Analysis of the Character of Shakespeare's Macbeth in the Social and Historical Contexts
The play "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare, which is based on the Scottish history, appears to be not so much a work of art as a political response to the era in which it was necessary to develop a Scottish theme, emphasize the historical friendship of England and Scotland, and tell about the popular witches and witchcraft at the new royal court. Undoubtedly, tragedies are the creative heritage of William Shakespeare. They express the power of his brilliant mind and the essence of his era, precisely because the subsequent periods comprehended their conflicts through the prism of the Shakespearean works of art. Therefore, the analysis of the character and the play within the historical and social contexts will allow the better planning of the modern staging.
In this work, the author raises the question of the disastrous impact of one-man rule, and especially, the struggle for power, which turns the brave, valiant, and celebrated hero of Macbeth into the hated villain: "But all’s too weak, / For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name – / Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel" (Shakespeare 1.2.15-17); " My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain / Than terms 4 can give thee out!" (Shakespeare 5.8.8-9). Thus, Shakespeare's constant theme, i.e. the theme of retribution, sounds even more powerful in this tragedy. This retribution falls on criminals and villains, which is the mandatory law of Shakespearean drama, "a kind of manifestation of his optimism" (Bloom 20). His best characters die often, but the villains and criminals are always punished with death. Precisely, this law is particularly bright in "Macbeth". Shakespeare focuses on the analysis of the character and society individually and in their direct interaction in all his works. He analyzes "the sensual and the spiritual nature of human interaction and the agony of feeling, diverse mental state of a person in their movements and transitions, the occurrence and development of affects and their destructive power" (Bloom 27). Shakespeare emphasizes "the crucial and critical states of consciousness, the causes of spiritual crisis", as well as external and internal, and subjective and objective causes (Bloom 27). Hence, this man's inner conflict is the main theme of the tragedy of "Macbeth": "O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!" (Shakespeare 3.2.36)
Shakespeare turned the wise and fair nature of the main character into a villainous and despotic conduct not immediately, but gradually, showing his evolution under the influence of the forces of evil, i.e. the three witches in the beginning and his wife later: "By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis, / But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives, / A prosperous gentleman, and to be king / Stands not within the prospect of belief, No more than to be Cawdor" (Shakespeare 1.3.72-76). The noble hero goes astray, believing in witchcraft prophecy. His seduction takes place in a "classic Christian style" (Bloom 25). The witches irritate the commander's pride and provide the false evidence that he will become the "Thane of Cawdor": "All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!" (Shakespeare 1.3.51). Having accepted the spoken as the inevitable fate, the main character is decided on a terrible crime, i.e. the murder of the king who represents the Lord's Anointed on earth. It is the same as an attack on God, hence, the protagonist hesitates again: "This supernatural soliciting / Cannot be ill, cannot be good" (Shakespeare 1.3.130-131). He hesitates at first, he is afraid and tries to back out. However, Lady Macbeth, as a born Eve, tempts her husband with the power and persuades him to take it in his hands: "Look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under’t" (Shakespeare 1.5.63-64). Thus, when the commander Macbeth kills the king, but does not find the strength to put the blood-stained daggers to the servants, Lady Macbeth goes to the scene of the crime to daub them with the blood and hide the committed sin: "If he do bleed, / I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, / For it must seem their guilt" (Shakespeare 2.2.53-55). Macbeth's fearlessness is partly due to his excessive faith in the beyond predictions. When he hears the information from the apparitions that his power will not end as long as Birnam Wood stands, and that he will not die from the hands of woman born, the king decides that he is all-powerful and almost immortal: "Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until / Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill / Shall come against him" (Shakespeare 4.1.92-92).
