Many characters in The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, and Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, commit acts of betrayal. Amir betrays his best friend Hassan more than once because he is too scared to own up to his actions, while Lady Macbeth betrays Macbeth due to her own selfishness and greed. Acts of betrayal are committed out of pure selfishness, and the more acts one commits, the easier it becomes to continue. However, they always have negative side effects. Amir committed an act of betrayal towards Hassan by watching him be sexually assaulted and not helping, although he knew he should. He considered helping because Hassan would have helped him if the situation was the other was around. He did not help because he was too scared of what Assef would do to him. Amir knew what he was doing wrong, and he knew he should have stood up for Hassan, as stated in this quote: “In the …show more content…
When Macbeth first heard that he would one day be king, he told Lady Macbeth, which was a mistake. Macbeth knew this meant he would murder Duncan, but he did not think he was capable of doing so. He was too scared, and that was perhaps a good thing because if he had not killed Duncan, he would not have killed so many more people. Lady Macbeth wanted to be a queen, so she mocked and verbally abused Macbeth into doing it; “But screw your courage to the sticking place and we’ll not fail” (I.vii.70-71i.7.70-71). She is basically saying that his courage does not matter, if he does what she says then they will succeed. She uses her own selfishness to convince Macbeth to do what she wants him to. Although it eventually costs Macbeth his mental stability, he continues to do what she wants. Lady Macbeth is the puppet master behind all of his acts of betrayal. He was originally too scared to harm anyone, but by the end he would not hesitate to murder anyone in his