I need help with Macbeth?? Can someone explain this??

Question

I have a quote and i wanted to know what it meant.

"Where our desire is got without content: 'Tis safer to be that which we destroy than by desttruction dwellin doubtful joy."

Answer 1

Nought's had, all's spent,
Where our desire is got without content:
'Tis safer to be that which we destroy
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.


This is the complete quote taken from the 3rd Act as recited by Lady McBeth. As the scene opens, Lady Macbeth appears with a servant. She asks if Banquo has gone, and the servant says he has, but will return that night. She then sends the servant to ask her husband to come and speak with her. Something is weighing on her mind, and when the servant has gone, she gives it voice: Nought's had, all's spent, / Where our desire is got without content: / 'Tis safer to be that which we destroy / Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy" (3.2.4-7). Because they rhyme, her lines sound a bit like proverbial folk wisdom such as "a stitch in time saves nine." The first rhyme expresses a common experience, which is that if we get what we want, but aren't happy with it, we really don't have it. The second rhyme deepens the thought by saying that it would be better to be dead than to feel what Lady Macbeth is now feeling. She and her husband destroyed King Duncan, who is now safe from all the world's problems. In contrast, the lady and her husband live in "doubtful joy." In Shakespeare's time the word "doubt" was commonly used to mean "suspicion" or "fear," and Macbeth and his wife live in fear that their guilt will be discovered, and suspicion that the witches' prophecy about Banquo will come true.