How Macbeth Is Still Relevant
Shakespeare’s plays are still relevant today because of the Many of Shakespeare’s plays explore the humanity in people. He has accurately depicted many truths about the human. In Macbeth, one human virtue that Shakespeare points out is that even the “bad guys” have some good spirit, no matter how deeply buried it is.
The corrupted characters in Macbeth are shown sympathetically when Macbeth sees a ghost of Banquo, when Lady Macbeth goes insane from guilt, and when Macbeth’s conscience is so full of guilt that he doesn’t want to kill MacDuff. After Macbeth ordered the death of Banquo, he went to a dinner party, where he thought he saw a ghost of Banquo. This hallucination is an example of the heavy guilt on his conscience. “Prithee, see there! behold! look! lo! how say you? Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too. If charnel-houses and our graves must send those that we bury back, our monuments shall be the maws of kites.” (III, IV) Later, once Macbeth is king, his lady begins to give in to her guilt as well. Her guilt stemmed from assisting Macbeth with murdering Duncan. She starts sleepwalking, and talks in her sleep about the blood on her hands that will not come off. The doctor in the castle comments that she must be laden with guilt. “What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged.” (V, I) Lady Macbeth’s remorse shows that she wishes she had not chosen such a cruel path. Lastly, mercy is shown by Macbeth when he faces off against MacDuff in the final act. He pleads with MacDuff because he doesn’t want to kill him like he did to the rest of MacDuff’s family. “Of all men else I have avoided thee: but get thee back; my soul is too much charged with blood of thine already.”(V, VII) As seen from Macbeth’s guilty hallucination, Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking, and lastly by Macbeth’s refusal to kill more people, evidence suggests that Shakespeare’s Macbeth portrays every person with at least a glimmer of good spirit
The corrupted characters in Macbeth are shown sympathetically when Macbeth sees a ghost of Banquo, when Lady Macbeth goes insane from guilt, and when Macbeth’s conscience is so full of guilt that he doesn’t want to kill MacDuff. After Macbeth ordered the death of Banquo, he went to a dinner party, where he thought he saw a ghost of Banquo. This hallucination is an example of the heavy guilt on his conscience. “Prithee, see there! behold! look! lo! how say you? Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too. If charnel-houses and our graves must send those that we bury back, our monuments shall be the maws of kites.” (III, IV) Later, once Macbeth is king, his lady begins to give in to her guilt as well. Her guilt stemmed from assisting Macbeth with murdering Duncan. She starts sleepwalking, and talks in her sleep about the blood on her hands that will not come off. The doctor in the castle comments that she must be laden with guilt. “What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged.” (V, I) Lady Macbeth’s remorse shows that she wishes she had not chosen such a cruel path. Lastly, mercy is shown by Macbeth when he faces off against MacDuff in the final act. He pleads with MacDuff because he doesn’t want to kill him like he did to the rest of MacDuff’s family. “Of all men else I have avoided thee: but get thee back; my soul is too much charged with blood of thine already.”(V, VII) As seen from Macbeth’s guilty hallucination, Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking, and lastly by Macbeth’s refusal to kill more people, evidence suggests that Shakespeare’s Macbeth portrays every person with at least a glimmer of good spirit