Witchcraft, Politics, and Powerkames1979.or.kr/cont/105/tab1_file/2015103602... · 2015-11-27 · took the way people viewed them to their advantage to gain a position of power. Hence,

|한 동학 논총| 36 2 [2015. 10]: 133~155

Witchcraft, Politics, and Power: A Comparative Analysis of Hosni Mubarak

as a Modern Day Macbeth*

| Mohamed Elaskary**|

하 드 엘아스카리

마 , 치, : 맥 스 같 스니 라 비

최근 수 십년 돌아볼 , 주 아프리카 에 맥 스 같 사람

찾는 것 어 지 않다. 최근 집트에 생 사건들에 해 동

여 았는 , 사건들 마 과 계, 그리고 그들 치 에

역할 맥락 에 다. 러한 시도에 , 집트 통치 스니

라 비 는 맥 스 주연 하는 스피어 비극과 사하다.

주 는 맥 스 라 가 들 사 비 하는 것 다. 하여

가 사 에는 근본 공통 다: 그들 습과 그들 몰락,

그리고 비극 결말 그것 다. 나는 라 가 포스트 시 새 운

역사 에 비극 웅 보여질 수 다고 주 한다. 맥 스

라 사람 과 야망, 사 그리고 살 과 같 행한 비극

가 다. 그들 얻고 지하고 하는 시도에 한 몰락 경험한다.

사하게, 동안 든 나라에 마녀들과 마 믿는 사람들

* This paper is supported by the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Fund for

2015/2016.

** Assistant Professor, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, E-mail: [email protected]

134 |한 동학 논총| 36 2 [2015. 10]

재해 다. 스피어 역에 는 사람들도 다 지 않다. 그는 그 시 에

었 통들 끌어 그 해 했다. 맥 스에 , 그는

마녀 마 에 한 믿 사 했다.

맥 스 집트 통 스니 라 다 득하고

지하 해 는 든 꺼 했다고 주 한다. 그 사람 에

말랐 것 다. 리 그들 커리어 웅 시 했지만 나 에는

그들 야망 그들 단 흐리게 만들었다.

[주 어: 아랍 , 독재, , 쿠프 , 맥 스, 라 , 마 ]

I. Introduction

Civil war, political repression would assuredly create threats and stress that can

exacerbate witchcraft allegations (Schnoebelen 2009, 3). Perlmutter (2013, 74) says:

“Conversely, political leaders, including Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,

Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari, have employed

magical beliefs to advance their political agendas.” He adds: Belief in witchcraft,

sorcery, magic, ghosts, and demons is widespread and pervasive throughout the

Muslim world (Perlmutter 2013, 74). Perlmutter claims that some Muslim leaders

allude to possessing supernatural powers in order to self-aggrandize. He gives an

example of the then Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who told followers in

2005 that he “was surrounded by a halo of light during a speech to the U.N General

Assembly, in which the foreign leaders in the hall were transfixed, unable to blink for

half hours”.(2013, 77) Perlmutter (2013, 78), quoting The Guardian, (London, Jan.27,

2010); and ABC News, Jan.29, 2010 says: “Whether to appease a superstitious

people or out of sincerely-held belief, Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari sacrifices a

black goat nearly every day to ward off the evil eye and provide protection from

black magic. A superstitious population presents numerous opportunities to

| Mohamed Elaskary| Witchcraft, Politics, and Power | 135

communicate fear, apprehension, or awe and to exert influence.

II. Foreshadowing Witchcraft

Past and present, peoples through the world believed in and practiced witchcraft,

with dissimilar degrees of course. Elizabethans had strong beliefs in witchcraft and

the world of magicians and it is no secret that Queen Elizabeth I used to consult a

conjurer. Similarly, there is an overwhelming belief in witchcraft in the majority of

