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Loss Of Innocence In Macbeth

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A lost cause As a child, innocence is protected by the parents, attempting to keep them young forever. It is cherished, and will never be forgotten by the countless baby pictures and mementos through the childhood, but children grow up. They begin to lose their innocence, and they either use that lost innocence to help them, or it will ultimately hurt them. Many authors use this tactic to A common theme between all novels and plays is the loss of innocence through the main character. Many different aspects can filter into the loss of innocence through a main character, in Macbeth by Shakespeare, three symbols factor into the loss of innocence of Macbeth. In this play, a leader begins to get a thirst for power and his ambition skyrockets. At …show more content…

An example of this is when Lady Macbeth is convincing Macbeth to kill the king she says, “Your hand, your tongue. Look like th’ innocent flower,/But be the serpent under ‘t”(Shakespeare I. vi. 76-78). Lady Macbeth finds the letter that Macbeth wrote and is telling him the plan to kill the king. Even though Duncan has been betrayed before, he is about to be betrayed again, Macbeth had these thoughts put in his head by the witches but was hesitant on acting upon them. This was until Lady Macbeth forced him into her plan of becoming the most powerful people in Scotland. Lady Macbeth told him to be deceiving, and since he already had the trust of the king he just needed to commit the crime. The symbolism is talking about the deceiving nature that Macbeth needs to kill the king so that no one would suspect him. We can infer that he used this tactic to defer the claim that he was the killer of the king. Lady Macbeth is one of the main contributors to the loss of innocence in the play. She causes Macbeth to think about what the witches have said and pursue the temptation of the thirst for power. Another example of Lady Macbeth causing loss of innocence is when Macbeth is hallucinating about Banquo’s death and begins to see his ghost, Lady Macbeth covers for him saying, “I pray you, speak not. He grows worse and worse”(Shakespeare III. iv. 144).Lady Macbeth does not want the people to see her husband’s decline into insanity due to the guilt eating his innocence away. Lady Macbeth caused Macbeth to go on a killing spree and to fully believe everything that the witches said was true. Lady Macbeth is using this opportunity to take control of her husband's life once again, she uses this to protect her power and leadership over the kingdom. She does not want anyone to second guess

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