“To be or not to be, that is the question.” People make choices in life.
Both Macbeth and Jack, from the play Macbeth and the novel Lord of the Flies respectively, represent the human beings who are driven to make choices about morality. In both works, the evil or dark side of mankind is exposed and contrasted with the good aspects of mankind. The desire for control, the savagery and chaos are ways in which the evil is illustrated. Yet, while these works share these similarities, the external influences forcing these choices are quite different.
Unlike Macbeth and Jack, King Duncan and Ralph establish order and law to at least try to maintain their civilization. However, Macbeth and Jack’s choices destroy these organized and respected leaderships and instead cultivate chaotic leaderships. In the Lord of the Flies Ralph is a great leader who organizes the boys into groups and assigns each group with a specific job so that all the jobs could be done efficiently.On the other hand, Jack does whatever his emotion and desire tells him to do rather than thinking rationally to make the best decisions. In Macbeth, King Duncan is respected and adored as a king who respects the citizens as if they are his family members.
However, Macbeth is a dictatorial leader who is not respected by the citizens. He keeps thinking that he is invincible and superior than others after hearing the witches’ prophecies: “Beware Macduff, Beware the Thane of Fife! / The power of man, for none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth / Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until / Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinaine Hill / Shall come against him." “Come on! Follow me!” This quote is a good example showing Jack’s desire for power in Lord of the Flies. Both Jack and Macbeth decide to use savagery and fear in order to fulfill their desire of power and control over others. After Ralph wins the election to become the chief, he appoints Jack as the leader of the hunters to appease Jack’s ambition for the chiefdom. But Jack takes advantage of the boys’ fears towards the beast and the inability of Ralph to control them like Hitler criticized the German government to get his power during the Great Depression.
Similarly, Macbeth uses savagery, such as killing King Duncan, his best friend Banquo, and murder of Macduff’s family, in order to fulfill his own desire and ambition towards power. Unlike those similarities, the influences that caused them to make those choices are quite different. In Macbeth, Macbeth is tempted, by the witches’ prophecies and his wife’s persuasion, to gain power. After Macbeth gets the recognition as the Thane of Cawdor just as the witches’ prophesised, he starts to believe all the prophecies from the witches and begins to have ambition towards more power, King Duncan’s place as the king. Also, Macbeth is persuaded by his own wife to kill King Duncan so he could have the power to himself. On the other hand, Jack makes his choices without the influence of Ralph.
Even though Ralph tries to persuade Jack to stay with him by giving Jack the authority to lead the hunters, Jack is overpowered by his ambition and started to make his choices opposite to Ralph. Macbeth and Jack both rule and control others through savagery and fear, but the elements that influence them to make that choice are different.Even though their influences are different, the decision itself and the result of their decisions are very similar. Both Macbeth and Jack’s desire to obtain power corrupts their minds to make bad choices which lead to their own destruction.
Both works, Macbeth and Lord of the Flies, show great examples of two opposing human natures of good and evil.
