Macbeth

Macbeth finds some witches who tell him that he will be king.  Not stopping to think about how stupid it is to take advice from witches, he decides to make it happen and kills the current king.  He then kills his best friend, since the witches told them the friend's children would be kings.  At this point he has completely descended into the pit of darkness and ends up being taken down when he goes over the line and massacres a guy's family.

Well, Macbeth gets what he deserves.  And yet I personally feel sorry for him.  He lets his wife get him caught up in dreams of power and glory.  Then, on the other hand, he starts being just plain evil.  So I don't know.  Figure it out for yourself.  A thought about Malcolm's eventual ascendence: Macbeth is a little bit like Oliver Cromwell, killing the rightful king (Duncan/Charles I) and usurping his place, and then being deposed by the son of that king that he killed (Malcolm/Charles II).  However, if we take this analogy further, the family of Charles was driven out of England not too many years afterward.  So, the sons of Banquo are indeed going to end up king, and Malcolm is not the ideal ruler after all.  So what do you think about that?  Actually, all this took place long after Shakespeare's death, but it's still fun to consider.

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