Happiness In Macbeth

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Often in life when humans pursue happiness they end up compromising the happiness they may already have by becoming greedy and wanting more than what they already have. This results in their life becoming worse than what it had been before, even though they were content with their life before. In the play Macbeth, William Shakespeare tried to convey the message that the pursuit of happiness may be misleading, and that throughout this pursuit an individual might have a false sense of happiness while in reality this pursuit will eventually compromise that false sense of happiness. Throughout the play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth pursued happiness by killing, being deceitful, and by being manipulative to others, which eventually led to their demise. …show more content…

“When you durst do it, then you are a man.” (I, vii, 55)- Lady Macbeth is very conniving showing that she is willing to convince Macbeth to murder Duncan, despite the fact that she is unable to carry out the actions by herself. She is willing to jeopardize the safety of her husband in the pursuit of happiness, even though in the end without realizing that it will compromise that happiness. Lady Macbeth knew her husband was ambitious, but he was too kind. So she wanted to manipulate him into killing Duncan in order to fulfill he pursuit of happiness. During her soliloquy in act I scene v lines 13-29 Lady Macbeth states “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be what thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature. It is too full of the milk of human kindness to catch nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it… And chastise with the valour of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round which fate and the metaphysical aid doth seem to have the crowned withal.” During this soliloquy Lady Macbeth states that she is going to convince her husband into taking action so that he can become king. This soliloquy shows that Lady Macbeth is the dominant partner, which is contrary to the stereotypical gender stereotypes of that time frame. This proves that once again that in the pursuit of happiness that Lady Macbeth is willing to take over the relationship in order to achieve what she thinks will bring her happiness. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth also lied in order to achieve what they though would bring them

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