Essay On Reality In Macbeth

What is reality? Where does it exist? Who defines it? What may be very real to you may be entirely different to someone else. Does reality need to be objective and exist in the outside world, or can it be subjective and exist within the mind? In William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth the way that things appeared versus the way that they were in reality did not always match up. It 's a world where nothing is what it seems. It 's a world where you 're never sure whether it 's a real dagger or an apparition, a mirage, or the ghost of Banquo. This convoluted universe revolves around three main roles within the play: Macbeth, Lady Macbeth.
The otherworldly witches that kick off the production already set a surreal tone to the entire play opening the

However, even before becoming new Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth comes across as a very ambiguous character. He is inexplicably linked to the witches with his opening line of “So foul and fair a day I have not seen”[6], uttered just before having his first interaction with the Witches who had been anticipating him since the first scene where they also said the underlying message of the entire production “Fair is foul and foul is fair”. This first interaction although brief tells us a lot about the direction of Macbeth and where the play was headed. After the witches address Macbeth with all of his future titles he goes into shock and only once they are about to leave does he speak up

It is at this point when he “turns to his wife” by writing her a letter of all that had occured. We meet her alone on stage revealing her innermost thoughts, which are filled with the imagery of death and destruction. She asks for help from the spirits to essentially change herself into a cold being that is able to perform heinous acts, and even calls upon the night itself to hide her actions in a "blanket" of darkness. Everything that is requested here is the internal and therefore keeping up appearances of a civilized noblewoman, while Lady Macbeth is able to push herself and her husband into darker places. When they finally speak in person for the first time she expresses how apparent he is, and how the look on his face is