Macbeth and Integrity Essay

There are seeds of self-destruction buried in all of us that will bare only misfortune if allowed to grow. Macbeth’s guilty path to his des Integrity is define as many things, value, honor, morality, and so on. These principles are the gears that run society. Integrity is one’s identity and to maintain it one must not violate it. Those who are guided solely by their individual ambition will ultimately become a victim of fate leading to the imminent corruption of value, honor, and principles of society. In the words of Henry Thoreau â€Å"There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself. † Macbeth’s value of his own life is evident in his thoughts â€Å"Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player. † His strife for power guided the events that determined the downfall of his life. His values in life were no longer present and his integrity had collapsed beyond repair, so he vowed to continue with his strife for power knowing that the end of his life was inevitable. Some would question why Macbeth would continue on with his careless strife for power, but when someone has hit â€Å"rock-bottom† they do not think logically. No person was ever honored for what they received. Honor is rewarded for what a person gives. Macbeth was honored by many in the beginning of the story, but this honor was superficial. History has proven that you cannot simply cheat your way to being honored, you must earn it. When you cheat, you lose sight of what is important in your life and Macbeth was a cheater of extreme proportions. When Macbeth heard that his wife had passed he did not care for her, instead he worried more about upcoming threats involving his power â€Å"She should have died hereafter. There would have been a time for such a word. † Ultimately karma prevailed and Macbeth’s inventible downfall was nearing. The foundation of leadership is undoubtedly integrity. Without it, success is not possible. One that gains power or leads without integrity is bound to collapse. Macbeth is a prime example of this. Macbeth uses murder to cheat his way to power. Murder is like potato chips you cannot stop eating after one chip, you continue to eat due to impulse. After several murders Macbeth realizes that his collapse is inevitable, but in his mind he has gone too far to retreat. His life is now nothing more than a slow burning fire waiting to be put out. Creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time, and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! † Integrity is one’s identity; inner image. Integrity is not conditional is does not simply change like weather. Macbeth never reached true greatness this is because true greatness is never achieved by cheating you must earn it. To be successful one must be an embodiment of integrity and all its components.