Macbeth & Harry Potter

This weekend I took a kids' version of Macbeth out of the library. I had forgotten some of the story so it was fun to read.

It occurred to me this morning that a major plot point in Macbeth is very similar to one in the Harry Potter books. In Macbeth, the whole reason Macbeth decides to murder King Duncan is that the Three Witches greet him with "Hail, Thane of Glamis! (which he already is), Hail, Thane of Cawdor! (which the king has just made him but he doesn't know it yet), and Hail, who shall be king hereafter!" Macbeth and his wife decide they must kill King Duncan because since the Cawdor prophecy came true, then the king one must also and they need to kill him in order to make the prophecy happen.

The same thing, more or less, happens in Harry Potter. In Prisoner of Azkaban Professor Trelawney, who is known for making more or less junk prophecies, makes a prophecy that for Voldemort to rule he will need to defeat a boy born in July to two who had previously gone against him (?I forget all the details exactly, but it's either Harry or Neville and for some reason Voldemort decides it must be Harry). Voldemort decides that the prophecy is true, that Harry is the boy and he then goes after him, thus making the prophecy come true.

A little search on the net reveals that in fact, Rowling was in fact referencing Macbeth.

Rowling references the Shakespearean play, Macbeth, as an example similar to what happens in the Harry Potter stories. In Macbeth, three witches deliver a series of prophecies, which become allegedly fulfilled only because Macbeth sought to try and undermine them. Rowling confirms her opinion about the mechanism behind the prophecy in an interview to TLC and MuggleNet:

"If Macbeth hadn't met the witches, would he have killed Duncan? Would any of it have happened? Is it fated or did he make it happen? I believe he made it happen."

In other news ...

Owen's team lost again on Saturday, but it was very close, and he did better with the pitching. He seemed pretty happy about it, unlike the previous Saturday.

This afternoon after school the kids and I are going to Berkeley to see mom, Nina, Kathy & Violet; should be fun.