William Shakespeare s Macbeth And Fyodor Dostoevsky s...

Joanne Marius World Humanities Professor Bonaparte 17 December 2014 Similar Actions... Different Outcomes Many novels throughout the world have been known to hold insight on many life decisions. It is common to read about how positive actions have positive outcomes. Some however, give insight to negative outcomes from negative actions. Yet, how is it that some people are able to overcome these outcomes from their decisions? It does not come without hardships that affect the person mentally. Two famous narratives of literature in particular are William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment. Both works are allegorically similar in that the situations and struggles of the protagonists have complex ways of following a decision that has lead to distinctly different outcomes. However, both narratives are also vastly different in nature. Some similarities between the two works of literature are the recurring themes of good and evil, guilt, motive, and ambition. Through an in depth understanding of the context surrounding what lead to the pr otagonists murders in both stories, and the actions that each protagonist upholds, it will be easier to understand how Macbeth ultimately destroys his life in the end of the play and how Raskonikov starts his redemption at the end of the story due to the many factors that lead them to their distinctly different outcomes. Macbeth is about how one man, who appears to be a loyal and honorable person in