ipl-logo

The Struggle For Power Is Insane In William Shakespeare's Macbeth

667 Words3 Pages

Walter White, in the TV show Breaking Bad, is driven crazy with his power. Walter White goes insane with a need for power, that in the end gets him killed. Just like in Breaking Bad, Macbeth is driven crazy with a need for power and ends up dying. A theme in Macbeth is that power makes people go crazy.
Macbeth is so corrupted by power that it drives his mind crazy as he begins to see things that are not real. The first time that Macbeth experiences these hallucinations is before he kills King Duncan. “Is this a dagger which I see before me / The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch / thee” (Macbeth 2.1.44-46). Macbeth is seeing a dagger that is not really there, the stress of whether or not to kill Duncan is driving Macbeth insane. He …show more content…

Lady Macbeth, his wife, also feels the effects of power driving her crazy. In the beginning of act five, Lady Macbeth begins to show that this need for power is having a very crazy effect on her, as she yells and washes her hands with bleach. “Out, damned spot, out, I say!” (Macbeth 5.1.37). Lady Macbeth needed so much power that she took part in the murder of King Duncan, but it ends up just making her go crazy and see things that are not really there. This same original need for power drives Lady Macbeth crazy enough to kill herself. “Who, as ‘tis thought, by self and violent hands, / took off her life” (Macbeth 5.8.83-84). Lady Macbeth ended up taking her own life, losing everything that she worked so hard to get, all because she needed more power. Power corrupted Lady Macbeth and ruined her life to the point of no return.
In Macbeth by Shakespeare, people are driven crazy by power. Power makes Macbeth go crazy when he kills King Duncan and Banquo and also when he sees things that aren 't really there such as the dagger and Banquo’s ghost. Lady Macbeth is also driven crazy by power when she goes insane and kills herself. Just like in Breaking Bad, having an abundance of power is not always the best thing for

Show More
Related
651 Words | 3 Pages

The play entitled Macbeth by William Shakespeare portrays Macbeth, a loyal and brave thane to the king. When a prophecy reveals he will become king, Macbeth is overcome with ambition and greed. Convinced of this prophecy and the encouragement from his wife, he is able to kill the king and take the throne. Although Macbeth was able to obtain the throne, he was was overwhelmed by power and guilt leading to internal conflict, which suggests that success is not desirable through cheating and corruption and ultimately cost more than its actually worth, Macbeth`s reckless pursuit of killing and becoming the king is representative of the power he has and what he is able to do with the power he's gained; therefore. His relentless ambition for king reveals the guilt behind power.

Read More
785 Words | 4 Pages

This is seen in Act 2 when Macbeth is on his way to kill Duncan. “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee” (II.I.42-43). In this quote Macbeth was overwhelmed with the thought of killing Duncan. The thought of committing such a evil crime is enough to make him see hallucinations.

Read More
828 Words | 4 Pages

Many people make big mistakes while under bad influence in power. Some become corrupt, some cave into the pressure, and some just straight up ignore their problems and run away. Macbeth on one hand caved under pressure and killed a man's family in fear of losing the throne and on the other hand completely corrupted himself to become king. People are probably wondering what possibly could have caused him to go mad. The answer is clear.

Read More
1516 Words | 7 Pages

Greed for power has always been evil and even made a saint turn into a demon. As the quote goes “All power tends to corrupt and an absolute power corrupts absolutely” (unquote), which is true not only in the fictitious stories but also in real life and Shakespeare, th9e greatest writer ever known, has always been in habit of making fictitious character come alive and Macbeth is no exception to the rule. The character of Macbeth has two sides, one which is wholesome while other been dubious. He symbolized great ambition but went overboard and in the process not only became corrupt but also became a killer. Macbeth reflects great strength but within he has his own weakness and thus good over took evil resulting in its downfall and finally his own death.

Read More
496 Words | 2 Pages

In the play Macbeth by Shakespeare, the main character Macbeth believes he will be king. The power he thinks he will have causes him to kill the people who stand in his way Of fulfilling his destiny. The Spiderman quote “With power comes great responsibility,” relates to the theme of Shakespeare's play Macbeth. Macbeth and the actor Lindsay Lohan, share the trait that people with power often abuse it, corruption is frequently the result of responsibility to great for one person.

