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Macbeth The Age Of Conscience Essay

558 Words3 Pages

Bloom’s literature immerses us in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s consciousness. It is shown at the beginning of the play, that Macbeth had a clear conscience and by evil plans infused by witches, he got corrupted. It is stated in Bloom’s Literature : “Macbeth dramatizes the functioning of conscience in the sinful mind. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth take the path of wilfully ignoring conscience as they kill their sworn king, and in the aftermath of that action they experience conscience redounding upon them.” which afterwards showed us how especially Lady Macbeth’s conscience starts to make her feel guilty during Act 5 contrary to Macbeth who’s conscience became evil after this action.

Shakespeare wrote this play during the beginning of England’s extensive entanglement with conscience during the seventeenth century, which Keith Thomas has called : “ The Age of Conscience”. Immediately after the murder, it is shown and described how Macbeth experienced conscience. His entrance in Act 2 scene 2 shows us his 1st dive in conscience. He is worried that someone saw him committing the murder and is still watching him : “Who’s there?, hey!”, and afterwards “ The deed is done. Didn’t you hear a noise?” Macbeth and Lady Macbeth became anxious and motivated Macbeth into thinking someone …show more content…

This time, his conscience communicated with him as a vision “ the dagger of the mind” which confronted Macbeth and made him think if what he sees is real or a product of the mind. “ Is this a dagger I see before me? With its handle toward my hand? Come - let me hold you! Nothing there. Yet I can still see you. Can’t you be felt as well as seen? Or are you just an imaginary dagger? The invention of a sick mind?” It is a metaphor to emphasize how his conscience is torturing him. However , when he cannot touch it, Macbeth assumes that the dagger is from his mind and makes him think he’s becoming

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