Literary Analysis of Morality and Macbeth - Research Paper Example

Sur Lecturer Literary Analysis of “Morality and Macbeth” Introduction In the play “Macbeth”, Macbeth is the protagonist and a tragic hero. From the rise, fall, and destruction of Macbeth, a clear concept develops regarding political ambition: The desire for power driven by immoral behaviors, unfettered ambition, can cause the destruction of oneself and of others (Langis, 45). In simple words, once the ambition of Macbeth is aroused, his irresistible desire to be at the throne of Scotland causes his own destruction and the destruction of several other characters in this play. Due to his aspiration to capture and then retain the kingship, Macbeth transforms to a liar, then to a murderer, and eventually an oppressor under whom Scotland suffers. at the play`s end, the actions of Macbeth have directly caused the deaths of Banquo, King Duncan, Lady Macduff, her kids and servants, many soldiers, young Siward, and eventually his own death. All these destructions resulted from immoral actions in the name of accomplishing ambition. This play has revealed how destiny and fate (idea of futurism) can have somewhat harmful effects if individuals become over ambitious to the level of being greedy. Key characters in the play acted immorally by lying, killing, betraying their own king and eventually deceiving their entire country. As such, justice was fairly served to them, a lesson learned by the entire audience of Shakespeare. This paper explores, stride by stride, every immoral act in the play and how they were eventually paid by the individuals who committed those immoralities. William Shakespeares Macbeth portrays morality through unwarranted ambitions. Macbeth is centered on how greed and ambition can override morality and overpower human nature. The natural desire of all leaders to broaden their political power, like Macbeth, transforms all over the play from desire to ambition, and to aberration and greed. This unnatural wish for power is the driving force which possesses the key characters regularly and with calamitous consequences. Macbeth is initially portrayed as a leader with moral qualities. The audience can nearly find itself feeling sorry concerning his erosion towards madness. This reveals that ambition is more powerful, stronger, and more significant than Macbeth himself, therefore ambition in itself serves to erode morals in the play. As evidenced in Macbeth, many levels of morality may be found in the society. William Shakespeare is well known as a good judge of character, and in his play Macbeth, Shakespeare depicts characters to three major types of morality: amoral, immoral, and moral. To begin, perhaps the prevalent type of morality revealed was moral. Majority of the characters demonstrate morals at one point within the play. King Duncan always desired for best for his people. At times he never made the best decision though always targeted to make the correct one. This is epitomized when he offered Malcolm the title of the “Prince of Cumberland”. Banquo was also a good man and he revealed this by how he treated his own son and by not indulging in the predictions of the witches. Macduff also depicted himself as being very gentlemanly-like. He was distressed at the demise of his family and logically wanted revenge. He held a thought that Macbeth ought to die by his own sword, as vocalized by Macduff, “My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain” (Daniel, 10). Macduff is justified to kill Macbeth. Malcolm reveals what sort of person he actually is by recognizing the boundless injustices under Macbeth`s reign and then championing a revolt against him. Even though Macbeth was mostly amoral and immoral, he did have some morals initially in the play. He was a celebrated warrior and was liked by nearly everyone (Langis, 46). Everybody thought highly of him including King Duncan who even offered him the title of the Thane of Cawdor. At this point, William Shakespeare infers Macbeth`s allegiance to the king and to his own country. However, in the battleground, when the three witches prophesized Macbeth will soon become King, Macbeth was obviously intrigued by this prophecy and pondered why they actually said that. As soon as his wife, Lady Macbeth, hears about the prophecy, she pushes Macbeth to take “appropriate” action and murder King Duncan so as to hasten the process (Wilson, 55). In short, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth were the only people to possess immoral abilities in the play. Macbeth gives in and agrees, but then changes his plan once again soon after the king Duncan has dined. Lady Macbeth, his own wife, then goes ahead to test his manhood by reminding him that when he durst do it, then he is a man. Initially, Macbeth is reluctant to kill the existing king. At the start of act one, scene vii Macbeth still attempts to persuade himself not to murder the king, but later in the play, when he is at the Banquet, he