What is being said about power and how is it being said?
Power can change people in a way that is incomprehensible either for good or for evil. Power can make one so greedy that someone will do anything for it and won’t let anyone, or thing stand in their way. Macbeth by William Shakespeare portrays both the positive and negative uses on Power through the main characters. Macbeth’s greed of power allowed him to exercise abuse and ultimately he was corrupted and destroyed by power. Lady Macbeth used power in a positive way but her ultimate goal was domination of the Crown. Shakespeare uses dialogue and symbolism to allow his readers to engage with his mood and therefore the concepts of power.
In Macbeth, the main character, the greed for power corrupts Macbeth. For example at the beginning of the play, Macbeth is portrayed as a person of conscience and nobility who wouldn’t commit the act of murder as he has a conscience. Macbeth’s greed begins at the first meeting of the witches where the context of superstition was an accepted norm, “All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!” This meeting ignited Macbeth’s latent greed which set him on his ultimate goal of domination. Through the use of dialogue and imagery Shakespare’s sets the scene for the ultimate tragedy. The positive power exercised by Lady Macbeth through her manipulation of her husband’s greed to help to achieves her own ends, “Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under't.”
Macbeth’s greed culminates in the murder of the King and then his power becomes absolute with the flight of the two Princes, “What will you do? Let's not consort with them/ I'll to England.” Macbeth abuse of power leads to the corruption of morals, and nobility. It leads him to murder his friends and Macduff’s family leaving him isolated although powerful, “O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!” Macbeth loses his sense of perspectives as a result of his avarice for