Macbeth is Shakespeare's shortest and bloodiest tragedy, and tells the story of a brave Scottish general named Macbeth who receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the throne for himself. His reign is racked with guilt and paranoia, and he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler as he is forced to take the lives of more and more people to protect himself from enmity and suspicion.
Macbeth learns that one sin begets another. He has his good friend killed, and then kills another man's whole household, including his young son. In the end, Lady Macbeth goes crazy over her guilt, and Macbeth himself is isolated and driven further and further from any peace and ability to enjoy human society, and life itself becomes nothing but "sound and fury, signifying nothing". In the end, he is killed and his head is publicly paraded as the crowd cheers.
This play invaluably teaches students how sin and guilt can destroy life and separates us from others and God. GCA students have seen a powerful reminder of how love of power and greed can eat up a life and how one sin leads to another. Sin is never "easy", as Lady Macbeth realizes in devastation. Satan uses our own desires to tempt us and often something that sounds sweet and true can be meant to lead us to our own harm, as Macbeth's friend Banquo warns him, "Oftentimes, to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truths." Throughout the course of the play, Macbeth finds that these "truths" were only half true, meant to lead him to his own destruction, as often Satan's lies are. Please take the time to consider some of these true, good, and even beautiful themes in this sad play on the ways that sin and darkness destroy life.
