|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 23 March 2003 |
 |
|
 |
Magazine |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
The Different Faces of Macbeth
by Farah Macan Markar "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes..." Something wicked is indeed what Macbeth becomes. An evil, cold, souless being. William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" is a story, a tragedy of a man. A man who was passionate, sensitive, poetic and brave. A man who was also foolish, ambitious and ruthless. A man who was capable of so much of good, and who, like a drunkard, did so much of evil. The downfall, or the destruction of Macbeth, is not his death nor his crimes. The tragedy is in himself, in the death of his morality and the birth within himself of evil. It is the loss and waste of himself. The fact that he, had so much of potential to develop, but wasted it all, for a foolish choice. A choice in which he chose darkness(to kill Duncan). A decision he made, when Duncan announced that Malcom would become his heir. A decision in which he chose to indulge in evil and ignore his conscience. "Stars, hide your fires, let no light see my black and deep desires". As a soldier, Macbeth was brave and strong. We can see this in scene one, act two, from the captain's words, in which he describes to Duncan about the war. We see here, Macbeth at his peak, a courageous, determined soldier, fighting for his king. "For brave Macbeth - well he deserves that name disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel". Macbeth was a skilful soldier. He fought bravely and well. At the same time he was also ruthless, violent and merciless. His sword dripped with blood. He carved the people blocking his way and when he confronted Macdonald wasting no time for polite greetings, ripped him from the navel to his throat. "Which smoked with bloody execution... Till he unseamed him from the nave to the chops". As a man Macbeth was a dreamer. He was emotional, sensitive and passionate. He was also a poet and lived in a world of his own, in his imagination. This was perhaps what led him to believe in witches, the fact that he perhaps had, in his mind imagined killing Duncan and becoming king. Macbeth was a good man. Inside he was a man of much kindness and virtue. We can see this in Lady Macbeth's words, in which she describes him, as having too much of "the milk of human-kindness". This was why, perhaps, the witches wanted to destroy him, to bring out evil from him. The fact that he was capable of so much of goodness. Therefore they play upon his flaw - ambition and make him imprisoned by it. "I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition..." Between ambition and conscience, Macbeth is torn between the two. The temptation to become king is strong in him after the witches set his ambition aflame. However simultaneously the idea of murdering Duncan horrifies him. His conscience rejects killing Duncan. "Why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair" However the witches had left their mark, confusion, temptation, evil and ultimately destruction. They confuse him by mixing up his sense of morality and immorality, dreams and reality. They tempt him to murder, to taking the life of another man, in which the idea of it alone horrifies him, torments him, and the crime once done would destroy him, which it does. "Shakes so my single state of man... and nothing is but what is not" After he surrenders to evil and contemplates the murder of Duncan, a new Macbeth emerges. A reserved, distant, cold Macbeth. When Duncan comes forward and greets him with warmth and gratitude Macbeth meets him with cold, pompous formality. His language is stilted and his speech structured. "The service and the locality I owe... Safe toward your love and honour" Macbeth's virtues were what guided him. For example his loyalty to the king in the beginning of the play was what brought him glory. The decline of his virtues after encountering the witches and the surrendering to evil was what brought his destruction. "Fair is foul and foul is fair Hover through the fog and filthy air" Macbeth is seen in various ways by different people. In the captain's eyes he was a brave warrior, in Duncan's eyes he was an honourable and loyal soldier, in Lady Macbeth's eyes he was considered weak because he was virtuous and in the eyes of the witches he was a target for evil games. In his own eyes he feared himself. He feared his ambition and tendency to evil and once choosing to indulge in the latter could not see his own self any more, but got lost in games of pretence and deceit. By murdering Duncan Macbeth destroys himself(emotionally and morally). His greatest crime was against himself.
|
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
