Comparing Characters In Macbeth And The Social Network

Macbeth is a play that is written by William Shakespeare in 1606 and the main goal is to make the audience members or readers think that excessive ambition will have horrible consequences in the end. Macbeth receives prophecies from multiple people, his wife tries to make him something that he is not, by getting him to kill anyone that she wants him to. Over the course of the book the main character Macbeth drastically changes from being brave to being cowardly, he also changes from being loving to being greedy, and last he changes from being very trustworthy to being very untrustworthy.

Macbeth is a story of lust, power, tragedy, and violent disloyalty. The anxious imagination and symbolism of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth produces horrifying relief. The story is poetically gory but amusingly repetitive, and truly captures the dark side of spirituality. Any rendition of the play Macbeth, forms dynamic and disturbing themes within humanity.

It is fascinating that Macbeth is referred to as a “wicked thing” then calling him by his name or by his status.

About four hundred years have passed since William Shakespeare composed his last play. However his writing, plots and characters are as alive today as they were when the plays were initially produced throughout the late sixteenth and mid seventeenth centuries. Despite the fact that Shakespearian plays are over centuries old, the themes and morals portrayed are still relevant in our society, as they are used in media today, betrayal being the main focus of this essay. In life all relationships are formed on the basis of trust, making it the foundation for all friendships and partnerships. Although it may be one of the most basic instincts we may possess as human beings, we still manage to trust the wrong people, or get taken advantage of by others, which usually results in physical or emotional pain, sadness, anger, and ultimately betrayal. Many similarities can be drawn between Macbeth, a play written by Shakespeare in 1606, and The Social Network (2003), directed by David Fincher. Macbeth is a tragedy about a loyal and once trusted noble of Scotland who, after some influence, becomes ambitious and plans the murder of the king, which involves gaining trust in some, and deceiving others. After doing so and claiming the throne, he faces the wrath of external forces, along with his internal struggles that lead him to his ultimate fate. The Social Network gives an insight on the formation and revolution of communication, Facebook

Thesis: Through the brilliant work of Shakespeare in Macbeth and the amazing effort put in by Aaron Sorkin in The Social Network, it is evident that these pieces of work show similarities between their characters.

Macbeth is one of the many plays written by William Shakespear. It is considered as one of his greatest works for it's ever engaging story, Macbeth is also the most filmed/preformed of all of Shakespears' plays .‘Macbeth’ is set to be in Scotland; revolving around the main character, Macbeth. Macbeth's ambition leads him to commit murder after murder ; in order to be King.He first murders the former king, Duncan, his friend Banquo and later the family of the nobleman, Macduff.

Macbeth’s character has developed significantly up to the second act. We are first introduced to Macbeth character in a way that we view him as powerful and Nobel. We get this idea from the quote “oh valiant cousin, worthy gentleman” which is what he is described as by Duncan, who at the time is the king. From this quote Macbeth is portrayed as a loyal and heroic figure who has done much for many, however as we know this was not a smart move for Duncan to make as it makes him come across and weak and seems like Duncan should be giving Macbeth a higher title, which is what the witches had told him before. In addition, this idea of the king complementing Macbeth about all the good that he has done seems to trigger the belief that Macbeth has the ability to be king, even in the eyes of Duncan who is so ecstatic what he has done for the county.

You can compare and contrast items you come across in life. Movies, stories, and even people can be compared. The story "The Most Dangerous Game", which is written by Richard Connell, and the movie High Noon, which is written by Carl Foreman, can be compared and contrasted in multiple ways. High Noon is a movie about a sheriff being hunted down by a murderer that he sent to jail. He was released and plans to hold up his promise of coming back to kill the sheriff.