The tragedy "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare provides the most complete characterization of an individualist as an individual, who consciously and consistently puts his own interests above the interests of others. Macbeth, who is wrapped in ambitious passion, is eager to release his mind from the moral principles and rules of household, considering them a nuisance, empty prejudices. Nevertheless, he is still plagued by remorse, he is scared of Banquo's shadow: "When now I think you can behold such sights, / And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, / When mine is blanched with fear" (Shakespeare 3.4.117-119). Macbeth continues to go forward; he struggles to drown out the voices of his enemies, so as not to weaken his will. The outward conditions provoke Macbeth's ambitions and promote his moral degeneration and the temporary triumph. Individualism leads to the appearance of the other topic, i.e. the theme of "interests of society as a whole"; Shakespeare addresses "the conflict between the two opposing views on human nature" (Bloom 53). This conflict manifests itself in the seventh scene of the first act, when says he does not feel the effect of other motives besides ambition, which, as he knows, is destined to destroy itself: " I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself / And falls on the other" (1.7.26-28). Therefore, he announces Lady Macbeth: "We will proceed no further in this business" (1.7.31). She protects her individualistic viewpoint that Macbeth has the right and even the duty to act in accordance with his wishes and through away all obstacles. And she manages to convince her husband.
Context
Shakespeare created the tragedy "Macbeth" in 1606, 3 years after the death of Queen Elizabeth and the accession to the throne of James I, i.e. the son of the executed Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (Bloom 11). The playwright borrowed the historical events and images of the "Macbeth" tragedy from "The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland" by Raphael Holinshed (Bloom 12). However, the English playwright significantly reduced the time of events: i.e. he united "Macdonald's uprising, invasion of the Norwegian king, and the attack of the Caputo troops on the Scots" in one historical moment and introduced the rule of Macbeth in a short term in contrast to the actual age of seventeen (Bloom 14). Over time, all new interpretations left their marks on Shakespeare's tragedies, and in this case, the main burden was laid on the shoulders of the central characters: i.e. Hamlet, Othello, Lear, and Macbeth. However, Shakespeare's character is not the whole play, but only one of its characters, while the very play is a stage world. "Shakespeare's tragic play is a developed, socially, and psychologically diverse system in the arrangement and interaction of shapes" (Bloom 16). The "tragic attitude is clearly and sharply manifested itself in Shakespeare's work in the middle of his career, at the turn of the 16th and the 17th centuries", as his tragedies of this period do not constitute a cycle of creativity, they are independent (Bloom 16). However, all seven plays are united not only by their belonging to one author, common genre, and time of their creation, but they also develop a common theme of "the crisis of the Renaissance humanist consciousness in a crisis state of society" (Bloom 19).
Shakespeare introduces some fantastic images into the tragedy "Macbeth". It is not only the ghost of the murdered Banquo at Macbeth's banquet, but also the three witches. The present tragedy is the unique among the others, as it opens with the appearance of the supernatural beings, which points to the fact of their plot-compositional role importance. According to Bloom, the playwright uses the traditional beliefs of his age, as well as the material of the old Scottish legend (12). However, Shakespeare exaggerated these images. These kinds of hell become a fantastic device that allows visualizing "the inner world of the man by means of his psychological metaphor" (Bloom 48). On the one hand, these are the fairy-tale characters, but they also represent the evil passions and the selfish desires of a person: "Show his eyes, and grieve his heart. / Come like shadows, so depart" (Shakespeare 4.1.110). Shakespeare initially changes the main images in his tragedy according to the canons of his era. Therefore, Macbeth's image is opposed to the images of Banquo ("the founder of a new royal house of the Stewarts"), Macduff ("the Scottish noble, who defended his homeland and lost his wife and children due to the patriotic aspirations"), and Malcolm (the eldest son of King Duncan) (Bloom 19). The English playwright idealizes the nature of Banquo advisedly: the real person was a "Macbeth's friend and accomplice in murder of King Duncan", while the literary character is an innocent friend, who warns his commander from falling into evil network (Bloom 20). "And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, / The instruments of darkness tell us truths, / Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s / In deepest consequence" (Shakespeare 1.3.123-126). Shakespeare interprets the two key murders of the tragedy differently than it was in reality: according to Holinshed, the sent servants who kill the King, Banquo's murder occurs after Macbeth's feast (Bloom 33).
