Most students aren't interested in reading plays and scripts. Sure, they enjoy watching movies and reading fiction like Suzanne Collins’ bestseller, ‘The Hunger Games’, but a lot of people would frown in sheer boredom if they were given a script to read. Reading plays never quite appealed to me either. They seemed old-fashioned and uninteresting compared to movies and dramas that screamed for attention with their flashy scenes. But I decided to give reading scripts a shot. This very wanting to change my preconception about plays was what led me into reading William Shakespeare’s legendary ‘Macbeth’. This book was surprisingly short and simple but reading it changed my point of view entirely and also introduced me to the 'World of Shakespeare'. Though it lacked the fun and heart thumping excitement of fiction novels, this book had something more to it. The depth-filled, poetic tone of Shakespeare’s writing and the haunting yet critical moral that rang clear at the end showed me the very reason why plays have come to be loved for generations.
'Macbeth' is the story of a Scottish general named Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis. Deep inside he has a dark secret-the wanting to become king. He's surprised when he comes across three witches who address him as 'king'. From the outside it may look as if the witches are the evil ones but Macbeth's greed and ambition is what truly stirs the problems. Knowing that Macbeth will most likely shrink from what has to be done to gain greatness, his wife brings evil into herself and causes her husband, Macbeth, to murder the current king and make suspects out of the king's innocent sons. Macbeth does become king but he ends up unhappy and nervous every second; worried that people will learn the truth and take the throne from him. To keep the throne, he kills his best friend and everyone in his way. People slowly become tired of his tyranny and their hearts stray away from him. In the end, Macbeth loses all he once had. His wife goes crazy and dies and his noblemen all turn against him. Macbeth himself also dies in the hands of Macduff, whose wife and children Macbeth had executed.
After I finished this book, I was horrified. How had this brave general become an evil tyrant? I was disgusted by Macbeth's greed in becoming king. Why couldn't he have found content with what he already had? But when I looked into myself and our world, I had nothing left to say. Macbeth’s ambition of becoming king mirrored our desire of popularity and wealth. In other words, Macbeth represented us all. The result was somewhat exaggerated but it showed us that evil lurks inside our hearts and that we should always be on our guard.