An analysis of a comparison and contrast on the characters Ferdinand from Tempest and Lady Macbeth from Macbeth

Shakespeare was the absolute man of his time during the medieval ages in which he lived. Actually, his plays began to be famous far after his death, which has resulted in a lasting legacy for his writings. He has composed an incredible amount of plays that have almost all continued on to be performed. Two more commonly known plays of his are The Tempest, and Macbeth. These are two very diverse plays that have a completely separate plot, characters, and meaning. In both plays, an unfortunate event occurred. Bill Delaney states about the perspective of King Duncan, “Obviously there would have been no knocking at the gate if Macduff had slept inside the castle or if Duncan had simply asked Macbeth himself or his most kind hostess Lady Macbeth to see that he was awakened in the morning.” Like Duncan, Prospero in The Tempest, he was not expecting at all to be stranded on an island. Also, there were many people that helped throughout these situations in the two plays. In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth played a huge role in helping with the murder of King Duncan. In The Tempest, Ferdinand fell in love with Miranda and helped Prospero with all that he needed to help get on his good side. In The Tempest and Macbeth, Ferdinand and Lady Macbeth can be compared with their willingness to help someone who needed it, their intentions to help someone they loved, and they can be contrasted with the end result of their objectives.

To start off, in the plays Tempest and Macbeth, Ferdinand and Lady Macbeth can be compared with the willingness they both have to help someone who was struggling and needed their help. Lady Macbeth wanted so badly for Macbeth to kill King Duncan, and was quite forceful that he should. Vicki Reutter showed how cruel Lady Macbeth c...

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...ings are about pursuing what you want to accomplish and not let anyone else persuade you differently. Kevin Pask refrences Tempest when he talks about struggles people go through when he mentions, “The alliance in which the happy lovers are engaged is simply diplomacy: war by other means.” No matter what the challenge, always push for what you think is best for you and those around you.

Works Cited

Delaney, Bill. "Shakespeare's MACBETH." Explicator 1(2004):6. eLibrary. Web.

Jericho, Jeremy.. The Tempest. Barron's, 2004. eLibrary. Web.

Nesbit, E.. "The Tempest." The Best of Shakespeare: Retellings of 10 Classic Plays. Oxford University Press, 1997. n.pag. eLibrary. Web.

Pask, Kevin. "Prospero's counter-pastoral." Criticism 4(2002):389. eLibrary. Web.

Reutter, Vicki. "A Taste of Shakespeare: Macbeth." School Library Journal. 01 Jun. 2004: 66. eLibrary. Web.