On the one hand, the playwright's changes emphasize Macbeth's sharp fall from the loyal and noble man and into the vile traitor and murderer, while on the other hand, they also accentuate "the inner passions and the necessary continuation of magical themes" (Bloom 35). Banquo's ghost's appearance at Macbeth's feast is not accidental: it predicts the commander's quick death and "its future accession to the throne in the person of eight kings", one of whom (James I) holds a "triple scepter indicating the submission of the three countries, i.e. Britain, Scotland, and Ireland", as shown in the commander's vision (Bloom 54). Only Macbeth can see the ghost of the murdered Banquo. Here Shakespeare follows the beliefs of his time, according to which a ghost appear before a specific person and is invisible to everyone else (Bloom 38). Therefore, Lady Macbeth tries to convince the nobles at the royal feast in her husband's disease, as it is safer than a direct indication of the crime: "The fit is momentary. Upon a thought 58 He will again be well" (Shakespeare 3.4.57-58). According to Bloom, Macbeth's temper reflects not only "the duality of many Renaissance characters", i.e. a strong, bright personality who is forced to go on the offense for the sake of his incarnation, but also a "higher dualism that is truly existential" (54).
Contemporary Perspective
If one considers Shakespeare's play "Macbeth" from the contemporary perspective, it can be stated that the understanding of the issues of the author's time have significantly transformed to date. This means that all the problems of the play, which consists in the betrayal of a person's essence, can be considered a complex of the moral and ethical issues. Macbeth represents more than one era; thus, the problems of the Shakespearean era can take place in the modern world. A majority of the play performances at various times prove the relevance of this work. However, it is not necessarily to stage the whole play based on the original text in order to reflect the perspective of Shakespeare's Macbeth today. There are many examples of how some artists and filmmakers who used the original idea and then created a truly high-quality interpretation in contemporary art. The problems of "Macbeth" will remain relevant for a long time; hence, they will be manifested in different forms. For example, cinema enjoys greater demand than theater to date. At the same time, there are tens of cinematographic productions of "Macbeth." The scenery and the dynamics change, but at the same time, the original problems remain untouched, affecting the current ones. The modern Macbeth is no different from that of Shakespeare, except the fact that it is necessary to change some of the scenery, taking into account the perception of today's audience.
The modern production of "Macbeth" also touches upon almost every aspect of the original problems, because the main conflict of the play dwells on the age-old problems of humankind. However, it is necessary to improve some parts of the play, making it more relevant. Thus, it is necessary to upgrade the scenery and create a new background to the conflict in order to make it more contemporary. The basic idea of the main character's transformation has to remain the same, as well as the tempers of the play characters. Today, the theater is not limited by any mandatory regulations and this opens up many possibilities for experimentation. The stage version of Shakespeare's plays should reflex the most superficial aspects in contemporary society, but at the same time, the main ideas and conflicts should remain unchanged under any approach. The transformation of the intentions into their opposites (as one of the main ideas) should refer to the overall evolution of the protagonist's temper and inner world. This topic is well revealed in the relationship of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, for example, Macbeth says: "I’ll go no more. / I am afraid to think what I have done. Look on’t again I dare not", and then Lady Macbeth responses: "Infirm of purpose!" (Shakespeare 2.2.47-50). Hence, the modern production should imply a slightly different type of the protagonist. All his agonies and conflicts should remain the same but with the projection on the problems of the modern world. For instance, the political problems that exist today will be transferred to the metaphoric form of the play plot. The role of Macbeth needs an actor with very expressive, masculine traits. Thus, a stage of the "Modern Macbeth" needs to focus on the deeper psychological illustration. It is necessary to make a character more realistic than its classic version is.
Conclusions
Precisely, Shakespeare's tragedy "Macbeth" reveals a great evil force, but it is his most optimistic tragedy. Its optimism does not lie only in the overthrown tyranny, but in discovering and understanding the internal conflict in the protagonist's mind. Macbeth can embark on the path of total destruction only by means of self-destruction. "Macbeth" corresponds the era of the Renaissance humanism. Even as a modern staging, this great tragedy would aim at the realization that people are the part of the universe.
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold. William Shakespeare's Macbeth. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1996. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 22 Mar. 2016.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Waiheke Island: Floating Press, 2008. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 22 Mar. 2016.
