Most medieval plays are written this way and are based on this fortune wheel. They follow these five stages just described. We can see in the play Macbeth that Macbeth starts off as many tragic heroes do, being regarded as brave and great.
“For Brave Macbeth, well he deserves that name”
The plat starts where the witches meet Macbeth, they tell him that he will become Thane of Cawdor. He is made Thane of Cawdor and is loyal to the king. Macbeth again meets the witches, whom plant the seed of evil in Macbeth that bring his downfall, the witches tell him the prophecies which tempt Macbeth to kill his friend Duncan. This is something that Macbeth never would have considered before, as it would be killing someone that he should have honoured.
At this point everyone still has great respect for Macbeth and is greatly honoured.
“Call thee thane of Cawdor – In which addition, hail, most worthy Thane”
“All hail Macbeth, thou shalt be King hereafter”
These words spark great ambition within Macbeth and it is these words that plants the seed in which are left for Macbeth to develop and grow.
The Play continues and Macbeth has a change in his character that evidently brings out his flaw. He says in a moment to himself, showing his true thoughts:
“The Prince of Cumberland this is a set on which I must fall down, or else o’er- leap”
By saying this Macbeth means that the Prince of Cumberland must be killed or he will not succeed. This statement again shows his flaw, as previously Macbeth would never have thought so selfishly. This statement shows ambition and a weakness to manipulation.
Macbeth then has a change in fortune, his character seems to change and he becomes the King. This reversal of fortune due to a previous action clearly shows the third stage, Perpeteia. At this stage in the play Macbeth neither shows nor has any morals this change was made because, his tragic flaw came into the play. Macbeth’s tragic flaw being that he was weak-willed. Macbeth was lead into killing Duncan by his manipulating wife (lady Macbeth). She helped Hubris (A kind of arrogance) to take over Macbeth and although, he knew that what he was doing was wrong, he chose to ignore the warnings through his arrogance and weakness and with reference to this he says: -
“I am settled and bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat. Away, and mock the time with false heart doth known”
As the play continues Macbeth becomes doubtful but still agrees to kill the King. As Lady Macbeth has again manipulated him with a very powerful and convincing speech. Lady Macbeth again influences Macbeth due to his flaw.
“How tender ‘tis love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums and dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done this”
By saying this Lady Macbeth shows her ruthlessness and her evil as she says, that although she loved her baby, she would have killed it if she had promised to do so. She tries to trick Macbeth into thinking it is the right thing to do by questioning his manhood. So that he feels he is not acting manly.
“What breast was’t then that made you break this enterprise to me”
Macbeth evidently defends his manhood stupidly as he has been manipulated into carrying out his later actions.
The play moves on to the forth stage, Anagnoriosis, as at this point in the play Macbeth realises what he has done and realises he will never be able to forget or forgive himself for what he has done.
“Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still”
“ With all great Neptune’s was this blood clean from my hand?”
In this quote, Macbeth describes the sea not being able to wash away the blood, this means that no matter what he did he could still not get back his innocence and he cannot change what he has done. As the guilt will still remain. Throughout the whole of the play innocence is represented by sleep and the fact that Macbeth is unable to sleep makes the audience start to feel sorry for Macbeth as he is being punished for his wife’s lack of conscience.
Near the end of the play Macbeth realises that he is responsible for the awful deeds he has done and he knows that he will have to suffer the consequences.
The play then moves on to the final section of the play, Catharsis, this is the release of tension for the audience when natural order is restored.
Scotland has a new lawful King. Macduff has won the battle and Macbeth has been killed because, he was a traitor of the King. The whole play turns out to be very ironic as at the start of the play Macbeth kills someone who was a traitor to the King and then by the end of the play he had taken over the traitors role and was killed by someone greater than him.
Another famous example of tragedy is Oedipus Rex. Oedipus Rex is a tragic drama. Oedipus is a classic hero; Oedipus follows a very similar pattern to Macbeth’s and the Elizabethan fortune wheel.
