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Comparing Shakespeare's Allegory Of The Cave, And Picture Of Dorian Gray

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Intro/Outline: Perception differs from reality, but reality never differs from perception. Humanity continuously falls victim to their own ignorance, succumbing to the trap of misconception and illusion. This notion can be seen in countless writings throughout history, such as Shakespeare's Macbeth, William Golding's Lord of the Flies, Plato's Allegory of the Cave, and Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray. Each writing supports a notion of the truth of reality. Thesis: Reality can only be perceived to the extent of what the recipient has subjectively experienced and sensed in their physical existence, which can consequently lead to chaos and distrust. Transition: Humanity’s inevitable ignorance invites numerous sources of evil to arise from the sources listed. Body Argument 1: Reality can be warped by the receiver due to the consequences of their actions. Evidence: As Macbeth arrives at a meal with the Lord and his wife, someone, or something, is sitting in his seat. Macbeth questions, “Which of you have done this?” (III.IV.61). The Lord, not seeing what Macbeth is witnessing, stands in confusion. Macbeth’s vision has been altered, and he can’t discern the difference between …show more content…

Evidence: In preparation for Macbeth to fall into malevolence to fulfill his desires, Lady Macbeth spurs him into his decision. Macbeth declares, “False face must hide what the false heart doth know” (I.VII.95-96). In order for Macbeth to become King, Lady Macbeth is convinced he must kill King Duncan. Throughout Act I, Macbeth vacillates between compromising his morals to become King or to stay loyal to himself and not being King. Lady Macbeth persuades him to compromise his morals, and Macbeth admits through his statement that he must conceal his true intentions and emotions behind a facade of duplicity. This reveals that appearances are deceiving because numerous people hide behind them to conceal their true

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Macbeth allows the King to sleep and feast at his house so that he may have a chance to kill him in his sleep. Macbeth explains to Lady Macbeth “False face must hide what the false heart doth know” when planning out the murder of King Duncan (1.7.82). The quote shows Macbeth’s deceiving nature because Macbeth explains how he must present himself as a good person with good intentions when the

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“Whatever I have accepted until now as most true has come to me through my senses. But occasionally I have found that they have deceived me, and it is unwise to trust completely those who have deceived us even once” (Descartes). By this, he means that our perceptions are deceptions created by our senses to trick us into believing that we are awake and going about our day when in actuality, we are dreaming and the world around us is an illusion. Hence, we shouldn’t trust our senses to give us any true knowledge of the world because it may always be deceiving us. It is true that senses can deceive, however, for us to know that our senses are deceiving us, we must differentiate between reality and what is deception.

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When Lady Macbeth found out about the predictions the witches had for Macbeth, she started to pressure him, even guilt tripped him about their deceased son, and made him doubt the morals he valued. As act I of Macbeth, carried on, the image and principles Macbeth had for himself began to rot away. While Macbeth desired take King Duncan’s throne, he wanted to do it the in righteous matter. Whenever Macbeth had doubts about killing King Duncan, Lady Macbeth was always there to urge him otherwise, because she cared more about power than him "Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor." (1.5 52).

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Mit Patel Ms. Rogers English 1102 March 8, 2018 A Flaw of Perception George R. R. Martin once said, “In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which.” The concept of determining good and evil is beyond complicated. In human beings, good and evil are like liquid.

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In Act 1 of Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth decides to kill Duncan for the sake of solidifying his ego and completing his ambitions. At first, Macbeth was quite hesitant about betraying his loyal friend Duncan and killing him but after talking with Lady Macbeth his thoughts changed. Lady Macbeth made him question his manhood and in doing so attacked his ego, “And live a coward in thine own esteem” (1.7.47). To aid his ego and esteem after being diminished by Lady Macbeth he decides to kill Duncan. We can see proof of this in Macbeth’s response, “I dare do all that may become a man” (1.7.51).

