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Appearance Vs. Reality In Macbeth And Hamlet By William Shakespeare

978 Words4 Pages

“Fair is foul, foul is fair...”(1,1,11) this well-known line in Shakespeare 's Macbeth challenges appearances versus reality and it remains a theme throughout the play. Shakespeare is notorious for using the theme appearances versus reality as seen in many of his plays such as Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare uses the faults of the human perception to discover the Truth for this he is regarded as one of the most influential playwrights of all time. He exploits appearance and reality to advance the plot, but it also comments on greater issues. In Macbeth and Hamlet, it focuses on the characters that are deceived by appearance and the errors in these judgments.
The theme of appearance and reality is a central theme to Macbeth; it has many scenes of madness and ambition. Lady Macbeth states “That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,/ And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/ Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood. Stop up the access and passage to remorse,/ ...Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murd 'ring ministers…”(I,v, 31-38). Lady Macbeth is the most prominent example of false appearances. However, she is consumed with her lust for power, but continues the masquerade of a loving and submissive wife to Macbeth. Outwardly, she appears to be a dainty woman however on the inside she can be more ruthless than Macbeth. Strangely enough, she may appear to be the stronger of the two, but her breakdown is another

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