Friday 21 June 2013

Game of Books: is there a good alternative to Macbeth?

I kind of touched on this idea in one of my earlier posts but after thinking about it more ive managed to come up with an example of every them from Macbeth in the TV show Game of Thrones. For the purposes of this blog post I will be focusing on season 1 of the show.

Apearence vs Reality
This is difficult almost from the shear amount of good examples from the show. The show itself is basically one big play on this theme. Everyone from Ned Stark to the brothel owner seems to have a hidden agenda and takes steps to hide it while they work towards it, somtimes with better results than others.

Good vs Evil
Prince Joffery is a word that I cant say here on a class blog, in fact, he is every word that I cant say here, yes, even that one, but most importantly he is the living embodiment of evil. Thats not me being harsh, he just is. Almost everyone else in the show is some shade of grey at this point, but he is evil. On the good side we have Ned Stark, who spends most of his time on the show trying to help people and his family, often working against the prince himself.

Role of Women
For this, we have a contrast. The loving mother Catlyn Stark and her daughter Arya Stark. Catlyn Stark is a women with 5 children and has developed quite the motherly instinct. She will do anything to protect he children right up unt... wait, season 1,right. Arya on the other hand has no interest in being at all lady like.

Fate and Free will
This doesnt really come in till the second season but once you are introduced to the idea of the lord of light you start to see how this world might completely deterministic. This works pretty much the same way it works in Macbeth, with a witch and lord who wants to become King.

if there are any themes I missed or you want me to expand more leave something in the comments below

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