Star Wars vs Macbeth: intersections between genres and ages

Hey y'all, Pez here.

At times in my own life, I admit that I have let fear dictate my actions. Whether it be not raising my hand to answer a question in fear of being judged or acting “cool” around my friends, learning to overcome this is crucial to our personal development. In our society today, especially among testosterone-induced teens like myself, we can also easily get caught up in our own heads and try to justify our misdeeds instead of learning from them. By analysing these two works, I have learnt valuable lessons on the widespread effects of literary texts, how it personally affects me, and how it can influence society as whole too.

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Fear, the most primal emotion, is the primary driver for not only characters in literature, but for many people in reality too. Secondary urges of temptation, sorrow, arrogance, and regret germinate from fear. For the best of men, the ultimate achievement is defeating these feelings, and realising one’s wrongdoings.

George Lucas and William Shakespeare cultivate deeply personal emotions of temptation, ambition, arrogance along with regret, and above all, fear, in their works: Star Wars and Macbeth. Anakin, Star Wars’ main character, undergoes a similar character arc as that of Macbeth. Both characters begin their journey with reflections of nobility and magnanimity in their nature, but as temptation and ambition wear down on their very being, they ultimately endure similar ordeals of succumbing to their darkest emotions. Certainly, both characters do not experience an instant change in heart: there are always external elements that exert influence on the minds of the protagonists. So, then, in literature, never can we put all the blame on any individual’s shoulders; rather, the fault should be spread across all contributors, like the aforementioned emotions, other characters in the story, and prophecy. Despite the heroes’ downfall, regardless of the peripheral factors contributing to it, the ultimate test of one’s character is whether they can overcome the past, and “redeem” themselves for the future. If this same literary notion is applied to our daily lives, it reveals many valuable lessons and experiences that we can learn from too. Thus, although the heroes’ inner conflicts direct them to their failure, other influences cannot be simply disregarded and must be criticized too; with this in mind, the test of one’s true nature is the response to their downfall.

The hamartia of Anakin, Macbeth and sometimes even righteous characters all reside in their bindings to fear. Both Anakin and Macbeth let fear dictate their psyche; as a result of having a terror-clouded mind, their actions become contorted, disregarding the associated consequences. In Star Wars (Revenge of the Sith), Anakin’s greatest fear is losing his beloved wife, Padmé. While this may seem natural and actually “sweet” at first glance, it becomes progressively more twisted upon further inspection. In his conversation with Yoda, the Jedi Grandmaster, Anakin seeks guidance for the struggle he’s fighting with his emotions; in the context of the Jedi Order, “emotion” does not exist, “only peace”. The scene begins with a medium side-on shot of Anakin facing Yoda in a room only lit by tiny beams of light, as Lucas utilizes the dark lighting to demonstrate the infectiousness of Anakin’s inner angst. Reinforced by the close up of Anakin’s knitted brow, this shot creates a sullen atmosphere with the implied “dark aura” that seeps throughout the room. The interview shots of Anakin show the light only reaching one side of his face, whilst the other is lost in the darkness; Lucas employs this to symbolise Anakin’s internal conflict between the Light and Dark Side, revealing the importance of this scene in his commitment to fear, thus fundamentally to the Dark. Moreover, Yoda fortifies this by teaching Anakin that the “fear of loss” is the beginning of the “path” to the “Dark Side”, yet Anakin dismisses this foolishly. Contrasting Anakin’s lighting, both halves of Yoda’s face, especially the eyes, are shown in the lighting. However, Lucas purposely shrouds the rest of Yoda’s body in darkness, exposing that even the Jedi have hypocrisies and almost “sacrilegious” practices. The director insinuates that fear even permeates to the best of the Light, displaying that the festering influence of fear does not discriminate. Furthermore, these deceitful practices are what feed Anakin’s distrust and fear, ultimately “tipping” his fate to the Dark Side. While the two Jedi are conversing, the score adds to the already gloomy atmosphere, whilst also creating a sense of uncertainty through its highly pitched atmospheric strings playing in a minor key. Additionally, this scene is concluded with the loud thump of a heavy brass instrument, reminiscent of “The Imperial March”, Darth Vader’s theme’s timbre. To conclude the scene, Anakin entirely lowers his head into the darkness, both eyes consumed by his fear as he disobeys Yoda and the Jedi Order, inevitably commencing his journey to the Dark Side of the Force. I see myself, at times, falling into the “trap” of letting fear dictate my actions, although my “hormonal” induced fears are quite trivial when compared to Anakin’s. While Anakin fears losing a loved one, Shakespeare contrastingly crafts Macbeth to dread the (potential) loss of power and authority. After obtaining the throne of Scotland by regicide, Shakespeare arranges Macbeth to gradually adopt an image of psychopathy; the tyrant becomes irrational about losing his throne, perhaps out of guilt, but more significantly out of fear like Anakin. In act 3, Macbeth desperately orchestrates the murder of his loyal friend Banquo, from fear, to destroy the “only one” who’s being he does “fear”. Out of both irrationality and dread, Shakespeare proves that because Macbeth is so selfishly indulged with himself and the throne, he is willing to kill his best friend, let alone civilians, just to “protect it”. Fearing that he is crowned with a “fruitless crown” this point is further validated when Macbeth not only places a kill “order” on Fleance’s head, but also commands the assassins to kill Macduff’s family too: Macbeth’s malice from his fear extends to the attempt of killing a bloodline. So, although the protagonists are employed with different fears, both are ultimately met with the same ill conclusion.

