Theme sharing in Hamlet and Macbeth

A detailed Summary of Theme sharing in Hamlet and Macbeth

In William Shakespeare's two most popular works of art, Macbeth and Hamlet, several parts of the plays are similar. These two plays can be compared easily because Shakespeare used the same formula for each of his tragedies. The tragedies use supernatural incidents to intrigue the reader's interest and included in the play is a hero who has a tragic flaw, which eventually causes him to make a fatal mistake. Throughout both of these plays, Shakespeare uses the leit motif of poison, death, ambition, and appearances can be deceiving.

We are first introduced to poison in Hamlet in the very beginning of the play. King Hamlet is killed when his brother, Claudius, pours poison into his ear while King Hamlet is asleep in his apple orchard. This causes a fast but excruciating death. Poison is later brought back into the play when Claudius will try to slip a poison into Hamlet's drink of wine. His plan backfires when his wife takes a drink from the cup instead of Hamlet and the poison eventually kills her. During the time of that incident, Hamlet is fencing with Laertes. Laertes sees that Hamlet if far beyond him in his fencing ability, so he decides to wipe the blade of his sword with a cloth soaked in poison. As the fight

The theme of ambition also plays a key role in both of Shakespeare's plays. Although in Shakespeare time, ambition was seen as wrong, he was still able to fit it into his plays. In Hamlet ambition is the cause of the downfall of two of the major characters; Polonius and Claudius. Polonius' ambition to be trusted and all knowing led him to a life of spying. He would spy on people to learn the truth of private conversations and other important events. While he was spying on Queen Gertrude and Prince Hamlet, Hamlet made the mistake of stabbing at Polonius when he was hiding behind a curtain. Claudius is the entire reason the story of Hamlet is even told. His ambition to become king was overcome by greed. He wanted everything and he was not willing to let anything stand in his way. He was over come by his emotions and killed his brother, thus the cause for the entire story.

It is evident that Shakespeare used a strong similar story line in all of his tragedies. Clearly, Hamlet and Macbeth are similar stories because they share several themes. In the end, when these plays are perceived, all that is left to be found is death.

In Macbeth, almost everything was not as it seemed. When the witches told Macbeth that he would become the king he instantly thought of the benefits. Unbeknownst to Macbeth his entire life would fall apart and he would eventually die. Also his wife had the same goals in mind and she also perished in her greed. After Macbeth killed the king, he would see spirit like daggers appear before him, while his wife would see blood stained permanently on her hands. The illusions were obviously not there, but they helped each character go insane.

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Approximate Word count = 1369
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English