Essay On The Tragedy Of Macbeth

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Societal Effects on the Macbeths
Ambitions cloud the heads of those who then become irrational causing a loss of everything that makes one great. In Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth chose crime and treachery over their own sanity creating a short lived life of guilt and misery. As the plot unfolds the dynamics of the couples’ broken relationship come to light with the lack of communication and plotting behind one another. With a brief appearance of the Three Witches the ominous feel and prophecy of Macbeth eventually becoming king is introduced to the play. Intrigued by this possibility he shares the news with his wife and so begins the thirst for power in the Macbeth’s. As the plan to kill Duncan in order to obtain the grown starts to be carried out it creates the gender roles to subvert the Macbeth’s to be blinded by their desires causing the deterioration of their relationship. This is shown consistently throughout the last acts where their fate is finally unraveled and a completely broken relationship is revealed. Although society plays a great role in the functioning of the gender expectations the Macbeths are also influenced by their own anima and animus creating an impacted relationship between the two. Hence, the reader examines that their ambition is fueled by greed, but nonetheless, is what Shakespeare uses to examine the roles of gender throughout the play.
Consequently Lady Macbeth, in spite of the over compensation for an unwanted shadow, forces her mind to “unsex me here” to which her unraveling begins (1.5.42). Jung believes women try to “repress masculine-typed qualities” in hopes of being seen as a more delicate and feminine being (Jungian Psychology 47). Though th...

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... in the beginning was brutally ended by what she thought was her only option- suicide.
Ultimately Macbeth shows the modern day reader how far ahead Shakespeare was in his time while learning a valuable lesson of power hungry individuals who lose sight of the morally correct thing to do. Shakespeare didn’t believe in the societal depiction of the “natural order” as shown in the submersion of feeling. Nothing in the play concerning gender and societal expectations is what it seems at the forefront.“The rise and fall of a great man” (Johnston 1). From reading this play the reader gains a better understanding of himself and the affect he may have on the others surrounding him. A loss of one’s sight and mind comes about by decisions made solely by the greedy individual. Without the rationale of reality the ambitions cloud the mind of what they are really acting upon.

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