Friday, April 7, 2017

I need to compare the presentation of those in power in MacBeth and in An Inspector Calls for an assignment.

Some of how you approach this depends on the length and type of assignment and the level of the class for which you are writing. For an advanced undergraduate or graduate class, you should begin by introducing a theoretical framework. One of the most common approaches to power in literary studies is that of Michel Foucault, which emphasizes it ubiquitous and impersonal nature within modern society, and the way it inheres in institutional structures.

This means that the first element you should compare is the institution of power in the two plays. Macbeth is set in medieval Scotland where the main power structure is feudal. The King is an absolute monarch, but powerful nobles, such as the Thane of Cawdor or Macduff can incite rebellions. Even when we see the two changes of power in the play, Macbeth overthrowing Duncan and Macduff overthrowing Macbeth, the fundamental power structure does not change. You can point out, however, that while Macbeth is a tyrannical ruler, Duncan appears somewhat more kind and just; Macbeth admits to Duncan's virtues when he says that Duncan:



"Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been


So clear in his great office, that his virtues


Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against


The deep damnation of his taking-off"



A second type of power we see in Macbeth is that of Lady Macbeth and the three witches. Because women have no significant rights or powers in patriarchal society, their power lies in the way they influence men. 


In An Inspector Calls, we have a modern system of power which in Foucault's understanding is based on ubiquitous systems of surveillance. Although power in modern Britain appears democratic (people elect their leaders, the hereditary monarchs are legally figureheads), in fact power becomes diffused through mechanisms such as the police force, which in its personification as Inspector Goole seems omniscient and omnipresent. 

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