Harry Potter and Macbeth: two stories that both had an incredible impact on the world. Since the books were published, the Harry Potter series has become a true phenomenon. From selling out stores around the world to making millions of dollars in movies, the universe is no stranger to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. For Macbeth, fame is equally strong. Although Shakespeare wrote many great plays, Macbeth is one of the best. There have been films, TV shows, books, commercials, works of art, and so much more that have been influenced by the incredible play. After doing some research and analyzing both the HP series and Macbeth, I discovered that there is indeed a connection between the two. More specifically, in the story of Harry Potter, the prophecy referred to a child born at the end of July, who will have the power to defeat Lord Voldemort. After hearing the prophecy, Voldemort immediately began searching for Harry, and the rest is history. In the classic story of Macbeth, many different prophecies are mentioned throughout the story. One prophecy spoke of Macbeth becoming king, the next said that Banquo would be the father of future generations of kings, another said that no man born of woman would be able to kill Macbeth, and many more. The number of prophecies present in Macbeth is enormous, so it would take too long to describe them in detail, but overall it is very clear that the prophecies play an eminent role, and the story would definitely not be the same without the prophecies, their ambition, up to the their death, the two characters share so much in common. JK Rowling even mentioned using Macbeth's influence in her famous novels. The real question though is: why use Macbeth as an influence? What's the point of taking a work written by William Shakespeare and trying to adapt it to the modern world? In response, there are so many characteristics of Macbeth that we, as people today, can still identify with. Sometimes we struggle to contain our ambitions, sometimes we let things get out of hand. We may find ourselves greedy for power and have difficulty letting it go. There will also be times when someone gives us some pretty important advice (maybe not a great prophecy but still great) and we ignore it because we think we know what's best. All in all, using Macbeth as inspiration was one of the best things JK Rowling could have ever done. It gave Lord Voldemort a very human quality and gave us an insight into his dark but calculated personality. It allowed the reader to try to understand the reasoning behind Voldemort's decisions and perhaps grasp his emotions a little more. So even though the Harry Potter books and the story of Macbeth are not word-for-word replications of each other, the influence continues