Macbeth Corrupt Essay

John Acton’s quote about power corrupting people is greatly supported by present, historical, fiction and non fictional characters. Absolute power does corrupt absolutely. Many publicly recognized figures use their power to take away from others. Corruption is the misuse of public power for private gain. Those who are corrupt are morally broken and make poor decisions that deviate away from what the public accepts as correct. (Corruption) Those in leadership positions always take advantage of those under them in some way, further proving that power corrupts.

Former United States President, Bill Clinton was one of the most corrupt Americans in political history. After serving for the first term of his presidency “...the American people

re-elected Bill Clinton to a second term in the face of allegations of serious abuses of authority by the President and members of his administration.” Before even starting his second term, Clinton and his staff were known to be abusive towards their power. He was only voted for his second term out of the ignorance of the American people. Clinton abused his position “by usurping powers that the Constitution assigns to Congress and by misusing legitimate presidential powers.” (Mayer) A major scandal broke out involving Clinton having an affair with former intern and eventual White House employee, Monica S. Lewinsky. (Time Line) Shortly after the release of his scandal and other misuses of power Clinton read his handwritten speech “I Have Sinned.” This speech was read “to an audience of more than 100 ministers, priests and other religious leaders assembled in the East Room.” In his speech, Clinton apologized for his many sins. As quoted directly from his speech, Clinton stated “I agree with those who have said that in my first statement after I testified I was not contrite enough. I don't think there is a fancy way to say that I have sinned.” Along with announcing that he was in the wrong he also stated that “integrity is important and selfishness is wrong…” He admitted that many of his acts were selfish which emphasized that his alpha role corrupted him.
Many historical leaders were corrupted by their powerful positions, but a prime example of a corrupt and ruthless man, is Adolf Hitler. Hitler and his forces were responsible for the brutal massacre of 11 million people. (Holocaust) Hitler used deceiving tactics such as propaganda to persuade people to follow in his destructive path. In Hitler’s speech “Before the Reichstag”, on January 30, 1934, he stated that “The German form of government, certainly, could not have been the cause of that war, for Germany was a democracy already-and what a democracy!” Hitler reviewed the problems of his country and shifted the blame onto one group of people so that he would not look like the reason for Germany’s many misfortunes. Hitler:
“...firmly believed in his mission to achieve the supremacy
of the so-called Aryan race, which he termed the "master race."
Having legally come to power, he used brutality and subversion to carry out a
"creeping coup" to transform the state into his dictatorship.”(“Hitler In Power”)
Hitler chose that the racial group that he belonged to was the most powerful and anyone that was not like him should be executed.

This shows how highly Hitler thought of himself and how willingly he was ready to take away the lives of people, just to make his corrupted self more powerful.

Aside from political figures, the fictional character Lady Macbeth from Shakespeare's play Macbeth was corrupted by her powerful position. Lady Macbeth manipulated Macbeth into murdering Banquo so that she can see Macbeth become king. Lady Macbeth was more corrupt than Macbeth because his actions were persuaded by Lady Macbeth. Macbeth would not have murdered if it was not for Lady Macbeth coercing him into believing that was the only solution. Lady Macbeth instructed Macbeth to murder to show that she had truly emptied herself of all human emotion and that she was stronger that she had ever been before. Aside from being power hungry, Lady Macbeth was also incredibly greedy. She wanted her husband to take the lives of his dear friends just so that she could be in a higher position next to her king. Her acts were extremely selfish and she cared too much about what others thought of her family. She felt as if Macbeths power was placed in her hand and striving for him to have more power slowly corrupted her insane

mind.
The true meaning of power is misunderstood. Many people take what they think power is and ruin themselves and others with the idea of it. By looking into Bill Clinton, Adolf Hitler and Lady Macbeth, it is obvious that these figures ideas of power corrupted them. Not only were they corrupted, but they were destroyed deep within. Eventually, in the end, everyone who was in power at one time becomes more broken than they were before. By analyzing fiction and nonfiction characters, it has became clearly obvious that power corrupts not only political figures, but everyone.