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Power and corruption have a very strong relationship and has been a classic theme for literary pieces. It is said that “power corrupts”, this theme and idea can be seen throughout history. This is true in George Orwell’s’ novel Animal farm in 1945. Two boar named Snowball and Napoleon became new leaders of the farm after their former leader passed away, Old Major. Napoleon deforms old majors word for revolution causing him to be corrupt and want more power. Napoleon becomes corrupt and only gets worse as time goes by. Likewise, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, film adaptation in 2015 by Justin Kurzel due to an encounter with 3 witches Macbeth the protagonist makes him take horrid actions and growth in greed, along with his partners’ desires, which corrupts …show more content…
Napoleon used “Four legs good, two legs bad.”-chapter 2, as a passage as distorted its meaning causing him to become corrupt. Old major also talked about how animals are being oppressed and humans are taking advantage of them. In chapter 5, Napoleon found himself wanting more power, which emphases his slow growth in greed for more power. Snowball was the only another Boar that would take over the farm. Within this chapter Napoleon begins to corrupt himself even further by chasing Snowball out of the …show more content…
Napoleon started to change rules. These included selling eggs, uneven food ratios and decision making for the farm, all of which is against the rules made beforehand. Similarly, Macbeths corruption started early on in the film. Macbeths encounter with 3 witches evoke his dark side where his lust for greed and power grew after hearing a prophecy that he should reign king “All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter! […] Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none. So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!”-third witch. After Lady Macbeth find about the prophecy impatient, rushes Macbeth to kill his own king so that they could live like Gods. Macbeth choses to kill his own king and any other threats that would interfere with him sitting on the throne. Once in the throne Macbeth becomes mentally weak and greed has completely taken over his motives and actions. The power that Macbeth gains doesn’t contain him but corrupt him even more. Macbeths greed for power causes him to kill Macduff’s family, Banquo and his family. By doing so eliminating any potential threat to the power that Macbeth has gained. Both Macbeth and Napoleon have lost their thinking due to the power they gained evoking their lust and greed for more power, causing them to corrupt themselves, their actions and thinking. While normal narratives revolve around a protagonist both text is followed by antagonists, giving a different feel toward
Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth distinctly exemplify the weighty pull that power holds over those with authority. For, once prompted, both craving power, chose corruption in order to obtain and preserve stolen power. Power proved to be so addictive to the two that they remain consumed by darkness and take great and murderous measures to insure their security on the throne. Once the darkness accomplished its end of engrossing the king and queen and leads its victims to their own demise. Demise set in motion by their prompted corruption. The theme of the power of power aptly stated by Lord Dalberg-Acton, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragedy in which the main characters are obsessed by the desire for power. Macbeth’s aspiration for power blinds him to the ethical implications of his dreadful acts. The more that Shakespeare’s Macbeth represses his murderous feelings, the more he is haunted by them. By analyzing his hallucinations it is possible to trace his deteriorating mental state and the trajectory of his ultimate fall. Throughout the play Macbeth is never satisfied with himself. He feels the need to keep committing crime in order to keep what he wants most: his kingship. The harder Macbeth tries to change his fate the more he tends to run into his fate. His ambition and struggle for power was Macbeth’s tragic flaw in the play. Macbeth’s rise to the throne was brought about by the same external forces that ensure his downfall.
What drove him to become a power hungry tyrant was his wife. She put ideas in his head that changed him. A day before Macbeth would not speak of the idea of killing the king and now he was considering it. By killing the Duncan, gaining the title and king, and not being caught, Macbeth was given an enormous boost. He now felt invincible and let power finally get to him and corrupt him. With this new amount of power, Macbeth was not willing to let it slip away. To protect his power, he did whatever was necessary. Macbeth cowardly had Banquo killed, going against everything he ever believed in. Killing Banquo was not enough for Macbeth. Shakespeare shows to the audience how power can make a person go higher in the world but at the same time make them more vulnerable. Macbeth was now vulnerable, to solve this he sent the murderers to kill Macduff.
