Comparison Essay Hamlet - Macbeth

Hamlet and Macbeth, two dying heroes

In all the plays of Williams Shakespeare there is a hero, a main character who changes major things in the country, because they are close related to the royal house, which makes them noble. But did you recognize that these well meant deeds, almost always leads to the death. In this essay I will compare this strange characteristic of the Shakespeare plays Hamlet and Macbeth.

First Hamlet. The father of King Hamlet (which is the main character), Old King Hamlet is been murdered by Hamlet's uncle, Claudius (the successor of Old King Hamlet). And to make it worse, Claudius married Gertruide, which was the wife of Old King Hamlet, only two months after the funeral of Old King Hamlet. Only Hamlet knows Claudius murdered his father because of his father's ghost, and he wants to get his revenge, but he is not real sure about it. At the end he decides to just kill Claudius, but at that time Claudius already knows of the plans of Hamlet, and he himself has also got a plan to kill Hamlet. It results in a meeting where everyone gets killed except Horatio, a close friend to Hamlet, who is given the order to spread the true story.

Then Macbeth. Macbeth, general in the army of King Duncan, gets promotion after an important victory. On his way back, three witches tell him that he will become King of Scotland in the future. This happens very soon, and forced by his wife he kills Duncan, Banquo (a close friend), and later also Macduff his family, all to keep his position. But this is fatal to Macbeth, because when he hears about the murders he thinks of a plan to kill Macbeth, by camouflaging his army as a forest. Meanwhile Macbeth has been another time to the witches and they tell him that he will not be defeated unless it will be by the forest of Birnam or by someone not born from his mother. But now Macbeth, camouflaged as a forest, and born by Caesarean section (so not from his mother), comes on stage. However Macbeth doesn't know this and self-assured he goes to Macduff, where he gets killed.

Reading these two short summaries of the plays, you must immediately have recognized some things, which are the same in the two plays. One thing is the behaviour of Hamlet and Macbeth. Why is it that two noble and honest men, let themselves stimulate for a serious offence like murder? As you can also