Good And Evil In Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”

-Friedrich Nietzsche

Mmacbeth wants to follow his destiny because he is told that he is destined to be king so he goes and kill the monsters that stand in his way but be doing that he is brought closer to WhentoWhen he is told that he was destined for the throne, he was enticed by the power and tried to mess with Fate by murdering Duncan and then Banquo. From doing this, he met his untimely demise.

Friedrich Nietzsche was an existentialist famous for his campaign against the idea of morality. One of his most famous quotes about “fighting monsters” and “ the abyss” has allowed

Nietzsche quote still plays out during Macbeth’s feelings toward fate. Evil entice us by showing us the bright side of our Fate and then wait for us to chase after it to our own doom. Banquo had even warned Macbeth of how “The instruments of darkness tell us truths/ Win us with honest trifles, to betray [us]/In deepest consequence" (I.iii.125-129). If macbeth had heed this warning, he would not have died. Instead, he became even more reliant on these prophecies and began to go the the witches for more advice as he said to Lady Macbeth “I will—to the weird sisters.More shall they speak, for now I am bent to know, By the worst means, the worst.” 139-141 act 3 scene

How we face this is the test that defines a hero from an anti-hero and an anti-hero from a villain. Macbeth starts off as courageous man with a good intent. Then, his meddling with fate and his lust for power pushed him to kill King Duncan. A hero would have the wisdom to not mess with the power of Fate. Macbeth, on the other hand wanted to take the quickest path to power and decided to make also he had allowed intrinsic factors, like his ambition, mixed with extrinsic factors such as the witches and Lady Macbeth led him to expose his dark side. After his killing of Banquo, he felt that “this is more strange than such a murder [should be]”(Act 3, Scene 4, Lines 81-82). This is because he had allowed his outside environment to see past his morals and into his dark side. This small crack in his morals that formed when he killed Duncan grew bigger and more severe until he became unable to differentiate “foul and fair” (Act 1, Scene 3, Line 38) which made him blame his suffering on fate or other people who have not done him wrong. Evil has succeeded in using the abyss in releasing his innate darkness.

Macbeth, like many tragic heroes, has allowed, his obsessive belief in fate and prophecies has made him follow it down the path of evil. Down this path, he fights people that he falsely believes are monsters while the real monsters are already in control of him. He unknowingly became a monster and a slave to