William Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’ and James McTeigue’s movie ‘V for Vendetta’ explore the conditions which lead to one’s demise. Macbeth’s character is a kinsmen who kills the current king to become king. Furthermore, he continues to kill any being who may be a peril to his crown, but loses control of himself and becomes so power-hungry that his guilty conscience and terrible actions lead him to his fatal death. On the other hand, V’s character escapes from an experimental laboratory and he aims to kill the people from the corrupt British government and other political leaders. Hence, he too loses sight of what’s important in his life by murdering many, however seeks justice, revenge, and tries to achieve his intentions of overthrowing the fascist government. Both characters have strong underlying traits within their personalities such as excessive pride, errors in judgement, perpetrating grave crimes, and suffering both outwardly and inwardly. This not only causes another to feel pity, fear and sadness from the character’s downfall, but these characteristics deem them as tragic heroes. Although Macbeth and V both demonstrate that they are flawed and ambitious, it is clear that V is a better example of a tragic hero because his moral corruption causes him to give in to his unchecked ambition, which leads into his fatal downfall.
The apparent unchecked ambition is a prominent virtue that both characters have in common. Due to Macbeth’s uncontrollable ambition, he loses everyone that once helps him, encounters isolation, and ultimately faces his demise. Macbeth states, “My thought, whose murder yet is fantastical,/ Shakes so my single state of man/ That function is smother’d in surmise,/ and nothing is but what is not.” (I.iii.52-55) As Macbeth commits more self-inflicted atrocities for selfish reason and personal gain, he feels less remorse and guilt each time. Though for V, his actions impend on him as many political figures are looking for him and so he is wanted for treason. He is not only wanted by the police and government officials, he also encounters isolation and gets shot in his chest several times until he dies. V states, “Nobody can give you freedom, Nobody can give you equality or justice if you are a man, You take it.” This signifies that if you ever want something in life, you have to take it yourself. Thus in this case, the only reason why V decides to destroy the government is to take revenge on them for all the pain and loss which they impose on him, ergo taking matters into his own hands and actually physically taking his freedom, equality and justice. In addition, the problem Macbeth initially faces is that once he uses violence to further his pursuit for power, it is crucial to stop. For example, as Macbeth’s ambition to become King starts going down a threatening path, he still has the wish to have power like the title of King. Macbeth expresses, “I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent, but only/ Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself,/And falls on th’other…’’ (I.vii.25-28) In this quote, the theme of treason for the purpose of one’s benefit is suppose to interpret a good thing, but in actuality Macbeth killing King Duncan and becoming king is only for his personal gain and self ambition. Then in V’s situation, the problem he faces is that he uses crooked strategies to accomplish things in order to reach his end goal to better not only society, but for the benefit of the British citizens. Thereafter, V says “Away with our destroyers! They have no place within our better world.” Also as V believes “Violence can be used for good,” he soon destroys the Parliament government building and overthrows Adam Sutter, the current Prime Minister of Britain, to free the people from fascism. Subsequently, again the theme of treason for one’s benefit is suppose to interpret a good thing, but in ‘V for Vendetta’ he does not commit as many atrocities as Macbeth. Instead, his acts of treason are for selfish and vengeful reasons not completely for the sake of the common good.
Next off, the cause of Macbeth’s downfall is when he dies because of Macduff whose family he kills. This shows how self-inflicted his death is because this is essentially Macbeth’s karma and now he can not rule as king anymore when he is in his grave. Catharsis is evident after his downfall by one acknowledging how this all happens to him. As the witches warn Macbeth to “beware Macduff, beware the Thane of Fife,” (IV.i.81-82) he never would believe that he is going to die at the hands of any man born of a woman. But he soon finds out that Macduff is “from his mother’s womb/Untimely ripped” (V.x.15-16) which means he was born by cesarean section. The witches initially use equivocation, which shows Macbeth how his life is worthless. Thusly, the audience feels pity and sadness for Macbeth because he plans his own death by entirely following the witches’ predictions. At last, the cause of V’s demise is that he dies in the British subway station when showing the government and political figures how his plot becomes successful after all his efforts. V’s death is more impactful in the movie ‘V for Vendetta’ because V not only cares about his revenge, but also instilling a newfound freedom in the British citizens after they have a dictator-like government in power. Thereupon, before his tragic passing he states, “I shall die here. Every last inch of me shall perish. Except one. An inch. It’s small and it’s fragile and it’s the only thing in the world worth having. We must never lose it, or sell it, or give it away. We must never let them take it from us.” He as well ys, “The only verdict is vengeance a vendetta” which is not only ironic, but sad because his determination to take revenge on the government and killing the political officials who torture him is so strong that he believes the only way this can happen is if he dies, he kills government officials and blows up the Parliament building which shows the extremes V takes to accomplish his dream.
In conclusion, ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare and ‘V for Vendetta’ by James McTeigue is two stories with major characters that demonstrate unchecked and uncontrolled ambition as a prominent virtue, therefore resulting in their peril demise. Both deaths are rather self inflicted and self imposed, as they are the ones who do the actions that consequently result in their own downfalls. All in all, Macbeth and V exemplify that they are both flawed, yet very ambitious and determined characters who demonstrate exceptional examples of tragic heroes. V is the better example due to the fact that his moral corruption causes him to succumb to his uncontrollable determination. As he compares to Macbeth, V’s intentions were meant for the better of his country and people, hence he represents a true tragic hero.