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Later, when Macbeth meets with the witches again, he believes they are telling him to murder the king. At first, he reacts with fear: “Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair” (1.3.145). The fact that Macbeth is so afraid of his mental image of murdering the king proves that Macbeth is still loyal to the king. But it also shows that he trusts the witches and is prepared to do anything. After some banter back and forth with Lady Macbeth and a little manipulation, he decides to go through with the murder, saying; “I am settled” (1.7.89).

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Macbeth’s decision to kill Duncan in Act 2 Scene 2 led to the formation of a conflict within him regarding his own actions. This created a lack of clarity and understanding of identity within himself, causing him to rely on fickle emotion to dictate and justify his thoughts and actions. The initial point of his deterioration was experienced by the audience in Macbeth’s soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 7, which highlighted his frustration and anxiety regarding his course of action. ‘If th’ assassination could trammel up the consequence and catch with his surcease, success, that but this blow might be the be-all and the end-all… He’s here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed; then, as his host, who

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When the witches tell Macbeth their prophecy about him, he becomes greedy for those positions and their power. He agrees with Lady Macbeth saying that a “False face must hide what the false heart doth know.” (Shakespeare I. VII. 45) After King Duncan is murdered, the two act like they are in shock when the King is discovered to be murdered.

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In the “Three dialogues between Hylas and Philonous”, Philonous argues that along with reality being immaterial, reality is solely made up in our minds due to interactions we have with the five senses. Philonous

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The witches tell Macbeth “that [he] shalt be king hereafter”(1.3.53), foreshadowing his impractical rise to power. As Macbeth prepares to kill Duncan, he draws his dagger and says,”Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going/And such an instrument I was to use”(2.1.54-55). This exemplifies Macbeth’s true and impatient motives as he was never told to kill Duncan, rather chose to out of his freewill. Killing Duncan wasn’t enough though, as Macbeth needed someone to blame the murder on, so he framed the guards who were there to protect Duncan. Lady Macbeth decides to “smear/The sleepy grooms with blood”(2.2.63-64), which Macbeth could have objected to, but still continued, which made him worse of a person, steering him into a disastrous path.

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Lady Macbeth persuades and manipulates Macbeth by pointing out his insecurities successfully and pressuring him into murdering the king. Along with this, Lady Macbeth also questions Macbeth’s manhood and masculinity when he does not want to carry out the plan when she says “When you durst do it, then you were a man;//And to be more than what you were, you would//Be so much more the man” (Shakespeare 1.7.49-51). By saying these things, Lady Macbeth persuades her husband to believe that murdering the king will be his redemption from being a

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He does not want to be a loyal servant to the king, but rather be the king with loyal servants to serve him. And because of these ambitious thoughts lurking in his mind, he must ask the “Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires” (1.4.52-53). So that no one can see through his wall of false appearance and discern his true deepest desires. Hence, Macbeth appeared to be an honorable and exemplary candidate for the role that king Duncan bestows upon him, but in reality he is only dishonorable for he has notion of regicide to become king himself and must appears to be loyal to a king “whose murder yet is but fantastical” (1.3.139). Also, Lady Macbeth hides herself behind the wall of her false appearance which makes her seem as if she is the greatest of hostess, but in reality she too has “black and deep desires” (1.4.52-53), to kill king

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Furthermore, when Macbeth promises Lady Macbeth to become the King of Scotland, Macbeth assures his developed corruptive mindset. Macbeth says, “I am settled, and bend up / Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. / Away, and mock the time with fairest show. / False face must hide what the false heart doth know” (I. vii.

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He hath honored me of late, and I have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people, which would be worn now in their newest gloss, not cast aside so soon” (Shakespeare 1.7.31-35). Lady Macbeth does not seem to care about Macbeth’s heartly desires. Lady Macbeth insisted on making Macbeth king and herself queen. She convinces Macbeth to kill King Duncan. She does this by questioning Macbeth’s manhood, “It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way” (Shakespeare 1.5.15-16).

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Macbeth’s true character reveals his natural cruelty when Lady Macbeth persuades him to kill Duncan for

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