There is a play that has been hailed as Shakespeare's most conflicting and shocking work.
Together with Hamlet, King Lear and Othello, it is known as Shakespeare's four great tragedies, and has been adapted into operas and movies several times in the past 400 years.
This work is "Macbeth".
The work tells the story of the great general Macbeth, whose life is changed and destroyed by ambition.
Macbeth was originally brave and good at fighting, and won the trust of the king, but driven by desire, he killed the king and usurped the throne, and was full of evil, and finally ended up being beheaded.
Macbeth's fall is certainly embarrassing.
But in the real world, who doesn't have his shadow?
Some people are treacherous for their own selfish interests, some people are unscrupulous in order to rise to prominence, and some people indulge themselves in ...... for arrogance and lasciviousness
Shakespeare said:
Desire is like a charcoal fire, it must be cooled, otherwise the fire will scorch the heart. ”
After reading "Macbeth", you will know that too much desire will sooner or later drag down the whole life.
The story takes place in the 11th century, when Scotland is at war with another country.
In the shadow of swords, the Scottish generals Macbeth and Banquo charged, wielding their long swords and harvesting the lives of the enemy like scythes.
Soon, the enemy generals were in different places, and the enemy army was also defeated and retreated.
With a resounding victory for Scotland, Macbeth and Banquo are overjoyed and ready to tell the king the news of his victory.
But on the way back, the sky was overcast, as if to herald the arrival of a storm.
Sure enough, Macbeth and Banquo didn't walk long before they saw three witches appear in the thick fog in the distance.
They described him as thin and grotesquely dressed, and when they saw Macbeth approaching, they pressed their index fingers to their dry lips and prophesied that he would become the honorable Sir Court, and the king of a kingdom.
Macbeth was shocked when he heard this, he was now only a general, and he had never thought of being the emperor of the king.
Before Macbeth could come to his senses, the witch told Banquo that although he was not a king, his status was far above Macbeth, and that Banquo's descendants would also rule a kingdom.
With that, the witch disappeared from the earth like a bubble.
The appearance of the witch made Macbeth and Banquo suspicious, and on the way back, they were both silent.
Coincidentally, halfway through the journey, two ministers suddenly appeared and announced that Macbeth had been knighted Sir Court.
The witch's prophecy was fulfilled, and Macbeth was both excited and apprehensive.
On the one hand, he remembered the prophecy that he was about to become emperor, and began to yearn for the infinite glory of the future;
On the other hand, he knew that the current king held himself in high esteem, and that if he replaced him, he would have a troubled conscience.
Confused, Macbeth wrote to his wife about the experience.
Who would have thought that the content of the letter ignited his wife's fanatical ambition.
She ridiculed Macbeth for hesitating and "smelling of human affection", and advocated an immediate attack on the king and the seizure of the throne.
Madame's instigation lured out Macbeth's inner evil thoughts.
Taking advantage of the king's visit to live at home, Macbeth tricked the king into drinking poisoned wine, and plunged a sharp knife into his heart while the king was asleep.
When the king died, the Macbeths smeared blood on the sleeping guards, pretending that they had killed the king.
Macbeth, on the other hand, washed away his sins and ascended to the throne, sitting on countless cities and wealth.
The once loyal general has become an ambitious king in this way, which makes people sigh.
Greed is like a poisonous snake that hisses and spits letters, corrupting people's conscience and distorting their nature.
In life, how many people are like Macbeth with inflated ambitions, who get what they still want, and who are not satisfied when they have it.
If you chase infinite desires with limited energy, people will also become unrecognizable under the burning of desires.
As the old saying goes: "Greed is like fire, and if it is not contained, it will burn the prairies; Desire is like water, and if it is not contained, it will be monstrous. ”
Those who can't restrain their desires will eventually slide into the abyss step by step under the pull of desire.
After ascending to the throne, Macbeth was not satisfied.
Remembering that the witch had prophesied that the descendants of Banquo would become kings, Macbeth felt as if there were thousands of ants scratching at him.
He finally put the crown on his head, how could he be willing to give it to others?
Macbeth sent someone to ** Banquo father and son, but something that made him even more disturbing happened.
Although Banquo was killed, Banquo's son took advantage of the chaos to escape, and even though he searched the whole city, he was nowhere to be found.
Macbeth was in a panic from then on, and the prophecy that Banquo's descendants would soon become king hung over his head like a sword of Damocles.
He couldn't sleep day and night, fearing that he would follow in the footsteps of the previous king.
One day, while Macbeth was entertaining the minister, he suddenly had a vision in front of him.
He saw Banquo's ghost sitting in his seat, shaking his head and his face covered in blood, which he described as terrifying.
Macbeth screamed in fright, and the drink spilled on the floor.
Strangely, no one saw Banquo's ghost except Macbeth.
