Why Shakespeare's Macbeth is Still Relevant Today

Macbeth is a tragedy play written by William Shakespeare. The play is about a power hungry who got pulled into the world of power and crime, eventually drove him to insanity, madness, and later death. Although this play is written in 1700s, it still attracts many audiences due to the themes and its relevance to today’s society. The main theme presence in Macbeth is thirst for power. There are many sub-themes such as dictatorial, corruption and sexism. Many of these concepts are still regularly used and are still controversial today. It is easily related to the modern society in terms of human and their instincts.

The main theme that is presented throughout the whole movie is power. There are many ways power and thirst of power can be seen from many different perspectives. Macbeth gets sucked into the world of power and wealth that he is ready to commit many murderous acts to defend his crown. He is ready to killed Macduff’s family, in order to get rid of the fact that there was a chance of him getting the throne. Although at the start of the movie, he is quite hesitant to commit any murderous act, but as the movie goes on, Macbeth gets paranoid and blinded by his own power that he chooses to go against morals. As also mentioned, it is said that the previous king also killed the prior king in order to gain the title. Conclusively, it is quite a contest for power and therefore conscience, friendship and trust are completely forgotten. In a more modern take, the world now still has dictatorial governments that are corrupted and is power hungry. When you have power, you are never safe. There are many murder cases and sudden death of important figures in politics or big companies and such. This could link back well with Macbeth in ...

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Shakespearian plays are intriguing not only to the audiences at the time, but also to the modern audience by the fact that they closely relate to society and the human nature and their instincts like their drive for power, going against their values of right and wrong. Once power and status are achieved, the urge to gain more power continues leading to corruption and many more criminal acts. Other themes, like sexism hasn’t gone away, the discrimination towards women are still there and these examples, along with those previously mentioned, are closely relatable and can be spot easily in the modern world, making the audience understand so well even if they is a difference of centuries.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William, and John Crowther. No Fear Shakespeare: Macbeth. ed. New York: Spark Publishing, 2013. Print.