Mini Kang
Mr. Holland
English 3-4 Accelerated
22 December 2016
How Not to Be King:
The Consequences of Unrightful Paths Taken Towards the Throne in Macbeth
Eddie Tipton is yet another man that fell in the all consuming power of greed. He used the skills he had as a formal IT security director of Multi-State Lottery Association to hack the system so he could win the lottery. His success was short lived; Eddie was soon caught and lost everything. The like happened in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Although the main character Macbeth’s greed was for power, not money, he suffered the same repercussions. Shakespeare uses Macbeth to illustrate that the rewards from taking dishonest shortcuts are far outweighed by the consequences of paranoia, immorality, and eventual loss of everything he ever cared for.
Macbeth reveals his mental stability constantly decreasing as a result of the paranoia created from his dishonorable actions. He reflects upon himself and his actions after the murder, creating hallucinations because of his lack of stability and the feeling of paranoia engulfed in his mind. Macbeth says to himself: “A dagger of the mind, a false creation / Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain … It is the bloody business which informs / Thus to mine eyes” (II.I.49-51). He looks and thinks about the dagger that he used towards committing Duncan’s murder. ‘False’ means something not according to the truth or fact, and ‘heat-oppressed’ refers to being fevered or frenzied. In this case, the bloody business that is mentioned is Duncan’s murder, which is making Macbeth have a fevered brain. He is saying that though he killed Duncan, tremendously increasing his chance to gain the throne, his mental stability is decreasing at the same rate from all the pressure and stress he has gotten from the murder. His mental state suddenly becomes very unstable, as he is fearful of what could happen if he gets caught committing the act. This contributes to the idea that dishonor ultimately does not benefit a person. Later on, Macbeth still struggles to hold up his mental state as he murders the servants that helps Duncan, as he believes that the two will somehow find and spread the news. He eventually kills the two servants and discusses with Lady Macbeth: “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red” (II.II.61-64). ‘Multitudinous’ means abundance or innumerable, and ‘incarnadine’ refers to a pinkish-red color. Macbeth is saying that because he ended the lives of numerous people, the blood from his hands are able to turn all the seas red. Macbeth is growing more evil than before, as this thought process refers to the anxiety that comes with constantly fearing he will lose what he has. In the past, he would just have hallucinations and thoughts that does not affect anybody but himself. This has now spread to him committing the most immoral and sinful action, murder, in order to keep himself king.
Macbeth’s morals crumbles down upon him, as he suffers through actions that he would have never dreamt of taking in the past. As he sees Duncan’s servants praying, Macbeth is unable to do the same because of his guilt towards what he has done. He asks himself: “But wherefore could not I pronounce “Amen”? / I had most need of blessing, and “Amen” / Stuck in my throat” (II.II.31-33). The phrase ‘I had most need of blessing’ reveals that Macbeth really needs God’s blessing, however as he also mentions that the phrase is ‘stuck in his throat’, it implicates that he is unable to say the phrase. Macbeth’s morals are out of place to a point in which he is unable to say ‘amen.’ Macbeth is probably referring to the feeling of guilt that he is dealing with because of the crime he committed. This shows that he does not have strong morals, as he is tortured by his own thoughts. Later on, he talks to the three witches that previously mentioned to him about how they could tell his future. When they mention how they can’t reveal everything to him, Macbeth says: “I will be satisfied. Deny me this, / And an eternal curse fall on you!” (IV.I.109-110). As he mentions that ‘he will be satisfied’, it has a negative connotation, as well as a demanding tone. Macbeth is so worried about getting caught and losing the throne that he starts losing his virtuous state of mind that he carried in the past. He also says that if the witches deny to follow his demand, Macbeth will put an ‘external curse’ upon them. A ‘curse’ refers to a malediction or jinx. Macbeth saying that he will put a curse to ones that don’t follow his orders, which shows his desperateness towards keeping the throne. This represents Macbeth spreading his negativity unto others because of his personal worries. Even when Macbeth hears a scream, he mentions that he is not able to feel any type of fear. He mentions: “I have supped full with horrors./ Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts / Cannot once start me” (V.V.13-15). ‘Direness’ involves great fear or suffering, and ‘slaughterous thoughts’ refers to deadly ideas. He is ‘supped full with horrors’, which refers to his mind being full of fears. His feeling are numb towards horror because he has experienced too much fear and ‘direness’ acts in the past. One typically shows some type of shock or fear when a scream is heard, however Macbeth specifically points out he is unable to feel these types of emotions because of the actions he has taken in the past.
As time passes, Macbeth not only loses his morals, but he loses everything he once adored in the past. When Macbeth is told that his wife, Lady Macbeth has just committed suicide, he does not show any feeling of remorse. He says: “She should have died hereafter. / There would have been a time for such a word” (V.V.18-19). Macbeth, in this situation, mentions that Lady Macbeth should’ve ‘died hereafter’, which means that death would have come to her anyway. One typically shows a feeling of remorse when he hears that his significant other has passed away. Although he just lost his wife, Macbeth does not feel sorry because his mind is more focused towards cruelty. A character with the rightful mind would show some type of remorse, sadness, or anger towards losing a significant other, however Shakespeare displays Macbeth to be one who is too carried away with his own pessimistic values.
The consequences of paranoia, along with multiple varieties of losses that Macbeth suffers through proves that taking shortcuts towards success is not worthwhile in the end. The constant mental instability and struggles that Macbeth went through not only affected himself, but eventually spread towards his surroundings. Like Macbeth, situations like the one that Macbeth goes through is seen often in the society today. People typically gain a desire to achieve something, but somehow get devoured by their own greed which influences them to commit dishonorable actions. Actions created by greed follow a negative consequence, as seen throughout Macbeth. Shakespeare’s tragedy follows the idea that in the end, greed even fails the greedy.