African societies. Such beliefs are not only held by adherents of the indigenous

religions but also by many Muslims and Christians, illiterates and highly educated

persons alike (Umar 1999, 170). African communities hold human agents

accountable for almost all human problems, both communal and private (Westerlund

1989, 22). In African communities, it is believed that the witches attack more

progressive and established persons in society. In the past, elderly women with ugly

wrinkled skin were more likely to be accused of witchcraft, the kind of imagery then

we get from Macbeth. Geschiere (1997, 69) says in some communities in Africa,

illness, misfortune, and sin are interpreted in terms of witchcraft. Umar (1999, 171)

argues that a witch is a person who kills and eats the human soul, spirit or flesh

spiritually, causing the victim to die physically while Ashforth (1998, 64) says that

witchcraft beliefs vary among cultures, but provides his observation that witchcraft is

harmful actions carried out by persons presumed to have access to supernatural

powers. Perlmutter (2013, 75) states that in Egypt, Khalil Fadel, a prominent

Egyptian psychiatrist, claimed that many Egyptians, including the highly-educated,

were spending large amounts of money on sorcery and superstition and warned that

growing superstition among Egyptians was threatening the country’s national security,

136 |한 동학 논총| 36 2 [2015. 10]

dependent as it was on the mental health of the nation.

In spite of the fact witchcraft (actually anything related to the world of magic and

magicians) is not allowed in Islam, the practice of what can be termed Islamic magic

is prevalent in many parts of the Muslim world. This has been manifested in the

theological concept of jinn, as inhabiting the entire sphere of the Muslim occult

(Perlmutter 2013: 74). Even if Hosni Mubarak consulted fortune-tellers, this is

considered a devilish act which is not permitted in Islam because it involves seeking

the help of the devils (shayaateen). This is something that is haram, because it

involves seeking the help of the devils, and because it stirs up enmity between the

people, and spreads fear and mistrust among them, so it comes under the verse in

which Allah says “And verily, there were men amongst mankind who took shelter

with the males among the jinn, but they (jinn) increased them (mankind) in sin and

transgression” [al-Jinn 72: 6].

It is not permissible to seek the help of the jinn in order to find out what has been

done and how it should be treated, because seeking the help of the jinn is shirk, an act

of polytheism. Allah says:

And on the Day when He will gather them (all) together (and say): ‘O you assembly

of jinn! Many did you mislead of men, ‘and their Awliyaa’ (friends and helpers)

amongst men will say: ‘Or Lord! We benefited one from the other, but now we have

reached our appointed term which You did appoint for us. He will say: ‘The Fire be your

dwelling place, you will dwell therein forever, except as Allah may will. Certainly your

Lord is All wise, All Knowing”. [al-An‘aam 6:128]


The Muslim must, above all else, arm himself with strong faith and righteous

deeds, for this is the best provision he may have and the best means of foiling the

schemes of the devils among mankind and the jinn. Sihr (witchcraft or magic)

involving the use of jinn is not permissible in Islam. It is forbidden to go to

soothsayers and ask for their help/advice.

III. The Macbeths and the Mubaraks

In the introduction of the Collins Classics 2010 edition of Macbeth, we read:

Some aspects of the Macbeth story have been horribly familiar in the course of the

history of our own century. Several modern dictators have begun as brave soldiers and

ended as crazy destroyers, so that the line between legitimate warfare and

powers-hungry violence has become very blurred indeed. Psychologists have shown us

that, behind seemingly straightforward human motives, good or bad, there are often

extremely complicated emotions and intentions… [That is why this play] still exerts a

great fascination on audiences and readers all over the world. (Macbeth, p. 1)

This is typical of the play we discuss in this paper, Macbeth. The similarities

between the Macbeths and the Mubaraks are striking. Macbeth and Mubarak were

two military leaders whose ambition and strong beliefs in witchcraft led them to their

downfall. Soon after coming back from the battle against the rebellious Thane of

Cawdor, Macbeth meets The Three Witches who tell him that he will be a king. In a

similar vein, in a military tour in Sudan in 1959, Mubarak meets a fortune-teller who

tells him that he will the President of Egypt. Like Macbeth, Mubarak came to have

138 |한 동학 논총| 36 2 [2015. 10]

solid belief in and affiliation with the world of witchcraft. If Macbeth went for a

second time to consult the witches about his future, Mubarak is said to have done the

same. In 1982, Boutros Boutros-Ghali (the then Egyptian Minister of State for

Foreign Affairs) brought a French fortune-teller to Mubarak, who was on an official

visit to France at that time, and she told him that he will assassinated in the same year

he would elect his deputy; that is why Mubarak has never appointed one and he even

rejected a request by his advisers to appoint his son Gamal as his deputy.1 After the

January 2011 Egyptian revolution (known as Arab Spring), Mubarak asked for a

fortune-teller to be brought to him when he was in hospital and in fact Sheikha Om

Majed (an Egyptian Bedouin fortune-teller) visited the ousted president in the

hospital and gave him counsel on 26/04/2011 assuring him that he will be back to

power.2 Thus, prophecy and magic played an essential role in the downfall of both

Macbeth and Mubarak.

