Power in Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Power is something that is sought after by many people. Not everyone desires power, but the people who do will often go to great lengths to attain it. Some people desire power because they have a lust for superiority. Other people simply want to satisfy an overinflated ego. Whatever the reason is, the ambition for power can at times consume an individual. Some people can become so obsessed and desperate that they will even go against their moral principles to achieve power. They will commit acts that they never thought they would commit and they will turn into corrupt and evil human beings. In the end, they learn that their lust to achieve power only resulted in disaster. They try as hard as they can and at the end of the day all they get is a distorted and destroyed reflection of who they once were. The ambition for power will ruin a soul. This idea is expressed in Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Julius Caesar. These plays feature characters that are driven to evil by the desire to achieve power. Shakespeare shows the reader that the ambition for power can turn an individual into a ruthless and unsympathetic savage through the characters of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and Brutus and Cassius.

Macbeth is told by three witches that he will become the King of Scotland. This prophecy is the spark that lights the fuel for Macbeth’s ambition at the start of the play. From the moment that the witches tell Macbeth the prophecy, he immediately begins to have dreams and visions of what he will achieve. He is filled with excitement at his future, and he knows at this moment that he must fulfill this destiny. Later in the play, he murders the current king, Duncan, and usurps the throne. The story then unfolds as it details Macbeth’s descent into insani...

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... in the end all they are left with is calamity and evil hearts. This is seen with the characters of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Cassius, and Brutus. Macbeth received a prophecy that he would be king, and as soon as he heard it he immediately became ambitious. Soon he descended into madness and began killing people to ensure his position as king would not be threatened. In the end he was killed because his ambition drove him over the edge. In Julius Caesar, Cassius and Brutus chose to murder in order to take over Caesar’s position. Cassius was driven by envy and manipulated Brutus to get what he wanted, and Brutus only wanted what was best for Rome but was still persuaded to kill. At the end both characters died because their plan backfired. Some people may think that they must do whatever is necessary to achieve power, but in the end it will only turn them into monsters.