Macbeth: The Corrupting Nature Of Power

On a wet and humid August 9th, 1974, Richard M. Nixon, the 37th President of the United States resigned from office. Nixon, a formidable opponent on the world stage had fallen from grace. The only question that remains today is simple: Why? How could a man with so much greatness betray himself? Leaders shape the way society thinks and acts. Without them, chaos would ensue. The masses place leaders in power in order to guide society to success. However, when a leader is corrupt, even more chaos can ensue than without them. Lord Acton, a 19th British historian, once said “absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men”(Acton). Self-confidence is a necessary trait in any leader. However, when self-confidence turns into hubris, leaders are more susceptible to the corrupting nature of power. Self-confidence can change into hubris when a leader is presented a situation that allows him or her to covet power. Phillip Zimbardo explored this in the famed Stanford Prison Experiment. This was an experiment that studied the effects of …show more content…
Macbeth is so fearless, and possesses so much hubris that he can’t even be worried about what has happened inside the castle. Macbeth also illustrates this when he disregards the prophecy that the witches give him, saying that he could only be defeated by a man not born of a woman and only when Birnam wood comes to Dunsinane. When leaders possess a self-confidence that turns into hubris, they often forget that they are not invincible and forget to take proper precautions to solidify their rule. Coupled with the fact that he had lost his ability to feel, Macbeth sets himself up for failure when he allows his hubris to hinder his ability to be a logical leader. This is also reflected in Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”, where there is a boy named Harrison Bergeron who believes that since he is the greatest, he can overthrow a system of