Macbeth: Human and Lady Macbeth Impure Essay

Submitted By edenwhite
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Pages: 2
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The Malevolence of Human Nature as it is Portrayed in Macbeth The opposition between light and darkness is a battle that has been raging since the beginning of time. The distinction has always been deliberate, calculated; eternally bound by the association of good and evil the two have acquired through millennia. It is only logical that this duel concept has added broader, deeper themes to many works of literature in order to symbolize the constant struggle of staying pure in a world so dark and demeaning. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, light and dark is used as a motif that can be interpreted as the chaos residing within human nature, and the darkness of the human soul. Although we are born pure, evil soon sprouts in the fertile soil rooted in human nature’s constant striving for personal gain, and despite the super natural’s influence, the evil that follows always comes from within: no longer bound by one’s ethics or morals. From the minute humans can speak, they tell lies laced with the intention of self-preservation. Shakespeare exemplifies this natural occurrence with the motif and mentions of birds and horses in Act II, Scene IV, as Ross speaks with an elderly man of previous encounters with cannibalism and ruthless murder among animals. This acknowledgement of natural corruption sheds light on the essence of evil, and is later touched upon again as Macbeth questions his intentions, thinking “If good, why do I yield to that suggestion/ whose horrid image doth unfix my hair/ and make my seated heart… against… nature?” (I.II.147-150). Macbeth’s acceptance
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