Lucas and Shakespeare both employ the notion of prophecy as a major plot device to drive not only the character’s actions, but to also manipulate the emotions connotated with their behaviours too. Fate, in both literary pieces, tethers several characters with paranoia and superstition. So, in truth, both Anakin and Macbeth’s problems stem from prophecies: even the fatal flaw in which they are bound to fear. The overarching prophecy in the Star Wars universe is the notion of a “Chosen One”: the most powerful “Force user” that will bring balance to the Force. As cliché as it is, great power does indeed come with great responsibility. Clearly, considering his downfall, Anakin does not possess the willpower to use his gifts virtuously. Instead, Anakin abuses his gifts from this prophecy for his own desires. With this in mind, we can analyse another foretelling which contributes greatly to his self-destruction too. During his sleep, Anakin has a vision, or a foretelling, of Padmé dying during childbirth. Lucas establishes this scene with a black, murky haze whch slowly fades into close-up shot of Padmé’s anguish-stricken face. The continual black haze around the border along with the camera flare create a psychedelic atmosphere, capturing both the hellish ambience of a “nightmare” and the intensity of death during childbirth: Anakin’s children can be heard crying in the background. Padmé cries out for Anakin’s “help”, further attacking Anakin’s mental state which encourages his submission to prophecy. In a transition to consciousness, Lucas employs high pitched strings playing in a crescendo before dissipating, crafting an almost cathartic feeling of release. It should also be noted that the shot of Anakin waking up has very similar lighting to that of his previous conversation with Yoda, signalling that this dream is paralleled with his lingering fear of losing Padmé. So, what does this all mean? Well, Lucas harmonizes all these themes to illustrate the inextricable linkage between Anakin’s fatal flaw, his tie with fear, and the prophecy that catalyses this collapse in character. Because he is so dismayed and impelled by these foretellings, Anakin ends up emotionally consumed from the “inside-out”. One of these stark emotions, arrogance, is evidently displayed in the scene on Mustafar. After commencing his transition into Vader, Anakin struggles to justify his treacherous deeds to Padmé. He assures his wife that “I can save you”, and “we” can “rule” the galaxy, demonstrating his complacency in his own ability to change his fate. Anakin is presented to indulge his self-determinism, a subset of arrogance, convinced that he is “above” the “normal” process of things; this also ties back into the legend of the “Chosen One”. Whilst the prophecies in Star Wars plunge Anakin into an abyss of madness and other extreme emotions, Macbeth is similarly concerned with the prophecies of the Wyrd Sisters. The supernatural feeds the protagonist two prophecies in Star Wars and Macbeth alike. Shakespeare places the first prophecy at the outset of the play, aiming to establish a tone that lingers in the audience’s head. In act 1 scene 3, the Witches “hail” Macbeth, manipulatively worshipping him as “Thane of Cawdor” and ultimately as “King of Scotland”. Upon hearing this, Banquo reacts composedly, referring to the Sisters as “good sir”. However, there is no sign of this formality in Macbeth, as he calls upon the “imperfect speakers” to “tell [him] more” immediately. Shakespeare uses this contrast in the two characters to demonstrate Macbeth’s susceptibility to manipulation (and thus prophecy), foreshadowing the quality of “hearing what I want to hear” which later results in his failure. But Macbeth acknowledges that Banquo’s “children shall be kings”; this is the root of all his paranoia, as we later see Macbeth dreading his “fruitless” crown. Similar to the “Chosen One”, Macbeth too is infatuated with prophecy, desperately trying to change his own fate when he later resorts to murder and treachery too. Shakespeare shows that, like Anakin, Macbeth is fearful when his deepest obsessions are threatened. In the second foretelling, Macbeth is met with a series of “apparitions” conjured by the Sisters. The second apparition tells him that “none” born of a “woman” shall “harm” him, while the third apparition declares that Macbeth “shall never be vanquish’d” until the trees move at Dunsinane Hill Both these “sweet bodements” assure Macbeth that he will “never” be defeated. Both Anakin and Macbeth rely on the prophecies as fuel for their ego; Anakin adopts an “invincible” demeanour from the legend of the “Chosen One”, while Macbeth embraces a similarly “invulnerable” attitude from what seems to be ludicrous prophecies. Through both wrestling with their dreadful prophecies, Macbeth and Anakin are ultimately engulfed with their blackest emotions.

