Macbeth
Macbeth Summary
At a Glance
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Scottish general Macbeth is told by a trio of witches that he will
become Thane of Cawdor and then King of Scotland. King Duncan names
Macbeth Thane of Cawdor.
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At Lady Macbeth’s prompting, Macbeth kills Duncan then murders and frames the servants. Macbeth is crowned king.
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Macbeth orders the suspicious Banquo and his son killed, but Fleance
survives. The witches make a number of ambiguous predictions that give
Macbeth confidence.
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Macbeth has Macduff’s family executed. A vengeful Macduff joins with
Malcolm in a plot to overthrow Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is overcome with
remorse and kills herself.
- Macduff and Malcolm march on Macbeth and the witches’ prophecies prove true as Macbeth is killed by Macduff and Malcolm is crowned king.
Introduction
Probably composed in late 1606 or early 1607, Macbeth is the last of Shakespeare's four great tragedies, the others being Hamlet, King Lear and Othello.
It is a relatively short play without a major subplot, and it is
considered by many scholars to be Shakespeare's darkest work. Lear is an utter tragedy in which the natural world is amorally indifferent toward mankind, but in Macbeth, Shakespeare adds a supernatural dimension that purposively conspires against Macbeth and his kingdom. In the tragedy of Lear, the distraught king summons the goddess of Chaos, Hecht; in Macbeth, Hecate appears as an actual character.
On the level of human evil, Shakespeare's Scottish tragedy is about Macbeth's bloody rise to power, including the murder of the Scottish king, Duncan, and the guilt-ridden pathology of evil deeds generating still more evil deeds. As an integral part of this thematic web is the play's most memorable character, Lady Macbeth. Like her husband, Lady Macbeth's ambition for power leads her into an unnatural, phantasmagoric realm of witchcraft, insomnia and madness. But while Macbeth responds to the prophecies of the play's famous trio of witches, Lady Macbeth goes even further by figuratively transforming herself into an unnatural, desexualized evil spirit. The current trend of critical opinion is toward an upward reevaluation of Lady Macbeth, who is said to be rehumanized by her insanity and her suicide. Much of this reappraisal of Lady Macbeth has taken place in discussions of her ironically strong marriage to Macbeth, a union that rests on loving bonds but undergoes disintegration as the tragedy unfolds.
On the level of human evil, Shakespeare's Scottish tragedy is about Macbeth's bloody rise to power, including the murder of the Scottish king, Duncan, and the guilt-ridden pathology of evil deeds generating still more evil deeds. As an integral part of this thematic web is the play's most memorable character, Lady Macbeth. Like her husband, Lady Macbeth's ambition for power leads her into an unnatural, phantasmagoric realm of witchcraft, insomnia and madness. But while Macbeth responds to the prophecies of the play's famous trio of witches, Lady Macbeth goes even further by figuratively transforming herself into an unnatural, desexualized evil spirit. The current trend of critical opinion is toward an upward reevaluation of Lady Macbeth, who is said to be rehumanized by her insanity and her suicide. Much of this reappraisal of Lady Macbeth has taken place in discussions of her ironically strong marriage to Macbeth, a union that rests on loving bonds but undergoes disintegration as the tragedy unfolds.
When the Battle’s Lost and Won: Discussing Power Dynamics in Macbeth
One of the central questions of power in Macbeth
deals with control over an individual’s fate. Throughout the play,
Macbeth struggles to for control over himself, both in an emotional way
and over his own destiny. The first report of Macbeth is of a captain
speaking about him as a brave warrior in complete control of himself.