In the play “Macbeth” the author furthers the ideas of ambition, manhood and violence throughout the play using a gender lens, mainly for masculinity in men. In the play “Macbeth” ambition plays a big role in the man characters life; Macbeth. In Act 1 scene 3, lines 125-129, “And oftentimes, to win us to our harm; The instruments of darkness tell us truth.” (Shakespeare 1.3.125-129). This quote stated by Banquo foreshadows Macbeth further into the play. Macbeth ends up killing King Duncan because he wants to be in power over the kingdom. When Banquo questions Macbeth about the killing of King Duncan, Macbeth’s ambition to kill Banquo skyrocketed. Macbeth didn’t want anybody to think or know that he ended up killing King Duncan for power. This started a cycle of death for Macbeth’s ambition to kill to stay in power. This example of ambition from “Macbeth” has a very similar motif from the movie called “The Mask You Live In”. In the movie, George Orwell states, “He wears a mask and his face grows to fit it.” The idea of the mask he wear fits his face helps us further the reason for men’s ambitions. Men’s ambitions are driven by power and dominance over people and prized possessions. For men to be able to gain power, they need to prove how masculine they are to society. In doing so they are dehumanizing their biological thoughts and feelings and turning them into artificial ones in order to be seen more powerful or dominate to the public.

Throughout the book, as Macbeth continues to progress in power, it seems as though his morals fade away while dark and destructive ideas spread through him quickly. While Macbeth contemplates his first evil deed of killing Duncan, he often talk’s himself into doing it, or gets outside persuasion to gain the courage that he is lacking. After talking to Lady Macbeth about how he has to murder Duncan, he exclaims, “I am settled and bend up / Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. / Away and mock the time with the fairest show. / False face must hide what the false heart doth / know” (1.7.92-96). Later in the novel we learn that Macbeth thinks that Banquo has become a threat to his power. Macbeth then takes this problem into his own hands and assigns murderers to kill Banquo. Macbeth then says, “So is he mine; and in such bloody distance / That every minute of his being thrusts/ Against my nearest of life. And though I could / With barefaced power sweep him from my sight/ And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not, / For certain friends that are both his and mine, / Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall who I myself struck down. And thence it is, that I to your assistance do make love, masking the business from the common eye for sundry weighty reasons” (3.1.132-142). Macbeth is saying that if he absolutely has to do this terrible deed he will, it doesn’t mean he wants to, but he is going to do it anyways. Macbeth uses the motif of appearance versus reality when he

In Act 1 scene 4 page 11, Macbeth said, “Prince of Cumberland! That a step on which I must fall down, or else o’erleap.” This explains how he must become better than Malcolm because he was jealous of his new position as Prince of Cumberland.

The character arcs of Shakespeare’s Macbeth were written over four centuries ago, yet its themes and morals presented in the 1600’s still carry weight in the second millennium. To scholars of his work, Shakespeare’s infamous tragedy is considered something of a social commentary upon the political and philosophical practices of the Jacobean period when it was written. One of the many themes addressed in the play is how the combined forces of unchecked power and ambition can lead to an immoral shift in a person’s mentality. Macbeth is the prime example of this theme all throughout the play from the very first mentioning of his character. Although the character of Macbeth is influenced by a variety of differing personalities and entities in the play, he carries the ultimate control over his own behavior and his actions, and as a result Macbeth controls the central conflict of the story. The

“Macbeth” Written by: William Shakespeare and “The Social Network” written by: Aaron Sorkin both explores gender roles in very different ways. One shows females to be powerful and controlling but later on shows that is too good to be true, while the other portrays them as sex objects, unsuccessful and emotional.

The two films of Macbeth by Stewart and Kurzel both had the same outlook to portray William shakespeare's tragic play. Although each had taken different means to showcase this information. The differences can be noticed through costumes/props, special effects and script usage. Through this criterion, the Kurzel version stands out more because of it’s traditional theme approach to content. During act 1 scene 3 Macbeth and Banquo are announced their prophecies by the three witches, Kurzel takes a more traditional approach versus Stewart. The first thing that was quite evident, was the props and costumes. In the Kurzel version the attire of the soldiers and the witches scary appeal was matched with that stereotypical viewpoint of what barbaric

Duncan is the most unlikely character to be killed because of his personality, but his title as King of Scotland, causes for Macbeth to loathe Duncan. In the play there is very little interaction between Macbeth and Duncan, showing the little time in which Macbeth gets more power. Prior to the witches’ prophecies Macbeth is loyal to Duncan, and would never imagine killing him. After the one of the witches’ prophecies comes to be true, the thought of killing Duncan, Macbeth "yield[s] to that suggestion / whose horrid image doth unfix my hair / and make my seated heart knock at my ribs" (1.3.146-148). Partly because of Lady Macbeth’s suggestion his "vaulting ambition" is starting to take over, and he begins to take into consideration killing