Macbeth Compared to Hitler

Although literature is fiction, often the conflict in a work will be strikingly similar to that of a real event. For example, the central issue of the abusive dictatorship of Macbeth in Macbeth, by William Shakespeare parallels that of the terrorizing dictatorship of Adolf Hitler during the early part of the Twentieth Century. In both of these horrible situations, there is a similarity in the challenging rise to power each must go through, their traumatizing dictatorships which destroyed many lives, and the treacherous downfall which ultimately led to their demise.

Macbeth and Hitler were both loved by their people, but both charismatic leaders manipulated the people to gain power. Macbeth was respected and loved by the King and the people of Scotland. When the Thane of Cawdor lost his battle, the King of Scotland decreed him to death and elected the victorious General Macbeth to the position of Thane. Duncan said to Macbeth once he was Thane of Cawdor, “My Worthy Cawdor” (1. 4. 54). Duncan respected Macbeth and trusted him as Thane of Cawdor Macbeth had previously been visited by three witches when he was with Banquo and was told that he would never become king.

The witches said to Banquo that Macbeth will never be king and the King’s sons would eventually become kings and rule the land. Macbeth was jealous and knew he had to kill the king in order to gain power. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth created the plot to kill Duncan and seize power through force. Their plan was to kill Duncan and blame it on the guards by putting the bloody daggers in the hands of the guards. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth followed through with the plan and Duncan's sons ran away. Then Macbeth turns around and blames the sons because they left right when Duncan died.

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The people of Scotland believed the story and Macbeth falsely gained respect from the people and gained power. In a similar parallel, Hitler too gained power by manipulating the people of Germany to earn their respect. Hitler and his country were in the middle of an economic depression during the early Twentieth Century, and this was a ripe time for a charismatic leader to emerge. The times were tough for the people of Germany and Hitler saw that he could gain power with a little manipulation and appealing to the desperate people’s needs. Hitler ran for president and made many hopeful, inspirational speeches to large crowds of people.

When Hitler was in his campaign to regain power in the Nazi party, he threw a speech in a large hall. People were amazed at how well he spoke and seemed to know their problems and were inspired. “ Former party leaders, who had come only to watch, now marched onto the platform, shook his hand, or embraced him. ”(Stewart 46). The German people fell in love with him and followed his political rise very closely and supported his message. Even though Hitler lost two close political races to Paul von Hindenburg, he ended up succeeding him in office when von Hindenburg died and made it possible for Hitler to become president.

Hitler needed more support to legalize his Nazi party. In order to gain more support, Hitler set fire to the Parliament building in Germany. The German people were scared and Hitler told the public that the communist had set the building on fire. The people falsely believed him and had trust in Hitler giving him more power than ever before. Macbeth and Hitler’s dictatorships were both terrorizing and frightful, especially to the two groups of people they ruled. When Macbeth was in power, he was paranoid of a conspiracy being launched against him. Macbeth was so paranoid that he had spies in every house, and killed many innocent people.

Macbeth feared that Banquo, his friend, was talking about him and grew weary of him. He hired three murderers to kill Banquo once he set off from Macbeth’s kingdom. Macbeth thought he saw Banquo’s ghost and thought that it came back to haunt him. Macbeth seemed to have been losing his mind and he was guilty of Duncan’s death. Macbeth killed his own friend because he thought Duncan was trying to take power back. He had been so paranoid that he had a spy in every house to report of any conspiracies among the people. If the spies would hear anything, Macbeth would kill those who the spies reported back on.

Hitler’s dictatorship was long, terrifying, and stressful. Hitler was in the middle of a war when he was in power. He had the whole world fighting against him as he was trying to gain control of the whole world. Hitler had been so stressed and tired from war that he was mentally unstable. To cope with the long and stressful war, Hitler took drugs. The drugs made him an even worse and cruel dictator. Hitler started genocide in his home country. He persecuted the Jewish population and put them in extermination camps. This dilemma was known to be the Holocaust. Hitler killed six million innocent Jewish people.

Hitler and the Nazis soldiers burned, shot, and gassed the Jews. Once in a concentration camp in Germany, the Nazis said “ Beat Those Jews”(Rees 179). Hitler made the Germans and Nazis convinced that they should kill many innocent and harmless people. Hitler grew weary of conspiracy. He thought people were out to get him. Hitler created the Nazi police. The Nazi police were run by Himmler. The police ran on the principles of “If you don’t speak you don’t get hurt”. The police insured that no one was speaking against Hitler and his political decisions. Macbeth and Hitler both had a treacherous downfall.

Macbeth was mentally unstable and he was making poor decisions. Macbeth was being attacked from Birnam Woods by the English army and Macduff. The prophecies were coming true that the woods would walk to Macbeth’s kingdom and kill him. The English army picked up branches to disguise themselves and hide their numbers. Macbeth and everyone were falling apart and knew they were going to die. Lady Macbeth knew what was coming, and had enough of Macbeth and his terrible reign and took her own life. When Seyton heard a cry from the castle, he found that she died. Seyton said to Macbeth, “ The Queen, My lord, is dead”(5. 5. 16).

Macbeth had lost everything he lived for and his kingdom. Macduff found Macbeth for a standoff. Macbeth accepted his fate and fought with courage. Macbeth died and Malcolm took the crown and became king. Hitler’s downfall was treacherous and lethal. Hitler was in the middle of a war and his army was weakening. The allies were closing in on him and his nation was being destroyed. Hitler was so stressed from the war and all of his struggles that he became crazy and addicted to drugs. While he was in reign, he had 42 assassination attempts against his life. Many of the attempts were from his high ranking generals, and political powers.

The people could no longer take what he was doing to the country. Hitler took his own life by shooting himself. Macbeth and Hitler’s rise to power, dictatorship, and downfall are similar but occurred in different times. Hitler and Macbeth were both loved by people of their country. They both manipulated facts and used this to gain the people’s trust and respect. Both Hitler and Macbeth killed many innocent people. Both men were involved in war. Ultimately, both Macbeth and Hitler were both attacked from various forces. Both men accepted their fate and died. Hitler killed himself, and Macbeth died in his last stand against Macduff.

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