To what extent would Shakespeare agree with this statement? Use the play and your own experience as your support.
Shakespeare would greatly support this statement, not only because it reflects the major themes of several of his plays, but also reflects what he must have experienced while serving under Queen Elizabeth and King James. If Shakespeare did harbor disappointment at the lack of real change that came with James’ rule, it is possible that Shakespeare saw it as James being swayed by the power he now had and how difficult having that power would become if he was to go against Parliament as well as the majority Protestant population. Which, is a situation that could also explain some of the situations between Congress and the Obama administration in American politics today. Though, Parliament and Congress exist so absolute power cannot be accessed by one individual, there is one position that is viewed as the ultimate achievement, and that position has potential to have more social or cultural power than any other singular person. Shakespeare may have also seen corruption under Elizabeth, especially with the level of censorship Shakespeare experienced when writing for her. Part of her corruption was in creating an environment that restricted any political criticisms in general and held themes that would be entertaining to the court and not necessarily the lower classes.
In the pyramid of power, the greater the distance and greater consequences come with being higher in the power structure. After Macbeth fulfills the prophecy by killing his king, he is now fearful of not only losing his position because of his actions being revealed and dying, but of also having everything Macbeth has done and agonized over be proven worthless. This is supported by Macbeth saying:
We have scorched the snake, not killed it.
She’ll close and be herself whilst our poor malice
Remains in danger of her former tooth.
But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,
Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams
That shake us nightly. Better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy. (Act 3, Scene 2, lines 15-22)
In this way having power at the expense of his actions has not only corrupted Macbeth's morals but are corrupting his health and mental well-being. Macbeth knows that once he has begun with this violence, he cannot stop with just Duncan to secure his position as king and has to kill Banquo and Fleance, otherwise the things in the prophecy like Banquo's son becoming king will come true. At this point, Macbeth is beyond the point of believing the authenticity of the prophecy, but is now about Macbeth's desperation to hold onto his ultimate power.
Part of the absolute corruption that comes with absolute power is in the decrease in sanity in the sense that a person becomes truly desperate when trying to retain his power, especially if the power came through illegal acts. It is different when an ambitious person is trying to rise in station because they are not thinking about how much they could lose, but primarily of how much they can gain. Though there is doubt shown by Macbeth before he kills Duncan, there is less concern for his morals in killing Duncan after he does it because Macbeth then focuses in on the threat Banquo and his son poses to his new position. This is evident in how Macbeth talks about Duncan versus Banquo after he killed them. In the previous quote, Macbeth almost seems grateful that he had already done the worst to Duncan. In the presence of Banquo's ghost, Macbeth rants this:
If charnel houses and our graves must send
Those that we bury back, our monuments
Shall be the maws of kites. (Act 3, Scene 4, lines 74-76)
asking why the dead are not staying in their graves, and there is no point in burying people ever again if this is the result. Macbeth's guilt and and ability to form rational thought are getting worse. Throughout the banquet scene, Macbeth is so convinced that others can see this manifestation of his guilt that he engages in a one sided argument where he admits to fearing this dead person that no one else can see, leading the lords in the room to become suspicious, even though Macbeth thought at the time he was defending his side of the story to a Banquo that others could see. This suspicion will only drive Macbeth's acts to retain power to become more desperate and harmful to the people around him.
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