Heart of Darkness versus MacBeth Essay

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.

     In Shakespeare’s classic tragedy of Macbeth the main character Macbeth is driven from his status as a well respected warrior and lord of not one, but two Scottish regions to a dishonest, unloyal murderer. Macbeth gets caught in a web of lies and vile acts of murder in which he brings about his own demise. His criminal actions lead up to his tragic ending of life. ‘ They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, But bearlike I must fight the course.’ His great ambition and gullibility of the witches predictions are two of the biggest factors of his downfall;however, Lady Macbeth was probably the biggest influence in the whole tragedy.

A.C. Bradley wrote that about Macbeth: “darkness, we may even say blackness, broods over this tragedy... all the scenes which at once recur to memory take place either at night or in some dark spot.” The Tragedy of Macbeth contains many instances where darkness is represented and portrayed whether it occurs at night or the actions. Many actions that were completed by Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and the prophecies told by the witches, all have corrupt intentions or outcomes.

Throughout the first two parts of Joseph Conrad's book, Heart of Darkness, the character Kurtz is built up to be this amazing and remarkable man. In the third book, however, we learn the truth about who Kurtz really is. Kurtz cries out in a whisper, "The horror! The horror!"(p. 86), and in only two words he manages to sum up the realization of all the horrors of his life during his time in the Congo.

The notorious Shakespearean play Macbeth illustrates a natural evil and greed for power present in the human race. Even in modern times, society relates to Macbeth as people are consistently striving for a higher rank and power. Sometimes, people are even prepared to get into difficult situations to achieve their goals, and this gives rise to conflicts. There are three main types of conflict present in the Macbeth play: man vs man, man vs nature, and man vs self.

"Macbeth" is a tragic play that was written by William Shakespeare in the early 1600’s. It revolved around the character Macbeth and his urge to become king of Scotland. Macbeth had to do anything possible to become the king including murder, lying, and deception. However, Macbeth committed these evil deeds due to some influential people in his life. Between Macbeth’s wife persuading him to do anything to become king and the witches prophesying over him causes Macbeth to try and bury the past and control the future.

‘Macbeth’ is a play in which a Lord and his Lady come into supreme power through acts of injustice and despicable inhumanities. In the play Macbeth there is no main focal theme that overrules the others; the play however has several underlying themes, namely there are important themes i.e. good and evil (like ying and yang), greed and power, guilt and conscience, fear, ambition – this leads to the murder of other people illustrating to the reader that even the most sane of people can result to character diminishing methods to get what they want. These particular themes are the most prominent and when closely looked at, it can help to understand characters and meanings behind the play. The theme of ambition is very important in this play,

Macbeth and Throne both have many similarities and differences. It is shown through, themes, characters, and the plot. I feel like they are similar because of the theme. The reason why is because both of them are evil. Macbeth and Washizu both kill people because they don’t want the people that they killed to be king. The characters are the same because they both have crazy wives, and the murder of the lord and king. The plot is similar because of how the aspect of the murders.

Macbeth is a tragedy of a Scottish general who dramatically “transforms” from being a noble and dutiful soldier to a ruthless butcher. This is a direct consequence of the supernatural world, his wife’s manipulation and persuasion, and Macbeth’s own ambition.

According to the classical view, tragedy should arouse feelings of pity and fear in the audience. Does Macbeth do this?

Macbeth’s good nature is increasingly defeated by one of his major flaws-ambition. His ambition and desire to become king leads

No one is one hundred percent good or bad, but everyone has a good and evil sides that can be controlled if the distinction between right and wrong is made. The uncontrolled ambition of Lady Macbeth that made her become evil and the deep regret that she had after the evil act was committed show that everyone has a good and an evil sides. Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, introduces three main areas on how someone’s character can vary between good and evil when ambition is not controlled by morality. These include strong desire will lead you to become evil, heavy conscience

Today was the day I so patiently had been waiting for, coronation day! As a commoner it was almost unheard of to be able to visit the castle amongst the royals. I walked up to the tall door and entered the grand dining hall. The dining hall was dark and cold sending a shiver up my spine. The sound of laughter and conversation bounced off the walls overpowering the room. That was when I saw him, Macbeth, our future King, accompanied by his wife. Macbeth looked even taller and wiser in person, he was the type of man anyone would want as their king. At least that was what I had thought.

To understand Shakespeare’s tragic play, Macbeth it is necessary to fully comprehend the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The differences between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are profound. Over the course of the play, Shakespeare skillfully changes the role of the two characters. Macbeth is frightened at the beginning then confident at the end while Lady Macbeth confident at the beginning and frightened at the end.

As Horatio puts it, “Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.” Hamlet (5.2 97-98). On the other hand, even though he dies in battle on the battle field, Macbeth isn’t able to die honorably, because of all the lives he has taken, purely for his own potential need. So says Macduff as he enters with Macbeth’s head. “Hail, King! for so thou art. Behold where stands Th’ usurper’s cursèd head. The time is free. I see thee compassed with thy kingdom’s pearl,” Macbeth (5.8 65-67)