Power Can Change Everything In A Person’s Life According to William Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Uploaded by Krsnik on Oct 31, 2006
It is very depressing to understand the destructive nature of power and how it can lead to tragic events and destroy the lives of good people. How power can change the lives of those consumed by it is significant to William Shakespeare’s play of murder and tragedy Macbeth. When an individual becomes corrupted by power they can begin to negatively affect themselves along with people around them. What is corruptive about power is that people can be negatively affected through change. When a person decides that they want greater authority, he or she may undergo change in personality and lifestyle. Power can cause a person to influence others to commit actions that they may normally not commit, disrupt the relationships a person has with others, and even have a person become less conscious toward consequences.
Power can cause a person to influence others to commit actions that they may normally not commit. At the end of the first act Lady Macbeth is speaking with Macbeth outside the banquet chamber about their plans to murder King Duncan. When Macbeth tells her that he no longer wants to follow through with their plans, Lady Macbeth accuses him of going back on his word. She eventually convinces Macbeth to kill Duncan when she says that “[she] would, while [her baby] was smiling in [her] face, / have pluck’d [her] nipple from his boneless gums, / and dash’d the brains out, had [she] so sworn / as [Macbeth] [has] done to [killing Duncan]” (Shakespeare I, vii, 61-64). Lady Macbeth demonstrates that she has more power than Macbeth and that she can easily influence his decisions. This is shown because she changes his mind on the plans of the murder through words, not even actions. This means that her influence on Macbeth can obviously cause him to make poor decisions or decisions that he may not have made on his own. Opening the third act, Macbeth is now king and has taken up residence at Duncan’s former castle, Forres. Macbeth is worried that his kingship is being threatened by Banquo and decides to speak with two murderers, who he persuades to murder Banquo and his son, Fleance. He does so by stating that “it was [Banquo] in the times past which held [the murderers] / so under fortune, which [they] thought had...