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Topic
The purpose of Macbeth is to prevent people living during Shakespeare’s time from committing acts that would, in the long run, do them more harm than good. Develop three thematic statements that serve as warnings to Shakespeare’s audience (one body paragraph), and provide specific, detailed evidence from the play for each thematic statement when answer this question.
Essay
“Precaution is better than cure.”
The quote above states that we should always take precautionary measures to prevent ourselves from getting into harm’s way. It is better to be well informed about the consequences of your actions, than suffer in the future out of ignorance. William Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth” warns tte audience agains the acts they might commit, which will backfire. Power is like lust, there is no end to it. In the play “Macbeth”, Macbeth is not satisfied with the titles he holds; The thane of Gladis and the The thane of Cawdor. He wants something above that, he wants to be the King of Scotland.
Macbeth is portrayed as an ambitious man in the starting of the play. As the play progresses, the ambition and power take a hold of him, preventing him to follow his conscience. “That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only Valuating ambition, which o’erleaps itself And folks on the other.” - Act 1, Scene 7, Lines 25-28. IN the quote, Macbeth admits it is only ambition to an over-eager rider who in trying to leap onto his horse’ saddle, leaps over the horse. Macbeth is similar to the horse rider. He wants to gain power by killing Duncan and doesn’t follow his conscience. The hunger of power without conscience leads to a person’s demise. Like the rider, Macbeth could stay as the King of Scotland and was killed by Macduff. Macbeth was ambitions like a lot of people but the witches pushed it to a “further level.”
The witches told Macbeth the prophecy which stated that Macbeth would become the Thane of Cawdor and the King of Scotland. The prophecy made Macbeth believe that he can be the King, but did not realize the ploy against him. Human nature is to trust people or ideas quickly, which will help them to achieve their motives, but the ideas should not be believed without a solid proof. “But ‘tis strange; And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray us In deepest consequence” – Act 1, Scene 3, 131- 135. Banquo warns Macbeth about the witches prophecy and says that the dark forces might look good and beneficial in the beginning but they will betray him when their own motives are achieved. Macbeth ignored Banquo’s advice and by doing so, Macbeth committed suicide. A person who doesn’t listen to Banquo’s advice will end up like Macbeth did in the end. Since, Macbeth killed King Duncan, he disrupted the order of things in nature.
Everything in nature has its own place and time. A flower only blooms, when the law of nature permit it to. If it blooms earlier or later, it would die and will also effect insects like bees, which feed on the flower. Things in nature should not be disrupt it’s order because it leads to devastating consequences. “Was by a mousing owl hawk’d at and kill’d.” – Act 2, Scene 4, Line 15. The old man describes the events he saw after King Duncan’t death. A mouse attacked an owl and killed it, but the opposite is supposed to happen. The mouse attacking the owl shows that there is chaos and evil everywhere in Scotland, since Macbeth killed King Duncan and became the King. Macbeth was not Duncan’s heir, and Duncan’s death caused an upheaval to rise in Scotland. The evil and the chaos led to Macbeth’s death.
Shakespeare has warned his audiences by showing them the mistakes, Macbeth did in the play. His hunt for power, belief the witches prophecy, and breaking of the order of the Great chain of beings, he led the way to his own doom. Macbeth could have stopped it all from happening if he had been warned about the consequences by someone. The tragic tale of Macbeth is a warning from Shakespeare, which has been passed down from generations of time, so that people don’t commit the same mistakes like Macbeth did.
