Monday 8 April 2013

Peer Pressure

One of the primary themes that we shouldn't overlook is peer pressure. Macbeth was peer pressured by his wife into killing Duncan. Sure there was a part of him that wanted the witches' prophecy to come true, as being king is always nice bar a revolution, but without his wife trying to convince him to it's entirely probable that he never would've carried through with the murder. This goes to show that peer pressure never really goes away, the peer group simply changes. There is no age limit, we will always be influenced by the people around us. Sometimes the influence can be good, and other times, like in Macbeth's case, it can be very bad.

5 comments:

  1. Peer pressure is bullying. Say no to bullying

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    1. I don't think that peer pressure is necessarily bullying. As I wear pink today to show my disdain for bullying, I think the term is used inappropriately at times. I read an interesting article last night about the overwhelming use of the term bullying. Sometimes, people are just being jerks. Bullying needs to involve an unequal power imbalance, as well as be prolonged. Here is the link to the article if you are interested:

      http://jezebel.com/everyone-talks-about-bullying-but-sometimes-its-just-p-5982174

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  2. I agree that peer pressure has a very large influence on the making of one's decisions but as Lady MacBeth was continuously pushing, MacBeth could have stood up for himself and said no

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  3. I think Lady Macbeth's pressure on Macbeth certainly played a role in his actions. That said, Macbeth, early on, was already considering murder to achieve the crown.

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  4. Whether he murdered Duncan because of the influence Lady Macbeth had on him or just his own thought process, I believe that either way he would have eventually commited the murder. If one was totally against murder, it would be extremly challanging to convince them to commit such a crime.

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