Understanding the plot and the main characters in Shakespeares Tragedy of McBeth - Essay Example

Understanding the plot and the main characters in Shakespeare’s Tragedy of McBeth I. Introduction The tragedy of Macbeth is a story that is full of conflict and contradictions. Written sometime between 1603-1606, this story reflects the turbulence of that time where the noblemen of Scotland are constantly in conflict with each other. Being famed as the most violent of all the plays every written by Shakespeare, the symbolism used by this play is very chaotic. Blood dominates the scene of this play from beginning to the end. Aside from the flowing of blood in the scenes of the play, Shakespeare increased the sense of conflict and violence in the play though the stormy weathers which seem to dominate most of the play. To add more to the theme chaos and discord of the play, the symbolism hallucinations that signifies internal conflicts is well portrayed in this play. What does the story of McBeth tells us? The story of McBeth revolves around destruction brought about by the unchecked ambitions of the main characters McBeth and Lady McBeth. All through the play, the main characters McBeth and the Lady McBeth portrayed two people who are bound together with not only by their common greed for power and advancement but also of guilt that they both felt after they have killed Duncan and the people who pose as treat to the throne. At the beginning of the story, McBeth was portrayed as a courageous general but as the plot of the story thickens, McBeth started to turn into something evil due to his desire to become king. Shakespeare uses paradoxes in this play to express the turbulence of the play. For instance, in Mcbeth’s first line, he said “So foul and fair a day I have not seen” (Act 1 Scene 3 line 38). The line uttered by McBeth sets the mode of the whole play. All through the play, the paradoxes appear creating a sense of discord. In Act 1 Scene 3, the witches appeared to say, “Fair is foul and foul is fair”. By using lines that are ambiguous and with double meaning such as “Lesser than McBeth, and greater” (Act 1, Scene 3 line 65), “the service and the loyalty I owe in doing pays itself.” (Act 1 Scene 4 Lines 25-6), “I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.” (Act 2 Scene 1 line 46), Shakespeare is able to give the readers a feeling of how the characters in play struggled inwardly. With the masterful use of language, Shakespeare gave us a picture of conflict and opposition deep within McBeth’s soul, which is mirrored in his dilemma as to whether or not to kill the king. On the other hand, the character of Lady McBeth is portrayed as somebody who is full of ambitions and who is so drive by her desire for violence that she drove her husband into killing the king. During the times when McBeth would waver in his resolve, the Lady McBeth would come into the picture and effective manipulates her husband. Before McBeth murdered the King, it was the Lady McBeth who displayed tremendous strength and overriding her husband’s objections. The interplay between gender and power is can be clearly observed in the exchanges between McBeth and his Lady. The Lady McBeth would taunt McBeth into proving his masculinity by killing Duncan. At one point in the story, Lady McBeth expressed her wish to become a man so that she can kill Duncan herself. In the end, McBeth felt that he needed to prove him manhood by killing Duncan. If we take a closer look into the character of Lady McBeth, we can see that her character is centered on the conflict between sexes. Based on the lines of Lady McBeth, it is clear that she equates ambition and violence with manhood. On the issue of treason, Lady McBeth says, “when you durst do it, then you are a man” (See Act 1, Scene 7 line 48). The words of Lady McBeth that equated manhood with violence and ambition is echoed by the other characters in the play. For instance, in the dialogue between Macduff and Malcolm when MacDuff learned that his wife and child has been murdered, Malcolm encouraged MacDuff to “dispute it like a man” and seek revenge on McBeth.(See Act 4 scene 3 lines 221-223). However, although violence is sharply attributed to masculinity in this play, we could not say that ambition is solely centered on the male. In Act 1 Scene 7, in her famous soliloquy, Lady McBeth expressed her view of masculinity when she said “Come, you spirits/That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,/And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/of direst cruelty!” Clearly, Shakespeare uses hyperbolic language in this play to magnify the differences between the sexes. From the lines uttered by Lady McBeth on treason, we can surmise that violence and ambition is attributed to the male. However, in her soliloquoy, it is clear that Lady McBeth has some personal stake on the death of the king that had she been a man, she would not think twice but to murder the king. Furthermore, as Lady McBeth is willing to have herself “unsexed” that she should become a man, we can conclude that indeed the Lady McBeth has great desires for power. In fact, since the status of woman at that time is determined by the status of her husband, there is a big possibility that the Lady McBeth drove her husband to kill the king so that she could become the queen (A.R. Braunmuller 1994). The character of Lady McBeth remained strong and calm until after McBeth finally killed the king. However, as the play progresses, the Lady McBeth was overridden with guilt. The Lady Mcbeth started having violent hallucinations, which confirmed the thesis of the story that betrayal corrupts the mind. In the end, the Lady McBeth became mad with guilt and ended up killing herself. As the character of the Lady Mcbeth weakens, the character of McBeth becomes stronger. Where before he was under the influence of his wife, now he is more independent. At the turning point of the play, McBeth says “Stepped in so that far that, should o now wade more,/Returning were as tedious as go o’ver” (Act 3, Scene 4 lines 164-165). Clearly, McBeth crossed the line and never to come back. He discovered that once you start in the murdering path, it is almost impossible to reverse the process and you end up continuing the violence until the end. Shakespeare successfully put McBeth in the position where he had accepted his evil deed and came to like it. Aside from McBeth and the lady McBeth, the three witches also have a big influence in the overall outcome of the play. Shakespeare effectively separated the characters of the three witches from the rest of the characters of the play by letting them use rhyming language. By letting the witches speak in a language that is different from the other characters, Shakespeare successfully created an aura of power whenever the witches appear in the scene. Although the rhyming language sounds more like a child’s nursery rhyme to us, back in those times, witchery is very much feared in England. The words chanted by the witches such as that famous “Double, double, toil and trouble/Fire burn and cauldron bubble” (Act 4-i, lines 10-11), such words are enough to struck fear into the hears of those people who listens to it. As a whole, the story of McBeth is very unforgettable. The characters of the play leave a lasting impression on the readers. And the masterful use of the language in this creates a sense that is diabolically surreal. References: 1. Shakespeare, William (1603-1606) “The tragedy of McBeth” Harvard Classic Volume 46, part 4 2. . A.R. Braunmuller, Michael E. Cohen (ed.; David S. Rhodes, (1994) Macbeth: Introduction and commentary. Voyager. 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