Comparing The Stone Angel and Macbeth Essay

Comparative Essay- Stone Angel and Macbeth

In the face of adversity, a character uses many strategies to ensure their survival. In a world full of harsh realities and betrayal, you need to ensure that you stay safe and survive. This can be emotional survival, or literal survival. In the case of Hagar Shipley, she needed to stay alive emotionally, but in the case of Macbeth, he needed to literally stay alive. Both characters have defence mechanisms to ensure their safety. The following essay will outline both characters defence mechanisms. And how it aided them in their survival.

Hagar Shipley was an independent soul. She was very critical of people around her, and found it very difficult to connect with anyone. This was because she found it so difficult to show how she felt. Her inability to show she emotions lead people around her to believe she didnt care. For example: When her son John passed away, Hagar didnt cry. This made everyone in town think that she simply didnt feel any remorse for her sons death. When she actually did feel sorrow, loss, and remorse, she just didnt want to show it. The question here is: Why doesnt Hagar want anyone to know how she really feels? The answer is that this is her way of protecting herself. She made an emotional wall in fear of getting hurt.

This all started when she was a child. Growing up, Hagar didnt have a female influence in her life. This immediately had an effect on how Hagar would live. She only had the male influence in her life; this is where her emotional detachment began. For example: When Hagar was in the store with her father and her father got mad at her. She wanted to cry, but she didnt because she didnt want her father to see how she really felt. She didnt want him to think any less of her. And if she acted as she felt, he would think much less of her.

When Hagars son, Marvin, goes away to war she seems indifferent. Any mother that had a child going away to war should obviously feel upset. But Hagar didnt, she wouldnt even give her son a hug when he was about to leave. She didnt have the connection with Marvin that she did with John. She even openly admits that she didnt feel like he was hers. But she had this connection with John. She feels as though John is the better son. She thinks hes more like her father, when in actual fact Marvin is the one that is exactly like her father. Her views are distorted, her beliefs about her two sons are totally incorrect. And when she finally comes to realize that Marvin is the better son, she tries to reach out to him. Marvin is taken aback by this behaviour, and doesnt know how to react. He simply gets up, and leaves. This shows that Hagar does have feelings but she felt as though she couldnt show them. She felt that is she shows her emotions that shell be vulnerable and shell get hurt. This is sad, and its only on her death bed that she makes a change in the way she acts.

Hagar also tried to reach out to John. This is when she`s younger and John is simply a teen. But because she`s been so emotionally detached her who life, John can`t accept this reach out. He rejects her, and this simply gives Hagar more reason to raise her guard even further. Another example of Hagar getting rejected while trying to reach out, is to her husband Bram. When his horses run away he is upset. Hagar tires to comfort him, but he doesn`t accept it. This is because he tried to reach out to her so many times before, and she wouldn`t accept any of his attempts. So when she tried finally, he was just fed up. And when Hagar finally left, Bram didn`t seem to care. This hurt Hagar`s feelings but she showed him the same in return and just left.

All of these things ensured Hagar`s emotional safety. She isolated herself emotionally, criticized others, and was simply bitter. All of these things gave her a cold and loveless life. Macbeth needed to ensure his literal survival. He does this in many ways. Macbeth wanted to be king. To do this, he knew he had to get the love and respect of the people of Scotland. He went away to fight a war, and he came out triumphant. The people loved him. This was the first step to ensuring he got what he wanted.

Macbeth and Banquo see the three witches in the battle field. They prophesize that Macbeth will take the thrown after King Duncan dies. And then after Macbeth, Banquo`s family will. Macbeth wants to be king immediately and is conflicted as to what to do. He goes home and tells Lady Macbeth what to do. She encourages him to kill Duncan. This is outrageous. Macbeth knows he is too noble of a man to do something so evil.

Eventually with much persuasion, Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to kill Duncan. They set it up so that it looks as though two guards murdered him. Because the people love him so much, and Duncan was now dead, Macbeth became king. All of his dreams were finally coming true. The prophecy was fulfilled, but there was still more that Macbeth desired. This is where Macbeth`s tragic flaw is made obvious. Macbeth becomes power crazy. His ambition to become king, and keep the thrown in his family is what makes him so crazy.

Lady Macbeth did push the murder of Duncan on Macbeth, and once he saw that he got away with it he wanted to do more. Little did Lady Macbeth know what she had created. Since the witches prophesized that Banquo`s family would inherit the thrown after he died, Macbeth decided he needed to kill Banquo and his son. And that is just what he did.

All of the killing that takes place in the play Macbeth, is to ensure his survival as king. Macbeth is so ambitious to keep the title, and ensure that the titles stays within his family he`ll do anything. He kills Banquo and sets out to kill his son, but Fleance escapes. Eventually Macbeth begins to isolate his wife. And returns to the witches. All of this is to ensure his own safety.

When Macbeth returns to the witches, they tell him he won`t die until what they have prophesized have come true. `` Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff, Beware the Thane of Fife, Dismiss me. Enough`` `` Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn. The power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.`` ``Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him`` . These are the things that Macbeth needs to remember. And he holds onto his hope right until the woods walk, and Macbeth is killed by Mcduff. It turns out Mcduff wasn`t born naturally, but was born from a caesarean section. The prophecy was fulfilled and Macbeth was dead.

Macbeth killed everyone that was in his way, isolated himself from everyone, left his wife out and drove her to suicide, visited the witches to ensure he had time left, and framed innocent men. He did all of this just to ensure his actual survival. The ironic part is that it all lead up to his death.

In conclusion, In the face of adversity, a character uses many strategies to ensure their survival. In a world full of harsh realities and betrayal, you need to ensure that you stay safe and survive. Hagar Shipley was too proud, even as a child. She lived her life as an emotionally detached, miserable person. She tried to ensure her own emotionally safety but just ended up hurting herself. In the case of Macbeth he plotted murder and killed his friends and lost his wife. He did all of this to ensure his actual survival but ended up dying in the end. These characters had many defence mechanisms, but they were both proven not to work, and what they feared the most was made into a reality.