Tragic themes in Macbeth, Hamlet, and Oedipus Rex - Literature review Example

Tragic themes in Macbeth, Hamlet and Oedipus Rex The theme of tragedy has been a favorite with all playwrights through the ages and nothing asserts this more than the works of Shakespeare and Sophocles. In the plays of Hamlet, Macbeth and Oedipus Rex, the pathos is overwhelming. The sense of fate and the protagonists leading themselves towards its inevitability is the common note in all these works. There are undercurrents of different emotions and deeds e.g. incest in Hamlet, Oedipus of course relies on that as the main theme, and the foreboding of death hangs in all three plays. All main protagonists have a flaw, which brings about their downfall. This paper examines all the similarities between these three works and establishes the commonality between the characters and their presentations. Tragic themes in Macbeth, Hamlet and Oedipus Rex Tragedy has been a theme for playwrights since the beginning of literature, well explored by Greek poets like Sophocles, medieval English writers, and Elizabethan playwrights, of which Shakespeare is prominent. The most prominent cause of the tragedy in these plays would be the tragic hero fighting against his/her impending doom. ‘The tragic hero is divided "between imperative and impulse, between moral ordinance and unruly passion . . . between law and lust" (Heilman 207).’ (Brown, 2009). If we explore the similarities between the two Elizabethan dramas, Macbeth, Hamlet and the ancient Greek tragedy, Oedipus, we find that the protagonists have that fatal flaw which draws them to their downfall and all other elements that make a tragedy. When these protagonists live, they teach us many lessons with the mistakes that they commit in their life. They seem to exist to attain the ultimate goal of death.” We admire the daring, uncompromising spirit of the tragic hero while recognizing that what he gains in intensity of life, he often pays for with its brevity.” (Brown, 2009). Shakespeare’s tragedies “follow a basic pattern of complication, crisis, and conclusion but with multiple variations.” (Brown, 2009). If we compare and seek similarities between the characters of the three works, we find that as mentioned above, all protagonists unconsciously seek their own fall. Hamlet muses far too much over his father’s death and even when his father has shown him the path of revenge, he fails to kill Claudius when he has the chance. Macbeth on the other hand, blinded easily by ambition and avarice, kills Duncan in haste without pondering over the consequences. Oedipus’s flaw is his colossal ego or Hubris. It does not bring about his misery directly but does lead to it. Oedipus, drunk on his youth and arrogance, kills his own father, Laius, at the cross roads on his way to Thebes , while fleeing from Delphi’s oracle’s prophecy that Oedipus will commit patricide and have incestuous relations with his mother. Later, when Teiresias refuses to divulge the secret behind Thebes’s plagues, it is Oedipus’s arrogance that makes him jeer at the blind seer, calling him blind in mind and ears / as well as in your eyes” (371-2). This angers the equally haughty Teiresias, who leaves finally with his predictions of Oedipus being blinded and committing the sin of fathering his children with his own mother. It is not just the fatal flaw, which is the common thread in these plays, the characterization of the characters close to the main protagonists; owe to the tragic ends or bring about the events leading to it. Lady Macbeth and Claudius are deceitful and vile characters whose lust, whether it is for a paramour or for power, influence the main protagonists and lead them to the path of ruin. Claudius not just covets power and wealth but also his brother’s wife and plots his way to be the king and his ladylove’s husband. Lady Macbeth uses her lover and husband’s Macbeth’s love for her to use him into getting what she desires most and above all – power. The fact that she has to lie and connive does not affect her when she is coaxing Macbeth into killing Duncan by saying “From this time such I account thy love.” She holds her love ransom until he submits to her will and kills his king. These characters are catalysts in the larger scheme of the tragic setup. In Oedipus however, the evil doer is Fate, which twists and turns the events in such a manner that Oedipus, stands no chance against it. He gets the chance to turn away from the blind oracle, Tiresias and then again from finding out his identity, but as Fate would have it; he finds out that he indeed has committed a reprehensible crime. Fate or destiny has a bigger hand in Oedipus than in the two Elizabethan plays, but the pre-destiny factor looms large in all. It does not disallow the protagonists from performing their duties to themselves or exercising their free will. However, the outcome of their actions seems pre-decided as we approach the end in all these plays. The protagonists too, do not seem to challenge what seems destined to them, through cold, rational thought. They accept what is set apart for them. For instance, in Hamlet, although he rants and raves in Act IV, in Act V he has all but resigned to it. He gets many chances to kill his archenemy – Claudius but he procrastinates each time. Not just that, he could have made his fears public and challenged Claudius as his father’s murderer but he does