Lost Values (Macbeth) Essay, Research Paper

Lost Values (Macbeth)

Life can be viewed as a road that branches into two directions: success and failure. Different people have different perspectives on the meanings of success and failure. Some may refer success as having unlimited amount of money, while others may regard it as having a happy family. People with ambition will always strive for success. However, on the long road, perspectives may change, which may result in finding new values and goals that one truly believes in. In other instances, many that grasp success do not treasure it. When many finally lose it, the memories of success always recur in their minds, torturing them each time they recall it. People only discover how much they value something when they lose it.

Everyone tried to walk towards success. Macbeth once indicated,

Could trammel up the consequence, and catch,

With his surcease, success. (Macbeth)

Macbeth’s ambition for success directs him toward the murder of Duncan. Many will do anything in order to reach success. Some will cheat on others, betray others, and some will kill others. In the short story Champions, the narrator and Donnie kicked their opponents in soccer games in order to win. In many real-life situations, people often cheat in order to reach success. Professional sports players often eat steroids to accelerate their physical abilities. This also causes betrayal to the other players, and those who have faith in the player for victory. In the story The Metaphor, Charlotte betrays Miss Hancock whom has trusts Charlotte to be able to understand her. However, Charlotte, who wants to be successful in the relationships with her peers, does not want to ruin the relationships, therefore depressing the teacher even more. This eventually leads to the accident that Miss Hancock gets in. She was killed. Although this is not an intended death that Charlotte causes, but it shows that how one can reach success with the aid of these three points. Macbeth is the most apt example that fits all these criteria in attaining success. In the play Macbeth, Macbeth cheats by letting the witches foresee his future, giving him an advantage over others. In addition, he betrays Duncan’s steadfast trust toward him. Duncan believes that Macbeth is loyal and noble general, but Duncan soon finds out that he had judged Macbeth fatally wrong. Duncan was killed by Macbeth. Macbeth also killed many others. In order to secure his kingship, he tries to kill both Banquo and Fleance.

It is after Macbeth receives his kingship that he finds stress and pressure around him. As when the witches chant:

Fair is foul, and foul is fair.

Hover through the fog and filthy air. (Macbeth)

What seems to be correct may not be correct once someone experienced it. Macbeth finally experiences what he longs for – kingship. However, being the king does not give him the pleasure he wants, but only fear every night. After Macbeth has been king, his perspectives may have changed, and what he truly wants may not actually be kingship. In the poem D-day Minus, a stanza says:

You will be hungry for love, and love

will feed you; later, you will be

hungry for love. And love, in case

you do not understand, is the

condition you will come to fear.

This stanza explains that the narrator once has love, but he finds out later that love is only something one should fear.

The loss of love has always been a deplorable matter. In the story Penny in the Dust, Dan loses his beloved father. It is after his father dies that Dan wants to know more about him. When Dan’s father was alive, Dan never appreciated the chance of talking to his father. In the story Champions, the narrator, after being a champion, does not want to be one.

Being a champion had left me without much desire to make

a career of it.

Many do not value what they have when they do have it. After they lose it, they realize how much they need whatever they lose. This also happened in The Chosen, when Reuven realizes that being lonely is a very painful experience. Although this memorization of lost values generates pain, yet it happens for a reason – to teach a lesson. It serves as a painful realization of what one truly values, thus enabling the person to understand himself/herself better. In the story The Clumsy One, Dan cruelly segregates himself from his brother in order to humiliate him. However, as he finds out that he deeply regrets this, he cannot make up for it. One time, Dan’s brother makes the situation equal by humiliating Dan in front of Dan’s friends; Dan does not feel upset about this anymore. It is then that Dan finds out that his brother is someone he truly loves and values.

It is most often that one truly finds what they value after they loses it. In many instances, people do everything they can in order to reach success. However, after they get a hold of success firmly in their hands, they do not treasure it. Finally when they lose it, they realize that they cannot be without it for even one minute. This is human nature that cause many grieves when one loses what he/she values. “Life is a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” (Movie, Forrest Gump). In the long life road, one may not find what he/she truly values, but anything can happen in the world. It is wiser to value everything that is around, because one can find a true beauty in everything in the world.