Macbeth LRJ 6

Intense, tragic, and thought-provoking, Shakespeare's Macbeth poses questions that cut to the essence of what it means to be human. Through the story of an ambitious lord who’s insanity steadily increases with each crime he commits, the audience faces the question, how far should one go in a quest for power? With each new character influencing and pressuring Macbeth to new, dangerous heights, the audience wonders if one should ever really trust in others. Finally, at the climax of the play when all the pieces of the story fit together just before they are destroyed, the audience is forced to contemplate if one can ever really be absolved of their sins.
However, Shakespeare doesn’t quite abandon the audience after asking his deeply provocative questions. Though he never directly provides the answer, it can be guessed through the intricate dialogue and character interactions. Before Macbeth becomes too immersed in his greed and lust for power, he admits to his fears of gaining it the wrong way. “…that but this blow/ Might be the be-all and end-all here,/ But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,/ We’d jump the life to come.” (Shakespeare 39) In the beginning, at least, Macbeth feared going too far might result in eternal and immovable consequences.
None of the advice given to Macbeth turns out to be good and solid, so the audience is left to assume Shakespeare doesn’t believe in trusting others or prophecies. Especially in the case of the witches, where they feed into his security and inflate it into full-blown arrogance, is Macbeth most especially led astray. “Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care/ Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are.” (Shakespeare 127) Macbeth finally realizes his mistake when he cries to Macduff, “And be these juggling fiends no more believed/ That palter with us in a double sense,/ That keep the word of our promise to our ear/ And break it to our hope.” (Shakespeare 187)
The final question is the most controversial and least obvious of them all. Shakespeare never does more than hint at his belief on whether or not sins are unforgivable. The two key villains in this story are also the heroes, which leaves the audience with a strange paradox. Macbeth has hallucinations of his victims and his wife literally tries to was blood from her hands in her sleep each night. This seems to answer the question with both a yes and a no. The fact that they do these things over and over again until their death begs the answer that no- sins as treacherous as theirs never go away, and the guilt never fades. However, doesn’t the fact that they feel this quilt and regret at all mean they deserve forgiveness? The audience is left to puzzle that one out on their own.