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Examples Of Greed In Macbeth

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Macbeth

The intense and selfish desire for something from power to wealth is what we call “greed”. Throughout hundreds of thousands of years of history, humans had always had their battles with greed with either a victory or get overwhelmed by it. Macbeth, a play written by Shakespeare himself demonstrates a vital lesson of greed to all its readers on both a small and large scale. In the space, Macbeth, Macbeth’s life gets turned upside down from a life many sought after just from some bad advice he received, the people he was around, and his mindset. The play itself proves that bringing other people down to help oneself won’t end well, trusting the gut in oneself, the strength of peer pressure, and the aftermath of what greed would do to …show more content…

As human beings, people always want to achieve more and more, to be above everyone else, or what we call greed, and it is a natural part of who human beings are. But this doesn’t mean people should put themselves above anyone else to achieve what they want which is the case for Macbeth throughout the play. Macbeth got the prophecy of being the future king and thought about the idea of killing King Duncan to achieve the goal: “ My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical” (Act l, Scene lll, Line 141). Macbeth had just witnessed another one of the prophecies come true and he instantly thought about a cruel and selfish way to obtain the last prophecy. The prophecy may have come true if Macbeth didn’t try anything but his greed got the better of him and he ultimately followed through with it, bringing other people down to obtain his goal. Greed is a very powerful thing people experience as forgiveness is very hard to come by when greed is involved, even if one truly means it. When one uses greed, trying to stop becomes hard due to the harm that has already been caused to others, accordingly having others trust those individuals a second time is like having a fish climb a tree. As shown throughout Macbeth, Macbeth had to go deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole he dug to try his best to hide his doings. At the same time, Macbeth was …show more content…

The play also does an amazing job of showing the starting and aftermath of greed while having another character that demonstrates the opposites of Macbeth’s greed. With these points, Macbeth, the play is a great example for its readers that shows the scenario greed may come from and what could happen. Shakespeare with over 35 stories and plays demonstrates greed the best in Macbeth and with Macbeth’s life changing in a heartbeat as it did, readers get a clear understanding of the message. Everyone that has read Macbeth has for sure had their fair share of greed boiling up inside, and the play encourages the readers to avoid it, using Macbeth as the main character experiencing the effects of greed as a demonstration. As demonstrated in the text, greed from oneself and the people they are around could turn one from an all-time high to rock bottom while losing everything and everyone one

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