Lord Acton’s quote, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” relates to Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Pol Pot. Having power drives certain individuals to to turn against the less powerful. Two such examples are Pol Pot and Macbeth. The play Macbeth by Shakespeare is one of the best examples of how too much power can corrupt certain individuals. When Macbeth hears the witches’ prophecies in the first act of the play, he begins to develop ideas in his mind. Even though he already had a position of power as Thane of Cawdor, he still desired more. The Witches prophesized that he would eventually become “King hereafter.
This caused Macbeth to plan the murder of King Duncan in order to gain more power. During the next two acts of the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth decide to kill the kin
...g as he sleeps. One dreadful act leads to another; Macbeth later decides to kill more of his closest colleagues. Macbeth hires murderers to kill Banquo, his closest friend. He sees Banquo as a threat because Banquo knew what Macbeth had done, and because the three witches prophesized that Banquo’s descendants would become kings. Macbeth wanted to keep Duncan’s murder “hidden. In the last scenes of the play, Macbeth’s desire for ultimate power goes out of control.
Macduff was very close to King Duncan which made Macbeth turn against him. Later, Macduff decides to leave for Scotland in order to go against Macbeth’s power. Since Macbeth realizes Macduff’s knowledge of his actions, he sees him as an enemy. At this point, Macbeth can’t take the risk of having a traitor with knowledge of what he did. Macbeth
decides to kill Macduff’s wife and kids. This fired up a huge rage in Macduff , He comes back from Scotland to get revenge on Macbeth by defeating him and cutting his head off.
Malcom rises to power as King short after Macduff ceasing Macbeth. Pol Pot, like Macbeth, had a great hunger for power. Both were ruined by their own behaviors. After Cambodia won its independence, Pol Pot became involved with the Khmer Peoples’ Revolutionary Party. Pol and his followers met in secret at a railroad station to found the “Workers Party of Kampuchea. ” From there was born the new democratic Kampuchea government, where he became premier. (“Pol”) As the leader of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot devastated and caused chaos for his people. Pol Pot suppressed religion, and culture, and forced everyone to work.
His Khmer Rouge forced the “new people” to work endlessly in the rice fields; he and did not care about the tens of thousands who died during this time. (Foss, pg 194) If people complained, expressed grief, or nourished themselves, he would immediately sentence them to death. (Foss,pg194) Pol Pot’s group murdered many Vietnamese residents and started incursions across the border. Like Macbeth, Pol Pot also began to kill many of his rivals, including cabinet ministers and other upper party leaders. (“Pot”) Later in Pol Pot’s life, he surrendered his title of Khmer Rouge commander, yet he still remained active in the guerilla movement.
During the late 1990s he was captured by a handful of his former followers after and sentenced to life under house arrest. (Pot) A year after being captured he took his
own life by in April of 1998. Lord Acton’s quote, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” has always been relevant and true. Both Macbeth and Pol Pot are examples that demonstrate what an obsession for power can do to a person. The dictator mentality immediately sets in as hunger for power grows. The idea of being all powerful profoundly penetrates the mind and can causes many atrocities In the end the actions that were performed by the power hungry returns to their origin.
