"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." - Lord Acton
This quote portrays very well one of the themes in Shakespeare's play and he would agree with it if he were alive. Throughout the tale of Macbeth you can see a constant downhill slide of corruption with the protagonist. This corruption is in direct correlation to the amount of power that Macbeth is able to gain. In the very beginning of the story Macbeth is just a warrior and a thane. With not too much power he for the most part level headed. When the witches approach him however, and tell him he is to become king one day, the idea of the power of being king begins to take over and corrupt Macbeth. He becomes so corrupt that he ends up killing his guest, whom is also his friend, king Duncan in pursuit of the crown. This is Shakespeare's way of showing that power can corrupt anybody.
Personally I can attest that power can corrupt people. I was a good and fair employee to all at PDQ before I gained power. My manager made the mistake of thinking it would be a good idea to make me a trainer at work. Of course once i became a trainer and gained the ability to tell others what to do I abused it. I became corrupt with power and very lazy. Anytime I had something to do or a manager told me to do something I simply relayed the job to my inferior employees to do for me. for months I sat around and did nothing at work until I quit.
