MACBETH by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE - comentariu
The most influential artist in
all of English literature, William Shakespeare's works were collected and
printed in various editions in the century following his death, and by the
early eighteenth century his reputation as the greatest poet ever to write in
English was well established. In the absence of credible evidence to the
contrary, Shakespeare must be viewed as the author of the thirty-seven plays
and 154
sonnets that bear his name. The legacy of this body of work is immense.
Shakespeare's shortest and bloodiest
tragedy, Macbeth,most likely written in 1606,
early in the reign of James I, tells the story of a brave Scottish general
(Macbeth) who receives a prophecy from a trio of sinister witches that one day
he will become king of Scotland. Consumed with ambitious thoughts and spurred
to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and seizes the throne for
himself. He begins his reign wracked with guilt and fear and soon becomes a
tyrannical ruler, as he is forced to commit more and more murders to protect
himself from enmity and suspicion. The bloodbath swiftly propels Macbeth and
Lady Macbeth to arrogance, madness, and death.
The play begins with the brief
appearance of a trio of witches and then moves to a military camp, where the
Scottish King Duncan hears the news that his generals, Macbeth and Banquo, have
defeated two separate invading armies-one from Ireland, led by the rebel
Macdonald, and one from Norway. Following their pitched battle with these enemy
forces, Macbeth and Banquo encounter the witches as they cross a moor. The
witches prophesy that Macbeth will be made thane of Cawdor and eventually king
of Scotland. They also prophesy that Macbeth's companion, Banquo, will beget a
line of Scottish kings, although Banquo will never be king himself. The witches
vanish, and Macbeth and Banquo treat their prophecies skeptically until some of
King Duncan's men come to thank the two generals for their victories in battle
and to tell Macbeth that he has indeed been named thane of Cawdor. The previous
thane betrayed Scotland by fighting for the Norwegians and Duncan has condemned
him to death. Macbeth is intrigued by the possibility that the remainder of the
witches' prophecy-that he will be crowned king-might be true, but he is
uncertain what to expect. He visits with King Duncan, and they plan to dine
together at Inverness, Macbeth's castle, that night. Macbeth writes ahead to
his wife, Lady Macbeth, telling her all that has happened.
Lady Macbeth suffers none of her
husband's uncertainty. She desires the kingship for him and wants him to murder
Duncan in order to obtain it. When Macbeth arrives at Inverness, she overrides
all of her husband's objections and persuades him to kill the king that very
night. He and Lady Macbeth plan to get Duncan's two chamberlains drunk so they
will black out; the next morning they will blame the murder on the
chamberlains, who will be defenseless, as they will remember nothing. While
Duncan is asleep, Macbeth stabs him, despite his doubts and a number of
supernatural portents, including a vision of a bloody dagger. When Duncan's
death is discovered the next morning, Macbeth kills the chamberlains-ostensibly
out of rage at their crime-and easily assumes the kingship. Duncan's sons Malcolm
and Donalbain flee to England and Ireland, respectively, fearing that whoever
killed Duncan desires their demise as well.
Fearful of the witches' prophecy that
Banquo's heirs will seize the throne, Macbeth hires a group of murderers to
kill Banquo and his son Fleance. They ambush Banquo on his way to a royal
feast, but they fail to kill Fleance, who escapes into the night. Macbeth
becomes furious: as long as Fleance is alive, he fears that his power remains
insecure. At the feast that night, Banquo's ghost visits Macbeth. When he sees
the ghost, Macbeth raves fearfully, startling his guests, who include most of
the great Scottish nobility. Lady Macbeth tries to neutralize the damage, but
Macbeth's kingship incites increasing resistance from his nobles and subjects.
Frightened, Macbeth goes to visit the witches in their cavern. There, they show
him a sequence of demons and spirits who present him with further prophecies:
he must beware of Macduff, a Scottish nobleman who opposed Macbeth's accession
to the throne; he is incapable of being harmed by any man born of woman; and he
will be safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Castle. Macbeth is relieved
and feels secure, because he knows that all men are born of women and that
forests cannot move. When he learns that Macduff has fled to England to join
Malcolm, Macbeth orders that Macduff's castle be seized and, most cruelly, that
Lady Macduff and her children be murdered.
When news of his family's execution
reaches Macduff in England, he is stricken with grief and vows revenge. Prince
Malcolm, Duncan's son, has succeeded in raising an army in England, and Macduff
joins him as he rides to Scotland to challenge Macbeth's forces. The invasion
has the support of the Scottish nobles, who are appalled and frightened by
Macbeth's tyrannical and murderous behavior. Lady Macbeth, meanwhile, becomes
plagued with fits of sleepwalking in which she bemoans what she believes to be
bloodstains on her hands. Before Macbeth's opponents arrive, Macbeth receives
news that she has killed herself, causing him to sink into a deep and
pessimistic despair. Nevertheless, he awaits the English and fortifies
Dunsinane, to which he seems to have withdrawn in order to defend himself,
certain that the witches' prophecies guarantee his invincibility. He is struck
numb with fear, however, when he learns that the English army is advancing on
Dunsinane shielded with boughs cut from Birnam Wood. Birnam Wood is indeed
coming to Dunsinane, fulfilling half of the witches' prophecy.
In the battle, Macbeth hews violently,
but the English forces gradually overwhelm his army and castle. On the
battlefield, Macbeth encounters the vengeful Macduff, who declares that he was
not "of woman born" but was instead "untimely ripped" from his mother's womb .
Though he realizes that he is doomed, Macbeth continues to fight until Macduff
kills and beheads him. Malcolm, now the king of Scotland, declares his
benevolent intentions for the country and invites all to see him crowned at
Scone.
The main theme of Macbeth-the
destruction wrought when ambition goes unchecked by moral constraints-finds its
most powerful expression in the play's two main characters. Macbeth is a
courageous Scottish general who is not naturally inclined to commit evil deeds,
yet he deeply desires power and advancement. He kills Duncan against his better
judgment and afterward stews in guilt and paranoia. Toward the end of the play
he descends into a kind of frantic, boastful madness. Lady Macbeth, on the
other hand, pursues her goals with greater determination, yet she is less
capable of withstanding the repercussions of her immoral acts. One of
Shakespeare's most forcefully drawn female characters, she spurs her husband
mercilessly to kill Duncan and urges him to be strong in the murder's
aftermath, but she is eventually driven to distraction by the effect of
Macbeth's repeated bloodshed on her conscience. In each case, ambition-helped,
of course, by the malign prophecies of the witches-is what drives the couple to
ever more terrible atrocities. The problem, the play suggests, is that once one
decides to use violence to further one's quest for power, it is difficult to
stop. There are always potential threats to the throne-Banquo, Fleance,
Macduff-and it is always tempting to use violent means to dispose of them.
Macbeth is
not Shakespeare's most complex play, but it is certainly one of his most
powerful and emotionally intense. Whereas Shakespeare's other major tragedies,
such as Hamlet and Othello, fastidiously explore the intellectual
predicaments faced by their subjects and the fine nuances of their subjects'
characters, Macbeth tumbles madly from
its opening to its conclusion.