When it comes to Lady Macbeth and Suzane Mubarak, it is clear that they played a

significant role in the ruin of their husbands. Though Macbeth hesitated to kill the

king (because he is his guest, kinsman and king), it is Lady Macbeth who pushed her

husband to proceed with their mutual plan to get rid of the king. Similarly, Suzane

Mubarak is said to have had a considerable influence on Mubarak by encouraging

him to work very hard to secure a place for their elder son, Gamal, as an heir to his

father to the throne of Egypt, i.e. the next president of Egypt; something which

caused much resentment among the Egyptians and, consequently, led to the January

1

Belal Fadl, " مأساةومھزلة "[a tragedy and a comedy], Al-Masry Alyoum, 11/05/2011,

http://www.almasryalyoum.com, cite accessed on and 20/08/2013, Almojas, 02/05/2011,

http://www.elmogaz.com/node/6012#.UXxCh6I9HqE, cite accessed on and 20/08/2013. These

articles are no longer available online because pro-military coup media outlets, such as

Al-Masry Alyoum and Al-Mojas, have removed all their articles which were deemed pro-Arab

Spring.2

http://www.masrawy.com/News/Egypt/Politics/2011/april/26/prev_mobar.aspx, accessed on

01/09/2013.


2011 revolution which toppled Mubarak from power.

Hosni Mubarak was the 4th president of Egypt and born on 4th May 1928 in Kafr

El-Meselha, Monufia Governorate, Egypt. Before they achieved their positions of

power to govern or rule all, both Mubarak and Macbeth spent many years being duly

respected amongst their peers and countrymen. Mubarak spent his early years as a

respected army general and Macbeth as a Scottish general and Thane of Glamis.

Macbeth defeated the Norwegian army and Scottish rebels while Mubarak was the

Commander of Egyptian Air Force in the 1973 War between Egypt and Israel. They

took the way people viewed them to their advantage to gain a position of power.

Hence, Mubarak is suspected to have played a role in the assassination of Anwar

Sadat, after which he came to power. It can be said that both Mubarak and Macbeth

came to power illegitimately. Roqaya al-Sadat, the daughter of former president

Anwar Sadat, accused the ousted president Hosni Mubarak of involvement in the

assassination of her father at the hands of militant Islamists in 1981.3 He later

became the 4th president of Egypt. On his part, Macbeth was made Thane of Cawdor

and eventually king. Once they both ascended to their respected roles they did

whatever it took to protect themselves from any possible threats. Mubarak got grip of

power and became a dictator while Macbeth either killed or tried to intimidate anyone

whom he felt was in his way. Like Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Hosni Mubarak ascended

to power only to have a downfall and end up with nothing. It was their attempt to gain

and maintain this power that led to their fall from grace. Both could been content with

being on the top of their countries but both of them wanted to install their

offspring/sons in their place after they die or leave office.

3

http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/mubarak-accused-complicity-death-sadat,access

ed on 31/08/2015.

140 |한 동학 논총| 36 2 [2015. 10]

1. Suzan Mubarak and Lady Macbeth: The Role of the Ladies

In addition to the idea of power corrupting both men, one could argue that

Mubarak and Macbeth were surrounded with negative influences and poor advice.

Mubarak was given negative advice by Suzanne Mubarak, while Macbeth was ill

advised by Lady Macbeth. Mubarak did not act alone in the corruption scandals in

Egypt, and had savvy political advisers who should have warned him about the

illegality of his actions rather than participating in schemes and cover ups. As a tragic

figure, Hosni Mubarak was a good ruler in the beginning of his career as a military

leader and a President, however, his vaulting ambition led him to work on seizing

greater executive powers.

