Compare And Contrast Reagan And Lady Macbeth

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Recommended: Lady macbeth's influence on macbeth's downfall

J Pahlmeyer
4/12/17
Mrs. DiBella
Per 2
Power
Power can be used for good and for evil. In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, power is a theme used often. The plot is based around Macbeth's plan to overthrow King Duncan and the events that lead up to his rise to power. Lady Macbeth, who has a major influence over her husband, convinces Macbeth to follow through with his plan to kill King Duncan. From the beginning she is a dominant partner who persuades Macbeth to achieve his goal of being king, and she plans and organizes the murder of Duncan. This is similar to the relationship between ex President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy Reagan. During his time as a politician she experienced a sense of power which led her to take an increasingly active role in her husband's administration. Shakespeare's Macbeth and Ronald Reagan's political actions were both influenced by their wife.
Throughout Reagan’s time as a politician his wife, Nancy Reagan, influenced his political actions in many ways. An example of this is the 1980 campaign when Ronald Reagan was running …show more content…

Lady Macbeth did not think he had what it took to become king, "Yet do I fear thy nature; / It is too full o' the milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way" (1.5.16-18). Her reaction to the leader show she knows her husband very well. The “nearest way” for both of them is murder. In an earlier scene, Macbeth had commented, "If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, / Without my stir" (1.3.143-144), but later he assumes that he must murder in order to become king. And this has always been his wife's assumption, which later he beings to follow. Macbeth never senses how much power Lady Macbeth has and how much he influences his political decisions. It is as if he is a robot and she is controlling him. He listenes to almost everything she tells him throughout the play and never second guesses

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