Drew Peterson: A Modern Macbeth?

Drew Peterson, a Chicago police sergeant currently in prison for killing his ex-wife, is being charged for hiring a hitman between September 2013 and December 2014 to kill James Glasgow, the prosecutor who sent him to jail. This development in his case is reminiscent of a much more well known story: Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In the famous tragedy, Macbeth sends a group of three murderers to take out Banquo, the man that threatens his throne. While Banquo himself was no direct competition for Macbeth’s power (it was his son, Fleance, who was foretold to someday be king), and the prosecutor could not possibly take more from Peterson after sending him to prison, both Glasgow and Banquo represent the feared appropriation of something Peterson and Macbeth value highly: their dignity.

    Peterson did not expect to be somehow released from jail with the death of the man who put him there; from Glasgow’s death, he would have had merely revenge and satisfaction. However, spending the next thirty eight years of his life in Randolph County, Illinois’ Menard Correctional Facility, Peterson might have found some kind of twisted closure in the prosecutor’s death, knowing that he took away the life of the man who had taken his. In the prosecutor’s death, he might (at least in his own mind) redeem an undeserved sense of honor or respect. Similarly, Macbeth hopes to gain a feeling of emotional resolution in the death of Banquo and Fleance, knowing that he faces no more threat to his power. However, in the case of Macbeth, he does not find this closure (nor does he succeed in taking out Fleance) and instead is plagued with the guilt of a murderer.

    While Drew Peterson had nothing material to gain from the death of James Glasgow, and while Macbeth can find more direct results from the actions of his hitmen, they both search for a sense of calm and resolution when faced with potential (or, in Peterson’s case, real and current) deposition. Luckily, however, Peterson’s hired killer was unsuccessful, so to parallel Macbeth’s emotional strife following his murder, he will face more suffering in the form of extended time in prison.