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

It basically means it's better to die than to kill someone and live with the guilt, even if their death is what you thought you wanted; desire without content meaning he got what he wanted but now he isn't happy about it.

Answer 2

"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"
MacBeth act 3 scene 2

Although everything was risked and nothing remains there is no gain from the act. Even though the outcome was as desired, the result is joyless, there is no pleasure in it. She is wracked with emotion fear,and remorse. She feels it would be better to be dead and feel nothing than than to remain in this state.
Sometimes a desire can be achieved that brings no joy. The act brings guilt, remorse or unintended repercussions. Perhaps the object or event that we so desire has costs or consequences we did not anticipate. A desire can be so strong that it blinds us to the outcome and effect that it will have on ourselves and others.
Lady Macbeth thinks that the peaceful state of death would be preferable to the worried and haunted existence her desire has created.

Answer 3

Lady Macbeth (Original text)
"Naught'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."

Lady Macbeth (Modern text)
"If you get what you want and you're still not happy, you've spent everything and gained nothing. It's better to be the person who gets murdered than to be the killer and be tormented with anxiety."

Answer 4

This is one of the earliest indications in the play that Macbeth is descending into paranoia.

He and his wife engineered the murder of King Duncan, and, as they witches prophecied, Macbeth is now King of Scotland. But, as he says here...it hasn't brought him any greater contentment.

He goes on to say that Duncan is really the only one who benefitted from the whole thing...he's DEAD now, and so beyond such cares as these. Macbeth muses that it would be better to be THAT guy, than the guy who now has to WORRY about it 24/7.