Abuse Of Power In Macbeth And Dead Poets Society example essay topic

Abuse Of Power Power is something that will always be a factor in anything. It has its good qualities and it has its bad qualities. The abuse of power is something that has caused the world pretty much all its major problems, from wars to economic crisis. No matter what we do there will be someone there abusing power, but lucky for us we have a small minority that against all odds challenge that abusive power and stand up for what they believe in, these are the people that save our world. The main theme of Macbeth is the destruction wrought when ambition goes unchecked by moral constraints, or easily put the abuse of power. This finds its most powerful expression in the play's two main characters.

Macbeth is a courageous Scottish general who is not naturally inclined to commit evil deeds, yet he deeply desires power and advancement. He kills king Duncan against his better judgment and afterward stews in guilt and paranoia. Toward the end of the play he descends into a kind of frantic, boastful madness. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, pursues her goals with greater determination, yet she is less capable of withstanding the repercussions of her dirty deeds. She prays for the power to commit what she had so wickedly thought, she quotes "Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty". One of Shakespeare's most forcefully drawn female characters, she spurs her husband mercilessly to kill Duncan and urges him to be strong in the murder's aftermath, but she is eventually driven to distraction by the effect of MacBeth's repeated bloodshed on her conscience.

In each case, ambition helped, of course, by the prophecies of the witches and this at drives the couple to ever more terrible atrocities. The problem, the play suggests, is that once one decides to use violence to further one's quest for power, it is difficult to stop, that is also the same in the real world, once a killer gets a taste of murder and gets away with it, he will always strike again. There are always potential threats to the throne, and it is always tempting to use violent means to dispose of them. Dead poets society has a brilliant example of someone being pushed to the limit, being pushed to do something that he doesn't particularly want to do. Just like Macbeth ever wanted to kill Duncan, his wife pushed him to the edge. In dead poets society Neil had grown up being told his every move, being told what he was going to be and didn't have a say in it at all.

Just once he would like to do something he was passionate about, but his father would have no bar of it. Neil was so passionate about the school play he disobeyed his father's wishes and finally did something he had dreamed of. Neil quotes "For the first time in my life, I know what I want to do! And for the first time, I'm going to DO IT!

Whether my father wants me to or not! Carpe diem! As a result he felt like he had no life, like he was being programmed to do exactly what his father wanted him to do and the only way out he felt was to tragically take his own life. This shows that the power Neil's father had over him was so great that's it was too much and made him blind to see the real voice of his child, Neil. After the suicide of Neil, Mr Keating read and extract in one of Neil's text books that quotes Henry David Thoreau "I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately.

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life... to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived". Where there is power there is rebellion, there is always one person or one group that stand up and be themselves. They don't conform and walk away they fight for their right to be themselves, even if it means punishment. For example Mr Keating told the boys in dead poets society to suck the marrow out of life, but he also say's "Sucking all the marrow out of life doesn't mean choking on the bone". This follows the stunt Dalton pulls in the assembly " [answering phone] Welton Academy, hello. Yes he is, hold on.

Mr. Nolan, it's for you. It's God. He says we should have girls at Welton". He shows he is rebellious to the power the school has over making all its students mechanical, and the same. Just like Mr Keating is against the teaching ways of Welton that have been used previously that don't allow the boys to think for themselves, he quotes "I thought the purpose of education was to learn to think for yourself".

But is shortly shut down by Mr Nolan who says "At these boys ages? Not on your life!" This did not stop Mr Keating teaching the boys to be free thinkers. This is like in Macbeth, do u think that the death of king Duncan and the madness of Macbeth and his wife stoped the kings sons from eventually rebelling, returning to take back their rightful throne. When people abuse the use of power, they get greedy, when they get greedy they need scapegoats and eventually they have nobody to blame but themselves.

Neil's father found this out the hard way along with the school Welton, and Macbeth and Lady Macbeth eventually cracked and it all turned onto them and they had nobody to blame but themselves. There is a line between power and the abuse of power and most people step over that line, Mr Keating quotes in dead poets society "There is a time for daring and a time for caution, and a wise man knows which is called for". A wise man knows exactly where that power line lies and never goes over it.