Comparing Orwell's Macbeth 'And Animal Farm'

In ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Animal Farm’ there are many different characters, the main two that stick out though are the two evil tyrants, Macbeth and Napoleon. These destructive tyrants have their own level of ‘direst cruelty’ but they’re similar in many ways too, for example they’re both selfish and optimistic in their own selfish ways. The reason for this is because Macbeth committed regicide, which is the murder of a king or queen and Napoleon committed cruel murder, this led to several violent acts for their own cruel, selfish reasons. Personally, I believe that Macbeth and Napoleon’s actions link to the themes selfishness, corruption and violence. A quote to support this is: ‘I go, and it is done; the bell invites me’ this portrays Macbeth’s selfish side as his wife’s persuasion left him jumping to take the crown for his own to fulfil his ‘ vaulting ambition’.

This quote is so important because the phrase: ‘I go, and it is done’ illustrates that Macbeth has no more sympathy towards the king as he is so deluded in his ‘vaulting ambition’.

Also, the phrase: ‘the bell invites me’ shows that Macbeth doesn’t waste time as soon as ‘the bell invites’ him he just wants to get ‘th’assassination’ complete. Whereas Napoleon is portrayed as a monstrous murderer of remorseless cruelty as ‘the executions went on, until there was a pile of dead corpses lying before napoleons feet’ this shows Napoleon’s more violent side .The fact that the quote describes the corpses being formed in a ‘pile’ suggests that he wasn’t just killing one character, he was killing a bunch of characters which shows he is a mass murderer. These catastrophes caused a lot of pain, stress and loss for the other characters in each text. This was like dystopia for the characters in each

text. Towards the end of each text Macbeth and Napoleon both turn in to the enemy of which they hated with such disgust. This illustrates how these two alpha males took advantage of their powers to have a humongous change in their personalities, and change greatly. Evidence to support this is: ‘appear… here’ ‘sun … undone’ ‘wrack… back’ this shows that Macbeth is using rhyming couplets just like the ‘three weird sisters’ did throughout the play. This quote would create great tension for the Shakespearian audience, as they hated and feared witches and their witchcraft. Where as in ‘Animal Farm’ Napoleon and his fellow leaders stood on their ‘hind legs’ and were communicating with their true enemy: humans. The fact that Napoleon was the alpha male and the smartest on the farm meant that he was able to take himself to the highest rank, as he took advantage of the other animal’s lack of intelligence. These actions from Napoleon led him to transform in to a human. Personally I think the ‘Animal Farm’ audience would have a huge reaction too, the reason for this is because the plan for equality and freedom didn’t go to plan because the evil , tyrant Napoleon destroyed the utopia dream of living a life of luxury by continuing to live in conditions of ‘hunger and overwork’. However, in reality this made everything like dystopia, a dark and miserable place to live.