Eminem's Macbeth

           An entire life can be changed by a single decision. Marshal Mathers was an rising rap artist when he decided to move out to California to pursue his dreams of becoming a professional MC. This change, however, altered his relationship with his family forever. Almost as soon as Mathers started to appear on TV, his wife Kim started substance abuse which spiraled out of control leading to her incarceration soon after. Their daughter, Hailey, was unfortunate enough to witness this whole ordeal, which left her with much emotional unrest. All these events lead to the creation of Eminem’s lullaby rap, “Mockingbird”, which acted as a personal message to his daughter. Mathers sings about how he is sorry that his profession coupled with Kim’s unstable situation drove the family into such difficulties that Haley had to witness.

In the play “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare, Macbeth’s relationship with his wife can be seen as a similar situation to that of Marshal and Kim. Macbeth’s desire and guilt for taking the throne from Duncan drove him insane, eventually leading to Lady Macbeth committing suicide by jumping from a tower in their castle. Macbeth and his wife grew further and further apart as time went on as it became near impossible for the two to be together without thinking of the terrible things they have done. This is similar to the relationship between Kim and Marshal described in “Mockingbird”. In both “Macbeth”, and in “Mockingbird”, it is clear that a relationship between two people is an incredibly fragile dynamic that almost always will contain difficulties along the road. How to handle these difficulties is a hard question to answer and has no simple answer. Difficulties are in impasse that will come about in any and all relationships. The real question is how we overcome and adapt to new challenges.