Macbeth and Edgar Allan Poe:
Two renowned men who tragically passed, one for better, one for worse.
When a hero dies it is always sad, but when a hero dies for the betterment of his country, it isn't always, that is what sets Macbeth and Edgar Allan Poe apart. Macbeth, a character created by the famed William Shakespeare for the play The Tragedy Of Macbeth, is the thane of Glamis and Cawdor during the 1600s in Scotland. Edgar Allan Poe, on the other hand, was not created by a poet but infact was one himself. While Macbeth and Poe had very different upbringings, they both did great things in their lives to benefit society but also committed immoral deeds which ultimately led them to their tragic deaths. Both men rising to acknowledgement later in life, they started to commit their deeds after slight recognition of their talent. These deeds, Macbeth’s being the murder of his king and Poe’s being his addictions,
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Macbeth caused his own deaths around him by murdering his king and then ordering to have his best friend, Banquo, and the family of another friend, Macduff, to be murdered. Even after Macbeth has murdered his king and achieved his goal he exclaims “To be thus is nothing;/ But to be safely thus.- Our fears in Banquo/ Stick deep” (Shakespeare 3.1.52-54) meaning that he wants to kill even more. If he would've never gotten these people killed he would've never lead himself down a path to his own demise. Just as Macbeth led himself down his own path to death Poe did as well, but Poe did it because he could not stop the deaths of his loved ones around him unlike Macbeth. As stated, “Poe was overcome by grief after the death of his beloved Virginia in 1847. While he continued to work, he suffered from poor health and struggled financially. His final days remain somewhat of a mystery” (Biography). A combination of his sadness, self harm, and addictions led him down his path to tragedy when he died of unknown
As the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare went on, the friendship and comparison of Macbeth and Benito Mussolini grew. Both of their actions forced them into power and made them the historical features they are today. The cause of their terrible actions lead them to their death. Throughout the play Macbeth, Macbeth shows many similarities to Benito Mussolini because both used other people to push them to power, lost that power and were both brutally killed.
The quote, “Man is not truly one, but truly two.” can be analyzed from a behaviorally or mentally aspect. Physically, man is one, but if you delve deeper into the man, he can be separated into two parts which creates a whole man. In the play Macbeth and in the novel Lord of the Flies, some of the characters can be split into two conflicting parts. The characters are neither entirely good or entirely bad. In both the novel and the play, something happens to the characters that made them split into an evil side, thus creating two men.
Everybody alive has experienced the feeling of guilt, or at least will at some point. Usually, this feeling is quite healthy for our consciousness, helping us distinguish between what is right and wrong by our own moral principles and values. However, guilt holds quite a power to really disturb the mind. This theme of the relationship between guilt and sanity is common throughout literature, and patterns to how this is expressed through texts are very evident. Four texts which I will discuss this theme through is Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, and The Animals’ version of Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.
Act 2 Scene 2: Robespierre and the French Revolution Jessi, Ryan, Tim, Courtney, Kelsey. In The Tragedy of Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, we see Macbeth, a loyal soldier, turn into a complete monster by killing innocent people for the sake of power. This eventually leads to Macbeth’s mental breakdown, descending into madness as a cold blooded murderer, until his fateful death. There have been many Macbeth-like figures who have followed in his footsteps throughout our history, such as Julius Caesar, Joseph Stalin and especially Maximilien Robespierre, in the French Revolution.
... it he said; "He has created a universe, given it psychological laws without denying the existence of the moral law, and peopled it with characters appropriate to such a universe. Putting overt mortality out of bounds helps to give him uniqueness. Even though Poe is often looked upon as a gifted psychopath who is describing with consummate artistry his personal instabilities and abnormalities, the fact remains that his superiority is more than a matter of art. There is a violent realism in his macabre writings unequaled by the Americans who worked in the same genre."
Macbeth by William Shakespeare, is a play about ambitions, taking control of one’s life causing a great tragedy. Meanwhile, Dark Places by Gillian Flynn is a novel about how the Day family is affected by a tragedy. One of these is a play and one is a novel but, the stories are both about how a tragedy affects one’s life. Although Macbeth and Dark Places are both centered around tragedies, they have different narratives and over all different styles of writing.
