The Ethics of Human Nature
... In the play Macbeth, Macbeth has a good human nature until his wife influences him. It has been prophesized to Macbeth that he will eventually become King of Scotland. Macbeth goes home and tells his wife what he ahs heard and she, who is greedy, convinces Macbeth to kill the king to ensure that the prophecy is fulfilled. Macbeth’s wife, Lady Macbeth, has an evil human nature because she is filled with the greed of being Queen of Scotland. She convinces Macbeth to kill the king, making Macbeth’s human nature evil. In William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, two lovers are stropped from marrying freely by their families feud. The Montague’s and Capulet’s hate each other. They are evil because they look out for themselves, instead of looking for their children’s interests. Friar Lawrence has a good human nature because he agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet in secret, even though their families hate each other. Even though what he did was against the wishes of the family, his intentions were good, which makes his human nature good. Many of the character’s human natures were influenced by another, meaning that they were originally good. In the novel, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the children start out good-natured and well mannered. But once they are put on an uninhabited island, their true nature becomes the dominant nature. Most of the boys cannot hold back their dominant evil human nature, and they become murderous and savage-like. But a few of the boys are able to retain their good human nature, even though the evil-natured children eventually kill a few of them. The short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, shows that you need to be a member of the community to understand how their human nature is good. Even though the community members join forces and kill another community member, they are still good. They do not think that that what they are doing is wrong because this is a tradition that they grew up with. They follow their traditions, without questioning any aspect of it. The human nature of the community to an outsider seems evil because they are killing someone, but it is not evil. In “The Girt of the Magi” by O’Henry, it is shown that gift giving plays an important role in a person’s human nature. The couple in this story sacrifices something important to them to try and make the other one happy. Neither of them is expecting anything in return. This makes both of their human natures good because to make a pure self-sacrifice, you cannot expect anything in return b...