The nature of politics has often been described with words such as “greed” and “dishonesty” making it a theme found in numerous literary works including George Orwell's Animal Farm and William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Animal Farm tells the story of Napoleon, a pig, his subsequent rise to power as the leader of Animal Farm and the corrupt techniques he undertakes to ensure this. Similarly, Macbeth is a play about a Scottish nobleman named Macbeth and the savage methods he uses to satisfy his obsession of becoming the King of Scotland. Animal Farm and Macbeth both demonstrate the corruptive desire found in politics and offer insight into this occurrence in relationship to real-life political leaders. Animal Farm and Macbeth are similar as the …show more content…
Before being informed of his new title, he meets three witches who predict that he will become the Thane of Cawdor and the future King of Scotland. When he is told of his new title, it fulfils half of the prophecy which makes him believe that the witches have spoken the truth about his kingship. Although he is now Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth wants more authority and starts demonstrating an intense desire to become king, which is shown by how he comes up with possible ways he can achieve it. He asks himself, “why do I yield to that suggestion” which refers to his thoughts of killing Duncan and taking his crown (1.3.138). Nevertheless, Macbeth becomes king by killing Duncan and taking his crown although he is overwhelmed with paranoia that someone is going to take his throne. He declares, “To be thus is nothing / But to be safely thus” (3.1.50-51). For him, being the king is nothing until it is confirmed that no one will ever attempt to overthrow him. Macbeth's “fears is Banquo” because the witches had prophesized that Banquo's descendants would take the crown from him (3.1.51). To settle his paranoia, he orders the murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. However, Fleance is able to escape and survives, which causes Macbeth to still be fearful. When he visits the witches again, they tell him, “Beware Macduff. / Beware the thane of Fife” (4.1.71-72). To safeguard against Macduff's children taking the throne, he orders the murderers to kill Lady Macduff and their children. Macbeth's desire for power is comparable to Napoleon's however their actions are both representations of the corruption and greed present in the exploits of real-life political
Macbeth’s unrestrained ambition to gain power turned him into someone completely different from who he was originally. When the play begins and Macbeth is introduced, he is labeled as brave, honorable, moral, and kind. He is such a well-versed person that his wife fears his nature is too kind for the harsh world, speaking of him with words of, “Yet I do fear thy nature; It is too full o’th’ milk of human kindness…” (1.5.16-17). He makes his first appearance to the audience just after arriving from battle, and his behavior on the field is described by, “For brave Macbeth—well he deserves that name—…” (1.2.16). Macbeth is a man that many admire, even King Duncan himself, who shortly thereafter names Macbeth Thane of Cawdor. Following his new label, Macbeth, with the help of three witches’ prophesies suggesting he will become king, notices the power that comes with such a title. Kenneth Deighton describes Macbeth’s behavior with, “When he is informed that Duncan had made him Thane of Cawdor, he at once gives way to the temptation suggested by the words of the witches, and allows his ambitious thoughts to
up being driven mad by the guilt and she ends up taking her own life
Macbeth is of a brave and capable warrior initially the first time that we see him. However, once we see Macbeth and the three witches together, we begin to realize that his physical courage is joined by a consuming mind boggling ambition and a tendency to self-doubt. The crusade’s mission is to place the rightful king, Malcolm, on the throne, but Macduff also desires vengeance for Macbeth’s murder of Macduff’s wife and young son. Macbeth is easily tempted into murder to fulfill his ambitions to the throne. Once he commits his first crime and is crowned King of Scotland. When Macduff finds out that Macbeth killed Duncan he plans to kill Macbeth and take his head to Malcolm. Banquo helped Duncan to claim victory over Norway and to become the Thane of Cawdor. They all are loyal to Duncan at some point, although Macduff and Banquo are doing the right things for Duncan, Macbeth is thinking of himself and is doing things so he will be the new King of Scotland. Macbeth is the play’s villain because he is betraying Duncan and trying to hide everything so he will be king.
