By upsetting the order of the kingdom, he upsets the order in his soul, and goes from being a man of virtue to a man of nihilistic tendencies. As Richard Weaver suggests, there is an important significance to the character of Macbeth: "What the witches said to the protagonist of this drama was that man could realize himself more fully if he would only abandon his belief in the existence of transcendentals" (Weaver 2-3)
Their own actions bring about their fall. Because of where they started, their fall is dramatic and tragic (Bradley, p
The fact that the Shakespearean tragic hero brings about his own downfall makes Shakespeare's tragedy different than classical Greek tragedies, where gods control events. In Shakespeare's tragedies, his heroes could have made other choices and avoided have avoided their terrible outcomes (Cahn, p
At first a loyal general, Macbeth sees power as something that is in his grasp, and with the right amount of pressure, he seizes this power by killing King Duncan. (Shakespeare, 1611) In the end, Macbeth was punished for the evil that he committed, and did not remain King for long
The Tragedy of Macbethis no exception to it. King James, after the death of Queen Elizabeth, patronized Shakespeare's company under his name; Shakespeare then transformed Holinshed's Scottish, English and Irish chronicles (Bradley
The essence of Shakespearean tragedy lies in the sense of tragedy that is aroused in the reader by his interaction with the vividly human characters that Shakespeare sketches.The expression of tragedy through soliloquyincludes the reader in the plot itself (Chandler, n
He is valiant, principled and faithful to the ruler. It is obvious that through life his ambitions brought him to great levels of respect and lordship but when he hears the prophecy of his being the King of Scotland one day, his extreme desire to live this prophecy transforms his once commendable ambition to repugnant lust for power (Elliott, 1960)
However, every word that Shakespeare writes has its own dramatic essence hidden in it.The three important aspects of Shakespeare's writing in general and Macbeth in particular are his unique sentences, manipulation of words and poetical verse attributed to his tragic characters (Goddard and Howard, 1951)
e., Macbeth himself and his wife, Lady Macbeth, are undeniably blinded by ambition to achieve what they have been made to fantasize about after the prophecy of the three witches (Stallybrass, 1982)
Shakespeare considered tragedy as one of the greatest paradoxes of life that encumbered disappointment, lost hopes and most importantly unexpected turns of fate. Shakespearean Tragedy revolves around aprotagonist (Wilson and Harold, 1957)
In this sense, equivocation is a very important theme in "Macbeth." Equivocation could be defined as a manner of "answering ambiguously through hairsplitting logic and mental reservations so that the truth remains unclear" (Coursen, 1997, p
Before anything else perhaps, "Macbeth" is a political play which explores the boundaries between good and evil, and the effects of blinding ambition. The plot of the play is rather simple, and this simplicity could contribute to its appeal with audiences (Nostbakken, 1997, p
However, there appears to have been a shift in Shakespeare's approach towards violence, if not in all Elizabethan attitudes towards violence. "His plays may be seen as following a trajectory that begins with a delight in representing violence for entertainment, continues in a series of plays that explore various aspects of the problem of violence, and ends with a searching study of human aggression in relation to self-control" (Foakes, pp
On the contrary, the murder is not simply something that is immoral; Shakespeare goes so far as to characterize it as evil, and Macbeth has to pay for that evil. In fact, "in no other play does Shakespeare show a nation so wholly occupied by the powers of darkness; and Macbeth is, for all its brevity, his most intensive study of evil at work in the individual and in the world at large" (Kermode, p
On the contrary, the murder is not simply something that is immoral; Shakespeare goes so far as to characterize it as evil, and Macbeth has to pay for that evil. In fact, "in no other play does Shakespeare show a nation so wholly occupied by the powers of darkness; and Macbeth is, for all its brevity, his most intensive study of evil at work in the individual and in the world at large" (Kermode, p
The tragedy in his life, the terrible violence done to his family, changes him. Moreover, "if the violence of the play serves the theme as an emblem of disorder, it also serves as both agent and emblem of a metamorphosis of character which takes place before our eyes" (Waith, p
What is remarkable about their relationship, he continues, is the "extent to which they inhabit each other's minds" (139). Harold Bloom agrees with this assessment noting that lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to "self-abandonment" (Bloom 532)
She also knew that it was highly unlikely that a "good guy" would make it to the throne. Wayne Booth claims that Lady Macbeth "fears his human kindness" (Booth 194)
From this we can understand how Lady Macbeth is very aware of Macbeth's psychological composition and is completely confident in herself to influence him. Stephen Greenblatt maintains that spousal intimacy in Macbeth is "terrifying" (Greenblatt 138)
Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way; thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it; what thou wouldst highly, That thou wouldst holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win; thou 'dst have, great Glamis, That which cries, 'Thus thou must do, if thou have it. (Shakespeare I