Similarly, Macbeth places too much confidence in not only his wife’s advice and

plot but also in the ambiguous prophecies of the witches. Sadly, both men started out

with what seemed like a strong character and leadership potential. At the beginning of

Act 1, scene 7, Macbeth says, “If it were done when ‘tis done…”, which makes it

apparent that he’s leaning towards backing away from the plot to murder Duncan.

Then, Lady Macbeth strolls in, and, by the end of the scene, Macbeth is fully

re-engaged in the murder plot. Pity can be felt because he, at one point, wanted to

stop the murder but it is his way who pushed him to commit this horrible crime. Yet,

it is he who allowed his wife to manipulate his ambitious desires which caused him to

murder his king and thus starting the beginning of his downfall and tragic end.

Macbeth’s tragic flaw was his ambition and his wife’s ability to manipulate it. This

flaw is very negative indeed, but in some case it can turn out to be positive if the

ambition does not take over.

Lady Macbeth, having received word from her husband, shares in his ambition,

but worries that her husband is too kind to be able to take the throne. So, she invokes


the evil spirits to give her the strength to undertake the deed, i.e. to kill the king (Act I,

scene V). When Macbeth arrives she praises him and insists on planning the murder

of Duncan. She provokes Macbeth to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth has already

interpreted Macbeth’s nature which is “too full o’th’ milk of human kindness.” She

knew that Macbeth cannot kill Duncan by himself. In this scene, she asks the evil

spirits to “fill” her “from the crown to the toe, top-full/ Of direst cruelty’. His cruelty,

she knows, will enable her to reawaken and strengthen the evil nature of Macbeth and

thereby help him kill the king. She wants the evil spirits to give her masculine

qualities, to remove from her all that makes her soft and feminine so that she can be

firm of purpose in order to convince her husband to commit such a horrible crime. In

this scene, she acts like a conjuring witch, reaching out to the forces of darkness to aid

her in this task. She asks the night to cover their actions when they kill Duncan so that

they can succeed. Lady Macbeth, in this scene, is filled with unchecked ambition,

cruelty and a desire for blood. She, at this point in play, is the stronger, more cunning

than her husband, Macbeth. She will take charge of the planning; she will become the

man. When she asks the spirits to “unsex” her, it is to enable her to be strong like a

man, a warrior, which is the quality that defines Macbeth at the beginning of the play

when he “unseam’d” MacDonald “from the nave to the th’ chops” (1. 2 .23). Lady

Macbeth perceives herself as strong, yet still womanly, imbued with those feminine

traits which, stereotypically, make women the weaker sex. We discover shortly after

that Lady Macbeth is not as strong as she appears or pretends to be; she tells us she

could not murder Duncan herself as he too much resembled her father!

In Egypt, Suzanne Mubarak is known to have influenced many decisions her

husband had made. Throughout history, we meet women who urge their husbands to

commit deeds to elevate their positions. Many Egyptians believe that Suzanne

Mubarak was instrumental in pushing for her younger son, Gamal, to succeed his

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father— one of the grievances that mobilized the opposition protesters who took to

the streets in 2011 and called for the toppling of the Mubarak regime. Mustafa

Suleiman (2012, p. 2) rehearses this “Suzanne guided the fortunes of her children and

grandchildren, looking to establish a political dynasty that might endure for

generations”. Egyptian writer Anis Mansour (quoted by Mustafa Suleiman, 2012, p.

2) adds that “Suzanne Mubarak’s real problem was her obsession with grooming her

son Gamal to succeed his father. She wanted to be like Barbara Bush, the wife of a

president then the mother of a president”. Christopher Dickey an American writer

(quoted by Mustafa Suleiman, 20112, p. 2) says that Suzanne “played a major role in

her husband’s tragedy...”

