Frankenstein and Macbeth
Uploaded by marlin_tfk@hotmail.com on Dec 16, 2008
The stories of “Macbeth” and Frankenstein are two texts depicting the life and tragic flaws of the two main characters which bring them to an eventual downfall. The two pieces of writing have both similar and different characteristics between them. It can be argued that the texts present much of the same story line, only written in very different time periods. Shakespeare’s famous play, “Macbeth”, was written in 1606 in honour of King James’ coronation, while Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein was written as a gothic novel in 1818. Despite the different time periods that they were written in, both of the stories contain a dark and supernatural atmosphere which evokes feelings of terror in readers. “Macbeth” and Frankenstein share similar quests and tragic flaws, but the treatment of their loved ones is very different.
In regards to the quests of the ‘monsters’ in each story, they are very similar in a number of different ways. In Shakespeare’s tale, Macbeth’s quest was that of power. He was bent on being king, so much so that he compromised everything to become the king. All of his ambition and efforts were directed at becoming king and staying king. To him, this required the murder of the previous king, King Duncan. Later on we see that he has even more innocent men, women, and children killed in hopes of sealing his position of power. For example, Banquo and McDuff’s wife and children were murdered at Macbeth’s orders because they directly or indirectly posed a threat to his throne. In Frankenstein’s case, his quest is simply to have power over death. He successfully creates life from death, but fails to see the long-term consequences for his actions, resulting in much more death than life. In both cases, the characters were aiming for a goal that can easily lead to compromise and ruin, and that is the goal of power.
It is in no way wrong to have a desire to become king or strive to discover a way to overcome sickness and disease, but when those desire’s get out of control and there is simply too much ambition, then often the measures that are taken to achieve these desires are wrong. For example, Frankenstein made the mistake of prioritizing his creation over his relationship to Elizabeth, his fiancée. Macbeth also sacrifices his reputation and integrity to...