The Role Of Conscience In Macbeth

Macbeth by Shakespeare was set back in medieval times in Scotland, this play depicts a story of a Scottish General that receives a promise of power and his journey of attaining and living with his power with a guilty conscience. Macbeth turns to murder out of the pressure of his wife and greed and in the end he pay for their consequences with his sanity and life. Although it is assumed that those who are murderous are simply heartless killers and do not have a conscience, in the play Macbeth by Shakespeare, his writing shows how there were conflicting desires that made Macbeth turn to murders and slaughter. Greed was Macbeth's evil but his conscience was his downfall.
In Act I Scene II, Duncan, the King, hears of Macbeth's loyalty and heroic actions and gives him a new title, a promotion with more power. While there is talk of his new title as Thane of Cawdor,
He first is a loyal to the King and he respects him entirely and thinks highly of him. In Act I Scene IV Macbeth addresses Duncan with, “The service and the loyalty I owe, In doing it, pays itself. Your highness; part, is to receive our durites; and our duties.” As a dedicated soldier he would have never thought of killing the king until he was introduced to his newest role of power and the prophecy of kingship. Macbeth struggles internally and externally with these thoughts his morals know that he respects the Duncan and would not want to hurt him but as the thought of more power consumes him, the thoughts of murder begin to dance in his head. Moreover when he told his wife of this prophecy, she like the devil on his shoulder convinced him that there will be no repercussions to his crime, only power. Make sure Macbeth follows through she tempts him with the words of, “When you durst do it, then you were a man” Act I Scene