Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Macbeth is a tragedy of character rather than of deeds. Discuss.

When you talk about Shakespeare's Macbeth being a tragedy of character instead of a tragedy of deeds, you are talking about character motivation:  why the characters do what they do, or what makes the characters do what they do.  And any decent narrative reveals motivation for its characters (with a few exceptions, of course, when that is the point).


Ambition is the motivator for the murders, of course, and ambition is a fault in the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.  There is not much disagreement about that, and it's pretty obvious.  The previous commentators are correct in their assessments.


At the same time, emotions, desires, etc. don't kill people.  Lady Macbeth doesn't really do anything in the play except talk.  (Neither do the witches, by the way, but that's for another study.)  If Lady Macbeth were next in line for the thrown and a widow, and didn't have anybody to talk into doing her dirty work for her, Duncan would still be alive.  And she would not be guilty of anything except nasty thoughts.  Macbeth does the deed.  And that action makes him guilty of more than thinking. 


Thoughts don't land people in prison and kill people.  Actions land people in prison and kill people.  So in that sense one could not say that the play is a tragedy of character, rather than a tragedy of deeds.


This is from my "For Whatever it's Worth" file.   

1 comment:

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