Richard III and Macbeth

In the plays of William Shakespeare, certain themes seem to appear over and over again. In both the stories of Richard III and Macbeth, very ambitious men use nefarious means in order to achieve leadership of their countries. Each man is in line for the throne, but has to deal with other people who are closer to the crown than he is. So, the title character takes it upon him to eliminate all the people who stand between him and ultimate power. It doesn't matter if they are family members or friends. Anyone who stands in the way is done away with either through murder or by framing the person for murder. What often happens when a man or woman uses bloodshed to get ahead in the world is that the deaths come back to haunt them, often in a physical form. This haunting, whether real...
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