is haunted by the ghost of Banquo. The ghost is self-delusional implying his morality is getting to him. Lady Macbeth requests to be unsexed so that she turns herself into a man. By this she convincingly tells Macbeth that it takes a total man to do such brave acts. Macbeth doesn`t want to compromise his manhood especially when a woman is questioning it even though he knows it`s not right to murder the king. Therefore, he lets himself be influenced to kill. Here, we witness the first case of immorality in Lady Macbeth that is followed shortly by a second case of Macbeth as he takes her wife`s advice and murder the king. As horrible as murder is, they ought to have the nerve to carry the blame by themselves. Instead, the two choose to smear the chambermaids, with King Duncan`s blood, while they are asleep, shifting the blame to them. Within a single sinful act, they have now demoralized themselves twice. Some sort of admiration can be given to any ambitious person, even though he has killed, however, not when he has committed the act in a cowardly manner. At this moment in the play, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are both at fault, though one might ask who among the two deserves the bigger punishment. According to the modern-day law, it`s Lady Macbeth who would really be more at fault compared to Macbeth since Lady Macbeth was aware from the start what type of actions were about to happen; Macbeth just acted on impulse. A contemplated and premeditated crime is always punished worse as opposed to one of a person who was influenced at the time. Nonetheless, Macbeth knew that which was right or wrong but opted to ignore his consciences and so these both of the two are understood to be immoral. After Macbeth murders Duncan he says he will go no more since he is afraid to reflect on what he has done. This reveals that he is aware he just did what was wrong and immoral. He is remorseful in hopes to receive forgiveness. Lady Macbeth, in the contrary, confirms how this play is actually based on morality when she says their deeds should not be thought after they happen as it will make them mad. She is insinuating that if they dwell on whatever they had just done, they would definitely go mad, but this is some sort of foreshadowing as Lady Macbeth actually ends up going mad due to guilt. She had the chance to choose between what is morally right and what is morally wrong, but she chose the immoral way; helping Macbeth with murder Duncan. According to (Langis, 45), Aristotelian prudential psychology observes moral action as the union of rational will and prudence, or virtuous desire. Anchored on the just ways, prudence, through consideration, has ‘‘the ability to ‘excite and temper’ the passions of individuals,’’ yielding a rational will to respond towards a righteous end. The source of action, Aristotle clarifies, is choice, and the origin of choice is the desire and reasoning. The final cause of every action is will: Moral philosophers explain, the will, as ‘‘the Queen of authorities of the soul,’’ ‘‘commands what other powers will embrace, and what they can fly as it pleases her.’’ Whenever the faculties are tempered as in the righteous person, reason and passion, understanding and will, work in mutual partnership with each other towards a just action. Understanding every predicament and anticipated fate with a raw sense perceptions obtained from the common sense, a sort of processing center in which sense perceptions are collected and assessed to differentiate the bad and the good actions, is what Lady Macbeth required. Via this moral processing, our understanding assesses actions against universal standards of evil and good and accordingly advises our will on the sensible course of action. Lady Macbeth did not display this concept in the play. One would expect that from her as, it`s normal, people`s act against their better sense, ignoring reason’s counsel: something Aristotle calls, incontinence or a phenomenon of akrasia. Among the two kinds of incontinent ma which Aristotle classifies, there is one who does not adhere to conclusions of his deliberation, and another excitable man who does not contemplate at all (Langis, 46). In the play, Macbeth imprudently precipitate into murder because of the yielding of his rational will to an appetitive will which stems from a mixture of both kinds of incontinence—action without adequate deliberation and fragile moral will and impetuosity. In addition to immoral and moral, there is also amoral in the play. Amoral is when someone has no knowledge on what is wrong or right. The three witches were eligible for being amoral in Macbeth. They played into this class throughout the entire play. The witches deceived Banquo and Macbeth with half true prophecies. They disorganized Macbeth again with some three more predictions that led to the death of Macbeth. The witches largely disregarded others, as evidenced when Macbeth attempted to converse with them to gain more insight