Shakespeare’s tragedies are based on the culmination of the recklessness of his protagonists. For example, suspicion was the major cause of Othello’s downfall; Pride was the cause behind King Lear’s tragedy. As said by Aristotle, the protagonist’s weakness is the major reason for the tragedy to happen in the play. Shakespeare’s plays are based on the concept of Aristotle’s tragedy. The tragic hero according to Corrigan (206) is the good man who faces trouble due to his errors or shortcomings. The shortcomings or errors are the real motivators behind the action of the heroes. In King Lear, Lear commits a serious error of disinheriting his daughter who genuinely loves him. His excessive greed motivated him to do injustice to his pious and genuine daughter. Othello commits error by trusting his enemy and thus doubting on his wife’s character and her goodness. His doubt and suspicion was the real motivator behind his harsh treatment to his wife. The weaknesses of the personalities of Shakespeare’s tragic heroes are so dominating that these weaknesses conquer their good qualities and consequently lead them to their tragic end. Macbeth is one of such characters who apart from being brave, gets succumbed to his greed and ambition of being the King. The strong desire or ambition of Macbeth to be the king is so intense that he loses his morals, principles and ethics. The paper focuses on the thorough analysis of the character of Macbeth. The motivator behind the action of Macbeth is analyzed in the paper. Like other plays of Shakespeare, this play also has some relevance even today.
Though Macbeth is the protagonist of the play, he has the villainous attributes just like Iago, Aaron the Moor, Edmund and Richard III. His ambition was so strong that human life is also valueless for him. He is not able to resist his excessive ambition that is inclined towards a complete dark shade of his personality. Macbeth becomes tragic hero rather than the villain, and it is because of his constant struggle to gain goodness. He is not as ruthless and without any moral dilemma like other villains of Shakespeare. He is the epitome of Aristotle’s tragic hero. He commits series of murder and he is thirsty for the blood of those who are resisting his ambition. After the murder, Macbeth repents,
Shall Sleep no more – Macbeth shall sleep no more (Macbeth 2.2. 54-55)
The above lines indicate that Macbeth is not ruthless and professional killer. His conscience is still alive and somewhere he feels that he has committed a sin. That is why Macbeth succeeds to gain sympathy from the readers. As said by Wayne, Booth and Jost (25) Macbeth was a man that deserves admiration due to his great potential. Apart from being a generous person with potential, Macbeth’s tragic end was inevitable. It is the question what made Macbeth to do certain evil actions which otherwise he would not have committed.
There are three motivators behind the evil actions performed by Macbeth; first is the prophecy of witches, second is the extreme ambition of Lady Macbeth and the third motivator is his own hidden ambition which was awaken by the witches and Lady Macbeth. It can be perceived that three of these motivators played crucial role in Macbeth. In the beginning of the play, as foretold by the witches, he would be the next king of Scotland. But when King Duncan announced that the next king of the throne will be Malcolm, Macbeth’s dream of becoming the king was shattered. He lost his hope and decided to kill Duncan. So the motivator behind killing Duncan was that by proclamation of the next heir (which was not Macbeth), the king hurt him and ultimately triggered the hidden and suppressed ambition of Macbeth.
The second motivator is the prophecy of the witches. The witches were the three sisters, who appear in Act 1. Macbeth and Banquo meet them while returning from the battle. The witches told Macbeth that he was going to be the next king of Scotland and Banquo was going to be the father of the king. The witches call Macbeth “Thane of Glamis”, “Thane of Cawdor” and the “King hereafter”. Before the prophecy, the king had the desire but that was not much intense. Macbeth is taking the prophecy of witches as per his own convenience. He is taking efforts to make some of the prophecies (which would be beneficial for him) real; for example, the prophecy of his being a king. At the same time he also strives to overturn the prophecy of being the Banquo the father of the king (that is the hurdle for him). The witches also foretold that Macbeth’s life will be full of confusion and chaos and he could not differentiate between “fair & foul”. He has been blind by his ambition and greed to be the king that he could not recognize which is the right and which is the wrong act for him. The prophecies of the witches bring confusion in his life and that led his tragic end.
