Macbeth: The Culmination of Dramatic Tragedy

Brittany Wolverton

“The tragedian who unites the hero and the lover, that is, who can display either character as it is required, is the more admirable genius.”

-Leigh Hunt on tragic acting in Specimens of English Dramatic Criticism

Macbeth is a play, like many of Shakespeare’s, which employs aspects of later dramatic styles. Within the writing of Macbeth we find the application of three distinctive styles from various movements in literary history. The morality play is the first and most striking influence in Macbeth brought to life from the Medieval period. It is also apparent that Shakespeare had reviewed Aristotle’s theories on the Greek tragedy in forming the character of Macbeth. And lastly, the influence of the Elizabethan drama/tragedy is of course a driving force in Macbeth’s struggles. Though contradictory at times, these styles blend together to form the distinctive Shakespearian tragedy.

Through research and a recent trip to the Globe, it is apparent that Shakespeare was quite the Medieval playwright. The primary function of the Medieval drama was to show man caught between good and evil. The morality play, a sub category of Medieval drama, shows vices and virtues personified. It is easily identified that Lady Macbeth acts as a potent version of evil while Duncan represents good. Macbeth acknowledges Duncan’s purity of spirit when he speaks of his slaying. “So clear in his great office, that his virtues/Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against/ The deep damnation of his taking-off.”(Necessary Shakespeare18-20) Lady Macbeth can be seen as being evil because it is her own coaxing and deliberation that finally move Macbeth to commit murder. We see the woman as temptress putting Macbeth’s loyalty and honor in question which we will explore later. The morality play also uses a prophecy of doom which is also seen Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The Weird Sisters speak with Macbeth in the first act:

These statements are hardly foreshadowing the slaughter Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are to commit later. By not including the detail as to how Macbeth was to become King demonstrates that Macbeth is responsible for his fate. Macbeth has made the choice to kill. Notice throughout the play, that Macbeth does not blame fate, or the prophecies for his commitment to evil.  Macbeth, believing that he will become king, takes his own course of action to make the prediction of the Weird Sisters come true. But Shakespeare used another source for his play; the Greek tragedy.

The Greek tragedy, according to Aristotle, contained a character that was neither virtuous nor evil. According to Aristotle the protagonist’s downfall as quoted in the Outline of Aristotle’s Theory of Tragedy, “should come about as the result, not of vice, but of some great error or frailty in a character.” Macbeth mistakenly brings about his own downfall, but not because he is sinful or morally weak; because he just doesn’t know enough. Macbeth, it seems, is driven only by his knowledge that he will be a king, as the Weird Sisters addressed him. They do not tell of any details; of how or when, yet Macbeth acts upon it showing his human failure and misunderstanding. Another significantly Aristotlian character trait Macbeth possesses is consistency. "I am in blood/Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,/Returning were as tedious as go o’er.Strange things I have in head, that will to hand,/Which must be acted ere they may be scanned”(137-141). Macbeth is aware of his decisions, yet at the same time he is troubled by his uncontrolled control. Once Macbeth kills the King he follows through by killing anyone in his path. There is no repentance on Macbeth’s part, which may sound like a contradiction to the earlier discussion of Macbeth as a morality play. Aristotle believed that the plot of the play speaks at a greater volume then the characters, which may redeem this conflict.

Macbeth is stuck between good and evil, unable to make a ‘goodly’ decision because of his weak character as explained by Greek and Morality play theories. Elizabethan drama then examines the path Macbeth takes after his first decision to kill the King. To look closer at this theory of drama we must understand that Macbeth is composed of the inward man, and the outward man. We see this in today’s society when we say, “What is he really like.” There is a perceived notion that the person displayed is different from the person inside; or more complexly the man and the nature of man. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth go through a discourse on the murder of Duncan in the last scene of Act 1. Macbeth questions, “And if we should fail?” to Lady Macbeth who replies, “We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking place…”(60-62). continuing the plot for the murder of Duncan. Macbeth does not seem to take an active role in the decision-making surrounding the act. Macbeth’s ‘inward man’ seems to be uncertain of its quest, while the ‘outward man’ performs the act of murder. Macbeth cannot convince himself of the necessity of the murder of Duncan;Lady Macbeth must persuade. We see his resistance in looking at the last scene in Act 1:

But what happens to the personality as a result of its commitment to a course of action which the self may have reservations about before the action is made? Macbeth becomes tortured by guilt and even the ghost of Banquo haunts him. Macbeth’s troubles are not quite the same as Lady Macbeth’s. We see that Lady Macbeth is repeating the acts she committed; washing the blood from her hands, hurrying Macbeth to their chambers. While Macbeth reacts much differently:

Macbeth recognizes that he is troubled by what he is doing. Macbeth speaks these lines after the ghost of Banquo has visited him. Macbeth notes that he is in fact fearful; fearful of what he will do next, and what will be done to him. Thus, Macbeth is made up of the morality play character caught between good and evil, the tragic Greek character doomed to err because of his weakness, and takes an Elizabethan path through murder and guilt.

Renaissance dramatic theories about tragedy include many more topics than can be covered in one book let alone one paper. But an overview of historical ideas on drama and tragedy offer insight into the world of the dramatic tragedy. Shakespeare is perhaps most noted for his exceptional handle on the elements of tragedy. But Shakespeare was not the inventor of the genre. He drew from the Greek tragedy and the Medieval morality play which offered a plethora of material to work from. Shakespeare was able to deliver to his crowds a blended style that was undoubtedly meant to cause reflection and stir the emotions. 

Works Cited