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Examples Of Self Destruction In Macbeth

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In life people seek prosperity. Humans have been trained to always want more, never satisfied with what they have. Whether someone does everything in their power to achieve a promotion, or someone tries to become rich. The previous example shows selfishness and that people will do whatever it takes to achieve these goals, whether an asset to society, or a downfall. In the Renaissance tragedy, Macbeth, Shakespeare reveals how people’s greediness and feeling entitlement to prosperity causes their own self-destruction. Greed, the selfish desire for something that causes people to perform acts that they may have thought they were not capable of, which can change somebody’s entire outlook on life and change their entire personality. Greed consume …show more content…

They have an obsession with it that causes them to lose their sanity. This becomes very unhealthy and can cause people to hallucinate and see things that aren’t really there. “Shall never tremble. Or be alive again and dare me to desert with thy sword. If trembling I inhabit then, protest me the baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow! Unreal mockery, hence!” Macbeth began seeing ghosts, which was one of the first signs of his self-destruction. Shakespeare shows that this is part of the slow decent into insanity. Once this has started it is very hard to stop. A slow and painful process, especially if being watched from the outside because the person’s life spirals out of control and nothing can be done to stop it. “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feelings as to sight?” (II. i. pg. 51) Macbeth envisions a dagger in his sleep. He has a nightmare and sees the dagger before him, unable to touch it. Shakespeare reveals how detrimental greed is to one’s mental health. Having dreams and sleepwalking while seeing a dagger before them does not define a person of a healthy mental

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