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Comparison between the character Macbeth and Hamlet
Hamlet and macbeth comparison
Macbeth and hamlet characters compared
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“The power-hungry individual follows a path to his own destruction.” spoken by Adler. The previous quote accurately describes William Shakespeare’s Macbeth from the play Macbeth and it also applies to Adolf Hitler. Macbeth and Hitler are similar because they were both paranoid, betrayed those who helped them, and killed others to gain power.
Merriam-Webster dictionary defines paranoia as “a tendency on the part of an individual or group toward excessive or irrational suspiciousness and distrustfulness others” both Hitler and Macbeth experienced paranoia. According to The Hitler Book: The Secret Dossier Prepared for Stalin, Hitler constantly had his water analyzed for traces of poison including his toilet water. The murder of Duncan caused Macbeth paranoia and mental instability, this paranoia led to lack of sleep and hallucinations. Macbeth’s paranoia also caused him to hire murderers to kill Banquo, one of Macbeth’s closest friends, because he was afraid of Banquo telling others of the prophecies. Paranoia in Hitler and Macbeth both made them act irrationally and excessively to protect themselves.
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Another shared trait of Hitler and Macbeth is how they betrayed those who had helped them. For Hitler to gain power in Germany, he used a military built out of World War One veterans whom he fought with, called Sturmabteilung (SA). After he gained his power, Hitler became paranoid that the SA would turn against him so he had them killed from June 30, 1934, to July 2, 1934, now known as The Night of Long Knives. Macbeth had also killed people who had helped him. Duncan had helped Macbeth by giving him the title Thane Of Cawdor, which had only fed Macbeth’s hunger for power, which resulted in Duncan’s death by Macbeth’s
Fear motivates us to do many things, whether they are right or wrong. In the play Macbeth, fear was the main motivation that influenced the outcome of the play. This can be proved by the subsequent murders after Duncan's. Why were these committed? Macbeth was scared of being caught and having to pay for the wrongs he had done. Also, look at Lady Macbeth. The constant washing of her hands, sleepwalking, and other behavior like this is done out of fear. It resembles her husband fear of being caught. The final piece of proof is Macbeth's actions. They were all due to fear, not only of being caught but of the witches' prophecies. He was scared of them coming true and tried to stop them from happening. This whole play was inspired by fear and what it can do to a person.
Ever since the beginning of time, humans have set out goals for themselves; goals for power, wisdom, and riches. Many times throughout history, these goals have been corrupted by people. Hitler and Macbeth were both soldiers in wars before they were political leaders. They were both considered honorable and were for their bravery. Macbeth murdered king Duncan to rise to power in a unnatural way while Hitler was legally elected to power by the german people because his plan of seeking to right the wrongs of WW1 and bringing glory back to the german people was very popular. Hitler and Macbeth were both overly ambitious for power which led them down bloody paths to their eventual downfalls. Although Macbeth and Hitler are similar in their quest for power and glory, Macbeth is heavily influenced to gain power while Hitler acted on his own.
Paranoia can be identified by symptoms of mistrust, hypervigilance, difficulty with forgiveness, and a defensive attitude. While suffering from paranoia, people often become delusional and irrational. In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Shakespeare portrays a vindictive prince whose pessimistic mindset causes a domino effect of death and distress in the country of Denmark, leaving the whole royal family slain and Hamlet’s mental state to blame.
Macbeth is ambitious to become a King while Hitler not only wanted to rule Germany but to conquer the whole wo...
The Night of Long Knives, one of the most noteworthy events during Hitler’s rule, was a purge that occurred on the 30th June 1934. Hitler ordered the murders of conspicuous Conservative anti-Nazis such as Kurt Von Schleicher and Gustav Ritter von Kahr, Left wing Nazis such as Gregor Strasser and many members of the SA including its leader Ernst Rohm. It could be claimed that the murders were significant as they ended a possible takeover by the SA, deterred and intimidated Conservative critics while gaining their support, saw the rise of the SS, introduced terror and dictatorship into mainstream life and reassured the elites and the army. It could be alleged that a significance of the Night of Long Knives was that it prevented a possible takeover by the SA.
Macbeth, the main character in William Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth was not secure in his manhood. This insecurity led to the downfall of Macbeth because he felt the need to prove himself to Lady Macbeth. After he proved himself by killing Duncan, Macbeth became desensitized to killing.
