1. Connections to our World
Macbeth
Connections to our World

2. Characters, themes and plot
Macbeth explores
Ambition
Evil
Guilt
Manipulation
Betrayal
Supernatural/Superstition
False Appearances

3. T.V. - Mob Loyalty and Justice
The acting boss of the DiMeo family, Anthony Soprano heads the most powerful criminal organization in New Jersey.
Tony “wacks” his competition and those who are disloyal to him or the mob.

4. Tony Soprano kills His nephew Christopher
Christopher has been very close to Tony. However, substance abuse and other issues made him a liability. Tony suffocates Chris after a serious car crash.

5. His Cousin, Tony Blundetto
Tony Blundetto is Tony Soprano’s cousin and close childhood friend.
Tony Soprano shoots him dead to prevent a blood war following unauthorized murders.

6. Salvatore Bonpensiero
Tony and two friends murder mobster (and former cat burglar) Salvatore. All three have since been haunted by the memory of their old friend's betrayal and murder.

7. Capo Ralphie Cifaretto,
Tony Soprano choked/ bludgeoned Ralphie to death for supposedly killing Tony's prize winning race horse Pie-O-My for insurance money.

8. Murder comes easily to Tony Soprano
Tony Soprano has personally committed 8 murders. However as a Boss, he is fully responsible for the deaths of countless others on his order. It's estimated through the entire series he has been behind at least 60 to 70 murders.

9. It’s a brutal, dangerous world (Like Macbeth’s)
Tony’s mother, Livia Soprano, the family matriarch, is scheming, manipulative, conniving and abusive. She even tried to manipulate her brother-in-law, (and Tony’s uncle) Junior, into putting out a hit on her own son after he tried to put her in a nursing home.

10. Guilt – and Tony Soprano
Tony sees a psychiatrist for help with panic attacks and strange, disturbing dreams.
His doctor prescribes Lithium as a mood stabilizer. In one episode, Tony sinks into a severe depressive episode and experiences hallucinations

11. Carmela Soprano
Being the First Lady of the New Jersey mob has its advantages, like a beautiful house, furs, expensive jewelry - and power.
Although, Carmela finds it difficult to reconcile the brutal nature of Tony's profession with her religious faith, she also manipulates her husband’s sense of guilt (especially for his marital infidelity) to her own material advantage.

12. Figure Skater Tonya Harding

13. Elite figure skater
First American woman to complete a triple axel jump and first to do two in a single program.
But….

14. Harding wanted to be #1
During a practice session in January 1994, Harding’s ex-husband Jeff Gillooly hired a hitman to strike Tonya’s competitor, Nancy Kerrigan on the knee.

15. Harding won the event, but later confessed.

16. Hillary Clinton: The Lady Macbeth of Little Rock.

17. “Her public image is one of consuming ambition, inflexibility of purpose, a lack of human feeling.
The image of Hillary that has crystallised in the
public consciousness is, of course, that of Lady
Macbeth; consuming ambition, inflexibility of
purpose, domination of a pliable husband and an
upsetting lack of tender human feeling, along with
the affluent feminists' contempt for traditional
female roles.” (American Spectator 1992)

18. Running for President of the United States

19. President Richard Nixon – Ambition and Corruption
Richard Nixon was the 37th President of the United States.

20. Watergate scandal
Series of American political scandals during the presidency of Richard Nixon
In June 1972, five men were arrested for burglary at the Watergate complex – headquarters of the Democrat National Committee.
President Nixon was a Republican

21. A conspiracy to stay in power
Nixon’s staff carried out
burglary, wiretapping,
sabotage and illegal break
ins. They were a “dirty
tricks squad” in charge of making the Democrats
look bad, boosting slush
funds, and keeping Nixon in
power. Nixon and his
staff conspired to cover up
the crimes

22. Impeachment began, Nixon resigned - 1974
Nixon resigned in disgrace in 1974, but was pardoned by President Ford later that year.
Many members of the dirty tricks squad went to jail.

23. Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain

24. Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love
"She offered me 50 grand to whack Kurt Cobain." According to documentary maker Nick Broomfield, Courtney's ambition is all-consuming and she flattens anything that gets in her way.

25. A Canadian Connection…

26. Financier, newspaper magnate
Black is Canadian-born, but publicly renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2001 in order to accept his appointment as a life peer in the British House of Lords. He is married to Barbara Amiel, a well-known, British-born journalist.

28. Convicted of fraud
Along with three other men, Black was charged with 13 counts related to criminal fraud. On July 13, 2007, a jury found Black guilty on four charges, including mail fraud and obstruction of justice, but acquitted him of the other nine charges, including wire fraud and racketeering. He faces a maximum penalty of 35 years in prison and a million-dollar fine.

29. “Conrad and Lady Black – Dancing on the Edge”
According to reviewer Charles Campbell, “Tom Bower’s book presents a “ version of Barbara Amiel Black is a hyper-adenoidal Lady Macbeth, stoking Conrad's already raging belly-fire of craven ambition. Bower's couple appears fully worthy of such media monikers as "Lord Con and Lady Barbarella" or "Mr. Money and Attila the Honey.“ In addition,
“Bower's Black is pretty much as he's being portrayed in Chicago by the prosecution -- a conniving opportunist with a penchant for rococo extravagance.”

30. What connections can you make?
Think about sports, music, entertainment, business and politics.
What other Macbeths/
Lady Macbeths are in our world?