The Price of Power

The Price of Power

By: Maria Huellas

We all know that humanity has a dark side, the part which everyone has but many fail to recognize. In today’s society, everything seems to revolve around how people view themselves and also the people around them. Backstabbing and false faces structure �Macbeth’ and I believe that Shakespeare made the characters of Macbeth represent themselves as model citizens, but for those who can see right through their false act, their cruel underlying intentions seep through for they are willing to push their limits just in order to gain power. Macbeth shows us how far people will go to gain that power, even if that means crossing the boundaries of morality. Appearances are deceiving and the power hungry couple proved just that. Are the witches and the prophecies actually bountiful gifts? Is Lady Macbeth a gracious and kind hostess? Do we truly believe that Macbeth is the courageous and brave hero?

The witches that start it off are of the supernatural and they are a bad omen and the fact that they gave such wonderful �truths’ and prophecies didn’t change the fact that nothing good will come out of them. On the outside, the witches’ appear old and haunting but even that didn’t give a big enough warning to Macbeth, but Banquo was suspicious enough and refuses to be dragged into the power hungry state that Macbeth portrays. He questions the state of the witches, saying

“You should be women,

and yet your beards forbid me to interpret

That you are so”.(I,iii,46-48)

The predictions that the witches have to offer just seemed too good to be true and that strokes their egos. The witches’ appearance didn’t deter Macbeth from listening to them and the witches took advantage of that. “Speak, Demand, we’ll answer” (IV, I, 63-65) was all they had to say and they fed Macbeth’s mind with senseless ambition, pleasing him but not quite telling him the whole truth. The witches made Macbeth determined and they had blinded him from seeing the truth and loss of ethics.

Another person that also fails to tell the whole truth is Lady Macbeth, who illustrates herself as the most gracious host and the loving wife of Macbeth. She may have her flowing hair and feminine features but those are just her instruments she uses to deceive the audience for she is born of a man’s temper and blood. Her blood runs cold throughout her body as she pleads to the spirits, “make thick my blood, stop up the access and passage to remorse” (I, iv, 44). Her interaction and relationship with Macbeth proves that she controls and wears the pants in the relationship. She persuades Macbeth that murdering Duncan was the only way to attain success and that they should appear as the �golden couple’, to lead no suspicion towards them but to put up a front. Lady Macbeth seems to envy Macbeth for the power he holds in people’s eyes and she chooses to dip into that pool of sovereignty by being the mastermind of the whole murder plot. She instructs Macbeth to “look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it” (I, v, 72-75) but flowers have a delicate floral essence but the scent that the Macbeth’s give off is putrid and many seem oblivious until the end where they show their true colors. Lady Macbeth may just seem be the typical trophy wife but she is the driving force of the plot.

Lastly there is Macbeth, who seems to be the one who is mostly overtaken by this urge to gain more power and supremacy. As a Scottish General who is respected by many, he is not naturally inclined to commit such dirty deeds but his actions bring out his deep desires. It shows that he is deeply in denial and he is oblivious to what he has become. He didn’t know how to distinguish what is right or wrong anymore when he killed Duncan, the bell was not just for