Insecurity Quotes In Macbeth

Akiva Fogelman

Mr. Plummer

English 10a

Jan 5, 2023

Shakespeare’s Macbeth battles with unaccepted insecurity throughout the play. But Macbeth's inability to accept these flaws, makes him over compensate to fill the gap of inner confidence.This results in Macbeth being easily persuaded, having a high value for aggressive and respectable actions, and identifying with said actions, which leads to obsessive guilt.

Macbeth is easily persuaded by others because he will do anything to appear masculine, something he is insecure about. Macbeth is introduced as a general and proceeds to get the title of Thane of Cawdor. This is a lot to be proud of and confident about. But these titles do not help Macbeth's secret insecurity; his lack of masculinity.

He can not only rely on the fact that a man acts properly, he needs to do more. This explains why Macbeth is a fierce warrior; he acts respectably to fill the hole of unaccepted insecurity. This is specifically seen when Shakespeare introduces the audience to Macbeth through the Captain recounting Macbeth's battle story to Duncan: “Like valor’s minion carved out his passage Till he faced the slave;(1.2.19-20)”. Macbeth uses extreme forms of killing such as stabbing from the navel to the jaw. Although this result of insecurity can provide positive things, such as battle victories, this coping method of acting valiantly can not fill his void of inner

After killing Duncan, Macbeth says “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand?” (2,2,78-79) he says that the blood on his hands is too great for even Neptune's ocean to clean. This blood represents his guilt for the crime. This blood may be cleaned physically, but it never gets cleaned from Macbeth's mind. Macbeth continues to reference this “blood” throughout the play. Such as when Macduff was telling Malcolm and Donalbain about the murder of their father Macbeth says, “ Here lay Duncan, His silver skin laced with his golden blood, (2.3.131)” and even when Duncan is not being talked about, “We hear our bloody cousins are bestowed In England and in Ireland (3.1.34)'' this word bloody seems out of place because it is vulgar and Macbeth is talking about his beloved cousins. The word bloody slips out because the blood on his hands is constantly on his mind making him feel guilty. But this isn't regular guilt that one can move on from. This guilt fills his brain due to the value of his actions. Macbeth makes actions part of his identity instead of accepting his lack of masculinity as part of his identity. This makes it hard for him to depart from said actions. This is made clear when Macbeth verbalizes and says, “O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!”(3,2,41)Macbeth compares