Shakespeare's two plays, King Lear and Macbeth, take place in two contrasting settings which, from the first scenes, influence the journeys of the characters and shape the course of the room events. The action of the two plays alternates between the settings of the barren heath and the castle, where acts of malevolence are committed. The moors and other natural environments are distinguished by their uninhabitability and exposure to the harsh elements, which contrast directly with the sheltered castles and palaces of the nobles. As in many of Shakespeare's plays, the natural exterior setting and artificial interior architecture illuminate the psychological states and inner motivations of the characters. Furthermore, as characters enter and exit each setting, they either rise to a higher psychological understanding or succumb to the destructive power of their own minds. In King Lear and Macbeth, the moor serves as a ground of opportunity for the characters to better understand their desires and themselves as human beings, while their return to their castles always provides dark resolutions to any acquired hope during their stay in the harshness. no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"? Get an original essay As a site of banishment, King Lear's moor strips the characters down to their raw selves and, with the freedom that they win, they also gain. insight and subsequently redemption. As they wander the moor, the two characters who undergo the greatest transformations, Lear and Gloucester, have everything taken away and are left with nothing. They are only “bodies discovered at the ends of the heavens” (3.4.100) where “through the sharp hawthorn the cold wind blows” (45). The desolate landscape and the desolate hearts of the old men place them in the ultimate state of nothingness that permeates the play. However, it is in this state that the two characters come to see everything. On the moor where their former positions of power no longer have any power, Lear and Gloucester have become “poor naked wretches” (28). Yet, thanks to this change, Lear regained his sight; he not only realized that Regan and Goneril are the place where "madness resides" (21) - with Shakespeare playing on "lie" to denote both the direction of madness and the sisters' deception - and that in as king, he took too little care of his people (33), but he also comes to the conclusion that “man without accommodation is nothing more than a poor naked and cloven animal” (105). Going out onto the moor, Lear has learned his greatest lesson about the nature of love and offers himself to the audience as a man on his way to redemption. Likewise, Gloucester's wanderings across the moor allow him to see what his existing eyes have caused. him to neglect. Edgar in disguise at his side opens up many opportunities for him based on the barrenness of the land, such as convincing him that they are so high on a cliff that "the surging murmur / which over the countless idle pebbles irritates, / cannot be heard » (4.6.20). The expanse of the moor and the freedom it gives the characters results in the small moments of appreciation for life that Edgar has instilled in Gloucester, which ultimately lead to Gloucester's gratitude towards Edgar once he reveals itself. In Macbeth, the moor is the setting. from the first scene and continues to play an important role throughout the rest of the play. Although the moor and the cave are, literally, the ground where what can be considered evil is brewed, unlike the good that arises from it in King Lear, they nevertheless serve as a ground of opportunity. For Macbeth, opportunity presents itself in the formof ambition. Macbeth's moor is above all a natural place where the supernatural can flourish, which results in the Macbeths' actions as terrible as the moor is foul. Such a foggy and dirty setting (1.1.12) suits witches "so withered and wild in their garments, / who do not resemble the inhabitants of the earth" (1.3.41). The alliteration in Banquo's description of them highlights how unsettling they can seem. As Macbeth enters the misty moor, his mind fogs up as well. This sudden psychological change is aggravated by the repetitive speeches of the witches, who exclaim: “Hello everyone, Macbeth […] Hello! (48-65) continuously. The confusion and curiosity that Macbeth experiences as a man of great ambition puts him in a vulnerable state, ideal for planting the idea of ​​regicide in his mind. Unlike the influence of the moor on the characters in King Lear, the forces of the moor in Macbeth reduce insight, while instilling ambition. Macbeth leaves the moor and is soon crowned Thane of Cawdor, but he is left with "horrible imaginations" (1.4. 141) and "dull brain" (153), but "hunched ambition" (1.7.27). His irresistible desire for the king's power and his growing guilt which manifests itself in the form of Banquo's ghost takes him back to the moor, to a cave, in search of more insight. His speech juxtaposes violent natural phenomena, such as "yeast waves" and felled trees (4.1.53-55), with the destruction of symbols of human civilization, including the collapse of castles and palaces in slope (57-58). Such images of tumult reflect his inner turmoil, and perhaps also the discord caused by the violation of natural laws that Macbeth provokes by acting on supernatural prophecies to obtain power. Macbeth's visit to the moor, however, only fuels his ambition, as it offers him new opportunities, and he leaves with the murder of Macduff on his mind. In King Lear as well as in Macbeth, the destructive nature of power can be seen through the characters who remain in the castle for the duration of the play. The castle is a setting in direct opposition to the heather. The castle represents civilization, social structure, and order, and Shakespeare uses the castle's connection to humanity to depict the corrupting and disintegrating nature of power among people; Regan, Goneril, Cornwall and Edmund are never seen outside the castle. It is therefore no coincidence that these four characters are all unhappy, because they each die at the hands of the others inside the castle. On the other hand, the transformed Lear, returned from the moor, is ready to accept his fate in prison by sharing his love with Cordelia. His new understanding of the inherent absurdity of power is seen in his vision of "exhaustion / In a fortified prison of packs and sects of greats" (5.3.17), whose deception "comes and goes according to the moon" (18), a symbol of inconstancy. If King Lear's moor provides a vision and the illusion of hope, then the castle destroys the latter, for Gloucester, Cordelia, and Lear's return to the castle only results in their deaths. The remaining characters are left with nothing – the same nothing that Lear and Gloucester had when they were banished to the moor. Macbeth's two castles, Iverness and Dunsinane, are similar settings that depict the corrupting nature of power. Lady Macbeth, an important female character throughout Shakespeare's plays, never leaves the castle. Although Macbeth's nature is "too full of the milk of human kindness" (1.5.15) compared to his wife's strong personality, the castle's "thick night" (48) is considered far more debilitating than the fog of..