Macbeth’s Character

                                                         Macbeth’s Character 

Macbeth is the most controversial and most complex of Shakespeare’s heroes. In him we find a rare blending of the qualities of a conventional hero with those of a devil. 

 At the start of the play Macbeth was idealised by everyone and thought to have been a man of very great power whom could be undermined by nobody. “All too weak for brave Macbeth." 

            

       There are numerous great characteristics to show that Macbeth is a hero such as him being loyal, kind, and overall having a good reputation. First, Macbeth had a good reputation. The idea spoken consisted of Macbeth to be a “valiant cousin, worthy gentleman” (Act 1, Scene 2, Line 1) by Duncan, the king. This means King Duncan is admiring Macbeth for his remarkable struggles in the war, by calling him ‘valiant cousin’ which indicates he is in close relationship with King Duncan.  

Second, Macbeth is a very loyal man. “Till he faced the slave; which ne’er shook hands, nor bade him farewell to him, till he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops, and fixed his head upon our battlements.” (Act 1, Scene 2, Line 9) This quotation explains just how loyal Macbeth was to King Duncan and his country. 

Shakespeare introduced him as a brave general, bold , resolute ma of action and who is referred to as " Valour's minion, Bellona’s bridegroom,' eagle' among ' sparrows' 'a lion' among 'hares'.  

     But gradually  Macbeth turns into a disease from which Scotland is suffering. The sun has gone from the sky of Scotland which has become hell where one can hear the cry of the orphans and the howls of the widows. The Witches have chosen Macbeth because he has a secret desire. The witches only enkindle his  ambition or  desire. It is his ambition which makes him unscrupulous and the thought of murdering Duncan occurs in his mind. We discover a new Macbeth who prays for darkness : 

         ..".....Stars ,hide your fires; 

Let not light see my black and deep desire." 

 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 led by his vaulting ambition he tried to rise above the great chain of being and so faces damnation.It is a self damnation as Satan had. 

  

At this point one is reminded of A.C. Bradley’s view that in Shakespeare’s tragedies character is destiny as a character like Macbeth is himself responsible for his downfall. But as Bradley was a Hegelian idealist, he did not consider the fact that the tragedy of Macbeth also involves the tragedy of the Scottish people who suffer just because of the misdeeds of a king. 

      Though the initial victory of conscience in him was present, It is Lady Macbeth who asks him to " screw" his courage "to the sticking place" and proceeds to underline  this plan  of Murder. She spurs his ambition so much that he ignores conscience and falls in his wife's plan: 

     " I am settled, and bend up 

       Each corporal agent to this terrible feat". 

 False face must hide what the false heart doth know.” (Act 1, Scene 7, Line 90, Pg. 61) 

What Macbeth is stating is that he is ready to kill King Duncan, and after he is done he will have to act upon his ‘false face’ and try not to have the guilt sink in from the truth in his heart. These evil ways proved Macbeth to be very cold hearted and a serial killer. There is no doubt that Macbeth was a villain by his greed, despair, and temptation. He emerges as a confirmed villain when he gets the wife and the child of Macduff killed. All these killings cannot be ascribed to the impact of the prophecies of the Witches 

   As soon as he commits the murder he again hear the protest of hid deeper self. He hears a voice crying " Sleep no more”. The voice keeps ringing in his ears .The  consciousness of the " deep damnation of his (Duncan's) taking off" will not leave him alone. Macbeth is now overwhelmed with a sense of futility. He expresses his deep agony: " There is nothing serious in mortality;/All is but toys...He is feeling futility. 

   His most striking features is conscience. Unlike Iago and Richard III  he had no subtlety in his crime. When Duncan is murdered his bloody hands are going to pluck out his eyes. This tortured conscience turns Macbeth into rebel against Fate and inspires him to go for a second meeting with the witches forcing him to commit the crime again and again. Out of anxiety and fear he fears of Banquo and murders him also though his son Fleance escapes. He is so "stepp'd" in blood that he feels impossible to retreat and acts purposelessly killing Macduff's family. 

At the end he realises the ambiguity of the witches' prediction and his death at the hands of Macduff culminates a sense of tragic feeling for us and we feel pity for this great " villain -hero" though he committed the heinous crime.        

  Put even its simplest terms, the problem Shakespeare gave himself  in Macbeth was a tremendous one. Take a good man, a noble man ,admired by all who know him and destroy him , not only physically or emotionally but also morally and intellectually and when he comes to death, the audience will pity rather than detest him and will be relieved to see him out of his misery rather than pleased to see him destroyed. 

We are attracted to Macbeth because he shows something of a reflective nature and utters some wise words which arouse our sympathy because we share his human nature, his limitation and some of his flaws too. It is here in the theatrical phenomenon that the fall of the tragic hero effects the catharsis of “pity and fear”, that the character of Macbeth passes the test of the Aristotelian concept of tragic hero who vanishes from the scene forever leaving behind some greater understanding. The audience/readers learns from his experience that if not lived properly, 

“Life’s but a walking shadow…/it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/Signifying nothing.” 

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