Consequences of Disobeying Conscience
One of the most recurring themes in Shakespeare’s plays is that of conscience and guilt. It is the popular belief that an instinctive moral conscience is endemic to humans; the moral law within us is praised as being the biggest distinction between mankind and animals. However, while this sense of right and wrong is meant to be one of humanities most valued characteristics, it is often one of our most ignored intuitions. Whether it be for a selfish or noble cause, humans often stray from within the confines of conscience. As a thorough student of human nature, Shakespeare considers both the internal and external consequences that a character who has decided to go against their conscience might face. Through various primary characters in King Henry IV Part I and Macbeth, Shakespeare offers a thorough exploration of the human faculty for conscience and depicts how the failure to acknowledge or follow one’s conscience will undoubtedly lead to unforeseen consequences and guilt.
Through our individual conscience, we become aware of our deeply held moral principles, we are motivated to act upon them, and we assess our character, our behavior and ultimately our self against those principles. When one fully examines and understands their conscience, they know exactly what their moral limits are; when a person disregards that and goes against their conscience it can have adverse effects on a person’s mental stability. Adversely, going to great lengths to justify going against your conscience can allow unexpected consequences to arise. If a person believes that they have thought through every possible outcome that going against their conscience can cause, they feel a false sense of security in their choice which can leave them open to unsavory surprises.
King Henry in King Henry IV Part I is a prime example of the personal disquiet and guilt that disobeying one’s conscience can result in. From the beginning of the play, it is clear that Henry sits uneasily on his throne. Henry IV ascended to power outside of accordance with the natural line of succession, having violently usurped his predecessor, first cousin, and childhood playmate Richard II. Although Richard’s reign was unpopular, he was still an anointed king whose divine right— the right of a sovereign to rule received directly from God and not from the people— held him above earthly authority and criticism. Because of this universally accepted belief, Henry IV’s rebellions against his cousin would have been regarded as wholly unjust and his claim to the throne baseless, regardless of any misrule by Richard. Consequently, Henry suffers from a usurper’s guilt that characters such as Worcester and Hotspur justify. When King Henry threatens the Percy’s for challenging his authority, Worcester reminds him of the Percy family's role in helping Henry to the throne, saying “Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves/ The scourge of greatness to be used on it,/ And that same greatness too which our own hands/ Have holp to make so portly (1.3.10-13)”. Hotspur also reminds the audience that, before his death, King Richard “[proclaimed Hotspur’s] brother Edmund Mortimer/ Heir to the crown” (1.3.159-160), cementing the idea that Henry’s reign is not only unjust but fragile and changeable. Henry suffers from a usurper’s guilt. That, coupled with his reign having been wracked with war and rebellion, makes Henry’s fears of God’s displeasure understandable. Henry verbally admits that he worries his son’s seeming inability to rule is God’s way of insuring that the true line of kings is restored, stating:
—I know not whether God will have it so
For some displeasing service I have done,
That, in [God’s] secret doom, out of my blood
He’ll breed revengement and a scourge for me;
But thou dost in thy passages of life
Make me believe that thou art only marked
For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven
To punish my mistreadings.
(3.2.05-11)
Henry believes that his actions are an affront to God, hence his frustration that constant rebellions and wars with Scotland and Wales prevent his efforts to make reparations by halting his plans for a crusade in Holy Lands (1.1). Because Henry went against his conscience by finding a way to justify deposing God’s anointed king, he was unable to anticipate the effects that come from creating a standard for eliminating monarchs and thus condemning his reign and his mind.
Prince Hal is an example of the unforeseen consequences of knowingly acting contrary to one’s conscience. It is evident that, before we are even introduced to the Prince of Wales, he is a source of disappointment and worry for his father. Hal has completely forsaken the confines and expectations of royal life to troll in taverns with company unseemly for a prince to keep. He has made an unfortunate spectacle of himself to the King and the court, all of whom doubt his character and ability, especially in the shadow of Hotspur. In the opening scene, King Henry admits that he envies Northumberland for being “… the father to so blest a son/ A son who is the theme of honour’s tongue” (1.1.79-80) while Henry must “See riot and dishonour stain the brow/ Of [his] young Harry” (1.1.84-85). Despite being aware that his behavior in unacceptable and admitting to the audience that he is not acting true to himself, Hal justifies his behavior by informing the audience that it is a calculated choice. He says that in his disgraceful conduct he:
“[imitates] the sun/ Who doth permit the base contagious clouds/ to smother up his beauty from the world/ That, when he please again to be himself/ Being wanted, he may be more wondered at/ By breaking through the foul and ugly mists/ of vapors that did seem to strangle him.”
