“The son of Duncan / from whom this tyrant holds the birthright / lives in the English Court” Unknown Lord (3.6.27-28)
Where would any of us be without our relationships? Who would we get advice from? Where could we turn for help? It‘s common knowledge that relationships are important to human success, but recently I’ve come to realize the sheer extent this concept can be applied. Leaders, change-makers, and even entire countries have relied on relationships for millennia to gain the strength needed to take various actions. Their power and worth was often secured by the alliances they had, and many notable moments in history occurred due to the combined influence of multiple parties. This realization came to me this week when we were once again studying the 1950’s and Shakespeare’s Macbeth, looking for what makes them different and where we could find connections. As you probably can already tell, the connection that I have made this week is…
What is the definition of an alliance? Well…
There’s a couple of different ways to describe it, but all of these descriptions bring up the same key ideas. They essentially convey that an alliance is when two or more things come together to work towards a common goal. When I thought about this definition, the first thing that came to my mind is music. A melody is simply a team of instruments playing together for the greater purpose of harmony, and this gave me the unique idea to represent the connection I made through songs:
Here’s the breakdown of what these Garage Band loop boards represent: both of these are metaphors for the two conflicts we have been studying this week, which is the brewing war between the traitorous Macbeth and the loyal Macduff and the Korean War. Each instrument represents a different entity in these conflicts; either an individual or a country. To determine what instruments I would use, I researched the cultural music of Scotland, England, Korea, China, Russia, France, and America and built the melodies around their unique sounds and significant instruments. If you watch the videos above, you’ll also notice that some of the instruments play in harmony and some make quite the cacophony when sounded together. This represents the alliances and oppositions respectively that were part of these conflicts, and the group of instruments which end the song represents which of the two alliances achieved their goal in the end. If you want to know more about the details, you can read the story tabs below:
The music and stories above demonstrate the connection I have made about alliances and action in a quite abstract and artistic way. In order for my readers to truly understand what I believe about this connection about however, I think that it will be useful to have some concrete examples:
1. Alliances Drive Powers into Dangerous Actions
In the play of Macbeth, the titular character wrestles with taking the biggest action of the play; murdering King Duncan. On one hand, his ambition encourages him to move forward, but on the other his morals and better judgement hold him back. Eventually, they win out over ambition which is proven by when he says “we will precede no further in this business” (1.7.33). However, the person he is saying this to is Lady Macbeth, and she has other plans in mind. In order to convince him that he should go through with their plan, she scolds him by asking “what beast was’t then / that made you break this enterprise to me?”. After this conversation, Macbeth’s mind is made up again, but this time that he will go forward with the plan. This is because he has a relationship, or alliance, with Lady Macbeth and does not want to break a promise to her/trusts her judgement. Without this alliance, Macbeth would not have taken action.
We can see a similar example of alliances leading to dangerous and harmful actions in the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the U.N. Security council. Due to the outcome of the Chinese Civil War, where the communist People’s Republic of China headed by Mao Zedong took over, the U.S.S.R. decided to become allies with them. However, this proved to be a problem when China’s new communist status caused the U.S. to keep threatening to veto them on the security council and effectively banning them from it. Due to their alliance with China, the Soviets then decided to take action and boycott the U.N. by leaving. Later in the war, this prevented them from using their veto power against the U.N. backing South Korea, which was a contributing factor in their inability to win the war. Once again, if there were no alliances this action would not have been taken.
2. Alliances Drive Protective Actions
After the murder of Duncan, it is agreed that Macbeth will be crowned king. However, due to him believing that “upon [his] head they placed a fruitless crown” (3.1.64) (e.g. his kingship is in danger and his children won’t be kings), he becomes threatened by many people around him. We first see this with Banquo, whom he quickly has murdered, and then soon after with Macduff. Due to the warning from the apparition to “Beware Macduff, Beware the Thane of Fife” (4.1.78), he plots to have him murdered as well, but then finds out from Lennox that “Macduff has fled to England” (4.1.68). Macduff had an alliance with England and thus was able to take the action necessary to stay safe, as it is obvious that with out it Macbeth would have destroyed him.
A similar example can be found through looking at the Cold War, when examining the defence which South Korea put up against the North. Backed by Soviet power, North Korea makes it all the way to the capital of Seoul and renders the South on the verge of collapse. Yet, not all hope is lost, because on June 27th 1950 America enters the war with the backing of the United Nations. With them, they have tanks, rocket launchers, artillery pieces, anti-aircraft guns and close-air support aircraft; all vital technology which South Korea desperately needed. With this extra help, they were able to start pushing the North back, and on September 15th they launch an amphibious attack which leads to their liberation. In this example, it is blatantly obvious that just like with Macduff, South Korea would have fallen if it wasn’t for their alliances.
