Control, authority, influence, dominance, mastery, sway are all synonyms for the same word: power.
People are ruthless beings that crave all the power they can obtain and in the most minimal amount of time possible. Macbeth is a play written by the playwright William Shakespeare about a tragic hero named Macbeth who receives prophecies from three witches which then, drives him to wanting all the power he can gain.
Macbeth loves the feeling of having power; if he did not, (spoiler) he would not have never killed the king, period. Certainly, he was influenced by his wife but, putting that aside, humans have learned to control themselves in the time of need which Macbeth did not. For his benefit, he kills the king,” I have done the deed” (Act 2, Scene 2), and gets crowned “Thane of Cawdor”. Words like king, prince, thane, are all similar in that: kings, princes, thanes want to continue to expand throughout their lands, their influential factors of persuasion.
Play begins and Macbeth gets a hold of the title “Thane of Glamis”, by which he has killed Macdonwald (the old Thane of Cawdor – a traitor to the king). Not unhappy, he meets three witches. Unforeseen by Macbeth nor Banquo,”All hail Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor” (Act 1, scene 3, page 3) says the second witch which, instigates Macbeth’s ambition and epic ruination – as if one would not simply ignore prophecies given by three witches, sent by the devil.
Malcom is prince of Cumberland and is seen as a potential threat to Macbeth; Macbeth now wants all the power he can obtain: “The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step, on which I must fall down, or else o’erleap,
[…] Let not light see my black and deep desires” (Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 50-3). To become as high up as Malcom, he is either going to have to “o’erleap” the prince or might as well give up; obviously, is it not one of Macbeth’s options (as Lady Macbeth made clear). If one must do evil in order to acquire power, why not do it? For the most part, people will agree that killing is an act of evil; therefore, do it if all it does is create unnecessary chaos (sarcasm).
Photo:
http://sourcefed.com/humans-good-or-evil/