Concerning your question about Shakespeare's Macbeth, first of all no one can answer this question for you. My giving you my answer can't really help you with your answer.
I can, though, give you some of the issues involved.
By the close of the play, sympathy for Macbeth isn't an issue. He is not a sympathetic character. But that isn't what matters. The multifaceted nature of his personality is what is evident by this point.
Macbeth would like to believe the witches, right up to the point at which the witches' equivocations become evident--when Macduff tells him he was not born of woman, but of a body. Emotionally, he throws himself into the fulfillment of the predictions. But rationally, he suspects they are too good to be true. He seems to alternate between belief and despair, even showing us a nihilistic side of his personality in the "Tomorrow" speech after his wife dies.
Macbeth also feels trapped by the conclusion of the play, like a bear chained to a tree and attacked by a pack of dogs, for sport. Yet, he refuses to surrender and be humiliated and faces Macduff one-on-one and fights to the death: a noble gesture.
Thus, no one is expected to particularly like Macbeth. It's not about that. But to understand him, that is the point.
No comments:
Post a Comment