on the prophecies they made. Generally, the witches looked crazy. Macbeth was also an amoral character when the play ends. He forced his servants to perform odd jobs or things. Macbeth had plainly gone crazy when he witness Birnam wood move towards his castle. He was also calm and appeared to almost not care when he learned of Lady Macbeth committing suicide. He just acted erratic towards everybody around him. Macbeth demanded his protective clothing and when suited up battled till his death, battling for a desperate cause. This drive to die revealed by Macbeth was a symbol of ignorance to that which was right and wrong. His wife also commits an act which is a more noticeable example of ignorance; killing herself. This, also, was at the end of this play. Prior to killing herself, Lady Macbeth conversed in her sleep concerning the blood in her own hands and how it could not get off her. She was actually bedridden in most cases before her death since she was acting crazy. In short, of the entire key character cast in the play, Macbeth, only Lady Macbeth, Macbeth, and the witches were amoral at one point in time during the play. It`s even more evident that Macbeth" is a play anchored on morality, as witnessed in the death of Banquo, and the MacDuffs. This reveals that the play is indeed a morality play in the sense that it has no ethics. When Macbeth murders Banqou, the spirit of Banquo’s ghost begins to haunt him and he says, “Avaunt! And quit my sights! Let the earth hide thee! Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold” (Daniel, 19). This illustrates that by making immoral decisions they have, as expected, come return to haunt him. Macbeth shows that he is indeed immoral when he tells Lady Macbeth, “ I am in blood stepp’d in so far, that, should I wade no more Returning were as tedious as go o’er “(Daniel, 23). This tells us that he thinks he should carry on killing since it would be easier as opposed to going back and confessing the wrongs things that he has done. Another instance of morals in play is when Lady Macduff together with her kid are left by Ross to die. This is shown in his own words; “I am so much a fool, should I stay longer, it would be my disgrace and your discomfort. I take my leave at once.” (Daniel, 12). This quote reveals that Ross has no moral as he left in order for Lady Macduff and her kid to die, and it also tells us that Macbeth is immoral since the Macduffs were never a real threat to him with his tyranny. Justice, which is the moral way revenge, was shown in “Macbeth” by Macduff retaliating on Macbeth for murdering his family and Macbeth`s wife confessing and committing suicide When Macduff says “O, I could play the woman with mine eyes and braggart with my tongue! But, gentle heavens, cut short all intermissions; front to front bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself; within my swords length set him; if he scape heavens forgive him too!” (Daniel, 16). Macduff implies he is prepared and ready to fight for his family and seek retaliation on Macbeth for the wrongdoing he has committed in murdering the innocent. Again, according to (Daniel, 17), when Lady Macbeth says, “Out damnd spot! Out, I say! One; two: why, then tis time to dot. Hell is merky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our powr to accompt? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?”, she is clearly depicts a woman whom is worried about the crimes she has contributed to their happening and having conceit contemplations on how to purify herself from the wrongdoings she had committed. The quote portrays her as concerned about the wrongdoing, that she is even sleep walking and admitting the crimes she took part in as she tries to cleanse herself of the blood. However, justice is achieved when Malcolm becomes the king and pledges to keep peace in Scotland for years to come. He pledges there will be no other tormenters, and that he will compensate those how suffered and a new beginning shall come again. Quite a few of Shakespeare`s plays deal with power, kingship and the responsibility which power brings and as such Macbeth appears to suggest that if a properly established authority is overthrown by foul means, calamitous consequences may follow. In testing the loyalty of Macduff, Malcolm summaries the difference between morality and ambition by acting as a power hungry and a greedy person. He wants to ascertain whether Macduff considers these qualities to be good for a King to possess. However, Macduff does not but proves that a moral code is way more important in power positions than blind ambition. This is fulfilled as the play ends as Malcolm emerges the victorious King while the burning ambition of Macbeth is extinguished. Though, one may wonder if really this is the end of over-reaching ambition within the kingdom. We are left to wonder whether Banquo’s heir will finally become the king as predicted by the three witches (Parris, 105). We cannot tell whether he will also act