Couldn’t have said it better myself, Regina ❤

But buckle your seatbelts, because before we do … essay time!

Remember last week’s little “experiment” making ChatGPT pen an essay comparing Mean Girls and Shakespeare?

There were many glaring issues in that first essay. The funniest? ChatGPT’s constant (and often inappropriate) comparisons to Romeo and Juliet.

It soon became clear that I could not trust the AI to write a whole highfalutin Shakespeare essay for me. But I could trust it generate an essay so bad that it inspired me to rage-brainstorm.

So, rage-brainstorm I did. My takeaways:

• ChatGPT really needs a narrower essay scope (at least to start)
• Regina George is the best and should be the star of my essay
• Macbeth is the most fun play for to me to compare with Mean Girls (mostly for bloodthirsty politics; bonus points for witchiness)
• Regina and Lady Macbeth would be wildly fun to compare
• I need to teach ChatGPT that Lady Macbeth is cooler than her husband

With those ideas in mind, I told ChatGPT:

Please reframe this essay to compare Regina George and Lady Macbeth

By the pricking of my thumbs, ChatGPT wrote me back:

The characters of Regina George from Mean Girls and Lady Macbeth from Shakespeare’s Macbeth can be compared in their ambition and manipulation tactics. Both characters are driven by their desire for power and will stop at nothing to achieve it.

Regina George, the leader of the Plastics, is ambitious to maintain her status as the most popular girl in school. She manipulates her friends and spreads rumors to achieve her goals. Similarly, Lady Macbeth is ambitious for her husband to become king and will stop at nothing to achieve it. She manipulates Macbeth into committing murder to gain power.

Both Regina and Lady Macbeth’s ambition and manipulation lead to their downfall. Regina George’s ambition ultimately leads her to lose her friends and status, while Lady Macbeth’s ambition leads her to lose her sanity and eventually her life. Both characters also harm those around them, Regina George harms her friends and classmates, while Lady Macbeth harms Macbeth, her husband and kingdom.

Furthermore, both Regina and Lady Macbeth are portrayed as strong and assertive women who are not afraid to take charge and make decisions, even if they are morally questionable. They both show how ambition can lead people to make choices that ultimately lead to their downfall.

In conclusion, Regina George and Lady Macbeth are similar characters in their ambition and manipulation tactics. Both characters are driven by their desire for power, and will stop at nothing to achieve it, even if it means harming those around them. Both Regina and Lady Macbeth’s ambition and manipulation lead to their downfall and they are portrayed as strong and assertive women who are not afraid to take charge and make decisions, even if they are morally questionable.

Hmmmmm.

It’s not terrible. But it’s not good, either.

Such stuff as dreams are made on (in this essay):

• Regina and Lady M are similarly ambitious and manipulative
• Both our Mean Queens are pretty assertive (and wayyy more quotable for it)
• Our Mean Queens definitely lack regard for the people around them and will stoop to harm others if it means power (steal boyfriends, kill rivals for the throne of Scotland, you name it)

Out of my sight! Thou dost infect my eyes:

• As per usual with ChatGPT, no actual quotes or examples to prove its points
• There are some significant differences between our leading ladies, and ChatGPT doesn’t explore any of them
• Regina might have lost some status in the final act of Mean Girls, but she’s better off at the end of the film. ChatGPT does not acknowledge her happy ending
• It would have been really cool for this essay to talk more about gender norms, as this is explicitly one of Lady M’s frustrations and is implied to be a frustrating factor for Regina
• It would have been cool for the essay to compare/contrast Lady M’s relationship with Macbeth and Regina’s relationship with Aaron Samuels (the October 3rd guy)
• It would have been cool to compare/contrast the victims of Lady M and Regina’s manipulations. Lady M primarily goes after powerful men, while Regina primarily goes after other girls in her school

Does this have the potential to be a great essay? I think so. Regina George and Lady M have enough in common for me to draw parallels, but they’re also different enough characters — and come from different enough contexts — that comparing them has potential to drive new insights. Plus, I just delight in how spiteful they both are.

But here’s the thing: I’m not sure ChatGPT will ultimately be able to carry this essay to the finish line.

So far, this process has mostly consisted of me correcting ChatGPT on the subject matter and spotting significant holes in its analysis. I’m definitely generating lots of ideas for what I want in this essay, but it feels like I’d be better off re-reading Macbeth than asking ChatGPT to fish for some good examples in the text.

What’s next? I’m going to re-read Macbeth eventually … but in the meantime I’ll continue to play around with ChatGPT to see how far we can get.

Until next time!