Two important themes in the play Macbeth are power corrupts good morals and unchecked ambition leads to destruction. Shakespeare uses Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to show how power corrupts good morals; and motifs to illustrate the self-punishment of crime. From the beginning of the play until his death Macbeth’s character changes drastically. At first he is seen as an honorable man, but becomes a power hungry, paranoid man. Lady Macbeth had an immense influence on the corruption of Macbeth. Her lust for power impacted Macbeth in many ways. Both characters were over taken by unchecked ambition and a greed for power.
It is in human nature that the more power one desires the more corrupt actions one must do to attain it. In Shakespeare’s tragedy of Macbeth, a Scottish noble's craving for power leads him to do terrible deeds that leads to his demise. Shakespeare shows that power corrupts by using Macbeth who corrupts under the thought of have power over others. Macbeth becomes corrupt under the thought of becoming king and gaining almost complete control over the people that he rules. Macbeth wants the power badly enough to do horrible deeds such as commit regicide. Lady Macbeth becomes very ambitious and allows herself to become seduced to the idea of becoming Queen. Her ruthlessness urges Macbeth to commit regicide by questioning his love for her and his own manhood.
To begin, Macbeth loses his sense of integrity slowly throughout the play until he has none remaining. Macbeth is introduced as a valourous and successful general. His drive for power, however, causes him to taint the perfect image of himself he has created. Once the witches flaunt the idea of being king in front of the man, his natural impulse to gain power and prestige is ignited and he begins a rampage in order to achieve his goal. Its this human quest for power that causes his mind to disregard truths he once held selfevident, such as valour, loyalty and patriotism, giving way to a cruel wrath. The goal of increased power causes Macbeth’s mind to distort his morality and make diabolical deciscions, such as killing the king he once loved so dearly. Futhermore, the threat of losing power also causes Macbeth great mental distress and leads to further loss of loyalty and morality. He fears Banquo is plotting against him shortly after his coronation and hires murderers to kill his old best friend. This demonstrates Macbeth’s paranoia being placed above rationality, due to his fear of losing power. “ We have scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it;”(III,ii,15). This quotation demonstrates Macbeth’s desire to hold on to his fleeting power by illustrating that he does not feel safe in his current position. He is prepared to defy his moral compass and loyalty and kill those he loves...
Perhaps the most fundamental theme of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is the inherent corruptibility of even a seemingly good man when ambition turns to greed, and Macbeth himself exemplifies this concept throughout the play. While at the outset he is seen to be loyal to his king, generally considered trustworthy, and displaying numerous other laudable qualities, Macbeth ultimately succumbs to the influence of those around him and becomes unequivocally evil, setting aside all his previously held morals and coming to be driven only by his lust for power. This transition is brought about by a wide variety of factors and plays an integral role in the development of the plot. In his tragedy Macbeth, William Shakespeare employs
As stated before, an important theme in Macbeth is the effect that power has on people and how it will eventually corrupt them. Macbeth came to the realization that the only way he was going to be King was if he killed Duncan. “If it were done, when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly: if the assassination could tammel up the consequence, and catch, with his surcease, success; that but this blow might be the be-all and the end-all” (I.VII.1-5) Since Macbeth is actually thinking about killing Duncan, a King that he admires, it shows how desperate he has become for power and how he will do anything to achieve it. Lady Macbeth’s manner towards the plan to kill Duncan also supports the theory that power will corrupt. “I have given suck, and know how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums, and dash’d the brains out, had I sworn as you have done to this.” (I.VII.54-58) The idea of power has gone to Lady Macbeth’s head and now she says that she is willing to do anything in order to get herself that crown. This is a great example of how the desire for power can cause people to do evil deeds. An...
Macbeth is a very gothic, persistent tale of a great general in the Scottish army who causes his own downfall by listening to the dark prophecies of the three witches and his wife, Lady Macbeth. Macbeth’s self-consciousness fails to play an important part in the murder of multiple kinsmen causing the death of his wife and his mental health. Macbeth is not necessarily a horrible leader; the problem with him is that his ambitions exceed his expectancies. Macbeth’s character has constantly evolved from the point he was introduced into the play. Initially he seems as an extremely humble person, but as he learns more about the prophecies, his hindsight fails to overlook the complications of his ambitions. Macbeth’s faith in the apparitions and the witches ultimately cause Macbeth’s downfall and the unnecessary death of his beloved kinsmen such as King Duncan and Banquo.
