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The focus of extensive and enduring critical interest, Macbeth presents one of the most trenchant examinations of the nature of evil and the consequences of crimes against humanity in English literature. Motivated by complex desires and fears, and possibly by supernatural forces, Macbeth breaks the natural order of acceptable behavior when he commits murder, permanently altering his identity and his destiny. The play is essentially about the conversion of an otherwise "good" person to evil, and the erosion of his conscience and his humanity in the process.
Discussing Shakespeare's Macbeth, Frank Kermode commented: "In no other play does Shakespeare show a nation so cruelly occupied by the powers of darkness; and Macbeth is, for all its brevity, his most intensive study of evil at work in the individual and in the world at large." In the play, Shakespeare dramatizes not only the way in which evil enters Macbeth's world, but also the devastating effect it has after he yields to the temptation to sin. Some critics have argued that the tragedy concludes on a hopeful note, however, for the pervasive corruption is portrayed as temporary, and highly unnatural occurrence, and there is the sense that a providential order is inevitably restored in time.
Shakespeare's primary source for Macbeth was Raphael Holinshed's account of Scottish history in Chronicles of England, Scotlande and Irelande (1577), although Shakespeare altered this version of the facts for dramatic purposes. For example, in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth reigns for a short and tyrannous period, while in Holinshed's account of history, Macbeth's reign lasted seventeen years, during ten of which he was considered a good ruler. Shakespeare also polarized and intensified the moral stance of certain characters. In Holinshed's history, for example, Duncan is described as a young, ineffectual leader rather than the aging and highly respected figure portrayed in Macbeth; Banquo is an accomplice in Duncan's murder rather than an innocent victim; and Macbeth has a legitimate claim to the throne, since Duncan broke the traditional Scottish pattern of kingly succession by naming his son as an heir. Additionally, Shakespeare may have derived some of the specific circumstances surrounding Duncan's murder, such as the influence of Macbeth's ambitious wife, from Holinshed's account of the murder of King Duff, an earlier monarch.
In part because the play's subject matter would have been of particular interest to King James, who was known to be interested in witchcraft, most scholars concur that Macbeth must have been written sometime after James's accession to the throne in 1603; possibly for a performance in August, 1606. This hypothesis is also supported by the play's relative brevity (it is the shortest of Shakespeare's tragedies), which, some critics believe, was in response to James's impatience with longer plays. There has been some controversy concerning the possible abridgement and interpolation of the text of Macbeth. While early critics occasionally argued that several scenes, such as the Porter scene, were not written by Shakespeare, most twentieth century scholars consider only the whole of Act II, Scene V, and certain lines in Act IV, Scene I, to be the interpolations of another author. All of these spurious lines involve Hecate and the witches, and are usually attributed to the dramatist Thomas Middleton, who might have been employed to revise Shakespeare's Macbeth to make the work more operatic. He may have introduced some of the songs, which were later incorporated into his play The Witch. Other critics, however, contend that Macbeth's Hecate is considerably different from the character in The Witch, suggesting that an anonymous author, rather than Middleton, was responsible for the interpolated lines. Another textual concern is the possible abridgement of the original text, with some critics proposing that Shakespeare originally composed a significantly longer work, which he revised in 1606 for a court performance.
The supernatural motif in Macbeth has been the source of controversy, with extensive discussion focusing on the nature of the witches, and the degree of their influence over events in the play. Many have interpreted the witches as agents of powerful evil forces that literally alter Macbeth's destiny, observing that notions of evil as an objective and independent force in the world, and of the reality of witchcraft, were common aspects of the Renaissance worldview. It has also been suggested that from the playwright's perspective, the presence of supernatural forces in the play contributes to a heightened sense of terror that would not otherwise be evoked. Other critics have viewed the Weird Sisters as frightening, but essentially powerless symbols, arguing that they simply "trick" Macbeth into believing that his fate is predetermined, which ironically entices him to choose a path that results in his own downfall. In other words, the tragedy of Macbeth is essentially the tragedy of a man's lack of faith in his own free will; the witches and apparitions are manifestations of his guilty and fearful mind.
Another focus of critical discussion surrounding Macbeth is Shakespeare's ambiguous treatment of sex roles. In several instances, the conventional gender identity of the characters is inverted, with Lady Macbeth's character being a prominent example of this reversal. In Act I, Scene V, for example, she resolves to "unsex" herself, to suppress any weakness associated with her feminine nature, in order to impel Macbeth to murder the king. After Duncan is killed, however, her feelings of guilt contribute to her eventual insanity and suicide. Macbeth, however, is arguably most profoundly affected by the question of gender in the tragedy. From the beginning of the play, he is plagued by feelings of doubt and insecurity which his wife attributes to "effeminate" weakness. Fearing that her husband does not have the resolve to murder Duncan, Lady Macbeth manipulates his lack of confidence by questioning his manhood. The more the protagonist pursues his warped concept of manliness; first by murdering Duncan, then Banquo, and finally Macduff's family; the more alienated and inhumane he becomes.
The sense of corruption and deterioration that pervades the play's action is also supported by its imagery. A dominant motif in the language of Macbeth, for example, is that of infants and breast-feeding: images of infants are commonly interpreted as symbolizing human compassion and pity, while breast-milk represents tenderness, sympathy, and natural human emotions; all of which have been debased by Macbeth's crimes. Another prominent motif is that of sickness and medicine, including numerous references to spilled blood which emphasize Scotland's degeneration following Macbeth's usurpation of the crown. Blood imagery is also viewed as a symbol of the purifying process through which Malcolm and Macduff—the restorers of the proper order—purge the weakened country of the villainy introduced by Macbeth. Other important images include such oppositions as sleep and sleeplessness, order versus disorder, and the contrast between light and darkness; with such positive "life forces" as honor, imperial magnificence, sleeping, feasting, creation, and innocence opposed by forces of evil and death. Many critics have emphasized the fundamental opposition between forces of "unnatural" destruction with those of "natural" creation, noting that the positive forces of nature ultimately triumph over corruption and evil. Shakespeare's depiction of time is another central concern in Macbeth, as there is a sense that Macbeth dislocates his role in the passage of time when he succumbs to evil and murders Duncan. Shakespeare uses this displacement as a key symbol in dramatizing the steady disintegration of the hero's world. While Macbeth's evil actions initially seem to interrupt the normal flow of time, contributing to the dark, nightmarish atmosphere of the drama, order gradually regains its proper shape and overpowers the new king, as reflected by his increasing unease and sleeplessness. Proponents of Christian interpretations of the play maintain that the natural order at the end of the play is restored by the representatives of supernatural grace, Malcolm and Macduff.
Thomson Gale Document Number: EJ2115508797