Villain or victim? Is Macbeth a victim of external circumstances or a man solely driven by evil?
Villain or victim? Is Macbeth a victim of external circumstances or a man solely driven by evil? Macbeth is the most widely translated Shakespeare play for good reason. The legend of Macbeth is a timeless tragedy, the hero succumbing to his fatal flaw. All Shakespeare's tragedies focus on this same idea; a single flaw in the person that leads to their destruction, desperation and death. Macbeth's fatal flaw is ambition, once the flame of his desires is lighted, it grows and engulfs all that it comes into contact with. But what is it that drags our 'noble', 'brave' Macbeth into the pool of devastation and evil? Is our tragic hero simply a victim of external circumstances, or a man solely driven by evil? It is clear that throughout the play, Macbeth's evil actions do not come unprovoked. Macbeth's ambition was unleashed the second he met the witches. The witches do not stumble upon Macbeth, they plan their meeting upon the heath, and they see the destruction he will cause. Though Macbeth does not immediately appear to believe the prophecies, '...to be king Stands not within the prospect of belief No more than to be Cawdor.', He soon warms to the idea. The witches speak in riddles, and in a different rhythm to Shakespeare's usual iambic pentameter, emphasising their abnormality and evil. Angus awakens Macbeth to the idea by telling him of the Thane of Cawdor's downfall and
Equivocation in Macbeth
Equivocation in Macbeth In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the theme of equivocation to effectively illustrate the evil nature of the witches. Equivocation is the use of ambiguous expressions in order to mislead. The prophecies of the witches play a mischief in this play, as they are a form of deception that at times use vague language to dodge an issue. The three influential prophecies, which the witches make in this play, are that the protagonist Macbeth will become the king of Scotland, Banquo will be the father of the king of Scotland, and Macbeth will not be killed until the Birnam wood moves to Dunsinane hill. The sources of these prophecies are the witches who put together the devious words into Macbeth's mind, which demonstrates the evil nature of the witches. In Macbeth, one of the earliest prophecies that the witches make is that Macbeth will become the king of Scotland. "All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter!"(I.iii.50) is the prophecy in which no indication of the doom of Macbeth is present. The literal meaning of this apocalypse is that Macbeth will become the king of Scotland. Thus, his ambition to take the pursuit of breaking the natural order to become the king becomes ungovernable. This is evident when Macbeth is shown hallucinating of a dagger before he kills Duncan, the real king of Scotland. Macbeth says, "Is this a dagger, which I see before me, /
It is not only the heros character that feeds into the construction of a tragedy; external events also play a part. Does either one of these components have, in your opinion, an overriding influence on Macbeth, or do they make an equal contr
It is not only the hero's character that feeds into the construction of a tragedy; external events also play a part. Does either one of these components have, in your opinion, an overriding influence on Macbeth, or do they make an equal contribution to his downfall? Tragic plays, according to the rules laid down by Aristotle, should involve several key components; amongst them the idea of 'the catastrophe', a calamitous outcome, which evokes an emotional response in the audience; 'the three unities', i.e. that the action of the play, the location of the play, and the time period during which the play takes place, should all be synchronised; and the idea that the play should be centred on the protagonist of the play, and that an error in the judgement of the protagonist should result in the previously mentioned 'catastrophe'. Aristotle called this fatal error 'Hamartia', which was often brought about due to the 'hubris' of the protagonist, or his excessive pride. Shakespeare, however, having never read Aristotle nor heard of his 'rules', carves his own form of tragedy, wherein the lines between the 'divine punishment' given to people, and the punishment they bring upon themselves, are blurred. Also blurred are the lines between what is truly 'good' or 'evil', and if we can truly take any comfort in either of these terms. From the outset of Macbeth, we are told of the power of
