Shakespearean Tragic Hero:
There is a comparison of the fall of Macbeth with that of Satan in play Macbeth. The Shakespearean tragic hero is a person of high degree or of public importance. He is made of the same stuff we find within ourselves and within the persons who surround him, but his life is so intense that he is raised above them.
The characters like Hamlet, Othello, Lear and Macbeth are men of genius. They are built on a grand scale. They have qualities of head and heart but there is marked one – sidedness in all of them. They have a fatal tendency to identify the whole being with one interest, passion or habit of mind. They are so much drawn in that direction that they are unable to resist the force.
Thus they are different from normal human beings. In this respect, they are exceptional beings but they do resemble one another. They are men of strong passions, with vivid imagination and capable of very great emotional excitement. They have a good deal of the poet in them.
Macbeth, An embodiment of Heroic Qualities but Marred by Flaw:
Hero of a Shakespearean tragedy is invariably an exceptional person, who stands in a high position. Macbeth, throughout the play, is presented as one much above the ordinary beings, and, as such, he fulfils the basic requirements of a tragic hero. Shakespeare introduces him as a brave general, a bold, resolute man of action who has, through sheer personal prowess, quelled a revolt against tremendous odds. He is referred to as “Valour’s minion” “Bellona’s bridegroom”, the king’s “valiant cousin”, a very “eagle” among “sparrows”, a “lion” among “hares”.
But his fall arouses less sympathy than that of Hamlet, Othello or Lear in that it is due to a contemptible flaw in his character, the same as that caused Satan’s fall, namely unscrupulous ambition. As a sinner Macbeth’s position is no better than that of Satan. Satan, inspired by ambition, severed his bond with God and revolted against him. Similarly Macbeth is led by ambition to try to rise above his appointed position on the great chain of being and so faces damnation, as Satan did.
Macbeth’s tragedy, therefore, like Satan’s is a tragedy of ambition. A stage – by – stage analysis of the play will show how this tragic flaw in Macbeth’s character keeps overpowering his nobler feelings and leads him to his gradual but certain damnation.
The Witches’ Provoking Macbeth’s Ambition:
The Witches have chosen Macbeth as the victim of their machinations only because Macbeth has a secret desire to become the king. The Witches’ predictions and their partial fulfilment at once engross him in the thought of kingship. His ambition makes him unscrupulous and the thought of murdering Duncan occurs instantly in his mind. He speaks of seeing a “horrid” image which has violently shaken his “single state of man”.
His strong conscience now comes to his aid and he tries to dismiss the frightening thought by arguing that if the Witches’ prediction were to come true then he could become a king without any ‘stir’ on his part.
Revival of the evil thought by Duncan’s Decision:
The thought of murdering Duncan revives in Macbeth’s mind the moment Duncan, after according a royal reception to the victorious Macbeth, announces the nomination of Prince Malcolm as the heir to the throne. He now finds his chance of becoming king slipping away and thinks of taking quick action.
Duncan’s decision to visit Macbeth’s castle makes him more firm in his intention. But Macbeth is still suffering from moral scruples which are, of course , slowly being overpowered by his soaring ambition . So he says:
Stars, hide your fires!
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
A Mental Conflict between Moral and Sin:
When Macbeth returns to his castle, his wife refers to the necessity of assassinating Duncan for Macbeth’s attaining kingship. But Macbeth who is yet to decide on the matter is still non – committal: “We will speak further”.
Soon follows a conflict in his mind between his ambition and his conscience. In addition to considering the tragic consequences that always beset the evil – doer, he realizes the heinousness of murdering. Duncan who is at once his guest, kinsman, and king, his conscience now comes out triumphant and he, in unequivocal words, tells his wife: “We will proceed no further in this business.”
Lady Macbeth’s Encouraging Macbeth:
However, the initial victory of conscience in Macbeth’s mind is only too short – lived. Accusing him of cowardice Lady Macbeth asks him to “screw” his courage “to the sticking place” and then proceeds to underline the apparently fool – proof plan of murder. Her forceful arguments revive his ambition to such an extent that he is now forced to ignore conscience and agree to his wife’s plan:
I am settled, and bend up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
The Assassination of Duncan and the beginning of Macbeth’s tragedy:
With the decision to assassinate Duncan Macbeth’s tragedy has begun to take shape. But his conscience has not yet given up and it continues to fight ambition, thus helping to make his self – damnation more intense. Even moments before the murder, his conscience appears in full force through his imagination and tries to dampen his ambition by showing him the visionary dagger dripping with blood symbolizing the horror of the proposed crime.
However, Macbeth’s ambition, aided by his wife’s instigation, is by now too strong for his conscience, which is ignored. As soon as he commits the murder he can again hear the disturbing protest of his deeper self. He hears one prince cry “God bless us” and the other “Amen” but he cannot say “Amen” to them. He has also heard a voice, the voice of his conscience, continually cry “sleep no more”.
The voice keeps ringing in his ears; the drops of blood on his hands pluck at his eyes and the consciousness of the “deep damnation of his (Duncan’s) taking off” will not leave him alone for a moment. Conscience now gnaws at him and makes itself articulate in the form of unforgettable sighs and haunting sounds. Macbeth is now overwhelmed with a sense of the futility of the crime and an equally strong sense of remorse. His speech after the discovery of Duncan’s murder,
Had I but died an hour before this chance
I had liv’d a blessed time; for, from this instance
There’s nothing serious in mortality;
All is but toys: renown, and grace, is dead….
Though intended to be a formal expression of grief, could ironically come straight from the depth of his heart. He is to truly experience this feeling of futility later.
Macbeth’s proceeding to the Path of Self – damnation and Degradation:
In spite of this sense of futility which causes Macbeth’s heart sickness and his agony of restlessness, he continues to proceed steadily along the path to self – damnation. A fever in his blood keeps him away from conscience and urges him on to ceaseless action and to desperation. He cannot renounce the prize that he has so dearly won and ambition is still blazing in him. Love of power and the will to live are so powerful in him that he goes to the extent of challenging Fate:
Come, fate, into the list,
And Champion me to th’ utterance! (III, I)
He is now possessed of two contrary feelings: sickness of heart, weariness, ennui, on the one hand, and a mood of all – defying fury and ruthlessness, on the other, both originating in the same source – frustrated ambition and tortured conscience. This latter impulse turns Macbeth into a rebel against Fate, “against both the worlds”, a rebel refusing to recognise defeat and fighting his last and hopeless battle with growing despair but undiminished resolution.
It is this impulse which inspires him to go for a second meeting with the Witches and forces him to stride from crime to crime. He diagnoses his chronic unrest as a thing caused by fear of retaliation and considers Banquo to be the potential source of this fear. But the steps he takes to dispose of this fear proves futile and leads to his further undoing.
He sees Banquo’s ghost at the banquet. Fleance escapes and Macbeth’s crime is exposed. Macbeth cannot rest and his agony is not abated. The “scorpions” within his mind have destroyed his peace as well as his conscience.
He is so “stepp’d” in blood that he feels a retreat is impossible now. So he plans the purposeless slaughter of Macduff and his family, and to all appearances, degenerates into a butcher. He has lost conscience and his capacity for feeling. The tragedy of Macbeth lies precisely in this degeneration.
