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What does Macbeth reveal about the human condition?

There are many ideas that run through Macbeth that reveal ideas about the human condition. I'll give you a couple of ideas:


1. The desire for more.


Macbeth is a play about a man who to be king. He initially disregards the appearance of the witches he encounters ("You should be women, / And yet your beards forbid me to interpret / That you are so.") and is startled by the prediction that he will be the king. When the witches show that they'll leave, Macbeth begs them to stay and "tell me more." Even Banquo, who acts as a foil to Macbeth for most of the play, initially responds positively to the witches' prediction that his sons will be kings and asks whether he and Macbeth have eaten "on the insane root." This characteristic is present throughout the play in Macbeth's (and Lady Macbeth's) actions.


2. A desire to surpass boundaries


While Macbeth wants to be king after the witches tell him it will be so, Lady Macbeth wants to move beyond the barriers placed before her because she's a woman. Lady Macbeth pushes Macbeth to murder Duncan and claim the crown because, as a woman, she is unable to do so. In one of her more famous speeches, Lady Macbeth begs "unsex me here." Lady Macbeth wants to move beyond the social expectations of women, particularly motherly tenderness and kindness. Lady Macbeth pushes Macbeth to murder, practically calling him a coward when he says he does not want to go through with the murder: "What beast was't, then, / That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man."


There are many other examples of the human experience in Macbeth, and I'm sure other educators can add some below. These are two of the most obvious ones and two of the ones in which you'll probably find the most evidence.

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