Absolute Power: Leadership of a Single Person within Government

Absolute Power

Throughout literature many works have stemmed from the subject of power. In many great stories some powerful warriors have fought for power only to fall in the end because of its inescapable corruption. There have also been those who stumbled into power blindly only to be dissatis fied and shunned because of a prophecy and fate. That predicament is what transpired in the unfortunate events of Oedipus Rex. Unjustly maintained control and power can corrupt the mind. This psychological corruption can lead to misinterpretations of how much power one has. The feeling of absolute power stems from the ambitious pursuit of retaining power and control. Whether it is the desire for power (such as in Macbeth) or the desire to escape a misfortune (such as in Oedipus Rex), ambition can lead to a believed absolute power (such as in The Prince). Overall, all three of these works are about leadership of a single person within government. The single person in leadership inevitably gets corrupted by the acquired power. With the end result of the corruption being the one person who is in control falling victim to the consequences of their own decisions.

Absolute power has the potential to be essential and enhancing to greatness, and at the same exact time is capable of decapacitating a person's morale, personality and ethics. In the drama Macbeth (written by William Shakespeare), the main character, Macbeth, becomes corrupt through power that he gains. The playwright shows that even someone who starts out as a simple minded being similar to Macbeth and does not obligatorily crave power but, will indulge in malevolent actions to gain power and ascendancy once the option is posed. The play commences with the characters King Duncan and...

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