Read More
541 Words | 3 Pages

When we are first presented with the character of Macbeth he is pictured as a noble and loyal warrior. However, once his future is presented to him by the witches saying that he, Macbeth, is to become the next great King of Scotland, he begins to lose focus and makes the wrong decisions. Macbeth begins to only make choices that will benefit only himself and to gain power. Becoming almost unrecognizable to the person he once was. After confronting his wife, Lady Macbeth, he isn't the only one with a lust for power.

Read More
1113 Words | 5 Pages

Greed for power leads corrupt leaders to pursue power through ruthless and violent ways, putting their countries in an unstable state. Macbeth commits murders and violent acts to earn his absolute power, but his corrupt mindset of yearning power leads to instability in the Scotland. After hearing from the witches, Macbeth admits that, “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical/ Shakes so my single state of man/ That function is smother'd in surmise /and nothing is but what is not.”

Read More
975 Words | 4 Pages

Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, is a play that mainly focuses on one common theme of insanity. Macbeth gradually becomes plagued by intense guilt as his desire for power drives him to attain his goals by any means necessary, including committing murder. He kills Duncan in cold blood in order to become King, has Banquo killed by three murderers because he wishes to maintain his position as King, and finally, he has Macduff’s family slaughtered. Each of these occurrences takes place because of Macbeth’s will to be King, or they are a result of his guilt. Nonetheless, they are all completed of his free will, which is what causes him to deteriorate mentally.

Read More
931 Words | 4 Pages

William Shakespeare, playwright of Macbeth, shows the importance that power and corruption can hold on a person’s humanity. In order to prove the true effect of personal gains, he uses the main character, Macbeth, to show how evil people are willing to become. Personal power has the ability to be essential to greatness, but at the same time is able to destroy a person’s true nature. Believe it or not, Macbeth once was a man of honor. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth was loyal to King Duncan, a strong military leader, and a respected husband.

Read More
1323 Words | 6 Pages

As humans, the desire to want control or influence is natural. However, some people may go to greater extremes than others to obtain this power. For instance, in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth was characterized as a good man, well renowned for winning a battle. His wife, on the contrary, Lady Macbeth, has a strong urge to obtain power and she is willing to do anything to acquire it. She implemented the thought of destroying everyone who stood in the way along the path to reach royalty in Macbeth’s mind by making him feel like he as though he is less of a man if he decided not to.

Read More
880 Words | 4 Pages

The mention of power reveals how quickly people become corrupted as their selfish greed overpowers them. It can be seen that excessive selfishness in individual goals to become superior over others negatively impacts the way a person acts. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the protagonist who was once a loyal kinsman to the king of Scotland betrays his king under the influence of greed and gradually becomes an unmerciful leader. The character Macbeth is a perfect example of how quickly people change due to greed for power.

Read More
729 Words | 3 Pages

It is human nature to want power, to be at the top of the pyramid, to be king/queen, but that comes at a price as shown in Macbeth. In the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth will do anything to have absolute power and nothing stands in their way. From killing to going completely mad, they will become the next king and queen at all costs. The ambition and the want for power is so high that they kill many, they do whatever they can to be one step closer, and they go completely insane, all because they want that absolute power.

Read More
760 Words | 4 Pages

Power is always coveted in any society and the world of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is no different. In the play, Macbeth, a noble lord, shows his hunger for power with thoughts to remove an heir to the throne from power. Macbeth’s impatience to be king leads him to stain his honor by using murder. Macbeth travels further down the path of evil by arranging the assassination of a friend.

Read More
1183 Words | 5 Pages

As the Macbeth’s portray the opposite of social constructs and expectations in the play, they eventually fall into their belonged stereotype after Lady Macbeth slowly starts to spiral downhill. Once Macbeth feels as though someone is in the way of him becoming King, he instantly creates a plan to murder them like Lady Macbeth did with Duncan. As they eventually take up each others common behavior, Lady Macbeth drives herself to insanity due to her womanly feelings. “I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon ’t, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep.” , she is seen sleepwalking and participating in strange activities due to the insanity driven from guilt (5.1.4-6).

Read More
624 Words | 3 Pages

While the banquet was underway, Macbeth had graphic hallucination of Banquo, Lady Macbeth tried to calm Macbeth down and bring him back to reality: “O, proper stuff! This is the very painting of your fear. This is the air-drawn dagger which you said led you to Duncan. ”(3.4.74-76). Lady Macbeth is trying to ease Macbeth by emphasizing that “this is the very painting of your fear” reminding him not to listen to the hallucination and that it only appears when he is scared.

Read More

More about The Struggle For Power Is Insane In William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Related Topics

Open Document