The Tragedy and Despair of Shakespeares Macbeth Essay -- GCSE Coursew

The Tragedy and Despair of Macbeth Macbeth is one of the best known of Shakespeares plays. It is commonly classed, along with Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear, among Shakespeares four great tragedies. After reading Macbeth, several profound aspects of the play come to mind the central characters (Lady Macbeth and her husband) and their development, the treatment of gender issues, the nature and conflict of dear(p) and evil, the final triumph of the forces of goodness and life, and the troubling implications of that triumph. One direction to approach the plays leading characters is to see how they fit Aristotles ideas about tragedy. The problem with this approach is that they dont fit Aristotles ideas very well. Aristotle wrote that a tragic character should be more good than evil and that the characters fall should be the result of a mistake or misstep (the probable meaning of Aristotles term hamartia) rather than moral depravity. Lady Macbeth and her husband, by contrast, are more evil than good, and they deliberately commit or arrange several horribly depraved acts among others, the mar of King Duncan, the murder of Macbeths friend Banquo, and the murder of Macduffs wife and children. Their motives are purely selfish they want power and all the personal benefits it will bring. It doesnt look as if Aristotles ideas work very well at all in Macbeth. But despite the fact that the play doesnt fit the ideal Aristotelian mold (and Shakespeare probably had no intention that it should, anyway), looking at the play in this way sheds some light on it. Were required to ask, Is Macbeth purely evil? Is his wife? The more closely Ive looked at the play, the more Ive live convinced that its power comes f... ...tues we commonly associate with women and children -- or with Christ -- have not been given adequate attention. Macbeth shows us characters who have succumbed to despair Lady Macbeth, who comes to conceptualize that Whats done cannot be undone (5.1.68), and Macb eth, who argues that, since I am in blood/ Steppd in so far, repentance is pointless should I wade no more,/ returning were as tedious as go oer (3.4.135-37). The play shows these characters defeated, but not redeemed. Works CitedCooke, Patricia. Macbeth Origin of Despair. Online posting. 20 Nov. 1996. SHAKSPER The Global Electronic Shakespeare Conference. 5 ring 2001 <http//www.shaksper.net/archives/1996/0937.html. Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th ed. New York Longman, 1999.