Literary and Philosophical Purpose of Bad Luck in Macbeth - Essay Example

Literary and Philosophical purpose of bad luck in Macbeth Shakespeare has been hailed as one the greatest playwright of the time. His plays have beencharacterized by surfeit of human emotions with an undercurrent of bad luck which seems to pursue the protagonist of the play and which often verge on violence. The author seems to revel on the miseries and sufferings of the human life which his characters exemplify. According to McGuinn, ‘there is always an element of bad luck in Shakespearean tragedy’. Looking into the 6 greatest plays which include Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet, King Lear, Tempest and Mid-summer Nights Dream one finds that the plays irrevocably revolve around the human failings of the central characters with the protagonist finally succumbing to the fated end of a tragic death. All the Shakespeare’s plays are fast paced and action packed human drama showcasing a sequence of events involving individuals with distinctive qualities which complement but at the same time clash with each other. This inherent inter-play of emotional turmoil helps dramatise the events and frequently hide the serious undertones of the philosophical ideologies of the author. McGuinn, in his book1 examines the various aspects of Shakespeare’s plays which govern the underlined principles of human life overflowing with bad luck and misery. We would be specially looking at Macbeth for the element of bad luck which follows the protagonist relentlessly till the end and subsequently discussing the Shakespearean philosophy of human misery and tragedy that invariably leads to death. The concept of bad luck implies that without this particular element, life would have been better which of course illustrates a fact recognized and often feared by all. Misfortune can befall anyone but the way one reacts and overcomes them becomes the deciding factor for a happy or miserable future of the person. It is equally true that bad luck brings out the hidden characteristics and suppressed desires of the people which are normally denied because they might lead to disastrous end-results. Shakespeare’s understanding of human nature is displayed in his plays which seem to have an uncanny fascination for creating situations that expose these attributes of the persons resulting in utter misery and tragedy. Macbeth is a high voltage drama involving an ambitious hero in a plot that is full of intrigue, murders, betrayal and revenge resulting in violence and tragic death of the hero. The presence of supernatural elements in the form of witches and ghost add that extra ingredient of Machiavellian thrill that makes the play so unforgettable. The play opens with Macbeth, the protagonist, returning from the war as victorious General, in the Army of King Duncan. On the heath, he encounters three witches who predict his gradual growth in his status and who would become the king. Macbeth, initially skeptic of the witches’ prophecy, suddenly becomes more alert when the first of the predictions comes true as the King makes him a Thane of Cawdor. Events gradually unfold to reveal the treacherous and ugly face of Macbeth. his wife, the more ambitious and ruthless of the two, instigates Macbeth to murder the King when he comes to their palace to stay overnight. Macbeth, who is basically a good person, is overwhelmed by the cold murder and develops psycho-physiological characteristics and starts seeing imaginary blood on his hands and ghosts and spirits of the dead. Lady Macbeth, meantime, persuades Macbeth to keep killing all persons including his friend Banquo and his son, who might endanger his status as King of the Scotland. A series of dramatic events, exposing senseless and cold blooded murders of the innocents culminate in the tragic death of Macbeth by Macduff, who happens to be Thane of fife and a loyal general of the deceased king. The play is not merely a story of an ambitious General who betrays the trust of his king because of his unscrupulous desires for the throne, but it is a play that strongly portrays human failings in situations that could be best described as ‘bad luck’. The element of bad luck is very pronounced in Macbeth for the simple reason that the protagonist seemed to be a brave and well regarded person with genuinely good human values like honour, love and respect. He was also assured of a secured and a prosperous future with special honour bestowed on him by the King. But his bright future is turned into a life of misery and insecurity after he meets his bad luck in the form of three witches, on the heath. McGuinn calls it a mismatch between the character and the situation ( Shakespeare’s Philosophy). The prophecies of the witches bring forth a spate of destructive events transforms the protagonist from a noble character to a treacherous murderer. Bad luck therefore, is the circumstantial influence on the decisions and actions of a person bringing misfortune and loss (of peace, honour, insecurities etc.). In Macbeth, the prophecies of the witches may well be termed as the turning point of the script which strongly influence the overall all sequence of events. It is because of the prophecies of the weird sisters that Macbeth’s suppressed desires come to the fore and he starts thinking towards a more ambitious future of becoming a king. The hidden urges and ambitions of the inner self surface when one of the predictions, that of becoming Thane of Cawdor, comes true thereby reinforcing the belief that other forecast would also be true. Macbeth is excited but at the same time he is afraid of the future and exclaims “If good, why do I yield to that suggestion/ Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair / And make my seated heart knock at my ribs/” (Act I, Scene 3). The complexities of the human emotions and the multi-faceted psyche of the mind have strange and unwanted ramification on our actions. The ambition often incites people to act in the manner that they would not be doing in the ordinary circumstances despite the unpredictability