MACBETH

1. SHAKESPEARE’S CONCEPT OF TRAGEDY WITH REFERENCE TO MACBETH

OR

Q. How far the tragic ideals of Shakespeare illustrate in his play ‘MACBETH’?

OR. “The victim that with Shakespeare’s ‘Character is Destiny’ is no doubt a exaggeration of a vital
truth.” Comment on this statement with reference to ‘MACBETH’.

ANS- ‘TRAGEDY’ deals with the serious aspects of life as comedy deals with
the lighter. It is essentially a note of suffering ending in death. According to ARISTOTLE’S definition,
“Tragedy is a representation of an action which is serious complete in itself, and of a certain magnitude,
it is expressed in speech made beautiful in different ways in different parts of the play; it is acted not
narrated, and by exciting pity and fear gives a healthy relief to such emotions.”

Shakespearian tragedy, in the main, conforms with the definition of

ARISTOTLE, but it violates the principles of the Greek Philosopher in one important reaction; it action, is
not all serious. Its seriousness is often relieved by the comic. In this respect Shakespeare was but holding
a “mirror to life in which joys, and sorrows, tears and smiles, frequently alternate. He was thus a greater
artist than the other dramatists who blindly followed ARISTOTLE. Shakespeare has left behind him a
number of great tragedies, written during different periods of his career. They are:

(i) “RICHARD III” and “RICHARD II”.

(ii) “ROMEO AND JULIET.”
(iii) “JULIUS CAESAR” and “ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA”
(iv) “TIMON OF ATHENS” and “CORIOLANUS”
(v) “HAMLET”, “OTHELLO”, “MACBETH” and “KING LEAR.”

The last four are his greatest creations and they rank among the
greatest tragedies of the world. They are the dramatists “tour De force”, and all discussions of his tragic
art centre round them.

If we examine Shakespeare’s great tragedies such as “KING LEAR”,

“HAMLET”, “MACBETH” and “OTHELLO”, we find that all of them contain certain common characteristic
features of tragedy. In reality, it is a story of struggle between good and evil. This theme has been
worked out in Greek tragedies as well as Shakespearean Tragedies, even in the Modern tragedies such
as T.S.ELIOT’S “MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL”, we find the same struggle between the opposite forces.
However, a tragedy of Shakespeare is prominently the story of one person- “the hero” or almost two,
the hero and the heroine. King Lear was a king, Macbeth was a commander in Duncan’s army. Hamlet
was a prince and Othello is also a commander in the Venetian army. In the modern tragedies such as
Galsworthy’s, we find it is the common man whose suffering has been made the theme of the drama.
Shakespearean heroes suffer because of their fatal mistakes. Modern tragic heroes are down-trodden
fighting for bread against injustice.
In Shakespearean tragedies, the tragic heroes appear as noble person,
commanding the respect of audience but they commit blunders because of certain things beyond their
control. Three factors obviously operate- Abnormal condition of the hero’s mind, unavoidable
participation of supernatural elements and refuse to listen to reason. King Lear got his tragedy because
he could not recognize the deceptive daughters Goneril and Regan and expelled Cardelia, the
reasonable and trusted daughter. Macbeth was not only a man of vaulting ambition, but he was not only
a sentimental character, an extremist and lacked to balance in his personality. Hamlet was also a
peculiarly abnormal character thinking too much and doing nothing. His tragedy was a tragedy of
indecision. Othello is a moor, a sentimental and over-credulous and highly suspicious. Such characters
are bound to fail and fall. In Greek tragedies, the hero is a victim of fate and he was opinion. In modern
tragedies several forces act against human aspiration and a man is victim of circumstances. But in
Shakespearean tragic hero can be blamed for their faults. King Lear did not make a difference
appearance and reality. Hamlet was a man of indecision. Ambition was the villain of Macbeth. Othello is
the man of credulous nature who does not recognize the real motive of Iago and suspects his faithful
man Cassio and doubts the chastity of his devoted wife Desdemona” and kills her. When we consider
“MACBETH” as a typical Shakespearean tragedy, its resemblance to other tragedies of the dramatist, we
find the play “Macbeth” has all the peculiar features of a typical Shakespearean tragedy. “MACBETH” is
a great tragedy. “It is the most vehement, the most concentrated and perhaps the most tremendous” of
the four great tragedies of Shakespeare.

First we must remember that Shakespeare wrote primarily for the

stage and not for our arm-chair reading, Writing for the stage, he strove to display “themes essentially
stirring and often melodramatic, and that his primal thought was dramatic effectiveness” (A.NICOLL).
Shakespeare presents a rich series of excitements that is likely to rouse the most pathetic audience. The
themes of all the four great Shakespearean tragedies are sensational. “MACBETH” has also its witches,
ghosts, and apparitions, its murders in a darkened castle, its drunken porter , and the uncanny thrilling
sight of Lady Macbeth is walking in her sleep. “Obviously this only the outward framework; beyond and
within the external subtle, a more poetical and a less tangible tragic spirit”(A.NICOLL). Every great
tragedy is an expression of some human passion or failing. In “MACBETH”, this inner or spiritual conflict,
results from a struggle between ambition and conscience in the hero’s mind.

