Appearance Vs. Reality In Macbeth And Hamlet By William Shakespeare

In Macbeth, Shakespeare utilizes the motif of appearance vs. reality to emphasize how a limited perspective of something or someone will most likely lead to the destructive nature of deception. This is shown in the first act of the play where Macbeth and Lady Macbeth hold false appearances to keep their plans a secret and later in the play when Macbeth is king and dealing with the guilt of killing the king and Banquo’s death.

Macbeth, one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays, is a tragedy about one man rising to the top to subsequently fall. The Lion King is an animated Disney movie about a lion cub learning about life while on the run following his father’s death. The Lion King and Macbeth compare to certain multitudes, as well as contrast to a certain degree. Similarities and differences between the movie and play are shown between Duncan and Mufasa, Malcolm and Simba, Macbeth and Scar, the three witches and Rafiki, and the theme of appearance versus reality.

Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are clear examples of “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” in this act. King

“Fair is foul, and foul is fair,” “What’s done is done,” and “I bear a charmed life,” are all significant and favored lines from the well-recognized play, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s shortest yet fiercest tragedy, Macbeth recounts the story of a valiant Scottish general who acquires a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day, he will become King of Scotland. Overwhelmed with aspiring thoughts and prodded to act by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and conquers the throne for himself. The bloodbath suddenly intensifies as Macbeth and his wife attempt to cover up his crime. Ultimately, this drives Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to arrogance, insanity, and death. As a result, this pivotal tragedy embraces many different controversial

Possibly one of the most influential characters of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth takes the definition of female dominance to an entirely new level with her ability to manipulate, yet love her husband, and her ability to accuse, yet reassure him of his actions. Though Lady Macbeth is not well described anterior to her introduction, it is immediately apparent that she holds her dominance using her cunning skills, fuelled by ambition, which makes her one of the cruellest characters in Macbeth. Her portrayal of cunningness, upon Duncan’s arrival to Macbeth’s castle, is shown when she allows the king to “Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt, / To make their audit at [his] pleasure” (1.6.31–32), in order to give him a false sense of security, when in reality, she wants to ensure that “[her] keen knife see not the wound it makes” (1.5.55) on Duncan. As a result, Lady Macbeth is able to let the king into their castle without hesitation, just like a serpent underneath an innocent flower. While her cunningness is a character trait to fear, it is what fuels it that gives Lady Macbeth her power; ambition. Her determination to achieve her goals is heavily emphasized in Macbeth, and it is obvious that nothing can get between her and her

The namesake of the play, “Macbeth” is a man who faced a decision between his own personal passion and his moral obligations and duties. The two choices pulled at him and seemed to torment him even after he made a decision. Through the conflict that Macbeth felt because of his decisions, the reader can better empathize with him, and can obtain a more profound lesson from the story concerning decisions between personal passions and moral obligations.

Lady Macbeth, a greedy, vindictive woman, is set to raise her status in the Scottish nobility. Believing her husband is “too full o’th’milk of human kindness,” she decides to inflict emotional pain on Macbeth to lessen his reserve (1.5.15). She says to Macbeth that, “to alter favour ever is to fear,” mocking his mercurial behaviour as a sign of “fear” (1.6.70). Lady Macbeth continues to coerce her husband to kill Duncan by mocking his undecided nature by calling him “drunk” and commenting on his “green and pale” appearance as a sign of illness (1.7.35-37). Continuing with the insults she claims that, “when [he] durst do it, then [he] were a man,” which considering the times, femininity was considered a weakness (1.7.49). Lady Macbeth’s intensive compulsion tactics, I believe, made Macbeth mentally unstable which subsequently allowed for his delusional state to

Shakespeare opens the play by showing the witches to build up tension in the play. The presence of the witches foreshadows the conflict and suspense that is to come later throughout the play. Also, Shakespeare catches the attention of the readers with the witches’ mysterious and suspicious phrases and plans. The grim tone in which they use foreshadows the tragedies to come and the outcome of the play. This is shown in scene 1 when all the witches say, “Fair is foul,and foul is fair/, Hover through the fog and filthy air.”(1.1.11-12) This quotes interpretation is that bad can be good and good can be bad. It is foreshadowing the confusion,

“What’s done cannot be undone.” (Macbeth V, i, 62, 63) This fact often changes one’s self-perception when an offense is committed and guilt begins to set in. When a person’s self-perception changes, an individual’s thoughts begin to change because their focus has shifted. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, he conveys the idea that self-perception drives a person’s thought processes, which in turn show through their actions; therefore, if their self-perception is extremely negative, their flaws will be before them constantly and will create a false reality for them to dwell in. Lady Macbeth exemplifies this idea, revealing through her thoughts and actions how her guilt changes the way she views herself and causes her to live unattached from reality.

A common theme in Macbeth is that power and corruption come hand in hand. Frequently, people with power lie and go against the better welfare of their people. Tragic hero, Macbeth, and political mastermind, Joseph Stalin, end up corrupted by trying to control and obtain power. They both wanted power and superiority so they did everything they could to get higher and higher on the totem pole.

Macbeth was written by William Shakespeare in 1606. This tragedy is set in Scotland during The Middle Ages. Published in 1623 with the first folio, the story of Macbeth was destined to be a staple in any reader’s Shakespeare collection. Macbeth explores many different themes and symbols throughout the play including blood, ambition, the sense of right and wrong, and hallucinations. Hallucinations play a strong role in this play and create vivid imagery in Macbeth. The specific accounts that can be used to prove this thesis are Banquo’s ghost, Lady Macbeth’s invisible blood stains, and the witches apparitions.

Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a power hungry and vindictive women, whose character is against the stereotypes of a Jacobean woman.

“Fair is foul and foul is fair”. This is possibly the most iconic quote from the play Macbeth. Written in 1606, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, the play dramatizes the effect of the greediness for power, strong lust after a goal, and envy, all of which are three of the seven deadly sins that many people believed in during this day age of England, in which, Macbeth takes place. Macbeth was written about eleventh century Scotland, which was troubled, violent, and lead by feuding families. To make his plays as realistic as possible and as entertaining as he could, Shakespeare reflected history in his plays. In this case, there was an actual Macbeth and King Duncan (say when). The real King Duncan was possibly killed by the real Macbeth, who then

“Fair is foul and foul is fair.” These words spoken by the witches in their prophecies from Shakespeare’s classic tragedy Macbeth, is the first way deception is introduced by the author in the play. This particular line stated by the witches reminds the audience they must look deeper to understand the true meaning of the phrase. The actual meaning is that appearances can often be deceptive; being the opposite of what a situation and/or person may seem. Throughout the play, what other themes are displayed? In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the most influential themes of deception, justice, and greed portray the author’s message to his audience.

Macbeth is a play written by William Shakespeare, a renowned English poet and playwright of the 16th century. Like most great works of literature, Macbeth contains a number of motifs, which are reoccurring themes or elements that can found in a story. Motifs are mainly used by the author to emphasize a certain idea or theme in the plot. According to the online article, The Role and Importance of Motifs in Macbeth by Tom Wiig, “Shakespeare employs the use of motifs to emphasize certain ideas as he aims to point out key elements for us, the audience, to decipher and explore.” Some of the motifs that appear in Macbeth is irony and paradox.