Macbeth's feels that his destiny is to become King and rule with all the power that goes with kingship. The three witches on his way back to the kingdom, prophesied that he would rise to kingship. They said "All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis" (I, 3, 48), and then as the thane of Cawdor "All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor" (I, 3, 49). At this point in the play Macbeth had just become thane of Glamis, and the thane of Cawdor is still alive. Then, the witches greeted Macbeth as the King of Scotland saying "All hail, Macbeth! That shalt be King hereafter" (I, 3, 50). This is the point in the tragedy where Macbeth starts to think as a villain. If the witches had never greeted him as King on Scotland, then he would probably never have contemplated killing Duncan in the first place. At first, he believes that he will need to kill King Duncan. Though at the end of Act 1, Scene 3, he thinks that perhaps he doesn't need to do anything to become the king saying "If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir.", showing he is a man of honor and morals. Then, Lady Macbeth hears of the prophecy in his letters and decides immediately for him that King Duncan must die, showing Macbeth's doubt. An
In Macbeth’s soliloquy in Scene 1, his thoughts and motives are exposed to the audience. The quote, “To be thus is nothing,/But to be safely thus,” (Shakespeare, 85) is representative of his inner thoughts. Although, he has already become king, he is wary of what is to come. He cannot enjoy being king because he feels as if he won’t be safe until he makes sure to ruin Banquo’s prophecy. He believes that killing Banquo will solve this problem. He reasons with himself by explaining that Banquo has always tried to steal the glory away from him. This is significant since it shows that in order to ease his conscience Macbeth excuses his plans to kill Banquo as just and fair under the circumstances. At this point,
After everyone has found out that the king is dead Banquo suspects Macbeth of doing something to make the witches predictions that they ways saying to become true. At that time Macbeth is king so he turns on his best friend Banquo and has him and all of his family including Fleance killed because he was the only person there when the predictions of Macbeth becoming king and also the witches said that Banquos son Fleance would become king too. So this shows that that Macbeth is getting over protective of his crown to the throne so he will do anything to stop people becoming king. So he will kill he’s best friend and his family only because the three withes said that predictions of Macbeth becoming king. So Macbeth is going into a downward spiral towards great darkness and becoming ever more evil from every action he makes and does to protect the crown.
In the first act, Macbeth met the witches whose prophecies claimed Macbeth would be made thane of Cawdor and eventually King of Scotland. At the same time, they claimed Banquo, who was with Macbeth, would be the father of kings. Shortly after, Macbeth and Banquo were greeted by two noblemen who announced that King Duncan had appointed Macbeth the new thane of Cawdor for his brave actions. Macbeth became consumed with the witches’ premonitions. Their vision for the future coupled with his ambition drove Macbeth to make choices that ultimately destroyed him. With significant influence from Lady Macbeth, he decided to take action and murder King Duncan. As part of their plan, they get the King’s attendants drunk so they’d black out then they could blame them for the murder. Macbeth ends up killing them the next morning when Duncan’s murder is discovered, pretending he is enraged by their crime. When Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo, he decides to visit the witches again. More prophecies are cited including that Macbeth must beware of Macduff. When Macbeth learns Macduff fled to England to meet up with Malcolm, King Duncan’s son, he orders Macduff’s wife and children killed to tame his anxieties. This ultimately led to his demise as Macduff sought revenge and ends up killing Macbeth in battle. This choice of blood and battle to feed his ambitions of
Macbeth and Animal Farm are both classic pieces of literature that have been studied across numerous of generations. Macbeth was written by William Shakespeare back in the early 17th century as a play to entertain various members of English royalty. Over three hundred years later, in 1945, George Orwell published Animal Farm with the purpose to criticise the Soviet Union. Macbeth tells the story of Lord Macbeth, the savage methods he used to reach the throne and be crowned the King of Scotland as well as his subsequent rule as a tyrant. Animal Farm is about a pig named Napoleon, his violent rise to power as leader of Animal Farm and his progression into a corrupt,
Macbeth and animal farm share a very similar theme but each has their own distinct setting, language and enhancement of scenes. In Animal farm the idea of power corrupts is enhanced through languages techniques such as imagery and alliteration. These techniques are used to give detail and information, evoking the reader’s imagination. Whereas, in Macbeth the scenes are enhanced through cinematic devices: editing, zooms, types of shots, lighting and etc. the setting in both text are also different, the animal farm the story takes place on a farm in England. This farm becomes a dystopian setting after Napoleon gains more and more power. In Kurzel’s Macbeth the story takes place in Scotland in medieval times, where wars, castles still existed.
