Corruption itself has many starts but power tends to be the biggest cause of the corruption of the human will. There are many figureheads in both fictional tales and real life, characters and people who have failed to quote power with excellence and compassion and have instead fallen prey to corruption. Acquiring absolute power has taken them on the road to absolute destruction making it a tragic flaw from which there is no redemption.
History and literature are strewn with examples of such characters who have fallen prey to power and have led themselves to be corrupted absolutely after gaining absolute power. In this essay, we will look at two characters who fall prey to an unfortunate series of events after their encounter with power, ultimately leading to their ruin.
MACBETH
Macbeth is a beloved character weaved from the words of Shakespeare. He is a valiant official in Scotland serving under King Duncan. In this story, Macbeth is told by three witches that he has the chance to become the king.
“All hail Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter! …”
The promise of power ignites Macbeth’s ambition he never knew existed within the realms of his own mind. He commits regicide, killing the king to obtain the position. As fate would have it, the king’s son, flees from the scene and Macbeth becomes the king.
Being king puts him above the rest and makes him invincible, right?
Well, not really!
He begins to subsequently fall prey to the corruption of power that is in his hands. Slowly losing his mind and power over himself, because of what he has done, he confronts the witches again. The witches this time make him feel all-powerful. They tell him that he is indomitable until three incredibly absurd criteria are met. Thinking himself to be formidable and unassailable, Macbeth begins to act cocky and becomes arrogant. Apparently gifted by god himself, Macbeth fears no one and soaked by power he starts stinking of corruption.
But time proves him wrong and all his sins are ultimately purged from the world by his death.
We see in this drama, how the sinister forces of the witches, place Macbeth on a pedestal which begins to corrupt his ambitions. During his short reign as king, his power- both “bestowed” by the witches as well as the fact that he is king causes his absolute corruption.
VECNA
Vecna is a much more alienated character who displays the idea that power can corrupt and ABSOLUTE power corrupts absolutely.
The villain Vecna in the webseries ‘Stranger Things’ was originally a child by the name of Henry Creel. The young boy finds out that he has psychotic powers and is able to alter the perceptions of others. The boy, corrupted by his nihilistic and misanthropic ideologies, trains his powers. First and foremost, he kills his own family. Then he breaks free and starts on a sadistic journey, effortlessly killing the people around him. At this point, the main protagonist, Eleven, uses her powers to banish him from the real world. But the banishment works to his advantage. In the banished world, he meets an organism who helps him amplify his existing powers and wreak havoc upon the world.
We see, how being given power, he doesn’t use it for the benefit of anyone but himself. He becomes an egomaniac, thinking that he is better than everyone else just because of his powers. And with a massive hivemind under his control, he seeks nothing more than revenge when the door opens to him.
CONCLUSION
Macbeth and Vecna sit on two very different playing fields. Macbeth is a royal official in old Scotland who commits regicide to become king, while Vecna is a demonic entity of human origins, having psychic powers which he uses to commit unspeakable acts.
With ignited ambition combined with power, they wreak havoc upon the world around them but are dealt the heavy hand with due time. The difference in power between the two is evident, yet they show the universal theme that power corrupts, and when given absolute power, they become corrupted absolutely.
Writer : Ethan
Grade : 10 (Year 2023)
Place : Sydney, Australia
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