A fine example of Shakespeare's sophisticated method of exploring moral issues occurs in 5.3 of Macbeth, where the title character recognizes some of the things that his crimes have caused him to lose:

I have lived long enough: my way of life

Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf;

And that which should accompany old age,

As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,

I must not look to have; but, in their stead,

Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath,

Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.

Auden, who had great insight into the play, said in his Lectures on Shakespeare: "Usually in tragedy a good person is made to suffer through a flaw in his goodness. In Macbeth this pattern is reversed: it is the streak of goodness that causes pathos and suffering." And now to return to the larger topic begun a few posts back (the importance of Shakespeare in the high school curriculum), this type of subtlety is exactly what is required when raising philosophical issues with young people. Any attempt at top-down moralizing will (rightly, in my opinion) be met with instant derision, whereas the discovery of moments like the one above, which are only found in the greatest literature, will not.