Role Of Conscience In Macbeth

Does our inner conscience help us from falling into dire situations and guide us toward a more righteous path? In William Shakespeare 's Macbeth, Macbeth’s ambition to gain more power leads him to his downfall. Shakespeare’s characterization of a power-hungry Lady Macbeth leads her to destroy her own conscience as well as her husband’s. Macbeth’s downfall could have been altered based on whether or not he had a conscience when he experienced his ambitious impulses. Since his conscience was wiped out by his wife, all of the morals Macbeth had in the beginning of the play were not evident at the end of the play. This caused him to act more on his impulses and commit more murders without considering the consequences that followed. Macbeth’s conscience was present before Lady Macbeth could taint it, and it told him that is was immoral to murder Duncan to become more powerful. Since the beginning of the play, it could be seen that Macbeth had a conscience. We see this in many situations. For example, when Lady Macbeth reveals to him that she has a plan to murder Duncan. When Macbeth is told this, he responds by saying “We will proceed no further in this business” (I.VII.34). His argument as to why they should not go through with the murder is that Duncan had “honored [Macbeth] of late (35) and …show more content…
If Macbeth still had his conscience, he could have saved Lady Macbeth from the lack of hers. One’s conscience helps to determine if one will do good or if they will turn the other way and do bad. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth both show us that without a conscience, we have no voice guiding us to do the just and more reasonable action. A conscience would have averted any involvement in several murders and ultimately would have prevented many deaths including theirs. For these two characters, the absence of their consciences causes them to do unforgivable and irreversible