Once Macbeth possessed the power of being Thane of Cawdor he began to exhibit more greed. He has just been given such a huge responsibility and once he was given new power, he craved more; especially when he stumbled upon the witches. He liked the power that he had and wanted to gain more, no matter what he has to do to get it. Macbeth had an encounter with the three witches and they had told him that he will become the next king. Although the witches did say this it did not mean that it was certain, it was just a possibility. But when Macbeth realized the opportunity for power he knew he wanted to become the king. This passage was in part of the letter that Macbeth wrote to Lady Macbeth: “Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it came missives from the King, who all-hailed me ‘Thane of Cawdor,’ by which title, before, these Weird Sisters saluted me and referred me to the coming on of time with ‘Hail, king that shalt be’” (1.5.6-10). . It seems as if the power and greed now had full control over him, he is doing things that he wouldn’t do when he did not have all this power. This is the first time that we see this side of Macbeth, the side of him that is greedy for power and is willing to kill the king to do so. In the beginning of the play the thought of being Thane of Cawdor never even crossed his mind, and by no means being
Despite the manipulation from Lady Macbeth, Macbeth is the one who ultimately makes the decision to murder King Duncan in order to become king. When Macbeth is given the title of Thane of Cawdor and the witches’ prophecies come to him, the thoughts of murdering King Duncan to become King emerge in Macbeth’s mind. Macbeth has mixed-feelings about the prophecies and asks himself, “Why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair, and make my seated heart knock at my ribs, against the use of nature? Present fears are less than horrible imaginings: my thought, whose murder yet is
In the play, Macbeth is fighting for the king. On his way back from the battlefield he and his companion, Banquo, encounter three witches with a prophecy. The prophecy tells that Macbeth will be thane of Glamis, thane of Cawdor, and king. Macbeth and his wife are having the king king and other people over and while everyone is asleep Macbeth kills the king as he and his wife discussed and blamed it on servants. After Macbeth becomes the king, he does everything in his power to ensure that he stays king, including murdering Banquo and killing Macduff’s family. At the end of the play Macbeth’s self-confidence and ambition leads to him being killed by Macduff.
Macbeth has been shown to been drawn into what the witches say and becomes independent on their theorys, the quote above is used to persway Macbeth to have think he is he going to become king. Macbeth becomes consumed with doing whatever it takes to keep his place in line for the grown. Macbeths began to become out of control and he starting to become naïve with his actions by thinking Macduff posted a threat to his chances of the grown. Macbeth sends out people to kill Macduff and his family yet by doing so he had ruined his own power which he had gained and
In the beginning of the play, the witches make three prophecies. First, that Macbeth will become the Thane of Cawdor. The second part of the prophecy is that Macbeth will become King. The third prophecy being that Banquo will be father to future kings. When Macbeth first hears the prophecy, Duncan holds the position as king. King duncan is also a very loved king by his people. Macbeth and Duncan even have a good relationship. Macbeth is Duncan’s greatest war hero and because of Macbeth’s great success in battle, Duncan rewards him by promoting him to the position of Thane of Cawdor. With this promotion, Macbeth realizes that the witches first prophecy was true. With this realization, Macbeth’s head begins to fill with thoughts of killing King Duncan to speed up the process so that he can become king. When he tells his wife of the prophecies and his promotion, she becomes extremely
Lady Macbeth brings out Macbeth’s tragic flaw when she proposes the idea of killing King Duncan and he states, “I have no spur . . . but only vaulting ambition” (1.7.25-27). Once King Duncan has been murdered, this flaw is revealed because his actions reflect on his ambition to stay king. Macbeth begins by planning on killing Banquo and his son because the witches told Banquo “thou shalt get kings, thought thou be none” (1.3.68). Macbeth must kill Banquo and his son, so no one will have the opportunity to take the crown away from him. When Macbeth sends murderers to kill them, Fleance can get away while Banquo is brutally attacked; however, luckily for Macbeth, Fleance is never heard from again. When Macbeth goes to visit the witches again and the first apparition tells him to “beware Macduff” (4.1.71-72), he then realizes he must eliminate any other obstacle that could potentially keep him from staying king. He says he will “give to th’edge o’th’sword his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls” (4.1.150-151) just to ensure his throne. By doing these horrible deeds, Macbeth proves he is willing to go above and beyond to remain king until his