Power Corrupts by Ian M.

Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts even the most noble of men. This saying means that the more power one has the more corrupt they become. One that has power generally abuses it. In Macbeth many different people have power, and each uses their power in a different way. Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and the three witches each control some sort of power. Macbeth is a thane, and then he becomes king eventually. He is also a war hero. Lady Macbeth has power, but only after Macbeth becomes king. Lady Macbeth also has power over Macbeth. The 3 witches have power to see the future; they also have power over Macbeth.

At the beginning of the play, he is a kind man who kills in battle only, in the important situations. He saved the country by killing the thane that let the Norwegians in. Nearing the end of the play, Macbeth is now a fearful man who attacks the defenseless and pays professional murderers to kill for him. He only killed the people he did because the witches told him to beware of Banquo. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth was a nice person. The only time he killed is when he was in battle. Macbeth was loyal to the King Duncan. Then he heard the witches’ prophecies and he wondered if they would ever come true. He told his wife about the prophecies. In my opinion that was his first mistake. For killing the traitor, Macbeth is awarded the title, the Thane of Cawdor. The irony of this is that the title first belonged to the traitor, which Macbeth had slain, as Macbeth heads home with his new title and more ambition. This is because of the three witches who tell him he will be king some day. With this new ambition, Macbeth did not know what to do and he wrote a letter to his wife telling about the witches prophecies. By Macbeth writing this letter it showed that he is still loyal because he was sharing everything with his wife. Macbeth at this point still didn’t have lust for power.

What drove him to be a power hungry tyrant was his wife. She put ideas in his head that changed him to what he died as. A day before Macbeth would not speak of the idea of killing the king and now he was considering it. By killing Duncan, gaining the title of king, and not being caught. He now felt invincible and let power finally get to him and corrupt him. He killed the good king because of what his wife put into his head. With his new power, Macbeth did not want to let it go away. To protect his power, he did whatever was necessary. Macbeth had Banquo killed because of what the witches told him. Shakespeare shows to the audience how power can make a person go higher in the world, but at the same time make them more vulnerable. Macbeth was now vulnerable, to change this he sent the henchmen to kill Macduff. Macduff had fled to England to get help, so the henchmen killed Lady Macduff and her son.

By Macbeth simply trying to cover his dirty footsteps left behind his search for power he had destroyed two families and killed innocent people. In the end, when it was time for Macbeth to die and lose the throne with his power, he could not take the fact that he had lost the throne and also his wife. Macbeth had become used to the power, he was killed trying to keep it. What brought Macbeth up in the world also had sent him back down.