What about Lady Macbeth? When she gets Macbeth’s letter describing the

witches’ prophecies, she latches on and does not let go. She wants to be the Queen,

and she wants Macbeth to be the King. She will stop at nothing, not even murder:

……… Come, you spirits

That tend on mortal thoughts! Unsex me here;

And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full

Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood,

Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse,

That no compunctious visitings of nature

Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between

The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,

And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,

Wherever in your sightless substances

You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night,

And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,


That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,

Nor heaven peep through the blanket of The dark,

To cry ‘Hold, hold!’. (I. V. 40-53)

Lady Macbeth, soliloquizing, prays to the devils to possess her mind, turn the milk in

her breasts into bile, and give her a man’s ability to do evil things. On his part, Hosni

Mubarak share’s Macbeth’s tragic flaw (we will discuss this later in details), which is too

much ambition but he, like Macbeth, lost patience, and became overly ambitious. Like

many other African despots who are keen on changing the constitution when it came to

term limits, Mubarak should have served only two terms and focused on building Egypt

and bringing Egyptians together, he would have been fairly a good president. Macbeth

could have avoided his tragic end by controlling his ambition or either not listening to his

wife or leaving completely if the circumstances became so dire.

Based on the released tapes of Mubarak’s conversations, it is that he was not

careful with his language and he occasionally used vulgar and disrespectful words

and expressions. This definitely illustrates prejudice toward those whom he

considered to be of lower class than he. Now, Macbeth did not use profane language,

but there are people who would consider his repeated visits to the future-telling

witches to be a profane act. Macbeth is also abusive to those beneath him on the

ladder of society— he treats Seyton, other servants, and even the witches as if they

are all there to do his bidding without question. He is so cruel that many run from him

to the other army in order to free Scotland of its mournful state. Both Mubarak and

Macbeth abused their positions of power. They both conspired to get rid of their

enemies. Both broke laws of civility. Mubarak’s son Gamal felt as if he almost

deserved the job of president, was destined for it, because his father had been a ruler.

144 |한 동학 논총| 36 2 [2015. 10]

2. Witchcraft

Both Mubarak and Macbeth did great evil. Macbeth is led to wicked thoughts by

the prophecies of the Three Witches, especially after their prophecy that he will be

made Thane of Cawdor comes true. He is easily tempted into murder to fulfill his

ambitions to ascend the throne. In Act 2, scene 2, Duncan describes him “O valiant

cousin, worthy gentlemen!”. Right away it is clear that Duncan thinks very highly of

Macbeth, as he goes on to say “Our captains Macbeth and Banquo”. This shows that

Macbeth is in a very high position in the military as well as in society. The three

witches who meet in a storm plan to encounter Macbeth. These are very ‘unnatural’

cuisine apart from the unnatural killing of Duncan where ‘A falcon [a sovereign bird]

towering in her pride of place/was by a mousing owl [an inferior bird].(II. 4. 12-13)

This question of ‘unnaturalness’ of things links thematically Macbeth’s plot and

staging: witchcraft.

Witchcraft is seen clearly in the Weird Sisters: females who have beards (1.3.45)

and who in their spells invoke a “birth-strangled babe/Ditch-delivered by a drab”.(IV.

1. 30-1) They substitute death at the point of birth, and their major achievement is

leading Macbeth (and many others) to destruction. The three witches inform Macbeth

that he will be Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland. They tell Banquo his

descendants will be Kings. Soon after they disappear, Macbeth is officially informed

that he has been appointed as the Thane of Cawdor.

Indeed in Macbeth, there are other apparitions who appear on the stage. Apart from

the witches themselves, there are several possibly supernatural elements in the play:

the air-drawn dagger which Macbeth saw before he killed Duncan (though this might

well have been of his own feverish imagination):


This is the air-drawn dagger which you said

Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts-

Impostors to true fear-would well become

A woman’s story at a winter’s fire. (III. 4. 62-65)

“Double, double toil and trouble” (Act 4, Scene I, 20) communicates the witches’

intent clearly: they seek only to increase trouble humans around them. The witches’

lines in the first act: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air”

(Act I, Scene I, 13-14) set the tone for the remainder of the play by establishing a

sense of moral confusion. Indeed, the play is filled with situations in which evil is

depicted as good, while good is rendered evil. There is also the ghost of Banquo, and

the things the witches conjure up for Macbeth’s inspection at the beginning of Act IV.

