Similarities Between Yertle The Turtle And Macbeth

Amitav Kohli

PD:1

Mr. Shear

March 7th, 2023

Yertle The Turtle Writing Task

The characters of Yertle the Turtle, Malcolm, King Duncan, King Edward the Confessor, and Macbeth were all unique in their acquisition and loss of power. Some gained power by force and fear, while others obtained it by birth. Yertle the Turtle and Macbeth, from Dr. Seuss’s Yertle The Turtle and Shakespeare’s Macbeth, were both tyrannical dictators who ruled by fear and oppression. They gained power through force and corruption. In contrast, King Duncan, Edward the Confessor, and Malcolm all followed the customary royal lineage, gaining power as the rightful heir to the throne.

In the case of the aforementioned dictators, they both gained power through unfair and oppressive methods and also lost it very quickly. Despite

King Duncan, King Edward the Confessor, and Malcolm all rose to power through just means. All three were typically acclaimed to be pious, respectful rulers. King Duncan gave respect to Macbeth at the beginning of the play, telling him, “O Valiant cousin! Worthy gentlemen” (Shakespeare 1), in regard to his selflessness fighting with the leader of the Norwegian army. Malcolm was also a respectful ruler, he has a moral value for honesty. “King, Cawdor, Glamis, all, as the weird women promised, and I fear… Thou Played’st most foully for ‘t” (Shakespeare 3). This shows Malcolm's value for honesty, and in this context he is expressing how immoral it is that Macbeth came to power using unfair tactics. While King Edward the Confessor was not a character in Macbeth, he was mentioned and regarded as a very pious ruler. In Act three, Malcolm explains to Macduff how a good ruler shares virtues with King Edward. Not only this, but he is acclaimed to have the power to perform precognition, and is well respected among his