Friendship: In Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. Can you really trust your best friend? Unfortunately, in Macbeth, Macbeth sends murderers to kill Banquo, his friend, on his selfish rise to power. In Frankenstein, Victor’s best friend Henry is there to comfort Victor when he is feeling down. Both stories show how Victor and Macbeth become isolated and selfish, which results in consequences in each of their friendships with their best friends.
In Macbeth, Macbeth and Banquo are friends and comrades in the army. As they fought valiantly for their country, they were describes as “cannons over-charg’d with double cracks” (Shakespeare 1.2.37). Together, they were unstoppable and they were the ones who led their army to victory.
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Upon returning, Macbeth and Banquo were stopped by three witches. The witches told them prophecies that all have to do with power. He thinks about what the witches said and he began to believe everything. As Macbeth grew more and more paranoid about Banquo and how Banquo might have find out about everything Macbeth had done, he decided to kill Banquo. “With thy bloody and invisible hand,/ Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond” (3.3.48-49). Macbeth had done what he wanted and what he needed to do to move forward. This cost him his friendship, but he was too power hungry, and as a result, he had to make “sacrifices”. In Frankenstein, Victor was working on his creation and he finally brought his monster to life.
He felt very ill, as though he had witnessed something horrible. He decided to go to and as he woke up in the middle of the night, he found his creature staring at him. Victor leaped out of bed and began to walk into town. As he was pacing back and forth, he saw his friend Henry Clerval. “My dear friend” Henry exclaimed, “how glad I am to see you” (Mary Shelly 44). As Victor saw Henry, nothing could equal his delight on seeing Clerval. Victor and the monster came across each other. Victor was quite upset about how the monster had killed everyone who was close to Victor so they began to negotiate, or propose a solution. “You must create a female monster for me and most not refuse to” (124) said the monster. The monster wanted his own companion to care for, and in return would leave Victor alone. At first Victor thought the idea was a great way to get rid of the monster, but then he realized that if he created a second monster, he could be making another mistake. “I do refuse it” Victor exclaimed “shall I create another like yourself, who might desolate the world” (124). As Victor was part-way through the creation process, he decided to destroy the female monster. Victor thought he made the right choice, but when he refused to make a “friend” for the monster, the monster gave Victor something in return. The monster went on to kill Henry, Victor’s best friend. If Victor didn’t create
the first monster, none of this would have happened and everyone who was close to him would’ve stayed alive. In conclusion, can you really trust your best friend? Macbeth backstabbed Banquo on his rise to power. Henry was there for Victor in Victor’s tie of need. Both Victor and Macbeth became so self involved, the isolated themselves from their friends and as a result, lost their friends.
The quote, “Man is not truly one, but truly two.” can be analyzed from a behaviorally or mentally aspect. Physically, man is one, but if you delve deeper into the man, he can be separated into two parts which creates a whole man. In the play Macbeth and in the novel Lord of the Flies, some of the characters can be split into two conflicting parts. The characters are neither entirely good or entirely bad. In both the novel and the play, something happens to the characters that made them split into an evil side, thus creating two men.
To begin, the monster longed for human connection so badly, he even begged Victor to create his wife: “You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. This you alone can do, and I demand it of you as my right which you must not refuse to concede,” (174). In this quote, the monster asks Victor to make him a companion, which Victor blatantly denies. This eventually leads to
In understanding the art form of expression in various ways like music and play writes, it brings together this sense of self identity that the artist wants to fulfill. Having this understanding about the life behind the scene, screen, and/or stage. My paper will present two art forms music by 50 cent “Many Men” and William Shakespeare play “Macbeth” in which I will describe similarities among the characters. My four categories for 50 cent and Macbeth are as follow Greed, Savage, Survivor and Success.
How can people’s personal flaws lead to their own destruction? In William Shakespeare's King Lear and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the main characters, Lear and Frankenstein, both as tragic heroes, fall as a result of their own careless actions. Lear and Frankenstein had to die in order to come to epiphanies about their situations and the impact that their own actions have on their lives. Shakespeare and Shelley communicate that one must face a downfall in order to realize his own flaws and the truths of his reality.
...ntion he longed for, both of their lives would have turned out better than they did. The monster looked at Victor as his father, and Victor left him desolate, only causing the monster suffering (Nardo 32). He exposed the creature to cruelty (Nardo 33). Victor gave the monster only a pinch of happiness by agreeing to make him a female companion, but that happy moment faded once Victor discarded the parts of the second creation. This only made the poor wretch’s life more despondent than it already previously was (Britton 8). The depravity of love and affection caused by Victor caused the monster’s life to be dreadful.
his face whereas in the BBC's we can see the top half of his body.
A quote which really defines Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s ambition regarding power is “Power does not corrupt men; fools; however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power” George Bernard Shaw. Lady Macbeth is more ambitious in terms of gaining power then Macbeth is and that Lady Macbeth will do almost anything to gain power, even evil things that she normally wouldn’t do. This is shown when Macbeth and Lady Macbeth learn about the witches’ predictions, then roles in the plans to murder king Duncan in order to gain power and then finally after the murder, Macbeth doesn’t want to finish the plan making Lady Macbeth angry and causing a chance they might get caught and gain no power at all.
