Act I of Macbeth

Appearance vs. RealityMachiavelli would have thought that appearance was more important than reality. We can tie this into times today; a football player would appear tough and strong on the outside and that scares people, but really inside, he's insecure and very weak. In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth demonstrates this theme during scene five. She rants about how she believes Macbeth would be a great ruler, but she fears that he is too kind to be a good ruler. She says, "Though wouldst be great, art not without ambition, but without ambition, but without the illness (wickedness) should attend it." (1.5. 16-18) Macbeth appears as a fearless warrior and had just  returned from a successful battle. To everyone else, he looks strong and ambitious, but Lady Macbeth knows him for how he really is: a kind hearted man. I think this will be a very important theme in Macbeth because of all the examples of killing and how Macbeth-for instance- appears to be loyal of the king, but then turns around and murders him. I think this theme will be demonstrated very often.


Gender Roles
Gender roles in history have been very different from what we have now. Years ago, women weren't taken as seriously as they should have been. They were almost never educated-the man was supposed to be the smart one- and were expected to be sweet, and innocent. Lady Macbeth demonstrated how she should act and how she shouldn't act in scene five. When she is alone in her room, she speaks on how she want to turn into a man so she can 'be evil' and act in the way a man should act. As a women, she was not supposed to be having these murderous thoughts that were running through her head and so she wished she could be a man. Men were allowed to kill, and that is exactly what she wanted to do. She came up with a plan to kill King Duncan so that Macbeth could be king, but because she's a women she herself can't commit the deed. So she instructs Macbeth to do it. When Macbeth enters, her crazy ranting ends and she instantly becomes innocent sounding and sweet as shes exclaims, "Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor, Greater than both by the all-hail hereafter..." (1.5. 53-54). She does this to hid what she was just a minute ago, and appears before Macbeth as a proper lady. Women in that period of time almost had to have a double identity if they wanted to have any identity of themselves at all. Shakespeare showed this double identity of Lady Macbeth in the length of forty-three lines, and had several examples. After reading Macbeth's letter, she changes to the evil improper side of her, and when the servant enters the room, she stops and becomes chivalrous and lady like once again. This double identity of herself must remain a secret.


Loylaty and Honor
Loyalty to the king was one of the most important things a person had to do back when kings existed. Macbeth, Thane of Glamis was very loyal to King Duncan and proved to be a very good follower. Loyalty was very important in the Middle Ages because it was how things worked. If a man promised his word or his work to the King, he must follow his word because he promised the King. Promises were more respected and followed back then then how they are valued now. To have promised the King something, it was something one must do because it is an honor to even talk to the king. Many of the kings followers were expected to be loyal and yet they weren't even able to meet the king.  If a follower didn't for fill his word, he could run the risk of being put to death!  Loyalty can be a good thing, but also it can be very dangerous. As we know, later in the story Macbeth murders Duncan...so much for loyalty! Duncan trusted Macbeth, and before the murder, Macbeth was completely loyal to Duncan. As Machiavelli said "The ends justify the means." Machiavelli thinks that honor and loyalty didn't matter: as long as you got what you want, it didn't matter what you did. Shakespeare on the other hand treasured loyalty and honor because it was a major theme in his time. Although these two famous people wrote about the same things, they had two different opinions because they were in different times. Now days, we don't honor promises as much as humans used to: we throw out the words "I promise" all the time whether or not you will actually keep your promise. Honor and loyalty were a major part during Shakespeare's time and so he showed the themes in Macbeth.