Examples Of Self Fulfillment In Macbeth

In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth struggles to secure the satisfaction of his self-fulfillment, otherwise known as his position in the Scottish hierarchy. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is told by the witches that he will become king of Scotland. As a result, Macbeth starts to struggle with his self-satisfaction, which he believes he will be granted to him once he becomes king. This is seen when Macbeth starts to think of murdering Duncan after discovering his prophecy as he would not have thought of killing Duncan if he was not tempted to become king. In other words, Macbeth saw the potential gratification he would receive if he were to become king and the only way to do so would be to murder Duncan. At this point in the play,

Macbeth feels guilty even thinking about killing his kinsman and has not yet let his ambition blind him, which is ironic considering his actions later in the play. Macbeth even lists his reasons not to kill Duncan, explaining that he cannot kill someone “here in double trust” (1:7. 12) and that there will be grave consequences for his actions. This furthers the idea of Macbeth’s guilt for his sinful thoughts. The most obvious demonstration of Macbeth’s guilt is his hallucination of the dagger before he kills Duncan. Even though he’s hallucinating, Macbeth is still able to rationalize his thoughts as he says the hallucination is being caused by his fear. This emphasizes the fact that Macbeth has not yet let his ambition to secure his satisfaction of self-fulfillment cloud his judgement because he knows what he’s about to do is wrong and he will face consequences for his actions. Even after he kills Duncan, he still hasn’t completely let his ambition blind him. He was never completely on board with killing Duncan in the first place, the main reason to his murder being Lady Macbeth’s manipulation, and he still feels guilt for his