Deception In Macbeth

Dead in his Bed

(An analysis of the theme of deception in Macbeth) In the Macbeth play, there is a very prominent theme of deception. Deception can be defined as something that is intended to deceive, much like fraud. Deception is seen many times throughout the entire play of Macbeth. It is mostly used by Macbeth and his wife because they have to hide that they were the killers of Duncan. The whole play is basically built around the theme of deception. Without deception in the play, Macbeth wouldn’t have a storyline to follow. There are many examples of deception in the play Macbeth. First, we can find deception in the first act of Macbeth, when Duncan is describing Macbeth. Duncan explains how good Macbeth is and how much of a man he is. Duncan says, “There is no art to find the mind's construction in the face, he was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust.” (act 1:4 lines 11-14). Duncan is saying in this quote that he trusts Macbeth as a man. What Duncan doesn’t know or realize, is that Macbeth is not the man he thinks he is. Macbeth is planning with his wife to kill Duncan that night in his castle while he is sleeping.

When Duncan goes to bed, he has two guards watching over him. Lady Macbeth puts the moves on the guards and gets them drunk. Lady Macbeth says, “That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold.” (act 2:2 lines 1-2). The guards believe that Lady Macbeth is just fooling around with them, but she actually is involved with the plan to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth deceives them with this plan to get them drunk. Then after Macbeth kills Duncan, Lady Macbeth goes back and rubs blood on the guards and leaves the daggers there to deceive them into thinking they killed