Narrator:
Power gives people the ability to run countries, make rules for others and decisions for themselves. In good hands, power can do great things, in dodgy ones – life can get very messy.
Shakespeare’s plays show many types of power and particularly what happens when power goes bad.
Narrator:
Macbeth shows the power of tyrants.
In Scotland, King Duncan is doing a good job of looking after his country and his people. But Lord and Lady Macbeth want that royal prestige, pomp and power for themselves - and Duncan is in the way. So Lord and Lady M start plotting to kill him.
Macbeth:
‘The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step
on which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,
for in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;
let not light see my black and deep desires.'
Narrator:
Macbeth kills the king - abandoning so many of his own values in the process. He can’t see what’s right anymore. He carries on killing anyone in his way…
Macbeth:
"I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more,
returning were as tedious as go o'er.'
Narrator:
So, while King Duncan used his power for the good of his people, Lord and Lady Macbeth want power for their personal ambition.
It doesn’t end well…
In Romeo and Juliet - it’s about the power of fathers.
As head of the family, Lord Capulet expects total control over his daughter, Juliet, and announces she’s got to marry Paris - a bloke she barely knows. He gets very nasty when she mentions she might have other plans…
Lord Capulet:
Thursday is near; lay hand on heart, advise:
an you be mine, I'll give you to my friend;
And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets,
For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee,
Nor what is mine shall never do thee good:
Trust to't, bethink you; I'll not be forsworn.
Narrator:
He’s got so power-crazed, he’s happier to see his daughter on the streets, starving to death, than disobeying his rules.
This one gets very messy.
Narrator:
But Shakespeare’s power struggles aren’t all bad news … In Much Ado About Nothing he shows the power of women.
Beatrice is an independent and feisty young woman - way ahead of her time.
In an era where arranged marriages are the norm, she announces to her family that she won’t be skipping up the aisle with any dull, controlling man.
Leonato:
Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.
Beatrice:
Not till God make men of some other metal than earth.
Narrator:
By the end of the play she does fall in love and marries a man she chooses, but even she can’t get all the power and equality she wants.
When her cousin, Hero, is the victim of vicious gossip, Beatrice is furious she can’t get out there to even the score for her .
Beatrice:
'O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the market-place.'
Narrator:
So, Shakespeare’s power…
There’s lots of it, throughout his plays. There’s the tyrannical power that sent Macbeth mad, the misjudged power of fathers in Romeo and Juliet and Beatrice who proves in Much Ado about Nothing that even Elizabethan women could have power.
The key is how power is used, or abused, by those who hold it.
Shakespeare’s plays represent many different kinds of power, and drama often occurs when power is abused.
In Macbeth we see the contrast between the benign royal power of King Duncan who rules his country well, and the ambition for personal power of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, who commit a series of murders in order to steal his crown and protect their position.
In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet's father abuses his power over his daughter, insisting she marry Paris or be disowned if she defies him.
In Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice is a powerful woman who refuses to bow to society's expectations that she will have an arranged marriage.
Although she is frustrated that she can't protect her cousin Hero's honour in combat like a man, when she does marry it is a husband that she has chosen herself for love.
This clip is from the series Shakespeare Themes.
Teacher Notes
This clip links to human chains of power, which can be related to modern poitical events, eg Trump vs Clinton in the US elections, or political, economic, media or celebrity power in the UK.
Students could debate the dangers of human power.
Curriculum Notes
This clip will be relevant for teaching English Literature at Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and 3rd Level and National 4/5 in Scotland.