Oedipus was born the Prince of Thebes. He was taken to the city of Corinth and adopted by the King and Queen; later Oedipus becomes the King of Thebes.
Then as tragedy would have it things started to go terribly wrong for Oedipus. His tragic flaw is his ‘blindness’ that is terribly ironic as it is his blindness at the beginning he isn’t physically blind but blind to the truth and he has no insight. Then by the end of the play, he has insight and knows the truth but evidently becomes physically blind. We can see that his action of killing the King was a result of his tragic flaw, Hamarita.
Oedipus has no way of stopping his tragic flaw because; it hasn’t yet to be detected. Therefore, the downfall is inevitable. The change in fortune adds a twist to the play. After killing the King who the audience knows is his father, he returns to Thebes and defeats the Sphinx, Oedipus becomes King and marries the Queen, his mother. At this point the audience feel sorry for Oedipus, as he is oblivious to the truth (his tragic flaw). Oedipus cannot see that he has killed his father and that he is about to become his father.
The play continues and Oedipus realises what he has become and what he has done. This is the part of the Play Anagnoriosis. Oedipus evidently is disgusted and in a moment of fear, anger and self-pity, he plucks his eyes out as he finds out that the wife that he loves is actually is biological mother! He finds his wife has hung herself when she has found out the truth and at this point in the play the audience feel a sense of relief. The audience are relieved because, Oedipus finally knows what is happening to him.
Unlike Macbeth, Oedipus didn’t actually know what he was doing, Macbeth knew that he was killing the King and still did his deed through Hubris. This was not the case in the story of Oedipus Rex.
Macbeth and Oedipus both follow the stages on the fortune wheel although; their stories are very different.
Macbeth and Oedipus were both tricked by people, people that’s Aristotle called ‘Agents of the Supernatural’. In Oedipus’ case the Sphinx tricked him and in Macbeth the witches tricked him. The stories are very similar. In Oedipus Jocasta kills herself when she finds out what Oedipus had done. In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth kills herself when she finds out what Macbeth has done. Thus we see a further link, the suicide of these characters ‘ wives because of their actions.
In the end of both plays, as said by Aristotle “there is a reversal of fortune”. Macbeth had the respect of others and was Thane of Cawdor; consequently things were going well for him but then evidently his fortune changed and he lost everything including the respect. Similarly, Oedipus had a family but he was unaware of the truth that lay in front of him, his fortune changed when he was cast down to the bottom of the fortune ‘wheel’.
WHEEL OF FORTUNE FOR THE STORY OF OEDIPUS REX
People enjoy watching tragedy, tragic drama because; it lets people experience a mixture of extreme emotions. Many people like to watch plays to escape from the tragedy and downfalls of their own lives. By watching either of these tragic dramas, we can experience a mixture of fear, sorrow and pain and one can see how other people react when faced with the unimaginable situations.
Macbeth is a classic example of tragic drama and will probably be used as a prime example for many years.
We know that initially Macbeth was a good person: -
“O valiant cousin, worthy gentlemen”
Duncan says this at the beginning of the play, not knowing that Macbeth will be the death of him.
At the start of the play Macbeth was an honest, good respected man who was loyal to his King. When his flaw kicks in though he began to walk on a path of evil. A path which he could not leave and he could never turn around and look back. Macbeth shows this when he says: -
“The Prince of Cumberland: that is a step on which I fall down, or else o’er leap, for in my way it lies. Stars hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires”
This quote shows that Macbeth’s personality is slowly beginning to change. The seed of evil has been planted and Macbeth starts to lose morals and Macbeth is only interested in what affects him.
Macbeth is a tragic hero, his tragic flaw being he is weak- willed and he is easily manipulated. Macbeth badly suffered from a bad case of Hubris, a great arrogance that caused him to ignore his tragic flaw without knowing it, even though he knew that what he was doing was wrong.
This confirms that Macbeth was a tragic indeed along with Oedipus and many other characters.
