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How has Shakespeare explored the theme of deceptive appearances in Act one of Macbeth
meets Lady Macbeth. She obviously has practiced deceiving as she deceives Duncan into thinking that she has a lot of respect for him mad he thinks she is a
‘Fair and noble hostess’.
This is ironic also because it was actually her idea to kill Duncan, but she deceives Macbeth that it was actually his idea to kill Duncan. We see this in scene seven.
In scene seven Macbeth is having second thoughts about killing Duncan. When Lady Macbetj finds out she is furious and one of her arguments that she uses to change her husband’s mind is that she implies that the idea was actually his when it was actually hers.
‘What beast wasn’t then/ that made you break this enterprise to me?’
Here she is implying that it was actually Macbeth who first suggested murdering Duncan when in fact it was her idea. This sis another of Lady Macbeth’s deceiving.
Finally the last example of deceptive appearances is in the last line in scene seven.
‘False face must hide what the false heart doth know’.
Lady Macbeth again said this to Macbeth. It basically means that they have to deceive the world with a false image to cover-up the doings in their heart. This must be carried out carefully as it is a vital step of getting away with the murder.
In conclusion deceptive appearances are just as big as part of life today as was four hundred years ago in Shakespeare’s time. Shakespeare has explored this theme in the play Macbeth very well. As you can clearly see there are many examples of this coming mostly from Lady Macbeth and Macbeth and from settings such as Macbeth’s castle. There are other people who are very bad judge of character, for example Duncan and Banquo. We can’t blame them because come to think of it can you always tell what somebody is thinking? It is literally impossible.