Macbeth 4 Essay Research Paper MACBETH

Macbeth 4 Essay, Research Paper

MACBETH – William Shakespeare Macbeth is presented as a mature man of definitelyestablished character, successful in certain fields ofactivity and enjoying an enviable reputation. We must notconclude, there, that all his volitions and actions arepredictable; Macbeth’s character, like any other man’s at agiven moment, is what is being made out of potentialitiesplus environment, and no one, not even Macbeth himself, canknow all his inordinate self-love whose actions arediscovered to be-and no doubt have been for a long time-determined mainly by an inordinate desire for some temporalor mutable good. Macbeth is actuated in his conduct mainly by aninordinate desire for worldly honors; his delight liesprimarily in buying golden opinions from all sorts of people. But we must not, therefore, deny him an entirely humancomplexity of motives. For example, his fighting in Duncan’sservice is magnificent and courageous, and his evident joy init is traceable in art to the natural pleasure whichaccompanies the explosive expenditure of prodigious physicalenergy and the euphoria which follows. He also rejoices nodoubt in the success which crowns his efforts in battle – andso on. He may even conceived of the proper motive whichshould energize back of his great deed: The service and the loyalty I owe, In doing it, pays itself. But while he destroys the king’s enemies, such motives workbut dimly at best and are obscured in his consciousness bymore vigorous urges. In the main, as we have said, his natureviolently demands rewards: he fights valiantly in order thathe may be reported in such terms a “valour’s minion” and”Bellona’s bridegroom”‘ he values success because it bringsspectacular fame and new titles and royal favor heaped uponhim in public. Now so long as these mutable goods are at allcommensurate with his inordinate desires – and such is thecase, up until he covets the kingship – Macbeth remains anhonorable gentleman. He is not a criminal; he has no criminaltendencies. But once permit his self-love to demand asatisfaction which cannot be honorably attained, and he islikely to grasp any dishonorable means to that end which maybe safely employed. In other words, Macbeth has much ofnatural good in him unimpaired; environment has conspiredwith his nature to make him upright in all his dealings withthose about him. But moral goodness in him is undeveloped andindeed still rudimentary, for his voluntary acts are scarcelybrought into harmony with ultimate end. As he returns from victorious battle, puffed up withself-love which demands ever-increasing recognition of hisgreatness, the demonic forces of evil-symbolized by the WeirdSisters-suggest to his inordinate imagination the splendidprospect of attaining now the greatest mutable good he hasever desired. These demons in the guise of witches cannotread his inmost thoughts, but from observation of facialexpression and other bodily manifestations they surmise with comparative accuracy what passions drive him and what darkdesires await their fostering. Realizing that he wishes thekingdom, they prophesy that he shall be king. They cannotthus compel his will to evil; but they do arouse his passionsand stir up a vehement and inordinate apprehension of theimagination, which so perverts the judgment of reason that itleads his will toward choosing means to the desired temporalgood. Indeed his imagination and passions are so vivid underthis evil impulse from without that “nothing is but what isnot”; and his reason is so impeded that he judges, “Thesesolicitings cannot be evil, cannot be good.” Still, he isprovided with so much natural good that he is able to controlthe apprehensions of his inordinate imagination and decidesto take no step involving crime. His autonomous decision notto commit murder, however, is not in any sense based uponmoral grounds. No doubt he normally shrinks from theunnaturalness of regicide; but he so far ignores ultimateends that, if he could perform the deed and escape itsconsequences here upon this bank and shoal of time, he’ldjump the life to come. Without denying him still a complexityof motives – as kinsman and subject he may possiblyexperience some slight shade of unmixed loyalty to the Kingunder his roof-we may even say that the consequences which hefears are not at all inward and spiritual, It is to bedoubted whether he has ever so far considered the possibleeffects of crime and evil upon the human soul-his laterdiscovery of horrible ravages produced by evil in his ownspirit constitutes part of the tragedy. Hi is mainlyconcerned, as we might expect, with consequences involvingthe loss of mutable goods which he already possesses andvalues highly. After the murder of Duncan, the natural good in himcompels the acknowledgment that, in committing the unnaturalact, he has filed his mind and has given his eternal jewel,the soul, into the possession of those demonic forces whichare the enemy of mankind. He recognizes that the acts ofconscience which torture him are really expressions of thatoutraged natural law, which inevitably reduced him asindividual to the essentially human. This is the inescapablebond that keeps him pale, and this is the law of his ownnatural from whose exactions of devastating penalties he

seeks release: Come, seeling night… And with thy bloody and invisible hand Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond Which keeps me pale. He conceives that quick escape from the accusations o