3. Tragic Heroism and Flaw

Traditionally, a tragic hero is one of high birth who possesses a flaw in his

character that brings about his own downfall. This is true of Macbeth. First he is a

hero because at the very beginning in Act I, we hear from other characters how

heroically Macbeth performed in battle to defend his king’s land. Against seemingly

hopeless odds, Macbeth fights valiantly and defeats the enemy. Macbeth is praised for

his courage in battle, which sets him up in hope of having the crown. We hear again

in Act I from the king how much he appreciates Macbeth. So, we can surmise that

Macbeth is a hero, long before he makes his entrance onto the stage:

For brave Macbeth—well he deserves that name—

Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish’d steel

Which smok’d with bloody execution,

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Like valour’s minion, carv’d out his passage

Till he fac’d the slave… (I. II. 16-20)

What is Macbeth’s tragic flaw? I already mentioned earlier on, it is being too

ambitious. He says so himself. Almost immediately after hearing the witches’

prophesy, he contemplates the kin’s demise. He is transfixed. Banquo draws attention

to it. By the end of Act I, we see Macbeth in a tug of war with his conscience. He

wants to be king. To be king he has to kill the current king, but he does not want the

consequences. He weighs all the consequences that might happen as a result of his

crime. He will not kill he king, a guest in his house, a good man, and his kin. We must

acknowledge that the smart, ambitious, valiant Macbeth possesses the strength of

character not to murder his king. Yet, sadly, he succumbs to dark forces from within.

By the end of Mubarak’s term in office, his presidency had essentially collapsed

and that he was not sure what to do in response. Towards the Arab spring revolution,

he had won the contempt and hatred of many people in the Arab world and beyond.

When you look at both Hosni Mubarak and Macbeth, how can men who knew the

meaning of love, honour and virtue, who both admired their Kings (Duncan and

Anwar Sadat) and fought bravely for them, destroy that same king and president in a

most treacherous ways? Anwar el-Sadat was assassinated at army parade during the

commemoration of the 1973 war against Israel. William Farrel captures vividly the

assassination of Anwar el-Sadat.4

How can they go on to destroy their friends, and many others, including women

and children? The answer seems to lie in deep confusion about what being a man

4

http://www.nytimes.co/learning/general/onthisday/big/1006.html#article,accessedon01/09/2

015.


means. This, of course, links up directly with the image of the ferocious soldier both

of them were. There have been men in our own century who were honoured and

praised for violent deeds in war, but who failed to adjust to peacetime, having

acquired a taste for violence and became deadly criminals. Both Macbeth and Hosni

Mubarak seem to fall under this category. Some might want to delve a little deeper

into the character of such a man and say that he was one who had to prove something

to himself. In this connection, it is interesting to see that, just after he has uttered the

true and heartfelt words: I dare do all that may become a man;/ Who dares do more is

none (I. VII. 46-47) in reply to Lady Macbeth’s fierce taunting, he is almost

immediately converted to committing the murder by her twisted definition of

manliness (in the course of which she horribly denies her own essential

womanliness):

When you durst do it, then you were a man;

And to be more than what you were, you would

Be so much more the man…

…………….. I have given suck, and know

How tender ‘is to love the babe that milks me-

I would, while it was smiling in my face,

Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums,

And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn

As you have done to this. (I. VII. 49-59)

The same warped reasoning is used when Macbeth bullies the murderers into

killing Banquo. His strange speech about the various kinds of dogs, lifted from its

context, might be thought to be an exhortation by an honourable man to other

potentially honourable men “Now, if you have a station in the file,/Not i’th’ worst

148 |한 동학 논총| 36 2 [2015. 10]

rank of manhood, say’t. (III. I. 100-1) The whole elaborate image presents a world in

which bounteous nature has arranged an appropriate function for every creature, and

in which leaders can respect and love their subjects, grappling them to the heart and

love of us, as Macbeth himself puts it. But the man who speaks is a foul tyrant and he

is speaking to hired thugs. My main argument here is that any man who allows

himself to be ruled by patience when he is — supposedly — being ill-treated by

another, can’t call himself a man at all. It is exactly the same argument that was so

effective when used on Macbeth by his wife. Like in Egypt too, Hosni Mubarak

pretended that he loved his subjects but in reality he only rewarded his cronies and

court jesters. John Kay (2015) in an article in Financial Times aptly puts it, thus:

