In William Shakespeare's Macbeth, the once fearless and courteous Macbeth encounters three witches that foretell his future as the new King of Scotland. Intrigued by their prophecies and driven by the desire to become King over Scotland, the ambitious Macbeth along with his manipulative wife scheme for greatness as they commit the atrocious act of murdering the current King Duncan. In addition, Macbeth continuously murders those that suspect him and is led to his own destruction as he is later killed by a Scottish noble, Macduff and reaches his downfall.
This play depicts how humanity satisfies the individual's lust for power and control as the characters reveal the evil within that guides one's actions and morals causing them to lose their innocence and leading one to destruction. In the Lord of the Flies, William Golding illustrates aspects of human nature displayed through twenty-four boys who have crash-landed on a desolate island. They struggle to establish civilization and social order by electing a leader, Ralph but this order soon deteriorates as Jack and his followers, allow the evil that lurks within every individual to lure them from their world of innocence.
They soon become bloodthirsty hunters, leaving their responsibilities such as keeping the signal fire going and gradually losing their sanity, as they become the beast that they were all afraid of in the beginning of the novel. Eventually, even the boys that represented civilization participate in savage-like behavior and even the murder of their dear friend, Simon, whom they had mistaken for as the beast. This novel portrays the savagery personality within every human being that corrupts an individual's desire for good. Both the Lord of the Flies and Macbeth explore the theme of good and evil displayed through the character's hunger for power and control, the loss of innocence, and through death and destruction; all of which illustrate the evil and cruel aspects of humanity that distract one from good aspirations.
[...] Golding portrays this loss of innocence as something that results naturally from the exposed evil intentions and savagery aspects that have existed within themselves. Shakespeare and Golding both interpret loss of innocence as a result of the evil aspects and intentions of the individual. Death and destruction is a reoccurring theme throughout Macbeth and Lord of the Flies as it exhibits the larger topic of good and evil. Death results when notions and desires for good are lost and evil objectives and intentions take over. [...]
[...] The evil within humanity causes him to lose his innocence, as later on in the chapters, he no longer hesitates to kill the pig. From the beginning, the readers notice Jack displaying savage-like or animalistic behavior as he is “crouched down like a sprinter” (Golding 30) waiting for the pig. Another example of savagery behavior is the chant that he continuously repeats of “Kill the pig! Cut her throat! Spill her blood!” (Golding 67) which displays Jack's satisfaction and the pleasure he feels when he is hunting. [...]
[...] These sins that Macbeth has committed remains unforgivable as he places death on others therefore bringing destruction upon himself. This relates to good and evil because those that do good according to humanity's morals, earn respect and a guilt-free life, but those who do not constrain their evil desires and hate and let it out through murder, earns death and destruction upon themselves as a result. Death and destruction can also relate to the chain of being where the King is at the top and Macbeth and all the other citizens are at the bottom. [...]
[...] The boys understand that to survive, they need to eat meat and so they hunt for boars across the island. Exhilarated by the thrill to kill and hunt, the boys do not restrain themselves when it comes to killing Simon as they used their teeth and Piggy as they used a boulder. These two deaths were the most significant in the novel as it represents the evil within humanity conquering the good, order and civilization, symbolically shown through the characters that were murdered. [...]
[...] His desire for power is clearly displayed, as the audience is aware of his devious ideas and understanding of the situation. Although the prophecies did not mention the King's death, Macbeth's lust for that position or the evil characteristics within oneself that overpower the desire to do good, pushes him towards the thought of murder. The mischievous idea of murder just for the title, King of Scotland permits Macbeth to betray his own conscience and a King that “hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great office” (Shakespeare I.vii.18-20). [...]
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