Theme Of Greed In Macbeth

Moreover, a tragic hero is one who has a hamartia, a tragic flaw that eventually results in the downfall of the hero. In the case of both Macbeth and Mark Zuckerberg, this tragic flaw rears its ugly head in the form of one of the seven sins -- greed. For both these characters their greed is deeply ingrained into their lives and can evidently be seen triggering the rising action in both storylines. In the Shakespearean play, Macbeth’s greed can be seen after his first encounter with the weird sisters. After the three witches greet him with “...thane of Glamis... / ... thane of Cawdor… / ...[and he] that shalt be king hereafter!” (Act I, Scene iii, 49-51), Macbeth goes off to an aside in which the audience is privy to his innermost thoughts

and feelings. In this particular aside, Macbeth mutters, “Glamis, and thane of Cawdor: / The greatest is behind...” (Act I, scene iii, 16-17), making it apparent that Macbeth is truly taken with the prospect of having more money and fame.

It is this greed, paired with his ambition nature and pride that ultimately allows Macbeth to be easily persuaded into killing Duncan. In The Social Network however, Mark’s greed does not simply manifest itself in the need for more wealth. Instead, his greed can be seen in his desire to stand out in a crowd, in other words, Mark Zuckerberg is greedy for attention. This desire is best seen in the beginning of the movie when Mark asks Erica -- his girlfriend at the time how he can “... distinguish [himself] in a population of people who all got 1600’s on their SATs?” (The Social Network). This obsession that Mark has to distinguish himself from others, at whatever cost, is what pushes him to ‘invent’ The Facebook, and causes him to be more susceptible to the manipulation of Sean Parker. Yet, despite one’s hamartia and the horrible acts that one commits, the audience still manages hold some faith in the protagonist, hoping that he can be redeemed by one of his finer qualities -- that is, until one commits an act so vile and unforgivable that he can no longer return to the person that he was at the

start.
The point of no return for a tragic hero is often times referred to the crisis in the plotline and it also indicates the beginning of the protagonist’s tragic downfall.

As both stories progress, the protagonists rise to power in any way that they see fit. In their rise, both Macbeth and Mark Zuckerberg end up hurting a lot of individuals, but it is not until they betray their best friends that the audience truly loses faith in the heros. In Macbeth, despite Macbeth killing Duncan the audience still held out some hope for redemption as he felt both remorse and guilt after committing the heinous act. This guilt that Macbeth felt proved that he may be a murderer, but he still had some humanity left in him. In addition, the fact that Macbeth did not plan the murder himself and even at one point refused to go through with the act, once again solidified that notion that he was not a lost cause -- he was simply an individual that made a grave mistake. However, when it came time for Banquo’s murder, all that hope quickly went down the drain. Not only does Macbeth carefully orchestrate the whole ordeal, he manipulates others to do his bidding and shows absolutely no remorse while ordering the death of his best friend. The fact that Macbeth was able to (indirectly) kill his best friend in cold-blood simply because the

weird sisters “... hail’d [Banquo] father to a line of kings” (Act III, Scene i, 60) shows that Macbeth is no longer the brave warrior he was, but instead is a shell of a man who is willing to kill another out of pure jealousy. It is at this point that the audience realizes how much Macbeth has fallen from grace and watch regrettably as he plummets to his untimely death. This fall from grace can also be seen in The Social Network. Unlike in Macbeth, the tragic hero does not orchestrate the death of his best friend, however, the way in which Mark betrays Eduardo is just as cruel -- if not worse. Throughout the movie Mark continuously uses Eduardo for his personal gains, at first it was for Eduardo’s intelligence so that he could actually create the programming for both FaceMash and The Facebook, but later on, Mark used Eduardo purely for his wealth so that Mark could keep Facebook running. This is evident in all of Mark’s interactions with Eduardo. Not once do the two of them have an actual heartfelt conversation, and even when Eduardo tries to voice his concerns or opinions Mark is quick to either shut the conversation down, or simply ignores Eduardo. Mark’s treatment of Eduardo gets progressively worse as the movie continues, and in the rare times that Mark actually initiates a conversation, he almost always begins with asking for more money. An example of this can be seen when Mark drags Eduardo outside during a Hawaiian themed party to simply tell him that “[they’re] going to need more start-up cash to rent the servers and get [The Facebook] online.” (The Social Network). This however is not Mark’s greatest act of betrayal. The point at which Mark can no longer be redeemed is when he dilutes Eduardo’s shares to nothing more than “0.03 percent” (The Social Network). The fact that Mark was okay with diluting Eduardo’s shares after everything he has done for the company while Sean -- whose biggest contribution was changing the name from The Facebook to simply Facebook -- still had seven percent of the shares is an unforgivable sin and is the ultimate betrayal of friendship.