Abuse Of Power In Macbeth

Plato, a greek philosopher, once said, “The measure of a man is what he does with power” (Brainyquote 1). In other words, when giving someone power, their true character is revealed. For instance, in William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, some character’s genuine personalities were unveiled once obtaining high authority over others. In the drama with Macbeth, he portrays both coercive power and referent power throughout the written work, as defined in, “French and Raven’s Five Forms of Power.”

Thesis statement: Power has the ability to corrupt someone but I believe it depends on the strength of the person to decide if it will overtake them or not.

With Lady Macbeth and Macbeth completing the murder, the people of Scottland need a new king and with the kings sons gone there was only one other person. Macbeth was finally king and had gotten the power he wanted. Corruption of power doesn’t stop once you have done what was needed to get there. Once someone is corrupted they will most likely always be that way. For Macbeth he was corrupt of power till the day he died. As the play goes on, Macbeth does not stop after he acheived the title as king, he began to start killing the people who posed a threat towards him losing the crown. For example, in act 3 it says, “ And with him- To leave no rubs nor botches in the work- Fleance, his son, that keeps him company, Whose absence is no less material to me Than is his father’s, must embrace the fate Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart. I’ll come to you anon” (3.1.138-144). Macbeth knows that the prophecies the witches told him said that Banquos sons will become king and Macbeth feels threatened. Macbeth sends murders to kill Banquo and his son so they won’t be on the way. Power that corrupts even the nicest people, can change them into something ruthless and can make you kill some of the people you are closest too. Being corrupt with power wil also bring alomg guilt and behavioral changes. For

Throughout reading the play, Macbeth changes a lot from being a man of loyalty and honesty, to a man of whom is power hungry and greedy. This shows how the more power you receive the more power you want; which in many cases, such as this one leads to destruction. Many of the choices that Macbeth made were influenced by the power that he had, and this power began to take over him. This then lead to greed and destruction of not only others, but himself as well.

In addition, Lady Macbeth’s power over Macbeth, enables her to commit treason. Lady Macbeth is very persistent in her husband to commit the murder of the king. Macbeth demonstrates this when he tells his wife "We will proceed no further in this business" (1.7.29). Macbeth wants to celebrate the honors the king has granted him, and feels there is no need to kill the king. His wife encourages him that the death of Duncan is the right decision, and she even doubts his character.

Macbeth is a story involving large quantities of action: magic, power, backstabbing, and murders. These actions in turn require an abundance of thoughtful plotting and planning. To accurately plan an event one must acquire knowledge to base actions upon, but most importantly, one must have power. Macbeth illustrates how power of any type may sometimes lead to the corruption of the individual.

Ambition, while necessary in the lives of all beings, when “consumed” excessively, can result in the collapse of one's consciousness, as well as to those surrounding them. From the very beginning of each tale, it was destined that nothing could ever stand in the way of both Macbeth and Napoleon and their path to the throne. As evident as it may have seemed, the lengths they were willing to go to obtain power showed the ending ambition that both characters embodied. From early stages of Macbeth, the expression of how power can corrupt is most candid through his countless acts of treason. Within Macbeth, ambition is portrayed as a corrupting and indoctrinating force through the main concept of power. As Macbeth was pronounced the position of Thane of Cawdor, this did not suffice his desires for power. Rather, his ambition and drive to climb the hierarchy pushed him for the position as king, even if it meant committing unholy sins. This includes the mentioned killings of King Duncan, Banquo and the slaughtering of Macduff’s children and spouse. All these innocent lives lost for no costs, but Macbeth’s ambition to a greater power. While dissecting his murders, he ultimately killed King Duncan to gain excess power as king, killed Banquo out of insurance in preserving his position as king and killed MacDuff’s family to instill fear upon

The position of power Macbeth gained as King of Scotland was overruled by the actual power of greed, selfishness, and relentlessness to maintain the power resulted in Macbeth to commit murderous crimes and become his own adversary. Carolyn Asp stated, “As Macbeth accepts a false masculinity that simultaneously fosters the illusion of his godlike power and diminishes his total human development, he is alienated from the very society that inculcates the stereotype.” Macbeth became his own worst enemy when he tried to prove his manliness to his wife by killing Duncan. As a result, Macbeth begins a tragic fall where he lets the seduction of power to take over his conscience. All of Macbeth’s thoughts involved what he was going to do next to maintain power and it always had

“Can you go with us tonight?” Nicole asked. “The kids are asleep, and we’ll be home before their parents get back.”

