President Truman and Lord Macbeth

This post will be the first of many in a series called: “This Week I Learned” (TWIL). As our class studies two different (or maybe not so different) subjects, I will be reporting here on my blog each week to write about the connections I’ve made along the way. My focus for this post, and the once’s to come in the future, will be based around Shakespeare’s play: Macbeth, and the major events of the 1950’s. This week in class we’ve covered ACT 1 of Macbeth, and gone over the events of WWI, and WWII. From here I’ve made a connection that I believe shines a light on Shakespeare’s intentions within his plays. 

Although the Macbeth’s, and President Harry Truman have many many centuries between each other, they shared one big commonality, they both had a secret. A big one. A secret that when publicized would shake up the world, and everyone that lived within it. 

The Macbeth’s, and King Duncan

In Act 1 as a reader, I learned a lot about the main main characters in Macbeth. A majority of Act 1 is focused on the plan between Macbeth, and his wife, Lady Macbeth. After a battle, Macbeth had been announced the Thane of Cawdor, which in Scottish terms is like a Lord. But with his mind burning with need, being the Thane wasn’t enough. He wanted to be King. He had for a very long time. 

Once Macbeth returns home to Lady Macbeth, he explains to her that King Duncan will be staying with them for a couple days (which is something that royalty did during the Elizabethan times). Aware of Macbeth’s bleeding urge to become king, Lady Macbeth says “leave it to me”, which is referring to getting rid of the current King, so Macbeth can take his place. The castle is in a frenzy, cleaning, cooking, and preparing for King Duncan, while Lady Macbeth sets out the plan to murder King Duncan while he stays in there castle. Lady Macbeth is a strong woman, she can cover her evil with a smiling face, and warming forefront. While Macbeth, not so much. For a majority of Act 1 he is debating the pro’s and con’s of murdering the King. He thinks about what might happen if they are caught, or if they fail the plan. 

In Elizabethan times, the King was at the top of the societal chain, right below the church, and god. And the Macbeth’s were aware of this. That once you cut the chain, everything below it immediately falls. 

President Truman, and the Atom Bomb

Once FDR passed away, the biggest secret in U.S. history was passed onto President Harry Truman. Like Macbeth, all of a sudden Truman had taken a step up the chain, Vice President, to President, in mere moments he had obtained more power than understandable. At the time that Truman took his seat as the President of the United States, a giant weight was sat on top of him, for the past couple years, the U.S. government had been racing with Russia to build an atomic bomb, and had had a successful testing in the desert of Los Alamos. 

This would come to be the most powerful weapon the world had even seen. Truman must have debated in the same way that Macbeth did. Both of these important men would be making huge changes to the societal chain. If the bomb was dropped, Japan would be destroyed, and the world would see the power of this weapon, if not, WWII would continue until the Japanese won.  

The Big Connections

#1: The alliances towards the end of WWII, acted in a similar way to Lady Macbeth, as a wall behind the man in power. Encouraging them that cutting the chain was the right idea. Not to look back, and take the jump.

#2: As recorded in research articles, President Truman was quite conflicted when the question of do, or do not drop the bomb came up. As Macbeth debates the murder of King Duncan he is extremely indecisive, and is fighting within himself to make a decision as well.

#3: For four years, people of all walks of life worked in the Manhattan Project’s factories, with the idea in their mind that what they were making was solely to help with war efforts, something that many people were doing around the world at the time. When really they were creating an unimaginable secret weapon. As the servants of the Macbeth castle have the same mindset, they were preparing to have King Duncan as a guest, when low and behold, it was to be much more than that.  

The two chains above depict the way I view these two time period’s beliefs in comparison to each other. On the left is the 1950’s, and the right is the Elizabethan era. After the dropping of the Atom Bomb, and the publication of it’s existence to the world. It was known as “a godlike” weapon. A weapon with power over the existence of the whole world.

Like I wrote earlier, both President Truman, and Lord Macbeth were conflicted whether they should cut the chain or not, thinking constantly of the aftermath of their actions. Once each of them hypothetically cut the chain, a unique series of events would occur, different from each other in definition, but common in impact.