After Macbeth was successfully crowned, his fear did not let go of him. Earlier in the play right before the murder of Duncan, Macbeth was afraid that if he would kill Duncan this sin would come back to haunt him. “ This even handed justice commends the ingredience of our poisoned chalice to our own lips”(Act 1 Sc. 7 p. 39). So now when everything seemed fine, Macbeth was actually very afraid that something was wrong.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both show signs of what would today be diagnosed as symptoms of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is defined as "a psychotic disorder characterized by loss of contact with the environment, by noticeable deterioration in the level of functioning in everyday life, and by disintegration of personality expressed as disorder of feeling, thought, and conduct." There are three major symptoms of the disorder; not being able to distinguish the difference between fantasy and reality, incoherent conversations, and withdrawal physically and emotionally. The most common and most well known symptom of schizophrenia is when people cannot distinguish between what is real and what is not. Schizophrenics often suffer from delusions and hallucinations. A delusion is a false belief or idea and a hallucination is seeing, hearing, or sensing something that is not really there. Some people diagnosed with the illness may speak with disjointed conversations. They often utter vague statements that are strung together in an incoherent way. Lastly, some schizophrenics withdraw emotionally, for example, their outlook on life is deadened and they show little or no warmth, and also physically, such as their movements become jerky and robot-like.
There are an abundant amount of comparisons between Voldemort and Hitler; one could make the argument Voldemort was a metaphor of Hitler. Voldemort is a terribly feared, yet hesitantly worshiped dark lord. He strikes fear into the hearts of those who oppose, and follow him. Voldemort's ambition is to rid the world of all muggles, and muggle born wizards called half-bloods. During the Second World War, Adolf Hitler, leader of the anti-Semitic Nazi movement, sought a similar fate for all Jews. Hitler was an incredibly fierce leader just like Voldemort is portrayed in the Harry Potter series. Hitler's goal was to take over the world and rid every last Jew from it. Hitler defied the United Nations rules and regulations, and violated many parts of the Treaty of Versailles. Voldemort had no intentions of following the Ministry's rules either. He carelessly killed innocent wizards and muggles, performed magic in front of muggles, and used the forbidden curses. These are some of the main comparisons of Lord Voldemort and Adolf Hitler.
Ambition can consume leaders, nonetheless some leaders can handle the pressure that comes with having to lead individuals like Abraham Lincoln. However some leaders like Adolf Hitler and Macbeth allowed their ambition to get the best of them and cause harm. Hitler allowed his ambition to drive him to make catastrophic decisions such as trying to conquer other (stronger) countries, make dangerous weapons, torturer, and kill millions of innocent people. Whereas Macbeth allowed his ambition to kill the people that loved and supported him the most in order to gain control of the kingdom. Both Macbeth and Hitler illustrate leadership, but turned mad in order to consume more power.
Macbeth is horrific character that shows how even the most loyal, can become the most corrupt. Joseph Stalin showed just this during his rise to power in 2024. We can see just how much this two relate through their ambition, desperation, and rise to power. Stalin and Macbeth show a strong connection between reality and fiction.
A demented madman once said, “I do not see why man should not be just as cruel as nature.” Those words reflect an individual willing to manipulate or threaten anyone to accomplish their own personal goals. Those are the words of Adolf Hitler who called forth the annihilation of those he deemed to lack racial purity through the Holocaust. His lack of empathy and the ability to differentiate between right and wrong, motivation based on self pleasure, and rationalization of his actions serve as tell tale signs of his current state of mind at that time. Clearly, Adolf Hitler was a sociopath.
The Night of the Long Knives was another key event that helped Hitler obtain power over Germany in the period 1933-1939. The Night of the Long Knives, which was also known as ‘Operation Hummingbird’, took place on 30 June-2 July 1934, it was a great purge by Hitler to eliminate anyone who he distrusted, anyone who was anti-Nazi and members of the SA. The SA leader, Ernst Rohm, former Chancellor of Germany Kurt von Schleicher and an important Nazi member Gregor Strasser were some of the people Hitler saw as a threat to his power. Hitler perceived Ernst Rohm as a threat to his power because of Rohm’s actions, such as his suggestion of merging the general army with the SA under his command. Hitler did not like this idea because the Army regarded
As humans, the desire to gain power is a strong motivation that can easily consume our attention. With people working hard to succeed at school, in the workplace, and in the government, some individuals bend the rules to varying degrees to bring forth success. From cheating off of another person’s test, blackmailing others to keep quiet, or to the extent of assassination to gain power, we as individuals all have the capacity to commit evil actions. This very idea, a transition from good to evil, was shown in Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth, where the titular Macbeth committed multiple murders for the sake of gaining power. In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare shows the struggle of Macbeth to gain power and uses extended metaphors and archetypes
Alongside money, Macbeth and Stalin showed the world that a root of all evil is power and authority. Both men serve to show and remind us that even throughout history, there are power seekers who will go against morality to gain the upper hand. Although Macbeth and Stalin led different childhoods, both men rose to power by killing innocent people. A tragic hero such as Macbeth or a brutal man such as Stalin fell due to their few strengths, excessive ambition and over confidence. The power hungry Macbeth is ultimately overthrown by his internal conflict, guilt, while Stalin fell due to his paranoia and death. Both Macbeth and Stalin’s actions serve to us as reminders that authority and power is a privilege and shouldn’t be taken for granted, because it could be taken away as easily as it was obtained or