Concerning your question about Shakespeare's
Macbeth, I will play the devil's advocate a
bit.
I don't know what a human "soul" is, as it is used in
this prompt. It seems to me that the term is something that is useful in a work of art
like this play, perhaps, but not useful in criticism or discussion of a work of art:
it's too imprecise. Strictly speaking, the soul is a second part of a human being that
is saved or lost, according to Christian beliefs, which mirror the Greek belief in the
dichotomy (different parts) of a human being. If you use the term this way, then your
question just refers to evil causing Macbeth to be damned. If this is the case, then
the answer is quite simple, perhaps: Macbeth does evil acts, is or becomes evil, then
faces eternal damnation, according to Christian
beliefs.
But I think the prompt uses
soul in a different manner, which is difficult to define. I think
it refers to soul in that broad, perhaps undefinable, way used by different people to
mean whatever they think it means. The word tends to refer to some deeper part of a
human being, some essential part, what makes us tick, so to speak. But the term is so
vague that it probably has no place in criticism or literary
analysis.
Even if one does use the term in this manner and
answers the prompt, however, there is still a problem. Isn't Macbeth evil already?
Doesn't the evil come from within Macbeth himself? The prompt seems to identify evil as
a separate entity, as if evil somehow influences Macbeth and makes him kill
Duncan.
In other words, if Macbeth is evil already, and if
the evil comes from within Macbeth, then evil is what Macbeth is and it doesn't destroy
anything. Macbeth is evil, and he is ambitious. He kills or orders the killings of
numerous people due to his ambition. Evil is not something that destroys Macbeth. Evil
is what Macbeth is or becomes.
The prompt, then, has two
problems: the way it uses "soul" and the way it uses "evil." I don't know what "soul"
is, but Macbeth is evil, most likely even before he hears the witches' predictions, and
he is ambitious. And his ambition makes him commit evil acts.
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