Rough Draft for Final Essay

Since there are so many books that have been written, many of them are bound to contain similar themes. Even authors as different as William Shakespeare and George Orwell wrote stories with similar themes; both Macbeth and Animal Farm share one major theme - power. There are two types of power - peaceful leaders and those who are overwhelmed by power; those people usually turn into dictators. Corrupt power is a problem that has been around for centuries; it is evident in two of the novels we have read this year; Shakespeare’s Macbeth and George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Interestingly, both books have the same basic plot; the protagonists want to over throw the power above them so they can become powerful. In both books, they overthrow their power without any true incentive to do so. In Animal Farm, Mr. Jones, the farm owner, does not treat his animals well, for he is a drunk; “Farmer Jones does not suffer a catastrophe that shook Manor Farm to its foundations, he simply gets drunk once too often,” (Pearce 2005). Napoleon is so determined to gain power that he only had to wait for the smallest, most minute reason to attack. He was able to convince the other animals how important it was to overthrow their current power; however, he failed to mention that he would be the new leader. The same is basically true for Macbeth; however, it is Lady Macbeth who is in dire need of power. Macbeth, a war hero, was loyal to the king; while he did want power, he was not the type of man who would kill someone, besides in war. Lady Macbeth convinces her husband that he must take up the throne, for it is best for his country.
In both books, the protagonists were successful in gaining power; however, once they gained power, they did not know how to handle it. George Orwell used “animals to say something about human beings--and about the tendency of human governments, however good the intentions of their founders, to turn into tyrannies,” (Lenhoff 2001).
In Animal Farm, Napoleon cannot stand the fact that he is forced to share power with the other pigs. He had Snowball, his right hand man, killed off. Now he could rule alone, and he could make all the decisions; he was a true dictator. Similar events occurred in Macbeth; King Duncan was killed so Macbeth could gain power; however, the murders did not stop there. Banquo figured out Macbeth’s plot to become king so he had to be put to death; however, Macbeth did kill Banquo himself, for he could not kill his best friend. He commanded a group of assassins to do the honors. Since both of these books are fiction, they seem to be exaggerated; however, the battle for more power is occurs more often then one would think. Once one gains power, they immediately strive for more. A fantastic example of this would be a mayor of Toronto; he planned “to ask Queen's Park to give him more authority, including power to hire and fire the city manager and have his handpicked executive committee meet privately for strategy sessions,” (Vincent and Lu 2008). One may think that the thought of tyrant power is one of the past, yet this article is from earlier this year.
Once power was gained, it is very difficult to maintain that power. The citizens below will figure out how one obtained their power. In Animal Farm, the middle class was not nearly as intelligent as Napoleon; “every middle-class person 'has a dormant class-prejudice'...[Orwell] often praised the working class for their stoicism and hard work - but never for their intelligence or leadership,” (Pearce 2005). Napoleon was able to trick his fellow citizens of Manor Farm because they were not as intelligent. Since they could barely read, Napoleon was able to change what was written on the wall. If he felt that he was obligated to go against one of the rules, he could change it, and no one would know. This is completely unfair to the animals that are unfortunate enough to not read; however, the road to dictatorship is more common than one thinks. The mayor of Toronto, who was mentioned above, was clearly trying to gain dictatorship claims, "I'm not looking for any enhanced powers at all. It is a real abuse of the language to say I'm seeking more power," (Vincent and Lu 2008). This statement is one to try and convince his peers, for he, just like every other human being, wants complete power. When Macbeth first sat in the throne, he had the trust of the people. He did not have a need to convince others that he was right for the job, for he was a war hero. He had everybody’s trust; even the king’s. When people started to find out how he killed the King so he could gain power, they started to lose his trust.
When starting both books, one feels they will end the same; however, they end in almost opposite fashions. As George Orwell stated after completing his book, “I meant that that kind of revolution can only lead to a change of masters. I meant the moral to be that revolutions only effect a radical improvement when the masses are alert and know how to chuck out their leaders as soon as the latter have done their job,” (Pearce 2005). As he stated, the revolution did not change very much in Animal Farm. At the end of the novel, Napoleon obtained human mannerisms; he walks on two legs, he lives in the farmhouse and he has complete control over the other animals; maybe even more so than the original owner, Mr. Jones. Napoleon got what he intended out of the revolution; however, the rest of the animals did not. This is not the case in Macbeth. Macbeth is defeated. MacDuff kills him, and his head is placed on a pitchfork. Macbeth did not receive what he intended from originally killing King Duncan. He became an evil tyrant who, similar to Napoleon, had complete control over the lower class. While this may have been their goals all along, Napoleon was successful while Macbeth had failed.