The Corruption of Macbeth and Duddy Essay Example for Free

The Corruption of Macbeth and Duddy Essay Everyone should follow their dreams, but sometimes when you get too caught up in your dreams; you begin to forget about reality. Throughout the play Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare and the novel The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, written by Mordecai Richler, protagonists Macbeth and Duddy become corrupted as they on the pursuit of their dream. Throughout the novel The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and the play Macbeth, both protagonists have characters in their life that influence them into becoming corrupt. Both characters, Duddy and Macbeth have such a strong ambition that it leads to the corruption of themselves. Duddy and Macbeth’s pursuit of their dreams leads them to be greedy which leads to their corruption. In the play Macbeth, and novel The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, external forces influence Macbeth and Duddy’s decisions, Macbeth and Duddy’s ambition controls their actions and the greed that Macbeth and Duddy possess, all lead to their corruption while they are both on the pursuit of their dreams. Throughout the play Macbeth and the novel The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz we begin to see that external forces in these characters’ lives help lead to their corruption. In both books we see that some characters attempt to show Macbeth and Duddy that they must commit crimes to accomplish their goals in life. An example from Macbeth is when Lady Macbeth attempts to persuade Macbeth into committing evil acts and tries to explain to him that he cannot change what has already been done. In the play Lady Macbeth says to Macbeth â€Å"Things with all remedy should be done without regard. What’s done is done†. (Macbeth, 2) This shows us that Lady Macbeth tried to show Macbeth that if you want something you need do whatever you can to obtain it and you cannot change what has already been done in the past, which helps lead to his corruption. Similarily, in Duddy, the Boy Wonder tries to have Duddy commit crimes to â€Å"help† Duddy become rich and achieve his go als. One quote from the novel representing this is â€Å"†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬  This quote shows how Boy Wonder tried to have Duddy commit these crimes to try to show him how to accomplish his goals in life, although, it just helps lead to the corruption of Duddy. In both stories external forces have told Macbeth and Duddy what they have to do in order become successful. In Macbeth, the witches inform on how to become king which corrupts him. A quote from the play showing this is â€Å"All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!† (Shakespeare, 10) Another quote showing his reaction to this is â€Å"Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more!† (Shakespeare, 11) This shows us how the witches told Macbeth that he could become king and then he gets too caught up in it which finally leads to his corruption. In Duddy we see Simcha tell Duddy that â€Å"A man without land is nothing.†(Richler, ) After Simcha tells Duddy this, Duddy does whatever he can to be a man with  land without truly thinking about what he is doing. This helps leads to the corruption of Duddy. The external forces around Macbeth and Duddy influence their decisions which lead to the corruption of both characters. Macbeth and Duddy are so focused on the pursuit of their dream that their ambition to obtain their dream leads to their corruption. In both stories Macbeth and Duddy’s ambition to pursuit their dream becomes so large that both protagonists are willing to do anything in order to achieve that dream. Throughout Macbeth we see many times where he is willing to do anything in order to become king. A quote from the play showing this is â€Å"The Prince of Cumberland! This is a step on which I must fall down, or else o’erleap; For in my way it lies.† (Shakespeare, 16) Now we see that Macbeth is willing do anything to become king and his ambition to become king has become far too great, and in the end it leads to his corruption and downfall. Just like Macbeth, Duddy is willing to do anything he can in order to obtain his dream and have all his land even if it means hurting others that are close to him. We see this when Duddy steals money from Virgil when it says â€Å"Duddy took a quick look virgil’s bank balance, whistled, noted his account number and ripped out two cheques. He forged the signature by holding the cheque and a letter Virgil had signed up to the window and tracing slowly.† (Richler, 307-308) This shows that Duddy’s ambition to get his land has him doing anything he can to get it which leads to his corruption. Also, throughout both Macbeth and Duddy, their ambition to pursue their dream leads to death or injuries of other characters which leads to their corruption. As Macbeth’s ambition grows and he murders Duncan, we see him feel guilt when he says â€Å"I’ll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on ‘t again I dare not.† (Shakespeare, 30) We see Macbeth begin to feel guilty and the more characters that die we see he begins to become more and more corrupt. Similar to Macbeth, we see Duddy’s ambition to pursue his dream lead to a very severe injury of one of his friends. Duddy’s epileptic employee, Virgil, gets injured while driving and we see the corruption of Duddy when he says â€Å"I hope he dies and I never have to see him again.† (Richler, 248) This helps us see that Duddy’s ambition led to the injury of his friend and employee, and we see how corrupt he is becoming. The ambition of Macbeth and Duddy become so great that as they pursue to their dreams, it leads to their own corruption. Macbeth and Duddy’s greed that comes from the pursuit of their dream, leads to their corruption. Both Macbeth and Duddy only care about themselves and it leads to their corruption. An example from Macbeth is when Macbeth hears about being able to be the Thane of Cawdor and the king he wants to know how even though he is already the Thane of Glamis. The witch tells Macbeth, â€Å"All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!† (Shakespeare, 10) Even though Macbeth is already the Thane of Glamis and is considered to be a noble and royal man he wants more. As his greed grows Macbeth becomes more and more corrupted. Similar to Macbeth, Duddy’s pursuit of a dream makes him greedy as he gets a truck for free and lies to Virgil about it so he doesn’t have to pay him $1000. Duddy’s greed for money gets in the way as he lies to Virgil by saying â€Å"It’s in beautiful shape and he wants twelve-  fifty for it. But if you were interested, Virgie, and willing to pay cash, I think I could swing it for a thousand.†(Richler, 215) We see that as Duddy pursues his dream he becomes greedy and only cares about himself, which leads to his corruption. In both of the stories, Macbeth and Duddy’s greed grow on the pursuit of their dreams and it leads to their loneliness which leads to their corruption. So many people die because of Macbeth’s greed on his pursuit of his dream that when Lady Macbeth dies he is all alone and he becomes corrupted. As Macbeth hears about the death of Lady Macbeth he says, â€Å"Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.†(Shakespeare, 87) We see that as Macbeth’s greed grows he does things that make him lonely, and in the end he is all alone with nothing to live for. This helps towards the corruption of Macbeth. Duddy’s greed gets the best of him as he loses Yvette after the injury to Virgil. After Yvette stops seeing Duddy he says, â€Å"Without Yvette the office was a bore. Going out on the road, doing Virgil’s job, was the only peace he knew those days, and heading back for Montreal at two in the morning he always drove as fast he could, sure that Yvette would be home when he got there. Often he woke in the middle of the night, thinking he had heard her on the stairs, but he did not go down to her apartment, and he waited for more than two weeks before he phoned her.† (Richler, 250) We see that as Duddy becomes more selfish, he only focuses on the pursuit of his dream and as he loses Yvette, we see how corrupt he has truly become. Macbeth and Duddy become so greedy because of the pursuit of their dream, in the end it helps corrupt them. Throughout Macbeth and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, characters in the lives of Macbeth and Duddy help lead to their corruption, Macbeth and Duddy’s ambition towards their goals help lead to their corruption and the greed they both get from the pursuit of their dreams leads to their corruptions. Characters that are in the lives of both protagonists control the decisions the protagonists make which leads to their corruption. The ambition both Macbeth and Duddy achieve while pursuing their dreams leads to their corruption. The greed both characters obtain on the pursuit of their dream has them feeling all alone and it leads to their corruption. In conclusion, on the way to pursuing their dreams, both protagonists Macbeth and Duddy let characters influence their decisions, which helped Macbeth and Duddy’s ambition grow, which made both protagonists greedy, and in the end, both characters Macbeth and Duddy, become corrupt.