The only way that this quote applies in Shakespeare's
Macbeth (I think) is that a few good men may
be unable to take action. There is no
question at the time of Duncan's murder, when Macduff discovers the King's body, that
there is a committed group of ethical (sans Macbeth) and loving subjects that are
determined to find out who is responsible for taking the life of their beloved
King.
The difficulty for them is not a
lack of conviction, but a lack of information. Without knowing for
certain who is responsible, there is no way for these men to act. It is, then, in this
situation that evil can thrive, for Duncan's subjects—Macbeth's peers—do not have
anything to act upon other than conjecture and rumor (specifically, that Malcolm and
Donalbain are responsible—in truth, they flee Scotland because they
fear for their own lives, for they, too, have no idea from where the danger
emanates.)
For a thesis statement, which I assume deals
with this scenario, I would write something similar to the
following:
Evil often appears to have a life of its own,
seemingly impervious to attempts to stop it; however, what is worse than the evil is a
lack of action by good men or women to take steps to stop it—for if a few good
individuals fail to take a stand against it, evil will
flourish.
No comments:
Post a Comment