Is Macbeth Selfish

Paige Cox

Mrs Hamm

Honors English IV

12 March 2017 Macbeth William Shakespeare’s classic play Macbeth is universally accepted as a tragedy about significant loss; however, a deeper inspection into the play and its underlying themes will reveal that this timeless piece of literature was also intended to teach a variety of valuable lessons to its audience. These lessons include, but are not limited to: with great power comes great responsibility, one should not always be easily persuaded or influenced, it is sometime okay to be selfish, and of course, consequences exist for all actions. Clearly, Shakespeare was not only a great playwright, but also an important teacher and influencer. Macbeth successfully teaches the lesson with

To a certain extent, Macbeth’s murder of Duncan was justifiable. This was a cruel and selfish act, but it was for the greater good of Macbeth and his wife. Macbeth wanted himself to be the king of Scotland and for Lady Macbeth to be the Queen. The murder was wrong, of course, but Macbeth only did it in an effort to give a better life to his family. On the other hand, as soon as Macbeth started selfishly murdering the chamberlains, he was no longer being selfish for a good reason as these deaths were not entirely necessary. From that point forward, it was wrong for Macbeth to be so

For example, if many people are apply for a certain job, it can almost seem somewhat selfish for one person to accept the position while all the other applicants are left unemployed. This would be a time when it is acceptable for an individual to be selfish, in an effort to provide one’s self with a better life, just like when Macbeth selfishly murdered his way into royalty. Similarly to how Macbeth should not have sent assassins to kill Banquo and Fleance, most of the time, one should not be selfish. Shakespeare executes this lesson quite well in the play