Since the monster has grown and has developed the concepts of life and why people reject him, all he wants is to be accepted and loved. He wants a companion because he is lonely in his isolation from the society. “He explains that since Victor deserted him he has been without companionship; all who see him run away in terror” (“Overview”). The monster understands that he is a hideous monster but he still wants to feel loved and accepted by society. He wants a companion to share his life with and be happy with. He is not given that opportunity because of his appearance. The monster will always be isolated from the world because no one can give him companionship. “If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them an hundred and an hundred fold; for that one creature 's sake, I would make peace with the whole kind! But I now indulge in dreams of bliss that cannot be realized” (Shelley, 105). The monster has been isolated all of his life and all he wants is to have a companion. Isolation has made the monster feel alone and like an outcast. The isolation of the monster has the negative effect of making him lonely and in need of a companion. The monster finds Victor and demands that he build another monster for the monster to be a companion with, or an “Eve”. After Victor says yes and then changes his mind and says no, the monster casts revenge of Victor. “...he declares 'everlasting war against the species, and, more than all, against him who had formed me, and sent me forth to this insupportable misery” (Bond). The monster is angry at Victor. He wants Victor to build him a companion or he will kill everyone that Victor loves. After Victor rejects the idea, the monster wants Victor to feel the loneliness and isolation that the monster has felt all his life. “...if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear; and chiefly towards you, my
There was a common saying, “Behind every great man there's a great woman”. The men, Macbeth and Winston Smith in Shakespeare’s Macbeth and George Orwell’s 1984 may not be considered as the “great man” however, both Lady Macbeth and Julia are good examples that can be presented as the “great woman” behind the men. Both Lady Macbeth and Julia do an excellent job of pretending to be someone who they are not, they are not only affecting the men in their lives to rethink their previous position but also have a bad ending accompanied with physical and psychological issues.
Macbeth struggles with a guilty conscience and a fear of Banquo's retribution. After contrasting Macbeth with these three characters, it is easy to see how Shakespeare created within his hero a growing fear of both the physical and moral consequences of murder.
Clark and Wright in their Introduction to The Complete Works of William Shakespeare comment that Banquo is a force of good in the play, set in opposition to Macbeth:
Killing your best friend, will display Macbeth’s cruelty to the people of Scotland. Their faith in the security of themselves and their family will evaporate when the learn that Macbeth, as their king, will not even trust his closest friends and that he will go so far as to kill for even the slightest hint of questioning Macbeth’s kingship. All the people of Scotland will be wary of their friends and family for if they cannot trust their king, then who can they trust in their own circles. The nobles and lords of Scotland will begin to feel threatened and if the people lose trust and faith in Macbeth, then they may look to the nobles and lords, such as Macduff, in order to lead an uprising to unseat Macbeth. An uprising of any kind would find Macbeth in a vulnerable position and it could jeopardize his kingship and destabilize
In Act One of The Tragedy of Macbeth, Shakespeare introduces the reader to the friendship shared between Banquo and Macbeth.The reader sees that they are friends, experiencing some of the most important scenes in the play together. In act one scene 1, Macbeth and Banquo are both encountered by the Three Witches. The witches give Macbeth two prophecies: Macbeth shall be first Thane of Cawdor and then King. In the mean time, Banquo was given the prophecy that his children shall be future kings. Macbeth and Banquo's relationship starts out strong at first, but their friendship fails as power comes into effect. In Act one Macbeth and Banquo converse over the prophecies the three Weird Sisters have granted them. Macbeth tells Banquo, "Your children shall be kings (1: 3: 89). Banquo in ...
Shakespeare's Macbeth is a famous catastrophe, and spotlights on Macbeth's rule. Macbeth's voyage comprises of his rising towards shamelessness, which conveys him to his ruin. Albert Camus' The Stranger, utilizes ridiculousness and flippancy as a part of request to depict corruption and its impact on the hero's defeat. While trying to find the separating depictions of impropriety and their part in the heroes ruins, the accompanying examination inquiry was investigated: "How do the heroes in Macbeth and The Stranger show various types of indecency, which bring about their defeat as
They trusted each other with there lives and were good friends and equals. After they hear the prophecies told to them by the evil sisters Banquo starts to worry about Macbeth and his ambitions to become king. Macbeth is thinking that he may become king without doing anything else, and Banquo thinks Macbeth does not deserve to be thane of Cawdor. At this point the two friends start growing farther from each other because they do not trust one another. Banquo starts to fear Macbeth because he knows if his prophecy is true than he is a threat to Macbeths throne. Macbeth realizes he must get rid of Banquo to secure his spot on the throne and make sure his sons will not take his place. It is the witches fault that these two friends know fear each other because of the prophecies. Without the witches Banquo and Macbeth most likely would have remained friends and Macbeth would not have killed his friend