Nayan Wages
11AAB
Summer coursework- ‘’How does Shakespeare present human weaknesses in both Julius Caesar and Macbeth?’’
Sharing our weaknesses and problems with one another is seen to be a more nourishing way of depleting certain situations in life. Rather than sharing ones achievements and qualities, man is more seduced to the idea of power thus making them deluded to the idea of actually accepting and embracing their own weaknesses. Macbeth is a man that desires a great ambition but relies heavily upon his wife. He is easily influenced and manipulated due to his fear of suffering the consequences of doing evil. Instead of using his qualities and striving towards his ambition of being king, he relies on his wife to ‘chastise’ him and manipulate him into being king. Julius Caesar is also a man of great ambition- He feels the need to concept himself as a figure who will forever be worshipped by all. However, his ambition causes him to judge his own persistence, eventually deteriorating his faith in others and becoming a man who would vie for the absolute power of
Rome.
In Act 1 scene 5, Lady Macbeth has received a letter from her husband informing her of the prophecy told by the three witches. He includes the fact that he may become king of Scotland.
Lady Macbeth instantly becomes euphoric but also becomes concerned by her husband’s ability to do what is needed to become king easily and quickly. She feels Macbeth is ‘too full of the milk of kindness’ to commit murder; She is afraid that Macbeth is too kind-hearted by nature and will not have the ruthlessness in him to kill King Duncan. Lady Macbeth knows her husband is ambitious but also knows that her husband wouldn’t be able to achieve his ambitions as fast as she wants him to. She uses the metaphor ‘milk’ to suggest that kindnesses is like a source of water that is naturally drank by men and it is due to this that she feels that Macbeth has become too sympathetic to the forces around him. Lady Macbeth believes that since Macbeth is too weak , it is up to her to ‘pour’
