Saturday, August 23, 2014

How did Macbeth realize betrayal had a strong influence on him in Shakespeare's Macbeth?

Before Macbeth murders King Duncan, his thoughts of
betrayal to the King cause hallucinations. Macbeth sees a floating dagger that is
leading toward where King Duncan sleeps. Macbeth is already feeling the effects of
betrayal, even before he commits the murder.


Next, Macbeth
is influenced by the murder of King Duncan in that he cannot even say "Amen" as the
guards are praying. He shares with Lady Macbeth that he could not even
pray:



One
cried, "God bless us!" and the other, "Amen."
As if they had seen me with
these hangman's hands.
Listening to their fear, I couldn’t say
"Amen,"
When they said, "God bless
us.



As he commits the murder
of King Duncan, Macbeth keeps hearing that he has murdered sleep. He realizes he shall
sleep no more, not a true sleep:


readability="10">

I heard a voice cry, "Sleep no
more!
Macbeth murders sleep," the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits
up the raveled sleeve of
care,



Macbeth is being
influenced by his act of betrayal. He is having hallucinations and he is hearing voices.
He is deeply affected by his act of betrayal in murdering King Duncan. He shares with
Lady Macbeth that he forgot to plant the daggers on the guards, but he is afraid to go
back and look on the gruesome murderous scene. Fear had gripped his
being:



I'm not
going back.
I am afraid to think about what I have done.
I don’t
dare look on it
again.



Furthermore, Macbeth
sees Banquo's ghost after he has Banquo murdered. Macbeth is greatly influenced by his
acts of betrayal. He betrays King Duncan. Then he betrays his close friend Banquo. His
visions are terrifying hallucinations which seem real to
Macbeth:


readability="18">

Blood has been shed before now, in the old
days,
Before laws cleaned up the commonwealth.
Yes, and since then
too, murders have been performed
Too terrible to hear. The time has
been,
That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And that
was the end of it. But now they rise again,
With twenty mortal murders on
their crowns,
And push us from our stools. This ghost is more
strange
Than such a murder
is.



Clearly, Macbeth is
terribly influenced by his acts of betrayal. He has just begun his journey of sleep
deprivation and ghostly hallucinations. He will never rest again. He will be tormented
in his mind until his death.

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