Comparison Of Macbeth 'And Gangster In The Huddle'

Human nature and evilness are closely examined together as there are many conflicting views regarding this subject. William Shakespeare, in his play Macbeth, and Paul Solotaroff, in his article “The Gangster in the Huddle,” have opposing ideas on evils in human nature, believing respectively that evil is something one is born with and evilness in a person comes from external corruption. In Macbeth, Macbeth is born evil through and through, unlike Aaron Hernandez in “The Gangster in the Huddle” who is corrupted by the evils around him. Macbeth is controlled by his fate, whereas the choices that Hernandez makes by his own free will determine how his life plays out. The play, Macbeth, tells the story of Macbeth’s disloyalty through his ambition

Macbeth and Banquo have been equally loyal to Duncan, yet before Duncan rewards Macbeth with the a title, Thane of Cawdor, the witches give Macbeth a prophecy that he “that shalt be king hereafter!”(Shakespeare, 6). Similarly, Aaron and DJ Hernandez were equally devoted to their father, Dennis, but Aaron, built stronger and larger, is the “apogee of the family genetics” (Solotaroff, 7). William Shakespeare uses Banquo as a foil to Macbeth to show Macbeth’s impulsiveness to be evil as Banquo is able to “hold” (Shakespeare, 28) and restrain himself; equivalently, Solotaroff uses DJ as a foil to Aaron, where DJ is able to be let go of his father’s death and become a football coach dissimilar to how Aaron is corrupted by it. The foil highlights Macbeth’s internal evil and Aaron’s transformation to becoming evil. Aaron’s decisions and reactions to what life throws at him are what make him evil as opposed to Macbeth’s impulsiveness and his mind “full of scorpions” (39), which proves that Macbeth is inherently evil because of the atrocious thoughts he has. When Dennis Hernandez died both of his sons were distraught, but this affected Aaron more as he began using dangerous drugs and joined a gang, contrasting to how Macbeth does not have an event that changes his course, he just becomes increasingly evil, which points towards Macbeth being born inherently evil. Although both Macbeth and Aaron have a foil to show that they have evil inside of them, the main difference between them is that Macbeth was born with evil already inside of him as he is “sick at heart” (73) and Hernandez changed from a “happy- go lucky … kid brother” (Solotaroff, 9) into a ““violent dangerous kid who was violent to all” (2). Aaron let external circumstances, ie. his father dying, change his life in contrast to this, Macbeth became more visibly evil after his fate was exposed to him,