Both Star Wars and Macbeth convey that the true test of one’s character is whether they can repent from the harm they have inflicted on themselves and others after their downfall. After defeat, a character’s true colours are usually revealed, as they do not bear the burden of their emotions or prophecy (in this case): they have already been met with their fate. This notion of redemption is revealed during the climax, when Darth Sidious is killing Luke. As Luke is excruciatingly “Force-lightninged” by Sidious, he cries out pleas of “help” to his “father”, who is tortured by watching his son. Although Vader wears a mask and therefore cannot express emotions facially, Lucas invites the audience to feel his pain and heartbreak through the close-up shot, reinforced by the intense but sad score. In the moments of being mentally torn apart, Vader recalls back to losing his mother to the “sand-people” and Padmé to his own lunacy, both crying out for help just as Luke is before him. Vader finally decides that he will not make the same mistake again by losing Luke; the broken man screams out a “NO!” in defiance, lunging at the Emperor and throwing him into his demise. The score here changes from what would normally be “The Imperial March”, Vader’s theme, to “Binary Sunset”, the theme of the Jedi/force/light: this is the anagnorisis of Darth Vader. In the following scene, Anakin is dying, wishing to see his “son” with his “own eyes”, but Luke exclaims that “you will die” if the mask is taken off, explaining that “I came here to save you”. However, in his dying breaths, Anakin powerfully tells luke that “you have already saved me”. Lucas concludes the story of Anakin by crafting him to repent from all the distraught he has bestowed on himself and his loved ones, not dying under the control of Darth Vader, but rather as the Anakin Skywalker he once was. Although Vader turns away from his sins in the final moments of his life, sadly, we do not find the same change of heart in Macbeth. Nearing the end of the fight with Macduff, Macbeth’s false comfort in the second apparition is finally destroyed as he experiences a moment of epiphany, when Macduff tells the tyrant that he was “untimely ripp’d” from his “mother’s womb”. Defeated not physically but psychologically, Macbeth simply “gives up” and accepts his fate. Despite looking into the eyes of defeat, Macbeth still has echoes of hubris in his soul as he “will not yield” and “kiss the ground at young Malcom’s feet”. Shakespeare uses this to address that even though Macbeth is a shattered man, nevertheless does he not admit to his faults, but rather he only accepts his eternal demise. Through looking past his pain and into his last shades of light, Anakin is finally redeemed during his dying moments, while Macbeth holds onto to his pride and simply accepts death without repenting.

In their works, Star Wars and Macbeth, both creators explore a myriad of themes, motifs, and ideas that aim to not only educate their audience, but to more importantly make for two ‘damn good’ (so to speak) pieces of literature too. The protagonists, Anakin and Macbeth, go through similar journeys: one which begins with reflections of nobility and justice in their character, but continues with fear and other evil emotions that slowly infect their psyche. Fear is a catalyst for both characters’ downfall: Anakin fears losing his wife while Macbeth dreads losing his throne. A linkage between this fear and prophecy is also strongly established by both works, as their submission to the prophecy and confidence in their own ability both tie in with the heroes’ failure. But despite this, if one looks past the pain and into the “bigger picture”, they will repent from their previous sins and be redeemed for the future. Anakin certainly these qualities in his final actions; unfortunately, the same cannot be applied to Macbeth as struggles to embrace his misdeeds. So, despite some crucial differences, both texts appear to be largely paralleled with one another under close analysis.