The Importance Of Insecurity In William Shakespeare's Macbeth

It is currently 5:27 PM on November 19, the day before this exact paper is due. I am writing what is hopefully the final draft of my paper after multiple complete deletions of my entire essay. You might ask why I deleted my essay multiple times, and the answer is simply that I was insecure about my essay, and I lashed out and deleted it. William Shakespeare also had the idea of insecurity on his mind when writing Macbeth. Macbeth’s insecurities cause him to lash out repeatedly like and he uses these events to prove a point. That insecurity causes people to lash out. This is proven by Macbeth’s murder of Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff’s family.

Duncan’s murder proves an important point, insecurity makes people prove themselves. In men this usually

Lady Macbeth is clearly belittling Macbeth here and his insecurities rise because of this. Macbeth then attempts at being “so much more the man” and goes into Duncan’s room, and murders him in his sleep. Macbeth resorts to lashing out violently after his wife emasculates him, and destroys any semblance of confidence that he has. The reason why he does this is because when men feel insecure they sometimes take the easy route of hiding behind a mask of violence vs confronting their emotions and insecurities. Guys for the longest of times have had this programed into their very being, they can’t show weakness or kindness, only strength. The Mask you live in also brings up this point especially through Joe Ehrmann's recount of events that took place with his father. “That was a source of tremendous shame. I left that room with tears coming down my eyes just feeling that I wasn’t quite man enough. Football became a tremendous place to hide. [...] I thought if I could

/ Our fears in Banquo Stick deep, / and in his royalty of nature / Reigns that which would be feared” (3.1.50-53). In this passage Macbeth says that being king doesn’t matter unless he is “safely thus”. Macbeth openly admits his insecurities saying that his “fears in Banquo stick deep”. Again, Macbeth either has a choice, let banquo walk and keep him alive, or the easy but yet violent way out of killing not only Banquo but his son as well. In other words Macbeth says that Banquo is a threat to his rule and he will only feel secure in his poorly fitting king costume, when Banquo and his son are dead. This also relates to how boys are taught to react when someone disrespects them. Dr. Pedro Noguera is talking about the lessons society teaches young boys, and in his view this is what society teaches young boys about respect “If you’re told from day one, don’t let nobody disrespect you, and this is the way you handle it as a man, respect is linked with violence”. Basically Dr. Pedro is saying that if someone disrespects you or is a threat to your status as king for example, to handle it like a man is to be violent. This is exactly what Macbeth did when Banquo disrespected him by saying that it will be his kids that will be kings, not Macbeth’s. Macbeth’s insecurity and “fears in Banquo” that “stick deep” lead him to “handle it like a man”, lash out, and hire two men to kill Banquo. All of this shows that Shakespeare was using Macbeth’s insecurity about his