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” (Lord Acton) At the beginning of William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, Macbeth is seen as a courageous solider who is loyal to the king, but is corrupted by the witches prophecies and his wife, Lady Macbeth’s ambition. The play is set in medieval Scotland at the fictional time of King Duncan. In the play Scotland wins a war against the Norwegians thanks to a loyal leader of the Scottish army, Macbeth, and his respected second man, Banquo.

Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin took power during the 20th century and unleashed their terror upon Germany, Italy, and Russia. Under these tyrannies, millions of innocent civilians were savagely slaughtered and the countries suffered like Scotland in Macbeth. In Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, the protagonist is a tyrant who throws his country, Scotland, into a bloody chaos. Through the play’s protagonist, Macbeth, Shakespeare conveys that unchecked power is unhealthy because it leads to the deterioration of Macbeth’s mind and destroys his public reputation.

In William Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Macbeth, there had to have been some kind of motive or power to influence the actions and murders that occurred throughout the scenes of the play. In this play, many people were lied to and convinced that the murders were caused from natural causes or by somebody else, leading all suspicion off Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, when in fact all of them were executed by the new king Macbeth himself. Throughout the whole play, I believe who holds the most power to influence the action of others is Macbeth himself, along with his Lady who was by his side through all of this ambitious journey. Macbeth holds the most power to influence the actions of others because he managed to convince everybody to look past all the murders that are happening and serve and cater him as new king without any suspicion or fingers pointed at him.

The extravagant King Louis XVI creates an absolute monarchy, but the French Revolution kills him with a guillotine. Napoleon invades one European country to the next with ease, but he faces defeat in the Battle of Waterloo. Adolf Hitler strives to create the perfect race in Europe with a strong German army and fascist ideals, but he loses the Second World War due to overconfidence and misleading advisors. The Soviet Union competes with America in nuclear weapons, space programs, and sphere of influence as a superpower, yet it topples down because of a stagnant economy and abuse of power. Macbeth, a valiant thane in Scotland, meets his disgrace through irrational characters. In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the three witches and Lady

Shakespeare spends an inordinate amount of time ruminating on basic questions surrounding power: how does one acquire it, can they keep it for any prolonged period of time, and is it inherently corrupting? After seeing all these questions answered primarily through the death of characters, it would not be unexpected for readers to believe that Shakespeare meant for the latent antagonist of his histories and tragedies to be power. Therefore, this essay will examine the performance of power in Macbeth to demonstrate that the model given to readers by Shakespeare for its acquisition is one that requires individuals to take on a highly performative and unsustainable nature. This performative nature is exemplified by the many acts and identities

In the world today, the Greed for power is everywhere. Whether it is just south of our border or halfway across the world. In Macbeth, the Macbeth's Greed for power causes them to commit horrific crimes. In the First Act of the play Macbeth and his friend Banquo, a Scottish nobleman are greeted by three witches who give them prophecies. After Macbeth hears them his hunger for power strengthens and he says “This supernatural soliciting / cannot be ill; … My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical / shakes so my single state of man that function( I,3,140-150). In this quotation Macbeth thinks about how he can fulfill the third prophecy. his first instinct is to murder whoever is in his way. Macbeth's greed to be king and rule all of Scotland is shown for the first time during this quotation. In act 1 scene 7, Lady Macbeth attempts to guilt Macbeth into committing crimes for her own benefit. Her Greed for power and become Queen becomes very obvious in this quotation “ that made you break