Some friends of the court benefited from state-granted monopolies, a common

phenomenon today. In Egypt—and strikingly in Russia or Latin America—we see

politicians who masquerade as entrepreneurs, businessmen whose power and

financial success come not from the resources and activities they helped to create but

from the resources and activities they used their influence to control.( Kay 2015, p. 3)

Mr. Mubarak was also accused of involvement in the killings of anti-regime

protesters. The couple’s two sons, Alaa and Gamal, were being held in Cairo’s Tora

prison on fraud charges. Gamal Mubarak, in contrast to his older brother Alaa,

pursued an active public profile and was starting to wield some influence on political

life in the country before the revolution of early 2011. Prior to the revolution, Gamal

was deputy secretary-general of the then ruling and now dissolved National

Democratic Party, and head of its influential policies committee. The grooming of

Gamal Mubarak to be his father’s successor as the next president of Egypt became

increasingly evident at around 2000 (Aziz and Yousef 2002: 73-88). On 3 February

2000 Hosni Mubarak appointed him to the General Secretariat of the ruling National


Democratic Party. Reuters Africa reported that a fight took place between him and his

older brother, Alaa Mubarak. Alaa supposedly accused Gamal of ruining their father’s

last days in power and humiliating him: “You ruined the country when you opened

the way to your friends and this is the result. Instead of your father being honoured at

the end of his life you helped to spoil his image in this manner” (Reuters, Feb 13,

2011)5. Both sons received jail sentences (they are still in jail now) for fraud, and

other, crimes.

Suzanne Mubarak’s presence in Hosni Mubarak’s life communicates treason and

impending doom, a tragic end. According to BBC News6 on 17 May 2011, Suzanne

Mubarak turned over a villa in a Cairo suburb and $3m (#1.9m) held in bank

accounts in Egypt. They faced allegations of illegally acquiring wealth while they

were in power for 30 years. In an article The Tragedy of Hosni Mubarak (Newsweek,

13/2/2011) and with a decker “The Egyptian president had ruled for decades. Then

his grandson dies, and the unraveling began”. The article elaborately looks at the

tragic end of Hosni Mubarak regime. It reads:

The night before he finally stepped down as Egypt’s president, the protesters in

Tahrir Square heard Hosni Mubarak deliver his final address as their head of

state…The hundreds of thousands gathered in the square wanted to hear him say only

one word: “Goodbye”…The protesters had reason to be weary of the president’s final,

delusional public performance. But there was another long drama coming to an end

that night, mostly out of public view—a personal story that helps to explain the

president whose stubborn incomprehension of his “sons and daughters” dragged

5 Reuters, “Sons of Egypt’s Mubarak nearly came to blows-paper”, 13 February 2011, available

at http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFLDE71C0HQ2011021, cite accessed on

31/08/2015.6

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13420327, accessed on 31/08/2015.

150 |한 동학 논총| 36 2 [2015. 10]

Egypt to close to ruin. Former U.S. ambassador to Egypt Daniel Kurtzer has called it

the “tragedy” of the Egyptian president...7

The article brings into the light about the widely reported but poorly substantiated

allegations of a $40 billion to $70 billion fortune amassed by the Mubarak family,

few diplomats in Egypt find those tales even remotely credible. Suzanne Mubarak’s

predicament and indeed her tragic descent from corridors of power is further

rehearsed and aptly captured by Deeb and Imam (2011, p.1) “Suzanne Mubarak, wife

of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak, was hospitalized in the intensive care unit Friday

after suffering severe chest pains upon hearing the news that she had been ordered

detained on corruption allegations”. This episode and that of the tragic death of Lady

Macbeth may appear different at the level of conclusion. That Lady Macbeth finally

dies tragically and Suzanne Mubarak suffering bouts of heart problems. These

episodes obviously appear pari passu, at least in tragic ending of state power. This can

be seen further by the description hitherto of an admirable woman of exceptional

personality “Once a low-key first lady known for her focus on women and children

rights, Mrs. Mubarak had in the last decade become known as a powerful mover in

Egyptian politics”. (Deeb and Imam, 2011, p.1) The procedure and severity on

Suzanne Mubarak’s ailment is succinctly captured by Tayel (2011):

