Ignorance In Macbeth

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A bright light shines at the end of a winding road radiating warmth, energy, and power as one comes closer to it. As two strong, heroic men valiantly march in victory towards the dazzling luminosity, they stumble upon a small inscribed, wooden sign saying there is a possibly shorter way to the light. One man, ambitious for power, immediately switches roads and takes the short cut; however the other man, unaware of his friend’s decision, solitarily continues on the longer road ignoring the tantalizing road sign. Suddenly, as the first man chooses the wrong turn the brilliant aura dims until completely darkness quickly ensues, and the end of twisting path can longer be seen. Through this extended metaphor, any individual can easily distinguish …show more content…
So what went wrong? Similarly to Banquo’s ignorance to the sign in the metaphor, he equally decides in Macbeth to not act upon the witches’ prophecies and thus surrenders to the force of fate. Contrastingly, Macbeth, hungry for power, exercises free will in order to personally guarantee the fulfillment of the predictions, eventually killing Banquo and many other innocent characters. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Banquo and the title character’s contracting responses to supernatural prophecies exemplify how the ruthless battle between fate and free-will only seeks to destroy strong relationships. Initially, Macbeth and Banquo are seen as heroic and loyal comrades in the eyes of Duncan and Scotland, but soon their polar opposite personalities become more evident as the play progresses. After they briefly defeated Scotland, the captain proudly describes Macbeth’s …show more content…
However, unknown to Macbeth, his very first words in the play eerily echo the paradoxical words of the witches, "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" (I.i.11), and thus one can instantaneously see the cataclysmic inseparability of Macbeth and the forces of darkness awaiting him. Macbeth’s distasteful opinion on bloodshed quickly fades when he himself kills the servants who supposedly murdered Duncan and feigns great sorrow, crying out, “Oh yet I do repent me of my fury,/ That I did kill them [...] Who could refrain,/ That had a heart to love, And in that heart/ Courage to make ‘s love known?” (II.iii.103-116). Throughout his assertion, Macbeth strives to justify the murder of Duncan’s guards as a mere act of love for Duncan. However, Macbeth’s expression of grief is a sign of dramatic irony. Through his past act of murdering Duncan, the audience recognizes his real motives, but the other noblemen in the castle are unaware of the dangerous and murderous ideas he has secretly kept under his belt. In spite of Macbeth’s drastic change, Banquo continues to remain level headed and loyal, even after Duncan’s murder. He pledges, “"In the great hand of God I stand, and
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