Macbeth

Over the winter term of sophomore year, we read William Shakespeare's "Macbeth." I actually read Macbeth over middle school, but while it was more like a dramatic story of people gradually turning corrupt and fighting against each other, as I read it again in high school I realized that Macbeth had more value than it seemed at front.

It first made me think about fate. Fate seemed inevitable in Macbeth, as no matter what Macbeth did in an attempt to defy fate, it reached Macbeth at the end of the day. But in an another angle, if Macbeth did not try to take anything into control, Macbeth would have remained as a respected figure throughout Scotland, with Duncan alive and Lady Macbeth innocent. Or maybe, to an outcome every action gives birth to, we don't know if we had or had not control over it, and people simply view that as fate. If that is the case, I believe it is best to act as if our decisions are final and are supported by fate, no matter what kind of decisions we make. In other words, I would act as if I am not meddling anything with fate that I don't even know the existence of: I would simply be looking at the thing in front of me, doing what I, at the moment, believe is the right thing to do.

It also made me think about women's positions in the society Shakespeare lived in. I don't think Lady Macbeth is necessarily a pure evil, considering how she suffered from even more guilt later in the play. Instead, I believe she was someone who was aware of the fact that her husband's status literally defined her own status, and who decided to take full use of it. If the society allowed people like Lady Macbeth on her own, why would she encourage someone else to kill for her own sake? However, because women like Lady Macbeth were coerced to solely depend on their husbands for their own place in society, I think they could not afford to pause and look back at their conscience, as their every action directly linked to their survival.