the early 1600s to life nowadays by bringing forth the contemporary issues such as ambition, violence and repercussions, and stress and mental illness. These topics are addressed quite often today, but people still continue to make similar mistakes as those in Macbeth, and they are sometimes unaware of how devastating the effect of their actions can become. By relating these issues between Shakespeare’s Macbeth and society today, people might be able to better comprehend the connection between ambition, violence and repercussions, stress and mental …show more content…
One of which being Macbeth’s character changing and developing. Macbeth goes from a man driven by his wants and needs, to someone who is driven strictly by ambition. Macbeth becomes put under a lot of stress and that begins to affect his judgment. However Macbeth isn’t the only one who undergoes a character change due to stress. Lady Macbeth’s character began to spiral out of control following the murders of Duncan and the guards. Lady Macbeth became mentally ill and began to reenact the murders over and over again in her mind. Essentially everyone thought that Macbeth would be the one to ‘snap’ before his Lady, when in fact the opposite happened. Later in the play Macbeth learns that Lady Macbeth had killed herself. When Macbeth hears those words he is overcome with many emotions; his attitude immediately shifts gears. Macbeth goes on to say that he wishes that Lady Macbeth would’ve lived to grow old with him. At this point Macbeth has surpassed the emotion of being upset and begins to lose sight of what he was fighting for. He loses sight of everything that doesn’t pertain to his Lady and is beyond depressed: “She should have died hereafter. There would have been a time for such a word… If thou speak’st false, upon the next tree shall thou hang alive...“ (5.5.17-18 & 5.5.38-52). Stress and mental illness relates society during the early 1600s to society today because it allows people to see that when an individual loses someone close to them, they can become overwhelmed with emotion and that can affect their judgment. One’s emotions can also affect their mental health if they aren’t completely and totally aware of their mental state. This contemporary issue is relevant in today’s society as well as in the early 1600s because people are affected by one another’s actions all of the time, and if they’re not in complete control of their emotions they could potentially spiral out of