Bystanders Should Make a Difference

The topic of people being innocent or guilty by association is a difficult question to answer.  There are many different definitions of makes a person guilty.  In the article, it talks about the “ordinary Germans” during the Holocaust.  These were the people who were not Nazis and knew what was happening and let it happen.  Dr. Victor Capesius was one of them.  He was recruited to be a doctor at a Concentration camp.  He did not necessarily believe in the Nazi cause, but was intimidated into submission.  When he saw his former Jewish patients coming off the trains, he simply went along with orders and sent them marching to their deaths.  Although he was not the one coming up with the direct order to commit the murder, he was just as guilty as the Hitler.  This article gives a new insight into many of the consciences of the character of Macbeth.  For the murder of Banquo in Act 3, Macbeth has three servants commit the murder for him.  Those servants are just as responsible for the murder as Macbeth.  First off, they were the ones that actually committed the murder.  They had the dagger that ended his life.  Macbeth, ultimately, should be the guiltiest because he planned the murder and theoretically killed him, among others. 

                Another aspect of this issue is the bystanders who know about the injustice, but do nothing.  This was an issue in the Holocaust.  There were many “ordinary Germans” who knew about the concentration camps, but simply chose to stay silent and continue to let those people suffer.  In Macbeth, one bystander is Lady Macbeth.  Although she plans the murder of Duncan, she doesn’t plan Banquo’s murder, but does nothing to stop it from happening.  In both senses, those people owed it to the victims, to humanity, and to themselves to speak up and put a stop to something horrible happening or continuing to happen.  The bystanders are guilty, but not in the same sense as the murders or bad people.  They are guilty of not having the courage to take a stand, no matter the consequences.  The innocent people who didn’t ask for these problems to be thrust upon them do have a duty report injustices.  People can combat evil and maintain their convictions.  Murder or wrong doing is never the answer in combating anyone’s so called evil.  Many people think something is evil that is not evil at all.  Hitler thought the Jews were evil and Macbeth thought that Duncan and Banquo were evil but they weren’t.  Real evils, though, can be defeated through more human ways, such as people doing the right thing because they are motivated to or people changing their habits because someone helped them see the error of their ways.  The world would be a much better place if the innocent bystanders stopped being afraid and stood up for the injustices that they have seen happen in their lives.  These people have the potential to change what will happen in the world, just as some person must have done it for the Holocaust and hopefully, as the play progresses, someone does it for Macbeth.