A quote which really defines Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s ambition regarding power is “Power does not corrupt men; fools; however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power” George Bernard Shaw. Lady Macbeth is more ambitious in terms of gaining power then Macbeth is and that Lady Macbeth will do almost anything to gain power, even evil things that she normally wouldn’t do. This is shown when Macbeth and Lady Macbeth learn about the witches’ predictions, then roles in the plans to murder king Duncan in order to gain power and then finally after the murder, Macbeth doesn’t want to finish the plan making Lady Macbeth angry and causing a chance they might get caught and gain no power at all.
In The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky said, “…fear is simply the consequence of every lie.” Dostoevsky is stating how people are afraid of what will happen when their lie(s) is/are put out in the open. Fear is a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined. This line suggests that people are afraid of the truth, which inevitably is the consequence of every lie. Even though this quote was written by a 19th century author it can still relate to texts that were made centuries prior. Both Sophocles and Shakespeare’s plays support Dostoevky because both plays deal with the act of lying and its consequences as a major motif.
Shakespeare and Holinshed both wrote similar plays about a tyrant king who gained control of the throne through destructive means. There are several big similarities between the two plays and it is commonly believed that Shakespeare copied Holinshed’s Chronicles and changed a couple factors of the play in order to cater to King James’ interests. Some of the aspects which Shakespeare revised were the witches and the characters: Banquo, Duncan, and Macbeth himself.
Throughout Macbeth, the theme of masculinity and what makes a good king is explored. It contrasted Macbeth, MacDuff, and Malcolm's style of kingship and shows that MacDuff would make the best king. Macduff has all the king-becoming graces, fortitude, devotion, and the qualities of a leader.
In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth it is taught of how one’s ambition can take the wrong turn to be confused for greed. Macbeth used the advice of the witches to determine his journey of becoming king. Throughout the story Macbeth takes the prophecy of the witches and acted in an evil manner by going on a killing spree. In order to become king he thought that the easiest way was to annihilate anyone that could stop him from doing so. Everyone has some sort of ambition to become the best of the best as no one would like to fall short to anyone. Donald trump was a man with a vision that he thought could possibly become president of the United States. Trump used his multi-millionaire company to help him get ahead in his journey of reaching his goal. Both titles of King and President can be compared as one because the president and king is ultimately above all. Donald Trump and Macbeth are two people that share the same characteristics of how they used their ambition and greed to come out on top to ultimately become kings. Both men are well known in society today for their ability to overcome obstacles, their ability to degrade
Fate is usually described as what happens during one’s lifetime. Many people conceive that their fate is already planned out before they are born. From the time that books have been written, authors have written about people finding fates through some prophecy. Although many people might consider it futile, the person attempts to change it. However, many of these characters then realized knowing their fate is usually worse than not knowing it. In particular, Macbeth and Lord Voldemort (from Harry Potter). Each of them tries to change their own fate, but it ends in their demise. Although they thought they would benefit from hearing their future, both would have been much better off not knowing.
There was a common saying, “Behind every great man there's a great woman”. The men, Macbeth and Winston Smith in Shakespeare’s Macbeth and George Orwell’s 1984 may not be considered as the “great man” however, both Lady Macbeth and Julia are good examples that can be presented as the “great woman” behind the men. Both Lady Macbeth and Julia do an excellent job of pretending to be someone who they are not, they are not only affecting the men in their lives to rethink their previous position but also have a bad ending accompanied with physical and psychological issues.
In the play Othello and the play Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the main characters in both plays as warriors. Both characters in each of their plays, had constant outside voices seeping into their minds which ultimately contributed to the fate of both Othello and Macbeth. The witches in the play Macbeth had more of an effect of Macbeth’s actions then Iago had on Othello’s actions in the play Othello. Each character had a lot of pressure on them throughout the play however the witches influence on Macbeth resulted in more destruction than Iago’s influence on Othello.
The Shakespearean playwrights Macbeth and Hamlet are both very well-known tragedies. They have many things in common but are different in some ways. Both plays involve greed but the characters are different. There are some characters that have the same qualities such as Hamlet and Malcolm who both killed for revenge. Macbeth and Hamlet are different in character even though they both killed. The tragedies are the same in that many people are killed but the reasons are very different. Macbeths need for power has caused him to lose control while Hamlets need for revenge causes him to lose his own life.