not do so. He is very much aware of the outcome of his decisions but he still goes ahead and makes them. He is tormented; not just by his own thoughts, his conflicting emotions – jealousy over his mother choosing another man over himself and his father, helplessness and grief over his father’s death, his inability to commit to the lovely Ophelia, but also to the powers outside. He mistakenly kills Polonius, thinking him to be Claudius, precipitating further events. His choices, guided by the hand of Fate, ultimately destroy him. Macbeth on the other hand, is guided as much as by his free will as by fate. Nevertheless, his choices too seem predestined. Banquo warns him about believing the witches, but he still goes ahead and listens to their prophecy. He is given the opportunity to defy their predictions but he is bound by their words. He says "If Chance would have me king, why, Chance may crown me without my stir." He does not have faith in his own greatness and abilities, but the words of the evil witches. Had Macbeth not chanced upon the witches, his course of life may have been different. His choice to believe the witches marks the path for his fate. His belief in them is the same that any ordinary person has on Tarot cards and astrologers. All want to know about the unknown, but the actions that one does to bring about the predictions is what proves life altering, as in the case of Macbeth. In the case of Oedipus, it can be argued that Fate plays the biggest role and is solely responsible for his misery. Although, Oedipus launches a quest to know his predecessor’s assassin, destiny brings him to the crossroads where he kills his father and to the kingdom where his mother lives. It is his fortune that throws him into a challenge with the Riddling Sphinx and answers her question correctly. One can further argue that the reward for ridding the Sphinx could have been in other way, than handing the Queen in marriage. However, it is his karma, that he comes to know of the prediction of his killing his own father and bedding his mother , while at his foster parents home , without coming to know of his true lineage. The half-told prediction drives him exactly to the same spot where his true father, seems to wait for his death by Oedipus’s hands. The Riddling Sphinx seems to be a prop set up by the Powers to be, with a brief role meant to exalt Oedipus in the Thebans’ eyes. Jocasta does not attempt to find out about her infant son whom she had given up as dead, all these years, till the blind oracle Tiresias prophecies Oedipus’s future and terrible events unfold. As per Tiresias’s prediction, Oedipus does not kill himself, as he perhaps should have, but blinds himself. This further proves that whatever is fated to happen does so in its due time, however hard Man may fight against it. Another theme, which is common to all three plays, is the treatment of the hero. He ascends great heights by virtue of his character and then just crashes down to disaster, because of circumstances or because of the choices, he makes. Hamlet is an ideal hero, loved by his friends, his mother, his beloved Ophelia. He is the charming prince who beset with troubles seeks justice for his slain father on his own. His quest for justice is prolonged and thoroughly troubled and unplanned. However, that does not deter him, nor does it change his stature as a great personality. He is only interested in getting the right treatment meted out to his father’s murderer. He does not covet the crown or the power; he only seeks that his mother realizes the truth behind Claudius and realize that she has been wrong in believing him. That is why he does not kill Claudius in the church even when he gets the chance. He is noble and does not take advantage of a man praying to God. He shows the virtue of patience. In the last scene, it is more of a sense of righteousness than anything else is; that prompts him to order Horatio to reveal the truth about the events in the palace for the past two months. He falls from grace because of these noble virtues in a manner. He forsakes the chance to kill his archenemy and that leads to the sad events in his life later. His patience and his planning are at loggerheads with Claudius’s craftiness and quick decisions. His impulsiveness shadows his nobility and other virtues; for instance, when he kills Polonius thinking him to be Claudius, there was absolutely no need for him to show rashness. When he dives into Ophelia’s grave later, proclaiming that no brother could love Ophelia as he does, it is a contradiction, as he had never committed to her or taken his relationship to the next level of promise. He kills more people in the play than Claudius himself and leads his own beloved to suicide. Still, even in death, he is considered “sweet”, connoting pureness of heart and innocence, a prince who fought for justice and got it in the end even if after a blood bath. Macbeth, on the other hand is a brave, courageous hero who fights valiantly for his king and deserves to be the Thane of Cawdor. Still, the witches’ predictions and Macbeth’s own curiosity spur his dark intentions and his wife’s evil character is brought forth. However, Lady Macbeth’s character has redeeming qualities, especially when she is unable to come to terms with the crime that she has committed. Macbeth on the other hand, degenerates because of his ambition. The remorse that he had felt