Earlier, doctors failed to complete an angioplasty on Mrs. Mubarak, potentially

prolonging a stay in hospital after anti-corruption authorities ordered her

detention....angioplasty involves inserting a catheter procedure from the groin to the heart

in order to drill open arterial blockages. After blockages have been open, a stent is usually

put in order to prevent restenosis, or regrowth of the plaque.(Tayel 2011, p.1)

7 Newsweek, “ The Tragedy of Hosni Mubarak ” , February 13, 2011, available at:

http://www.newsweek.com/tradegy-hosni-mubarak-68769, accessed on 01/9/2015.


The question that many may ask: can Mubarak be considered a tragic hero?

Judging by the classical Aristotelian standards he is not but if we judge him from a

Post-Modern perspective he can be viewed a tragic figure, if not a tragic hero.

Aristotelian canons stipulate that a tragic hero dies by the end of the play; Mubarak is

still alive. We can compare Mubarak to another modern tragic hero whom critics took

to be a tragic hero in spite the fact that he did not meet all the Aristotelian criteria; Mr

Lawman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Lawman was not of a high class

man or a military leader; he was an ordinary man, a salesman, and yet Post Modern

critics have considered him to be a tragic hero. The same may apply to Mr Mubarak.

IV. Conclusion

Knowledge of local myths, customs, and magical belief can present unique

opportunities for diplomacy as well as warfare, but westerners do not know how to

deal with belief in supernatural phenomena, continually applying a rational, scientific

approach to cultures that engage in magical thinking and refusing to acknowledge the

political significance of these beliefs. Western education tend to attribute the root

causes of violence to secular, social, and economic factors such as poverty, illness,

illiteracy, and hunger. Islamic religious and political leaders understand that their

people primarily view the root cause of their difficulties as a spiritual problem. If

Macbeth is presented, from the very beginning of the story, as vulnerable to evil

promptings from without and from within, it is also clear that he knows right from

wrong. Even if the balance of his mind is at times disturbed , he is not the sort of

criminal who could or would plead that he didn’t know what he was doing. In the

soliloquy if it were done ‘tis done…(Act I, Scene VII, 1-28), he takes it for granted

152 |한 동학 논총| 36 2 [2015. 10]

that a king should be able to trust one of his subjects, and particularly a man who is

also his relative and his host, to protect and cherish him— certainly not to murder him

in his sleep. The Three Witches represent evilness, darkness chaos, and conflict, while

their role is as agents and witnesses.

In real life, Hosni Mubarak really wanted to keep the presidency, to maintain his

power over people who opposed him and secure the place of his son as his heir to the

throne of Egypt. He did various illegal things in an attempt to accomplish these goals.

But the analogy falls apart when you consider that Mubarak lied, and used

government powers to try to pressure enemies, threw enemies in jail, and kill others

(demonstrators during the Arab spring). On one hand, he is portrayed as the tragic

hero who was let down by his friends and close associates, his wife and sons. Same is

the case with Macbeth. In fact Tarek Masoud (2014, p. 45) makes a contradiction, and

probably aptly supports the school of thought of Mubarak’s heroism when he states

that: “But, for everything that has changed in the land of the Nile, one thing has

remained the same: its inhabitants continue to turn their backs on parties of the left...”

The euphoria that Egyptians displayed after Mubarak fell from power has since

dissipated. There is more pessimism compared to optimism. Robert Fisk (2011, p.3)

sarcastically, but firmly adds “So the “liberation” of Cairo—where, grimly, there

came news last night of the looting of the Qasr- al-Aini hospital—has yet to run its

full course. The end may be clear. The tragedy is not over.” From the ongoing, the

biggest question is, are Mubarak and Macbeth tragic heroes? Or a case of two heroes

sharing an inglorious end as leaders? Or, perhaps, it is only Macbeth who fits the

description of being a tragic hero?

[Key words: Arab Spring, Dictatorship, Jinn, Macbeth, Mubarak, Shakespeare,

Sihr, Witchcraft]


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Aziz, Muhammad Abdul and Hussein, Yousef (2002), “The President, the Son, and

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