"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." - Lord Acton

A relevant blog in today's world 

For this blogpost, I chose prompt #2: "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." - Lord Acton. To what extent would Shakespeare agree with this statement? Use the play and your own experience as your support.

I wholeheartedly believe that Shakespeare would agree with this statement. Especially in the case of Shakespeare's book Macbeth, it's apparent that Shakespeare believes that that power is a source of evil. Throughout the play of Macbeth, readers can see how the prophecy of Macbeth becoming king slowly turns his character from "noble Macbeth" to someone willing to do more and more sinister things to get what he wants. After Macbeth first two prophecies come true, he remarks "Stars hide your fires; Let not light my black and deep desires" (1.4). The juxtaposition of light and dark is used to convey Macbeth's dramatic character shift from good to evil, which wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been entertained by the prospect of becoming King of Scotland. The idea of being someone as powerful as a king changed Macbeth's thoughts from being as pure and bright as stars to something black and evil. Even when Macbeth decides to kill Banquo and Fleance to keep his title as king, he admits that he "put ranchors in the vessels of my peace" and "given to the common enemy of man"  to become powerful (3.1). Using a metaphor for evil, it's apparent that Macbeth became drunk on power and sacrificed his goodness for it. Overall, Shakespeare understands that power can turn the goodest of them all into the most sinister.