Everyone looked at Macbeth in amazement, as if he had been evil, in front of a seat where no one was there, trembling and incoherent.
Since then, Macbeth has become more unhappy, eating every day in worry and tormented by nightmares every night.
And Lady Macbeth often dreams that her hands are covered with blood and cannot be washed clean.
Although the couple held monstrous power, their spirits gradually collapsed.
There is a sentence in the Divine Comedy:
Blind greed instigates people, but in the end, people are forever tortured. ”
Monstrous desires will consume themselves; Excessive greed will make people sink.
If you do whatever it takes to desire, you will only end up being backlashed.
People live for a lifetime, never let desire dominate and lose themselves in the sound of dogs and horses.
Only by having a reverence for cause and effect, and with a sense of conscience in our hearts, can we always stay sober and seek liberation.
Afflicted, Macbeth decides to turn to a witch to foresee the direction of his fate.
He went to the cave where the witch lived and explained the purpose of his trip.
Upon learning of Macbeth's intentions, the witch summoned three ghosts and said three words to Macbeth:
First, beware of Chancellor McDuff.
Second, no woman can give birth to a child who can hurt Macbeth.
Third, Macbeth's throne will not be replaced unless the woods move towards the mountains. ”
After listening to the ghost's words, Macbeth laughed wildly.
Is there anyone in this world who was not born of a woman? How can the whole forest move towards the mountains?
Macbeth was confident that he would be able to secure the throne.
But there is still one last doubt in his heart that has not been resolved, that is, whether Banquo's descendants will be kings.
The witch warns Macbeth not to pursue any further.
But Macbeth refuses to give up, pestering the witch and insisting on an answer.
Unexpectedly, the sky and the earth suddenly changed color, Banquo's ghost appeared, and several witches also surrounded Macbeth, singing strange songs.
Macbeth was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat, and he returned to the palace in a panic.
Remembering that the witch reminded him to beware of McDuff, Macbeth immediately sent someone to McDuff's house, ready to kill people.
To his surprise, MacDuff was not at home, only his wife and children at home.
In order to eliminate the trouble, Macbeth kills MacDuff's wife and children.
At this time, he has completely become a cold-blooded and ruthless tyrant, and he no longer has a trace of guilt for his crimes.
The news of the murder of his wife and children soon reached McDuff's ears, and he was in great pain.
In revenge, Macduff united with English reinforcements and launched an attack on Macbeth.
Hearing that the army was crushing, Lady Macbeth died of madness in terror.
When Macbeth was in the middle of a god, a messenger suddenly came to report that the woods in the distance were moving towards the palace on the mountain.
Macbeth was shocked when he heard this, and he remembered the witch's prophecy, and his heart was uneasy.
But he reassured himself that he would not be killed by the woman's child, so he took up his sword and went to battle.
With years of experience in warfare, Macbeth was overwhelmed and quickly killed MacDuff's generals.
Macbeth's confidence doubled, and he smirked and persuaded MacDuff to retreat.
Unexpectedly, one was not careful, and McDuff pierced the heart with a sword.
Macbeth only learned before he died that MacDuff was born by caesarean section from his mother, and he was not a normal person at all.
And the reason why the woods below the mountain "moved" was because the soldiers under McDuff each cut off a branch as a cover for the march.
This is the end of Macbeth's story.
Looking back on every turning point in his life, in fact, fate has given him countless opportunities that can be recovered.
For example, if he does not kill the king, he instinctively ascends to the throne in a brighter way;
For example, if he doesn't kill McDuff's wife and children, he won't anger McDuff and kill him by the sword.
It was not so much the witch who foretold his end, but his desire for power that hastened the final tragedy.
If you can't keep the floodgates of greed, no matter how high your status and power are, you will be destroyed.
As the American writer Stephen King said:
Hell never lets you fall immediately, but engulfs you little by little. ”
Don't be shackled by lust, don't get lost because of the desire for profit, so as not to destroy your future and lose everything you have.
Macbeth's life is a life of being seduced and destroyed by desire.
He still wants the throne when he has power, and he still kills others when he has the throne, and in the end, evil is rewarded, and his life ends miserably.
The root of a person's tragedy is to be led by the nose by desire, even if he crosses the bottom line and gets his hands stained with sin, he will not give up.
Once a prisoner of desire, he has to pay for it all his life.
In life, money, status, fame, and love ......We always want everything, but we are not satisfied with anything.
But the more insatiable you are, the easier it is to fall deeper and deeper into the quagmire of materialism.
Self-denial, not arrogant or impatient, in order to protect oneself wisely, and go longer and farther on the road of life.
Lit"Watching"., may we all stay away from the trap of desire, even if life is chaotic, we can let the wind and waves rise, and sit firmly on the Diaoyutai.