Trust In Macbeth

Miya Cate

Ms. Junqueira

English 2

11 May 2023

Trust and Politics

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

Trust can often influence the actions and behaviors of people, forcing them to make smart or illogical choices. It is a feeling people rely on when they do not know what to do because it is so instinctual. The idea of trust and the role it plays in our society is intriguing because it can lead to the smallest decisions that have the largest consequences. The concept of trust occurs frequently in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Macbeth, who is the protagonist, is a powerful thame to the king of Scotland, Duncan. After receiving a prophecy from three witches that he will become king, he betrays King Duncan by killing him in order to take his place on

Without being able to rely on anyone, he assassinates anyone he suspects could threaten his place on the throne. Trust is also seen in other characters and is often driving the plot of the whole play. King Duncan’s full faith in Macbeth leads to his death, demonstrating that placing too much trust in someone can have harmful consequences. Shakespeare uses trust to highlight the importance of having faith in others; he illustrates that without trust, people become paranoid and isolated, leading to the destruction of society. However, he also uses extreme trust like Duncan's to demonstrate the dangers of being too trustful because people will often take advantage of it. Despite the harms of excessive trust that Shakespeare addresses, he ultimately demonstrates that trust is necessary for a stable political system that keeps society in order because it creates

For instance, Krastev also discusses that a decline in trust can be seen having an impact on vote counts. For example, in the past 30 years "political scientists have observed that there is a constant decline in electoral turnout," and those who are expected to "gain the most out of voting" are the people "least interested to vote" (Krastev). With that in mind, it is apparent that one’s lack of faith in their political system has resulted in them simply not participating. Without people’s votes or opinions, the government, especially a democratic one, cannot be formed based on the views of the majority, leading to an ineffective political system. When not everyone is represented in the votes only, one group of people have a voice in politics leading to political instability and hardship for many minorities. In addition, we can see a direct relationship between political trust and political participation in the study "A Comparative Analysis of the Relation between Political Trust and Forms of Political Participation in Europe", by Marc Hooghe and Sofie Marien. In the results of the study, Hooghe and Marien "observe[ed] that political trust is positively related to participation in institutionalized participation" (Hooghe and Marien). Their research illustrates that when citizens trust the government they are more inclined to participate in politics like voting. Therefore, when there is