The third motivator is Lady Macbeth, Macbeth’s wife who is far more ambitious than her husband. Her ambition surpass to that of the ambition of Macbeth. Macbeth has been given the title Thane by the king. A thane is a military nobleman. But Lady Macbeth’s ambition was not just to be the wife of a Thane but she wants to be the king of Scotland. Macbeth is shaky in his decision of killing the king when he was enticed and instigated by Lady Macbeth. Her way of enticing him was also very ruthless. She accused him. In act 1 scene 7 of the play, Macbeth is in dilemma whether to kill the king; Lady Macbeth entices him with the quotes:
'Was the hope drunk, wherein you dressed yourself.'
Have plucked my nipple from it's boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this (1.7. 55-57)
The relationship between Macbeth and his wife is very strong. Lady Macbeth is more dominating between them. She has a tremendous capacity to control her husband and to motivate him. But unfortunately the motivation is wrong and destructive. Lady Macbeth tutors her husband in the art of deceit (Kemp 95). She is like the serpent in the female form from Eden Garden. Just like the Satan in the form of the serpent appears and succeeds in seducing Eve, Lady Macbeth also manipulates her husband by various means and forces him to commit sins. Her personality is charismatic. Duncan appreciates her for her hospitality by calling her “fair & noble hostess (Act 1 scene 2). She is the motivator like the leader but her leadership is false as she leads her follower (her husband) to commit bad deeds. She has a wish to “unsex herself”; it means that she has taken the role of a man to influence or pressure the opposite sex person. She is the motivator because she is an embodiment for one might hour of evil; absolute and extreme (Knight and Eliot 168)
The actions of Macbeth are motivated majorly by women; Lady Macbeth and the three witches. Women play crucial role in burning the strong desire in Macbeth’s mind. The desire proved a poison, which ends up in destruction of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
Being ambitious is not wrong. Every human being has some or other ambition and dream. But everyone does not follow the path of violence and murder to fulfill the ambition. The ambition should have some moral and logical base. Macbeth unfortunately lacks this base. He has no sense of morality or his ambition was too excessive to carry the moral values.
Like all other plays, Macbeth can be studied and interpreted from modern perspectives. Guilt, murder, shame, hierarchy, anxiety, distress, psychological illness, mental instability, manipulation, jealousy, greed psychosis are the different themes on which Macbeth is based. Psychopaths, sociopaths, murderers, and other mentally collapsed people are still found in the modern world. As far as hierarchy is concerned, in Macbeth only political and social hierarchy is shown, but in today’s world the racial and ethnic hierarchy is also prevalent. The Elizabethan problems with human being still exist in modern time. Though the political social, cultural and economic scenario has changed, the human problems have remained same. As said by Degunther (29) the problems that are dealt with Shakespeare’s King Lear and Macbeth still hold its relevance in today’s society.
As discussed above, ambition of both husband and wife is the major cause behind the downfall of Macbeth. Like Macbeth, people are not happy even after gaining material pleasures. They still pursue more and more wealth, power and material pleasures. There are several examples where the people kill each other for the sake of gaining power and material things. Fate is another theme that can also be interpreted in modern context. Like Macbeth, even today the people think that if they gain power and wealth, they can change their destiny. They can control their lives. The people blindly plan for future; but almost all the time, they end up doing different things from whatever they have planned earlier. Macbeth is a dark and violent play. Shakespeare has shown lot of violence in the play. Macbeth for his ambition kills the people one by one. He forgets that violence is not the way to achieve something. Today’s world is also full of violence. We frequently hear and see the terrorist attacks and lot of violence everywhere in the world. The powerful people try to prove their power by violence and by torturing innocent people.
The association of natural and unnatural world is also one of the major themes of Macbeth. For example after the murder of Duncan, Ross and the old man point out the unnatural things happening around.
“‘Tis unnatural,/Even like the deed that’s done” (2.4.12-13)
Work Cited
Booth, Wayne C and Walter Jost. The Essential Wayne Booth. 1st ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Print.
"The Complete Text Of Macbeth: Scenes From Shakespeare's Macbeth". Shakespeare-online.com. Web. 2 Jan. 2017.
Corrigan, Robert W., ed. Tragedy: Vision and Form. 2nd ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1981.
Degünther, Alina. Good And Evil In Shakespeare's King Lear And Macbeth. 1st ed. Anchor Academic Publishing, 2014. Print.
Kemp, Theresa D. Women In The Age Of Shakespeare. 1st ed. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO, 2010. Print.
Knight, G. Wilson and T. S Eliot. The Wheel Of Fire. 1st ed. London: Methuen & Co., 1949. Print.
