Macbeth

What ideas are presented in the play regarding the role fear and foresight plays in an individual making important decisions? The appropriate meaning of fear is continuously explored -yet a precise definition varies. Fear itself rules several aspects of our lives: as presented in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth; fear is a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, or pain. Fear: the motivation for an individual carry out actions whether they are right or wrong. In the tragic play, Macbeth, the axis of the play was the notion of fear being set upon in the characters minds that influenced their destinies. This can be proved by the subsequent murders that followed after King Duncan's. Likewise, Lady Macbeth constantly washes her hands, sleepwalks and portrays similar abnormal behaviours like this. All this is done out of fear: and similar to her husband’s fear of being caught committing crime. Most importantly, fear is inspired by foresight. Foresight not only triggers disasters but it corrupts an individual as a whole. This influences an individual’s ability to make vital decisions. In the play, Macbeth, Shakespeare portrays the idea that under the influence of fear and foresight, individuals make irrational decisions: ultimately leading to their demises.

Fear can affect an individual’s decision – at times it has a positive effect, and other times a negative impact. Shakespeare uses one of his characters to demonstrate how an individual’s fearlessness can have such dreadful consequences. Lady Macbeth begins the play as a very strong-willed woman who exhibits stereotypically male characteristics. She is extremely power hungry and is willing to harm anyone standing in her path to royalty, but unlike Macbeth she does not get stronger as the play progresses. Rather she shifts into the conventional role of a woman, exhibiting signs of fear and weakness. When Lady Macbeth was first introduced in, she appeared to be a typical nobleman’s wife of the Elizabethan era. Lady Macbeth shows her “true colors” as she plans to encourage Macbeth into seizing the crown. She is no longer an “innocent flower” in the eyes of the audience as she plans to help Macbeth commit crime. After murdering Duncan, despite the emotional disorientation of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth was unaffected. She was the motivator and the mentally stronger character between herself and Macbeth. This point in the play was the highest extent of her evolution. The falling action begins when Lady Macbeth is named Queen Macbeth. She is observed by her subjects that she was sleepwalking and confessing various incidents while washing her hands subconsciously. At this point, the audience knows that Lady Macbeth has begun her descent into insanity and that Lady Macbeth’s evolution as a character has taken a turn for the worse. Many factors such as guilt and dishonesty contributed to Lady Macbeth’s psychological “bruising” and eventual death. Such bruising of the mind was a gradual process for Lady Macbeth’s fear which manifested physically in various ways such as irrational behaviour, sleepwalking and stress. The audience was able to see the evolution of a character that started out innocent, but made a bad decision, and consequently descended into insanity.