“Brave Macbeth—well he deserves that name—/Disdaining Fortune, with his
brandished steel,/which smoked with bloody execution,/Like valor’s
minion carved out his passage” (Act 1, Scene 2, Lines 16-19). He is
depicted in a straightforward, unambiguous way as a great fighter who
cuts through his enemies with strong ruthlessness. However, when Macbeth
is introduced in person, he is depicted quite differently. He is unable
to deal with the strangeness of the Weird Sisters, and reacts in an
ambiguous, emotional way. “This supernatural soliciting/Cannot be ill,
cannot be good. If ill,/Why hath it given me earnest of success” (Act 1,
Scene 3, Lines131-3). He is unable to decide whether or not the
witches’ prophecy is good or bad, and he reacts physically. “If good,
why do I yield to that suggestion/Whose horrid image doth unfix my
hair/And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,/Against the use of
nature? Present fears/Are less than horrible imaginings” (Act 1, Scene
3, Lines 135-9). His whole mental and physical functioning is shut down
because of an inner struggle. Interestingly, at the end, when Macbeth
has committed so many cruel and bloody crimes that he has become numb to
them, he loses this uncontrolled physical reaction. “I have almost
forgot the taste of fear/The time has been my senses would have
cooled/To hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair/Would at a dismal
treatise rouse and stir/As life were in’t. I have supped full with
horrors;/Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,/Cannot once
start me” (Act 5, Scene 5, Lines 9-15). Furthermore, Macbeth struggles
for and against his own fate throughout the play. Several times, he
attempts to alter fate. “Come fate into the list,/And champion me to
th’utterance!” (Act 3, Scene 1, Lines72-3). He literally wants to fight
fate in physical combat. He does this by ordering the murders of Banquo
and Fleance, and later, after visiting the Weird Sisters for answers, he
also orders the deaths of Macduff’s family. The struggle for power, it
seems, begins with an inner struggle.
A Nod to King James
The only surviving source of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth,
which seems to have been adapted for a court performance for King
James, is centralized around the struggles of different power dynamics.
This works well in the context of interpolated compliments to King James
and his right to rule.
As a nod towards King James as the rightful ruler of both England and Scotland, Macbeth transfers its power symbolically from Scotland to England. After King Duncan’s murder, his son Malcolm flees to England to ask for help. He is “received/Of the most pious King Edward with such grace/That the malevolence of fortune nothing/Takes from his high respect” (Act 3, Scene 6, Lines 27-9). King Edward is recruiting the English forces to help Scotland get rid of Macbeth, their tyrant king. “Upon his aid,/To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward,/That by the help of these—with Him above/To ratify the work” (Act 2, Scene 6, Lines 30-3). This puts the English king in the position of the divine savior. Scotland is sick, and England has got the cure. At the end, everything is put right by the power of pure England and its divine king. Holding Macbeth’s head, Macduff announces that “the time is free” (Act 5, Scene 8, Line 55). Macbeth’s evil has been swept away out from Scotland and replaced with a rightful ruler. Malcolm says, “My thanes and kinsmen,/Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland/In such an honor named” (Act 5, Scene 8, Lines 63-5). Already, the old Scottish ways are being replaced by the greatness of England. Although Malcolm is crowned at the end rather than Fleance, the witches’ prophecy was known to be true by Shakespeare’s audience, because King James was a descendant of Banquo’s.
As a nod towards King James as the rightful ruler of both England and Scotland, Macbeth transfers its power symbolically from Scotland to England. After King Duncan’s murder, his son Malcolm flees to England to ask for help. He is “received/Of the most pious King Edward with such grace/That the malevolence of fortune nothing/Takes from his high respect” (Act 3, Scene 6, Lines 27-9). King Edward is recruiting the English forces to help Scotland get rid of Macbeth, their tyrant king. “Upon his aid,/To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward,/That by the help of these—with Him above/To ratify the work” (Act 2, Scene 6, Lines 30-3). This puts the English king in the position of the divine savior. Scotland is sick, and England has got the cure. At the end, everything is put right by the power of pure England and its divine king. Holding Macbeth’s head, Macduff announces that “the time is free” (Act 5, Scene 8, Line 55). Macbeth’s evil has been swept away out from Scotland and replaced with a rightful ruler. Malcolm says, “My thanes and kinsmen,/Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland/In such an honor named” (Act 5, Scene 8, Lines 63-5). Already, the old Scottish ways are being replaced by the greatness of England. Although Malcolm is crowned at the end rather than Fleance, the witches’ prophecy was known to be true by Shakespeare’s audience, because King James was a descendant of Banquo’s.
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