But in Shakespearean tragedies ‘Character is Destiny” and the role of

supernatural and that of chance are not completely ignored. And the tragic hero is Shakespeare has an
exceptional nature who is built on a grand scale. Macbeth is a General of exceptional valour and ability.
He is referred to as “valour’s minion” and “Bellona’s bridegroom.” His nobility and loyality to his king are
beyond doubt. He is loved and respected by all concerned. Further, Shakespeare’s tragic hero has a
passion, or an obsession that attains in him a terrible force. He has a marked one sidedness; a strong
tendency to act in a particular way. He is driven by one particular interest, object, passion, or habit of
mind. This BRADLEY calls the tragic trait or “tragic flaw” in his character. Macbeth, for example, is driven
to doom by ambition- the tragic flow of his character. Owing to this fault of his character he falls from
greatness. He errs; and his error, joining with other causes, brings on him ruin. It is in this sense that
“Character is Destiny” is true of Shakespearean tragedy. The character of the hero is responsible for his
deeds; and from this point of view they appear to be instruments shaping their own destiny. The
calamities and catastrophes follow inevitably from the deeds Macbeth and the main source of these
deeds is his character.

When we say that “Character is Destiny” in Shakespeare, we do not

state the full truth. His tragedies, as A.NICOLL points out are not mere tragedies of character, but
tragedies of character and destiny. There is a tragic relationship between the hero and his environment.
Fate or Destiny places the hero, first, in those situations with which he is incapable of dealing. Macbeth
is exposed to temptation to with stand which he would have had to be content and unaspiring as well as
firm of will, but he is weak of will, ambitious, longs for the crown, and desires personal aggrandizement.

One of the important features of Shakespeare’s tragedies is the use of

Supernatural elements which play a key role in the development of the main plot and the story. In the
famous tragedy “HAMLET”, the ghost of Hamlet’s father plays a vital role. In the play “MACBETH”, the
role of the three witches is the most important one which decide the fate of Macbeth. It were the
witches that made his hidden/concealed ambition into a big one and he began to dream as the ruler of
Scotland. And to fulfill this dream he committed the heinous blunder by killing the king Duncan. The
prophecy would possibly have been fulfilled through the death of Duncan in the natural course and it
does not employ murder. He commits murder only because the thought of murder was already in his
mind and the responsibility for the murder is entirely his own. At a later stage in the play, they are more
direct but they exercise no compulsion on Macbeth who is perfectly free to reject their advice. He does
so because their suggestions square with the evil in his own bosom. He commits the murder of the
attendants and that of Banquo entirely on his own.

A Shakespearean tragedy is re-eminently the story of one person

“the Hero or almost the two-the hero and heroine.” In “HAMLET”, Hamlet is the principal character; in
“KING LEAR” King Lear, in “OTHELLO, Othello and so in “MACBETH”, Macbeth is the principal character.
It is only in the love tragedies that the heroine is as much the centre of action as the hero. Macbeth also
is a single star and after the murder, Lady Macbeth is pushed more and more into the background and
Macbeth becomes the centre of interest. The story leads up to and includes the death of the hero. It is
essentially a tale of suffering and calamity concluding to death. The heroes suffer greatly, their suffering
and calamity are exceptional. It is in this way that the hero of Shakespeare is such an important
personality that his foul affects the welfare of whole nation or empire and when he falls suddenly from
the height of earthly greatness to dust, his fall produces a sense of the powerlessness of man and the
omnipotence of fate. It is in this way that Shakespeare introduces an element of universality into his
tragedies. And in “MACBETH”, the great General Macbeth falls from his grace and turns into a villain and
his fall brings ruin and destruction of the entire country. It is not an individual tragedy, but a tragedy
with wide repercussions.

Besides these elements, the role of chance or accident, the conflict

and the poetic justice also play important role in Shakespearean tragedy. Chance or accident, it exerts
and influence on the course of action in other Shakespearean Tragedies it is conspicuous by its absence
from “MACBETH”. The action of a Shakespearean Tragedy always develops through conflict may be both
external and internal, but it is the inner conflict which is of greater importance. In “MACBETH” also, we
get both the internal and external conflict. But it is the inner conflict, this depiction of spiritual anguish,
which makes “MACBETH” such a poignant tragedy.

Generally speaking, there is no ‘poetic justice’ in a Shakespearean

Tragedy. “Poetic Justice means that prosperity and adversity are distributed in proportion to the merits
of the agents.” Shakespeare wished to hold the mirror up to nature and such poetic justice is in
contradiction with facts of life. No doubt, in a Shakespearean tragedy, the villain never remains
triumphant and Victorious in the end, but his suffering is out of all proportion to his misdeeds, and the
virtuous are also engulfed in the catastrophe. Only in “MACBETH” do we find poetic justice as the fate of
Macbeth is not undeserved.

Thus, we can say that almost all the Shakespearean peculiar

features of tragedy are found in the play “MACBETH”. And “MACBETH” as a tragedy with the words of
BAILEY.

“The tragedy of’ Macbeth’ is the greatest murder in Shakespeare

done in the most supernatural atmosphere, and by Shakespeare’s greatest poet.”

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