on his ambition or whether destiny will play a role in realizing the prediction or whether the predictions of the witches were wrong. Another moral in the play could be to sit back and let nature take its own course--never tempt fate. William Shakespeare loves to play with the concept of free will vs. fate. It was predicted that Macbeth was to become king, but Macbeth took everything upon himself to cause the kingship happen. It`s because of this that, he and Lady Macbeth, among others, finally ended up dead. One could argue that if indeed Macbeth had believed in the prediction, he ought to have sat back and let nature take its own course; he would have definitely become king. He trusted the prediction, though not in the power of fate to cause it happen. As one can witness above, its probable to read Macbeth merely as a reading on ambition and resolve that its main moral is not to be ambitious or “never act on your ambition". However, Shakespeare carefully makes it more difficult: by indicating that supernatural forces may be controlling the actions of Macbeth and that he may, in fact, be an innocent party steered towards his ruin. Consider the three witches casting a spell ("the charms wound up!") and consider the dagger that seems to lead Macbeth into the murder. That dagger may simply be "a dagger of mind" - prevailing only in the head of Macbeth - but the three witches arent. Banquo also sees them. So is it all about the fault of Macbeth - and could we deduce a moral? The answer depends totally on how one interprets the play. Conclusion To conclude, Macbeth was, indeed, a bloody play which involved a lot of killings and back stabbing. “Macbeth” is a play anchored on morality as witnessed in the deaths of Banqou, Duncan, and the Macduff’s. We noted that all of these killings led to the destruction and downfall of Macbeth and every wrong which he had done returned back to haunt him and so was his demise. At long last, justice is served; the death of Lady Macbeth and her husband as well as Malcom being reinstated to his rightful position as the king of Scotland. If Macbeth could be rumored to have a moral then the play would suggests that it principally reveals how damaging ambition or over-ambition may be. Macbeth, who appears to be a good man at heart, is led into actions and thoughts which are primarily against his own nature and cause, in the end, the ruin of himself together with others, including Lady Macbeth, his wife, who at first encourages him but speedily senses that Macbeth will not be capable of holding on to what they have wickedly gained. The play of Macbeth has several Shakespearean characters which could compare to the reader. The main character, Macbeth, compare the most to readers for his ambition to be the king. At the commencement of the play, we see Macbeth as being really admired and someone who have a strong character. However, as the play developed, the personality and actions of Macbeth become more deceitful, leading to his own destruction. The changing character of Macbeth through the course of this play may be viewed as; Macbeth being a general, in his ambitions to become the king, and as a companion of Lady Macbeth. The first instance of the changing role of Macbeth is manifested in his character as a general. As the play commences, Macbeth is the brave general, who is well appreciated by his peers. The captain coming back from the war reports, "But alls too weak; for brave Macbeth... (Daniel, 128). The people believe in the strength of Macbeth and depend on him. Nonetheless, as the play carries on, Macbeth converts as a useless a general. He turns out to be fearful at the sight of the ghost of Banquo. Macbeth attempted to pretend to look brave by saying, "Thou canst say I did it. Never shake thy gory locks at me..." (Daniel, 78). In the quote, he is depicting paranoia; a genuinely fearless general would never have fearful dreams of the people they have murdered. His sinful actions not only made him fearful, but also cornered. The second instance of Macbeth`s changing character is his ambition to be the king. When Malcolm was named the Prince of Cumberland by King Duncan, Macbeth decided to kill Duncan in order that he could become the King of Scotland. When King Duncan arrived at Inverness, he controlled his ambition just for the time being by not kill him. But then his wife, Lady Macbeth, called him a coward and compelled him to kill King Duncan and After Macbeth eventually murdered King Duncan, he joined a life of evilness. Work Cited Daniel, Sanchez. Macbeth and Morals: Transcript of Macbeth and Morals, 2011. Print. Parris, Benjamin. The Body Is With The King, But The King Is Not With The Body: Sovereign Sleep In Hamlet And Macbeth. Shakespeare Studies, 2012. 101-142. Langis, Unhae. Shakespeare And Prudential Psychology: Ambition And Akrasia In Macbeth. Shakespeare Studies, 2012. 44-52. Wilson, Luke. Macbeth And The Contingency Of Future Persons. Shakespeare Studies, 2012. 53-62. Read More