on killing Duncan dissipates when he kills his next “enemy”. Although, Lady Macbeth’s remorse should have made him step back from any more wrong doings, her absence later further pushes him towards his failed lot. His character is full of greed, lust for power and violence. One can argue that this was Macbeth’s darker side and that it was present in his personality, but the influence of Duncan and Banquo had suppressed it. The witches and Lady Macbeth merely drew it forth. It is Macbeth’s rise in the eyes of the audience in the initial scene and his subsequent downfall and death form the crux of the play. Same treatment by the playwright is done in Oedipus. As the play opens, Oedipus is shown as the mighty ruler, loved by Thebans and treated almost like one of the gods. He is relentless in his pursuit of the truth that will lift the curse from his beloved nation, Thebes. His loyalty and love for his nation are commendable and show in his manner. He is intelligent as the play reveals to us, for ridding Thebes of the Riddling Sphinx, by answering her puzzle. A just king, who has ruled his country for long and a content family man who has borne children with his wife and lives happily with them, is the picture presented to us. However, as Sophocles wanted it to be – this hero falls from a great height and falls to equally great depths. His falls evokes pity and fear, both in the hearts of the audience. The lesson is - If this is the fate that befalls a great personality and king like Oedipus; who fights against odds, desperately abandoning home and parents to escape what seems inevitable kismet, the common person cannot hope for much. Oedipus does not do any wrong, in picking up his just reward for saving the Thebans from the monster, Sphinx i.e. marriage to Jocasta the Queen. Hid action is honorable and his intention noble. It is Destiny, which turns the tables on him, by making him consummate his marriage to his own mother. Critics have argued that Oedipus’s downfall is as much a product of his own flaws as Destiny’s but these flaws, namely, his overbearing pride as king and his persistent efforts to find out the truth, even after the warning to let bygones be bygones. However, as is apparent, it is natural for a king to feel pride and to pursue truth to rid his people of misery. Therefore, these flaws do not blight his character. His personality shines like the sun; and when the end comes, although he does not meet death, his self-inflicted blindness is even more horrifying. Many critics argue that in blindness comes Oedipus’s revelation to truth and humility, but the fact that he is now a vulnerable person, ousted from his own country, led around by his daughter is cause for pity and strong sympathy. His downfall is as great as his rise. There is also a strong undercurrent of lust in all three plays. Many critics have discussed hamlet’s repressed lust for his mother at length, over the ages. Freud further asserted this, when he announced that every man had a deep desire to kill his father and replace his mother in bed. In the closet scene especially, his violence towards her is very sexual in nature. His grief on losing his father matches with his jealousy of his mother finding another man, soon after his death. More than killing the king for slaying his father, his intention is also to avenge his mother for betraying his own trust. Oedipus on the other hand, commits incest unknowingly. His bad luck comes from not knowing his fate. His lust is actually not for the flesh and blood or human form. His lust is for establishing himself as the true king, the power that he cannot give to anybody else, especially Creon, his brother-in-law. When his stature as king is disgraced, he is unable to face the truth and blinds himself. Macbeth’s lust is manifests itself in his actions. His lust is for power and kingship. He does not believe in himself and his own valor, yet secretly lusts for more power. The witches become mere catalysts to his performing treason by killing his king in sleep. Later, in the play, when he has Banquo killed, his greed for power asserts itself more. His wife, who coaxes and cajoles him into killing the old king in his sleep, confirms his hunger for more. Although they have no children, it does not stop Macbeth and Lady Macbeth from trying to be the rulers of Scotland. He imagines himself as the king the moment the Weird sisters predict it and it is the imagination of grandeur that prod him and wife to their downfall and eventual death. In conclusion, as we can see, the era and the style of the drama may change but the underlying themes always remain the same. References Brown, Larry A. (n.d.). Tragedy after Aristotle. Retrieved August 30, 2016 from URL http://larryavisbrown.homestead.com/Tragedy_after_Aristotle.html Black, Stephen A. (2005). Mourning Becomes Electra at 74. Retrieved December 8, 2009 from URL http://www.eoneill.com/library/review/27/27j.htm Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Square Press, 1992. Hamlet, the Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Retrieved December 11, 2009 from URL http://shakespeare.mit.edu/ Macbeth, the Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Retrieved December 11, 2009 from URL http://shakespeare.mit.edu/ Sophocles, Oedipus the king, Retrieved December 11, 2009 from URL http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/oedipus.html Read More