As humans we experience loyalty or disloyalty each and every day. The amount of loyalty one shows to peers is a definition of character. Of the six major characters in William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth, only one shows unconditional loyalty and he is brutally murdered by Macbeth in the second act. The storyline of Macbeth offers great insight about human life. When given the opportunity to display loyalty, power, revenge and greed cause treachery.

On more than one occasion power comes before loyalty. Even though Lady Macbeth is the driving force behind Macbeth's commission of treachery, Macbeth makes a conscious decision to kill King Duncan in order to take his place as king. In Act One, Scene Seven Macbeth says, "I am settled, and bend up/ Each corporal agent to this terrible feat./ Away, and mock the time with fairest show:/ False face must hide what the...