of the outcome. Macbeth’s desire to become King was never so obvious, as when the first prophecy came true. He is willing to kill the king and become one because he thinks that being King would make him powerful and happy. The anticipation of the future can actually serve as motivating force to commit murder is amply shown as a fact in the play. Macbeth, despite being sensitive and with honourable intentions, is easily manoeuvred by the ruthless and over ambitious wife to kill the King who is staying at their place as their guest. The trepidation and hesitation exhibited by Macbeth in the beginning, clearly shows the emotional and ethical dilemma of Macbeth who had to fight against his conscious before he could go ahead with the plans and commit the first murder. But once the deed was executed, the anticipated pleasure of being King still eluded Macbeth because of the ensuing insecurities, that his evil action could be exposed. It is through the emotional instability and insecurity of Macbeth that Shakespeare has been able to deliver the most important and also the most poignant philosophy of life i.e our actions do not always deliver the expected results and evil intensions can indeed, easily turn into equally wicked deeds with catastrophic endings. The bad luck that starts with the murder of the King Duncan, continues throughout the play in its various manifestations mainly because in his pursuit for illusionary power that the throne would have provided along with the social and emotional security and associated pleasure, Macbeth realized that the path he has chosen would only lead towards further moral and social degradation. The thoughts are expressed by his wife when she opines “Noughts had, alls spent/ Where our desire is got without content/ Tis safer to be that which we destroy/ Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.” (Act III, Scene 2) Macbeth has been shown as a tortured self who is unable to cope up with the guilt of killing the innocents when he starts seeing imaginary blood (of the King) on his hands and hallucinating the dead. How a stroke of single bad luck, changes the very course of simple and relatively peaceful existence, is perhaps the most important feature of Macbeth. When Sartre says humanity is condemned to be free (Existentialism), he truly believes that even though we (the human being) had no hand in our birth or origin but we have the full freedom to act in any manner we choose. In other words, every person is responsible for his actions. Macbeth, despite being reluctant in the beginning, cold bloodedly kills the King for his own devious gains and thus starts a trail of treachery and indiscriminate killings of innocents which leave him with extreme mental disturbance and misery than the happiness that he had wished for. Shakespeare seems to have an intrinsic understanding of human nature. Through the character of Macbeth, he has shown that how an evil act transforms an honourable person into a traitorous, unfeeling murderer who could go to any length in order to reach his stated goal. Macbeth continues the killings so he could remain King and enjoy the privileges thus attained. Unfortunately his perceived vision clashed directly with the reality of his acts which instead made him more unhappy and barbaric. When murderer tells Macbeth about Banquo’s murder that ‘..his throat is cut. That I did for him’ Macbeth responds by saying ‘thou art the best o’th’ cut-throats’! (Act III , Scene 4). Indeed after the first killing, all the humane emotions seem to vanish making Macbeth a real murderer. Macbeth has a strong plot that promotes vivid imagination. Protagonist is endowed with a highly colourful imagination which both baffles him and at the same time appals him with its violent imagery. As McGuinn says, Macbeth is not their master but their victim. They overwhelm him. He often sees what his emotions prompt him to visualise and not what actually happens. Therefore all the delusions and imagery of ghosts of the dead that he presumes to see are actually the result of his overactive imagination. He is deeply tortured by his conscious but strangely instead of remorse, he is compelled into more callous and inhuman behaviour. Macbeth as the hero of the play has but few illusions about the life. ‘..the way to dusty death. Out out, brief candle. Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player. That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more..’ (Act V, Scene 5). Macbeth compares the world with a stage where men come and perform as actors and then leave. He derides the futility of all the intrigue, artifice and treachery that one undergoes to achieve a status that would just be for a short time. A profound thought only Shakespeare could have expressed. Then again, Shakespeare is particularly fascinated by death. The finality of death assumes significant meaning in all Shakespeare’s plays. In Macbeth, murders and killings happened because of Macbeth’s excessive attachment for life. McGuinn asserts that the reasons death is a critical component in Shakespeare’s tragedies is that death can make us recognize the importance of life, he is but stating the philosophy of life and indeed of death that so characterizes Shakespeare’s work. One can therefore conclude that the inclusion of bad luck in Macbeth was essential for the plot to develop into the full blown drama depicting vagaries of life. It is because of the presence of this element of bad luck that the true character of Macbeth emerges and the play unfolds to convey the repercussions of the actions of an over ambitious man resulting in senseless killings and finally ending in the violent death of the hero itself. The message is clear that, it is in adversity the true character of a person can be gauged and we need be wary of our suppressed desires which just need an opportunity to wreck havoc on our emotional and physical self turning us from man to beast in a moment. Reference McGuinn, Colin, Shakespeare and Tragedy. McGuinn, Colin, Macbeth. Sartre,Jean,Paul.(1905-1980). Exisentialism Shakespeare. Macbeth Read More