Passions And Moral Habits In William Shakespeare's Macbeth

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The namesake of the play, “Macbeth” is a man who faced a decision between his own personal passion and his moral obligations and duties. The two choices pulled at him and seemed to torment him even after he made a decision. Through the conflict that Macbeth felt because of his decisions, the reader can better empathize with him, and can obtain a more profound lesson from the story concerning decisions between personal passions and moral obligations.
Macbeth is not what one would call “perfect.” He is neither a hero nor an absolute villain. The fact that he feels the stress or tension between his choices and desires helps to create a more human like, accessible character. For example, on page 30 while speaking to his wife after starting to have
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One lesson that I ended this story was that one should not allow their ambition to overcome moral constraints, or they will be destroyed by it. We see how Macbeth was a person in power at the beginning of the story and how he after hearing about his prophecy from the witches, became greedy for it. Once he takes actions that are immoral to gain or secure power like when he kills Duncan, his guilt afterwards tear him apart. After hearing about the success from the murderers who killed Banquo, in Act 3, Scene 4, Macbeth starts his descent into insanity and mania, believing that he sees Banquo sitting at the table with the other lords. This is a very easy example of his guilt literally tugging at his psyche. The comparison of the version of the earlier Macbeth to the now murderous Macbeth is gut wrenching. A reader is really able to see and understand the consequences of going against one’s own moral compass through the reactions that Macbeth has to each of his own …show more content…
As stated in the previous paragraph, the beginning of the story Macbeth is a different character than by the end of the story. Again, at the beginning he seemed to be loyal and good, but with every step he took to secure power he gradually, and sometimes not so gradually, became more corrupted. The entire story itself serves as a very good example of this moral, but points that really stick out are where he has Banquo murdered after killing Duncan, and when he has Macduff’s family killed after feeling threatened. Macbeth realized after killing Duncan that Banquo knew about the prophecy and could possibly link Macbeth to the murder. So, Macbeth does the unthinkable and kills his friend, all to keep his secret and to maintain his power. The reader receive a glimpse into the companionship that the two shared in the earliest parts of the story. So when Macbeth has him killed it just shows exactly how far the corruption has gotten and how much humanity he has lost.
So, through the character Macbeth and the ways that the reader can empathize and level with him, the reader is able to gather more, intense, lessons and morals concerning moral obligations and human desires for

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