Is Macbeth A Motivation For Evil

The Evil Within “All things truly wicked start from innocence,” Ernest Hemingway, (A Movable Feast.) The nature of evil lies within all human beings whether they realize it or not. Both Lord of the Flies and A Long Way Gone have main characters who struggle with the temptation of evil, and eventually give in to their dark side. Under harsh circumstances, the evil within all people comes out as an attempt to adapt to their environment. Authority figures are one of the major components affecting the development of evil within their followers.

To be Evil or Not to Be Evil Throughout the story of Grendel, the deemed ‘monster’ ,Grendel, is shown as the villain most frequently due to his violent acts towards humanity. However, it seems Grendel’s savage ways are not due to his own cold heart but infact the cold hearts of the humans around him. His monster acts are only mimicking what he witnesses mankind do to each other. Grendel shows remorse, resentment, and loneliness which are all qualities shared not only by monster but also by man proving he’s no more evil than man itself.

The Lucifer Effect by Phillip Zimbardo aims to provide psychological explanations in occurrences of evil. The book provides a framework to examine ordinary human transformations from good to evil. Zimbardo makes the point of stating that people should be held responsible for the actions they make, however, both situational and systemic factors should be observed. In this book review, I will use points of analytical framework to analyze the main points of Zimbardo’s text. To start, Zimbardo defines evil as “intentionally behaving in ways that harm, abuse, demean, dehumanize, or destroy innocent others – or using one’s authority and systemic power to encourage or permit others to do so on your behalf” (5).

The Evil Within Being evil doesn’t always mean doing bad things. Being evil can mean saying bad or mean things or even thinking those things. Innate human evil is evil that is natural and born into the human body and mind. Sometimes, people can’t help evil things that they think, but can help what they say and do. In Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, he uses Cassius’ and Antony’s actions and thoughts to show its easy for people to let evil get the better of them.

Whether working with a co-worker, learning with a classmate or hanging out with a friend, the thought of any of them having the potential to be evil does not cross the mind. Everyday people are not typically evil beings, but if people are not evil beings then why do they commit actions like torture, killing and genocide? Could it be that the certain people committing the acts are just monsters deep inside, or could the actions be mere products of circumstance? In his article "The Genocidal Killer in the Mirror", Crispin Sartwell, a journalist and philosopher, advises his audience to take a look at the heinous acts people have committed throughout history as a way to show us how anyone could commit evil acts, including ourselves. Marianne Szegedy-Maszak,

This is true because evil is not something that just goes away. If it isn’t helped as soon as possible, it will only grow into something that is nearly impossible to destroy. At this point, the person/people with darkness inside of them will be pretty hard to get back to normal. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the growth and development of evil in the characters is shown. A character that shows the growth of evil in this novel would be Roger.

We all like to think that evil is not born within us, but rather nurtured into us; while this may be true for some, others have evil born directly into them. When man toys with the powers reserved for only God, God strikes back with a wicked evil to show man the power that they truly lack. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein contains a prime example of a being born of unnatural causes and thus having these evil urges that they cannot control. Frankenstein’s monster is a highly intelligent being, and hence he is very manipulative.

Lady Macbeth plans to invite king Duncan over for dinner, but really she is convincing Macbeth to murder him. She influences him to kill Duncan because he is the only one standing in the way of Macbeth becoming king. Lady Macbeth plans the killing but convinces Macbeth to do the dirty deed. Lastly, Lady Macbeth is one of the causes of Macbeth’s failure because she repeatedly questions Macbeth’s manhood until she persuades him to make a bad choice. “When you durst do it then you were a man” (1.7.53-58).

It makes her more ferocious than her masculine counterpart and hence her dominance over Macbeth. As well as she invokes the spirits to deprive her of feminism and make her as volatile as men, so that she can fulfill her dream of being the queen. Lady Macbeth is a bold and ambitious woman. She has implicit faith in herself. She wants to remove every obstacle in her pursuit of becoming the queen.

Motivation to attain goals plays an important role in an individual’s life. It is instinctive to put effort for the accomplishment of one’s target. If an individual put genuine effort and enough motivation to fulfill one's objectives, it will result in success. Nonetheless, the urge to fulfill one's goal keeps individual to focus on its mission until it has been achieved. In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, the character of Macbeth uses motivation in order to achieve his ambition of becoming the King of Scotland.

We all have built in ethics and morals but they are fragile to some extent therefore can be easily changed. Controlling evil can be done through showing people the need for nature and nurture, helping people to be less bias by making them understand ones intent, accepting differences and controlling our inner beasts. Nurturing human beings and providing them with a safe environment to live in can have mind blowing effects on evil intentions. Babies are said to be the purest forms of humans. They are human beings before being contaminated with culture, social interactions, sex and romance.

Firstly, man is born evil because society shows him to be evil. An example of this is how parents must raise their child to be good. A parent never has to raise their child to do bad things. A young child might draw on the wall and believe that it is art, however the parent will stop the child and tell them that drawing on the wall is a bad thing to do.

Evil is a simple word that we learn at a young age and that we understand is bad. However, our youth and innocence prevents us from knowing the weight the word holds. As our understanding of evil develops, we begin to see evil all around us. Although we hold common societal definitions of evil, each person is bound to view evil slightly different from others. Someone might consider alcoholism evil, while others consider it normal: someone might believe racism is evil, while others believe it is natural.

Myths and stories from cultures all over the world explain what humans fear, want and desire. The stories on the struggle between good and evil are manifestations of the human fear of dark forces and the human desire to explain why bad things happen. These stories form a common thread between cultures. Humans do not understand why evil reigns on earth and often try to explain it by using religious deities. Humans fear evil, as a result they have utilized stories to express their fear and endeavored to deter others from doing evil.

Another topic all through the story is the inference to both external and internal evil. External malice, the less demanding of the two to recognize, is shown by the beasts which are battled by the Geats and Deans. This sort of abhorrence or evil is thought to be external since the source originates from the outside of the tribes. It is not of course brought on by the activities of men. It is an type of malice that does not matter whether good or bad intentions goes along with the characters in the ballad.