1. Why do people who are not "evil" take the first step into evil? What, for instance, is involved in taking that first step "down the primrose path to the everlasting bonfire" (Macbeth, 2.3)? What are the consequences of the individual choosing evil (particularly the internal consequences)? Use examples from the text to support your opinion.
Taking a step towards evil, I believe, is not something that you do yourself. The idea of evil is something that actively seeks out its prey. It is almost as if evil is a predator in the jungle of life and it picks and chooses who it wants to affect. Once affected, it is a disease that takes over your entire body and consumes about every facet of saneness you had inside you. All in all, Evil is something that definitely infects you negatively and changes the way you make decisions and live out your life.
Being the "doctor" that has been assigned to the play, MacBeth, I have diagnosed the former noble war hero of MacBeth with the disease of evil. He was infected with this deadly disease in multiple ways, the first symptom being through the supernatural aspects that are apart of his world. This is specifically in the first act, when three witches had been encountered with MacBeth and Banquo and they told the two their prophecies. MacBeth's included him becoming king and the successor of King Duncan, with the third witch stating "All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter![…] Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none. So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!" (Shakespeare 1.3;70-71). MacBeth, being a virtuous man with a good moral compass was not so sure of this so called prophecy and did not know if he was the man to carry it out. This was quickly changed when the second major symptom came into to play, Lady MacBeth. Lady MacBeth was much more committed to this prophecy and was definitely an influence to the way MacBeth acted. This is apparent when the two lovers are discussing the whole situation and MacBeth asked "If we should fail?"(Shakespeare 1.7;59-61) and Lady MacBeth responded with "We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking place, And we'll not fail" (Shakespeare 1.7;59-61). She was his significant other and she was basically daring him to become more of a man, so of course he was going to listen to what she wanted. This nudge was all he needed to fall further into the disease of evil and that is when he started to feel the full force effects.
Further into the play, MacBeth and Lady MacBeth devise a plan for him to become king. In this plan, MacBeth had to murder King Duncan cold blooded along with hiring murderers to end the life of his dear friend Banquo. This sent MacBeth not only into a spiraling staircase of guilt but also caused him to go into a state of insanity. He had not only lost the honorable man he once was but had also started to lose his mind. His mind was definitely not all with him during the dinner party that took place in the third act. He had walked into the party with Lady MacBeth where all of this noblemen were seated around the table but MacBeth could not sit down. He had hallucinated the ghost of Banquo in his seat and he could not shake the sight of him. When his noblemen asked him to sit down, the royal kings response was "The tables full" (Shakespeare 3.4;48), referring to Banquo's ghost in his seat. This was one of the major consequences that he faced because of the misguided, horrifying decisions that he had made to try to fulfill his prophecy.
At this point in the play, MacBeth had lost almost all of his sanity due to the disease of evil that he had caught much earlier in proceedings. The disease had taken over his mind and controlled not only his decision making but started to take over his senses. He was a completely different man and not even his own wife could snap him t of this state. Evil is a disease that is not always common in people, but once caught, it is something that can ruin everything good you had ever had in your life or at least make you think that everything you are doing is for the better, when in reality, you are just making everything so much worse.
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