Why Is Conscience Important In Macbeth

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Our conscience is the main factor that guides our thought process leading into our decision making. Overall, people tend to distinguish right from wrong through what their conscience tells them, and morals they’ve learned. Majority of people choose to make the right decisions on their own, and occasionally need assistance and guidance from others to aid in decision making. These outside influences can benefit you as well as expose you to the wrong things. Through our encounters with these people we and thought In Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, Shakespeare reveals that the exposure to negative influences can alter our behavior and affect our conscience, portraying this through Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship.
After realizing that the only way he could become king was to murder Duncan, Macbeth processes his thoughts and immediately feels guilty for thinking so violently, claiming that the thought of him committing murder “shakes my single state of man” (I.iii.141). Macbeth realizes that his thoughts and desires are morally wrong, and is confused as to why he feels tempted to sin. By understanding that his idea to kill Duncan is out of line, Macbeth’s conscience is …show more content…
Because his first murder ended successfully, Macbeth believes another murder could go just as well. Macbeth doesn’t experience nearly as much indecisiveness with Banquo’s murder as he did with Duncan’s because Lady Macbeth pushed him to not regret what he has to do to fulfill his desires. Therefore, Macbeth no longer feels the amount of guilt or conscience he felt before because Lady Macbeth has slowly numbed him to it, beginning a chain of events that eventually lead to Macbeth’s destruction.
Through this, Shakespeare reveals that man’s exposure to negative influences can alter their way of thinking, ignoring their conscience and previous

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