(1.2.187-193)
These lines make clear that the Prince has given this scheme thorough thought, but he does not anticipate the gravity of his actions, especially in regard to his father’s opinion of him. Hal also does not foresee how Hotspur will come to eclipse him in the eyes of his father and the rest of the country. While Prince Hal has been squandering his reputation, Hotspur has made an honorable and respected name for himself worthy of a prince. Because of this, Prince Hal must literally fight to prove himself. Hal thought that his plan was foolproof but because he went against his conscience, he allowed someone else to gain prestige in the country and indirectly fueled the rebellion against his father.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, conscious is the principle theme explored throughout the play. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth fall victim to extreme guilt as a result of crimes against their conscience. The play opens with Macbeth being painted as a well-respected Scottish noble that everyone looks up to; it isn’t until the three witches inform him of what is to come that his thoughts become treasonous. While he admits that he is desirous of the throne, and almost immediately knows that he will do what it takes to get there, he still hesitant to kill someone who is both King, his cousin, and his guest. He goes to great lengths to justify his ambition, using the prophetic statements from the witches and his wife’s urgings to validate his choices and give himself a false sense of security. With Macbeth, Shakespeare takes the opportunity to show just how far a person can fall: he goes from an honorable, loyal, trusted, and noble character to one of dishonesty, and malice. Ross compares loyal Macbeth with the traitorous Thane of Cawdor, whose title Duncan immediately gives to Macbeth. When Duncan personally thanks Macbeth for his service, the newly made Thane of Cawdor lies, saying “the service and the loyalty I owe/ In doing it, pays itself” (1.4.23-24). This contrasts Malcom’s later statement about Macbeth’s true character when he says, “This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues/ Was once thought honest” (4.3.12-13).
Macbeth does not anticipate the damage that his crimes would do to his conscience, which is tormented after he kills Duncan. He becomes paranoid and hallucinates, hearing voices saying, “Sleep, Sleep no more! For Macbeth has murdered sleep” (2.2.36-37). He also loses his appetite; this shows that even his insides are affected by guilt and the memory that he himself had killed a King who had been so good to him and to Scotland. After ordering Banquo’s death, Macbeth sees his ghost at the banquet with twelve bloody gashes in his head; this makes Macbeth completely insane in an instant. He is not only scared by seeing the ghost of Banquo, but also by the thought that he had done these horrible things, and that his soul would be haunted by his murdered friends’ ghost forever. Eventually, though, he hardens himself against these fears, becoming a man wholly without conscience and morality. Though he tries to rid himself of the consequences for his evil by committing more and more violence, he never succeeds in shaking off the consequences of disobeying his conscience.
Lady Macbeth’s character progression throughout the play is opposite from that of her husband; whereas he goes from repentant and fearful to a ruthless king, Lady Macbeth transitions from savage and heartless to guilt stricken and fragile. In the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is one of the driving forces behind the crime she and her husband commit, being equally ambitious and evil as she urges her husband to kill King Duncan. Lady Macbeth calls upon the spirits to give her emotional strength in order to help her husband go through with the murder plot, “Come, you spirits/ That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here/ And fill me from the crown to the toe, top-full/ Of direst cruelty,” (1.5.39-42), as though being without conscience and feeling is what it means to be a strong man. As ambition and cold-heartedness starts to take over Macbeth, Lady Macbeth begins to lose power and is not included in the plans to kill Banquo; Macbeth stops treating her like his equal, saying “Be innocent of knowledge, dearest chuck” (3.2.46). Lady Macbeth loses her control over her husband, and no longer a say in what should be done to secure their reign. This lack of power introduces vulnerability and ineffectiveness by taking away her sense of authority and usefulness. Once guilt begins to overtake Lady Macbeth, she loses control of her emotions, actions, and sanity, which sends her into a state of mental unrest and physical sickness. As guilt starts to rule her, she repeatedly imitates washing her hands and sleep walking: “Here’s the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of/ Arabia will not sweeten/ this little hand” (5.1. 50-51). Her willing abandonment of her conscience allows her to get what she wants, but she does not anticipate the strain that such a gruesome crime can have on a person’s mind.
Shakespeare’s use of conscience as a theme allows readers and viewers an intimate insight into what it means to be human.