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lady Macbeth is one of the perfect examples of the total corruption power and ambition can cause. She starts out confident, sure of her ambition and how to gain it. She believed that by becoming a man, becoming what she thought was a creature who would stop at nothing to attain power and it's privileges, she could gain what she needed without being impeded by emotions such as remorse, or pity. She calls upon the witches to give her these things and so creates an interesting relationship with them despite never actually meeting them. Finally, however, Lady Macbeth appears not to be able to hold her cool and collected self together. She begins sleep-walking and it is here that we see her fear truly appear. She becomes corrupted not only in body and soul, but fully in the mind as well.
To become powerful, is to become corrupt, and The Tragedy of Macbeth is a prime example. In William Shakespeare's tragic tale, a young nobleman soon becomes corrupt when he is given the opportunity to become king. His need for power and safety drives him to corruption, ultimately killing off anyone who stands in his path: innocent or not. Throughout the play, many characters portray the impact power has on a relationship: Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, Banquo and Macbeth, Macduff and Macbeth and many more. While all these characters were affected by power in the play, Banquo and Macbeth's relationship best demonstrates the effect of power.
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’.
The satire Animal Farm by George Orwell expresses the idea of self-government through the animals. The animals play the role of humans, in this way using most, if not all, of the human characteristics.
Political ambition undermines man’s loyalty. In the play, Macbeth decides to kill his king because of his ambition for position. At the beginning of the play, he portrays himself as a noble person. He fights in the battle against Norway and proves his loyalty; however, as soon as the witches prophesize that Macbeth “shall be king hereafter'; (1.3.53), he is not longer trustworthy. Ambition for power starts creeping into his head. After Macbeth’s internal conflict over whether or not to kill Duncan, he decides to do it quickly (1.7.3) in order to hasten the predictions. He decides to kill the king because he wants to extend his power all over the country by becoming the new monarch. He desires to be more wealthy and respected by the nobility as well as by the common people. Becoming king represents the highest rang in the political pyramid. The act of murdering is the only way to make his dreams come true because Duncan’s fair and prosperous rule over Scotland experience the support of the whole population. As Malcom and Donalbain fly to England, he automatically takes possession of the throne. Macbeth displays political ambition first of all because of his wife. After she reads her husband’s letter about his meeting with the witches, she suggests for Macbeth to kill Duncan so she could be queen. At the beginning Macbeth hesitates to talk about such a thing and even lists the reason not to kill: he is his king, his uncle and his guest. Not completely sure about it and victim of his own desires for power he finally accepts Lady Macbeth’s plan for murdering the ruler of Scotland. This decision portrays Macbeth’s dirty morality and easily manageable personality.
The main theme of Macbeth-the destruction wrought when ambition goes unchecked by moral constraints-finds its most powerful expression in the play's two main characters. Macbeth is a courageous Scottish general who is not naturally inclined to commit evil deeds, yet he deeply desires power and advancement. He kills Duncan against his better judgment and afterward stews in guilt and paranoia. Toward the end of the play he descends into a kind of frantic, boastful madness. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, pursues her goals with greater determination, yet she is less capable of withstanding the repercussions of her immoral acts. One of Shakespeare's most forcefully drawn female characters, she spurs her husband mercilessly to kill Duncan and urges him to be strong in the murder's aftermath, but she is eventually driven to distraction by the effect of Macbeth's repeated bloodshed on her conscience. In each case, ambition helped, of course, by the malign prophecies of the witches is what drives the couple to ever more terrible atrocities. The problem, the play suggests, is that once one decides to use violence to further one?s quest for power, it is difficult to stop. There are always potential threats to the throne?Banquo, Fleance, Macduff?and it is always tempting to use violent means to dispose of them.