In both stories, ‘Macbeth’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’, included various changes in persona and the protagonists’ ways of thinking at different stages. The stories are quite similar though, as themes explored were guilt, persuasion and many other similar factors that made the novella and the play alike.
At the commencing of the play Macbeth, it is clear to recognise that Macbeth is incredibly proud as he is seen as a brave warrior, after coming back from the war he had fought in for King Duncan. We know this because of how much praise he had towards him from Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain and Lennox in Act 1 Scene 2, saying: “For brave Macbeth –well he deserves that name–, Disdaining fortune, with his brandish’d steel, Which smoked with bloody execution, Like valour’s minion carved out his passage.”.
This short excerpt tells us that he was a brave and merciless man in war, sparing nobody that would go against the will of King Duncan, hence the incedible title people would label him with. This was clearly done by Shakespeare to create the ‘perfect character’ for the reader, so that the instant judgement of hmi would be a good one.
In ‘A Christmas Carol’, Ebenezer Scrooge clearly showed a lack of compassion for others, and was incredibly spiteful to everyone he had been around, which impacted on the incredibly bland life he had. One quote that justifies this is ,”Every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!”. This is a major example of how he was incredibly spiteful towards people and he was impossible to cheer up. This was done by Charles Dickens mainly to later on emphasise the change in behaviour Scrooge had. Compared to Macbeth, the start of this story was incredibly different. There was no sense of pride or happiness, solely because of the attitude of Ebenezer Scrooge. They were both incredibly different start to stories that would take different journeys of emotions.
Macbeth meeting with the witches, in Act 1 Scene 3, was a significant turn in the play.This is where the mindset of Macbeth would be changed drastically. The scene’s main emotion felt by Macbeth as much confusion, towards the witches, because he couldn’t understand why they would want to make him King. A quote that emphasizes his confusion is, “Why do you dress me in borrowed robes?”. This quote is a great metaphor to describe Macbeth’s emotions at the time, asking why the three would want to make him take the position of the king. I call this a metaphor as the sentence acts as if the King’s reign was clothing that anybody could wear, making the scene sound incredibly suspicious. William Shakespeare had done this to now balance the opinion of Macbeth that the reader had. At first, he had appeared as a perfect character, showing no negative emotions.
The Ghost of Marley, Macbeth’s old companion, was one that had merely affected the way Macbeth viewed his actions, but it definitely caused him to become incredibly confused and a little scared. This being the case, he still dismissed the occasion and doubted the appearance of Marley’s ghost. One quote describing this is, “What evidence would you have of my reality, beyond that of your senses?” , “I don’t know,” said Scrooge. “Why do you doubt your senses?”. This shows that Scrooge was unsure about the supernatural because he didn’t know how he was seeing Marley. I think Charles Dickens had done this to scare Scrooge, teaching him a lesson for his actions towards many other people around him. This was a similar stage to Macbeth with the witches as both scenes contained feelings of confusion. They both didn’t understand what was going on at the time, therefore they had felt confused towards what was going on. This was the first change in emotions from Ebenezer Scrooge, most probably because he wasn’t expecting to see his only friends come back from the dead.
Macbeth talking to his partner, Lady Macbeth, was a incredibly important chapter of this play that changed the direction of the story so far, just like the scene of Marley’s ghost in ‘A Christmas Carol’. One of the most important and meaningful quotes in this scene is ‘Look like th’ innocent flower, But be the serpent under ’t. He that’s coming must be provided for; and you shall put this night’s great business into my dispatch’. This quote gives us good example of how Lady Macbeth would force Macbeth to do things he wasn’t exactly keen on and because they were so close towards each other, Macbeth would go on to commit all the actions she had suggested and not think of the repercussions he would have to face later in the story. The quote also uses a simile, describing how Macbeth should look like the ‘innocent flower’, describing that Macbeth should be cunning and sneaky, showing more and more flaws as he follows the unwise words of Lady Macbeth’s. Just like the witches, this was a point that showed another flaw of Macbeth’s. This scene would show that he would be easily persuaded and did not think about what would happen to him if he had done what he was told to do by the very manipulative and selfish person that was Lady Macbeth. I think that Shakespeare had included this scene mainly to unwind and slowly show that Macbeth really wasn’t the brave and honorable man people made him out to be. In fact, he showed cowardice by going on with the killing of King Duncan first. This would also change the reader’s mind even more if they had not thought that Macbeth was a troubled and impulsive man.
The change of Ebeneezer Scrooge’s behavior began to take place quite obviously when he sees Tiny Tim, the son of
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