3. Alliances Drive Offensive Actions
Macbeth’s kingship is not a joyous event, as under this new leadership the kingdom of Scotland begins to deteriorate, with subjects such as an old man describing these new conditions as “hours dreadful and things strange” (2.4.3). It is obvious that Macbeth’s ambition and disregard for others will never make him a good king, meaning that Scotland could be stuck like this for years. Luckily, this isn’t the end of the story. Despite being vanquished, the values of King Duncan live on through his alliances, particularly with Macduff. We hear from Thane Lennox that in England he “prepares for some attempt at war” (3.6.42), which means that due to his loyalty to Duncan and what he stood for, Macduff action will take action to restore the kingdom to peace. It is this alliance which once again furthers the plot.
As for the Cold War, we can see a similar situation happened with the invasion of South Korea by the North. Although they were planning it for quite some time, North Korea’s army was poorly equipped for any sort of invasion and lacked much of the needed supplies. However, they had a trick up their sleeve, and this was their alliance with the Soviet Union. Stalin equipped them with Russian tanks, artillery and aircraft support, along with help in diplomatic, strategic, and logistical affairs, and this allowed them to strike hard in June of 1950 with 223,000 soldiers and 150 tanks. With this backing due to their alliance, the North was able to take action and push all the way to the South’s capital of Seoul, where without it they likely couldn’t have sustained an invasion at all.
Differences
Although both of these songs follow the same structure, the instruments, keys, and rhythms within them are quite different. This is representative of the differences that I discovered between the 1950’s and Macbeth this week, which include:
1. The Nature of the Wars
In the play Macbeth, it appears that the final conflict will arise-between the army Macduff is raising and Macbeth’s forces in a battle for Scotland. This conflict, although backed by the English, is really closer to a civil war than a proxy war as at the head of both armies are Scots. It’s outcome would also not span farther than the expanse of the country, no matter which side won. The Korean War on the other hand was a multi-nation proxy war that was not just between the Koreas, but rather between communist alliances of the world and the western powers. The outcome also could have had much larger consequences, as if let to continue it could have launched the entire world into nuclear warfare.
2. Behind the Scenes
Like mentioned in the last point, the behind the scenes of these conflicts were quite contrasting. In the case of Macbeth, what was going on behind-the-scenes was quite simple, with the only thing that lead to war being the damage that a single couple’s ambition was causing on their country. In the case of the Korean War however, the conflict was much more complex behind the scenes, with tensions able to be traced back to conflict between U.S. and the U.S.S.R. from WW2, the divide in Korea, the Chinese Civil War, containment strategies out of fear of communism, and the looming threat of atomic warfare.
3. The Outcome
Although we haven’t yet seen the final outcome of Macbeth’s actions,
we can tell that he is ambitious beyond all reason, and it is safe to assume that this ambition will either lead him to victory or to his doom. He will not settle for a compromise or mere
peace. The outcome of the Korean War on the other hand was a cease fire, which although cost millions of lives and had indirect implications, did not lead to any notable outcomes.
4. The Motive
If we look to the brewing conflict in Macbeth, we can tell that if a war does start between Macduff and Macbeth, it will likely be initiated by Macduff as he is the one raising an army and unsatisfied with the state of the kingdom. The purpose of this conflict would be to overthrow an undesirable leader in order to restore peace to a broken world. In the Korean War however, the motive of the conflict was the exact opposite, with the U.S. entering in order to prevent an undesirable power, a.k.a a communist government, from destroying the peace and breaking the world.
Researching history has always been confusing rabbit hole full of conflicting and vague information, and unfortunately until we invent time machines it is going to stay this way. However, this doesn’t mean that we can’t try to keep ourselves as on track as possible. In order to make sure that the evidence I used in this post is accurate and relevant, I did the following things:
1. Went Upstream to the Source
Out of all the aspects of history I have researched in the past three weeks, musical instruments have certainly been one of the hardest. There is little information on them compared to topics of more historical significance, and what there is is often subjective and vague. In order to fix this problem, I went upstream to the source of this info and watched videos of these instruments being played myself. By authentically listening to what they sound like, taking note of the locations they are played, and seeing what actual musicians have to say about them I was able to clarify and confirm my research
2. Read Laterally
A source can give tons of details, reference it’s other works, and have a professional interface but still be completely unreliable. This is why it is so important to read laterally and check what other sources have to say about the one you are using. I checked the validity of the following sources using the links below:
b) Encyclopedia Britannica: https://www.quora.com/How-reliable-is-The-Encyclopædia-Britannica-as-a-source-of-information
c)eNotes:
e)BBC
mPols Connection
During my 2020 mPols, I mentioned that at the end of every blog post I will reflect upon my learning journey in terms of my goal of considering the bigger picture. In terms of this post, in consideration of my audience eventually being employers and universities, I worked to make it more engaging by using unique media and plugins, along with having a clear structrue of beginning, middle, and end (something that I was critiqued upon in my last post). Outside of this project, I have been continuing my work towards my first scholarship and am working to improve my sleep schedule:
Really interesting connection, post is well organized and the idea for the music is really creative. The structure of Artifact to Conclusion to Evidence flows really well and keeps it easy to comprehend and read.