Down the Primrose Path to an Everlasting Bonfire

There's something about "evil" that sparks curiosity within humans. It's human nature to want things we don't have and this can push people to do things that are considered evil. Whether people are religious or not, most know about the story of Adam and Eve. God said they could eat from any tree in the entire Garden of Eden except one. Curiosity about this tree drove Eve to go against God's wishes and eat from it. This is a classic example of how the unknown can drive humans to do evil things. Eve was not satisfied with the trees in the entire garden as long as she continued to wonder about the one forbidden tree. Similarly, once the witches in Macbeth prophesy that Macbeth will be king, his wonder sparks and he cannot let time dictate his future, he has to do the forbidden task, just like Eve.

So much of the time we see all the benefits of people's evil doing, like fame, money, power, or in Macbeth's case, he sees being king. However, so rarely we think about the consequences of evil. It is so much easier to picture the benefits than it is to see the penalties. This is why we jump into activities without thinking about the consequences. We've probably all heard our parents say "You weren't thinking were you" when we get in trouble. It's probably because we weren't thinking! And when we want to achieve money or power or sometimes even just a good test grade, we can find ourselves doing evil things, without really thinking about it. Human nature is also wishing we had things that other people have. This is also a factor that drives people to do evil things. In modern day this is shown when people steal things, but for Macbeth, Duncan had the power Macbeth wanted and so it caused Macbeth to do his first evil act.

My father has always told me "Don't lie because each lie you tell has to be covered up by another lie, and then another lie, and then another lie." In this same way, each time Macbeth did an evil act, he had to do another one to cover the previous one up, and then another, and then another. This is one of the consequences of doing evil acts, there are always more lies and evil doings to come in an effort to cover up the truth. Another consequence comes from within: our conscience. Some might argue that Macbeth's conscience is one of his major downfalls, he constantly has an internal conflict with himself and beats himself up. It even goes so far as to him having hallucinations about the people he has killed. Even if others don't know what someone has done, the individual will always know, like a constant weight on their shoulders. Finally, with more and more lies to cover up the first evil act, comes more room to mess up and be caught. That is an obvious consequence and we see it everyday, people getting arrested and going to jail when they are caught doing a crime. Going to jail or being executed are examples of more obvious consequences. For every evil act comes a negative consequence, one that is not usually thought about while committing an evil act.

The benefits of an evil act can sometimes impair one from seeing the consequences that follow. That is why it is easy to commit an evil act, and once one is done, more follow to cover it up. This is shown especially through the story of Macbeth.