Macbeth AS A TRAGEDY

MACBETH: AS A SHAKESPEAREAN TRAGEDY
Macbeth is the one play of Shakespeare that shows the audience that even the darkest
of evil can also be human. It may as well be horrible, but pitiable too. Macbeth is far less
complex than the other tragedies of Shakespeare and frequently raises the question as to if
this play is really tragic; Macbeth does not feel guilt and so the question of punishment
doesn’t arise. What Shakespeare deals with in Macbeth is the consequence of unpardonable
evil— inescapable punishment. Yet at the same time the audience is moved by pity for the
sufferings of the propagator of evil. This creates confusion in reactions to the fate of the
protagonist.
Macbeth’s end is a sorry end, but resulting from his monstrous career. Macbeth’s
death is a defeat. Pity or awe is not raised by his death. Dying off-stage seems to be a
reflection of the world’s desire to get rid of him. The sight of his severed head is an assurance
of rightful kingship of Malcom. Macbeth is dismissed as “the dead butcher and his fiend-like
queen.” The audience feels the justice established, but strangely enough, a rush of pity.
The end of the play is an elaborate picture of destruction; of the soul and the world of
the hero. The spirit of Macbeth dies with bleak chances of recovery. At the end Macbeth does
not have the comfort of restoration of what he lost. He knows that he has missed much; just
before the death of Lady Macbeth he despairs the loss of “honour, love, obedience, troops of
friends”. However, the realization is no solace, and does not raise him beyond his conditions.
Nor do they offer respite from his situation. Macbeth is not tortured by regret, but by despair,
and broods alone, denouncing life as “a tale told by an idiot”.
However, Macbeth is saved from being reduced to the pathetic by saving touches of
humanity we see at the end. He still retains some human virtue; he refuses to have any more
of Macduff’s blood on his soul. His bravery does not falter even when the last soldier is
removed and he faces the enemy directly. Although these touches save him from being seen
as the incarnation of the Devil, they do not succeed in re-establishing his former self. Death
does not redeem him of his actions; there is no greatness in his death. His death embodies
ruin in evil; not ‘the human spirit’s capcity for greatness in evil’.
From the very beginning of the play, Macbeth subsumes in temptation beyond
retribution; the audience understands from the very beginning that he is submitting to
hopeless suffering, will never be able to enjoy what he desires. His loss lacks the poignancy
of Hamlet, Lear, or Othello’s loss. Macbeth is tragic because he loses himself. Macbeth is the
only Shakespearean protagonist who is completely aware of the viciousness of his act, and
thus unleashes a chain of events leading to his ruin. The culpability of Macbeth takes away a
great lot of the audiences’ sympathy. In spite of it Macbeth is also seen as a victim of the
witches, of Fate; imparting a vision of human life as Shakespeare saw it. However,
Macbeth’s responsibility can in no way be denied.
Macbeth’s ruin is brought about by his voluntary act of murder. It is this awareness
that makes the character tragic. Macbeth is essentially human; he succumbs to grievous
temptation and the effects of his first sin define the actions of the play. The guilt and the
circumstances do not reduce the pity and fear of the audience, rather they actively generate
pity and fear. Macbeth is presented in such a manner that he cannot escape evil even if he
wants to.
The temptation comes at such a juncture that it is like a trap. The witches ignite desire
in Macbeth when his head is filled with a sense of his own power. The events that follow
press the matter more hastily. Immediately after declaring his eldest son as the crown prince,
King Duncan announces his visit to Macbeth’s castle. Obstacle and opportunity to greatness
are both before him. Macbeth realizes that he must act fast: “If it were done when ‘tis done,
then ‘twere well it were done quickly.”
Maybe Macbeth would have desisted if left to himself. Great as the opportunities
were, greater were Macbeth’s fear of the consequences. He owed double loyalty to Duncan;
felt the goodness of Duncan so strongly that he shuddered at the notion of the possibility of
killing him. It is a point that reveals the goodness in Macbeth. Lady Macbeth correctly
assesses that her husband’s was a nature that would have evaded doing evil, but his was a
nature that could be worked up on, could be moulded; it was not firm in its goodness. This
very ordinariness of Macbeth is used by Shakespeare to arouse in the audience pity and fear
for Macbeth by virtue of which the he becomes the tragic protagonist and the play a great
tragedy.

Macbeth AS A TRAGEDY

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MACBETH: AS A SHAKESPEAREAN TRAGEDY

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