Tuesday, June 14, 2011

How does Appearance vs. Reality affect relationships in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare?

The witches' anarchical formula couched in Chiasmus, 'Fair is foul, and foul is fair' initiates the theme of Appearance vs Reality quite early in 'Macbeth'. Macbeth is indeed so fair without and so foul within. In act1 sc.4, Duncan ironically foregrounds the same dichotomy when he says:



There's no art


To find the mind's construction in the face:


He was a gentleman on whom I built


An absolute trust.



Duncan trusted the thane of Cawdor who was 'a gentleman' by appearance, but he betrayed Duncan by siding with the king of Norway. Duncan proclaimed death sentence for Cawdor, and conferred the title on his most trusted general, Macbeth. Yet again, Duncan failed to see through the appearance of Macbeth's trustworthiness. Macbeth, 'chastised' by the 'valour' of Lady Macbeth's 'tongue', killed Duncan violating the virtues of 'kinship' and 'hospitality'.


Lady Macbeth chose to wear the appearance of cruelty to stand by the side of her husband's ambition. In reality she was not a virago. She suffered from a strong sense of guilt to become a victim of sleep-walking, and at last she killed herself. The dichotomy between Appearance and Reality vey severely affected her cojugal togetherness as well as happiness.


When Macduff went to England to convince Malcolm for a military venture against Macbeth, Malcolm suspected Macduff's bonafides. When as per Malcolm's instruction, his soldiers covered themselves with a branch , it appeared that the Birnam forest had been moving to Dunsinane. The appearance  of the witches' equivocation came to reality.

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