Tragedy


‘Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red’ (Act 2, Sc 2)


Macbeth rightly suspects that this tragic act will have far-reaching consequences.


Tragic Reversal Macbeth’s tragic act brings about a dramatic reversal of fortune. Due to his own flawed humanity and moral blindness, he falls from a state of prosperity. His tyrannical rule and murderous crimes make him despised by all of Scotland. He is described as a ‘tyrant’, ‘fiend’, ‘butcher’ and is associatedwith the devil: ‘Not in the legions /Of horrid hell can come a devilmore damned / In evils to top Macbeth’ (Act 4, Sc 3). Through his own actions he has lost the respect he had earned in the first Act (see Potential for Greatness on page 138). Typically of tragedy,Macbeth’s reversal of fortune leads himto experience great suffering and unhappiness. The audience sees throughout the play how he suffers great emotional anguish. He feels considerable guilt for hismurders. This ismost keenly illustrated through the vision of Banquo’s ghost. Macbeth suffers spiritually as he is numbed by his actions: ‘I have supped full with horrors; / Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts / Cannot once start me’ (Act 5, Sc 5). He becomes world-weary and wholly disinterested in life: ‘I have lived long enough: my way of life / Is fall’n into the sear, the yellow leaf’ (Act 5, Sc 3). This state of wretchedness is typical of tragic heroes. By the end of the play Macbeth becomes an isolated figure at war with the thanes of Scotland and


the forces from England. The grotesque spectacle of Macbeth’s severed head displayed by Macduff at the play’s end dramatically highlights the tragic hero’s fall from grace and his radical reversal of fortune.


Tragic Recognition In tragedy, the hero comes to realise the errors he has made or gains profound insight into life through a process of tragic recognition.Aristotle, an ancientGreek philosopher, defines this tragic recognition as a ‘change from ignorance to awareness’. The hero’s revelation compounds the sense of tragedy as he sees the mistakes he has made but is powerless to change his circumstances. Macbeth sees that he has set himself on an inescapable path of bloodshed and unhappiness. After


the murder of Banquo he says, ‘I am in blood / Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er’ (Act 3, Sc 4). The image of wading through a river of blood illustrates the great suffering he has brought upon himself. Macbeth’s revelation allows him to see the futility of an immoral life. Happiness and contentment can only be achieved by living ethically. By the end of the play, he recognises that all that he values has been undone by his immoral actions. The crown should bring respect, love and friendship, but the dishonourable way in which Macbeth achieved power means that he is reviled, unloved and alone:


‘And that which should accompany old age, As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have; but, in their stead, Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not’ (Act 5, Sc 3)


Macbeth grows in wisdom throughout the play. He comes to understand his own nature as that of a warrior not a ruler. This is keenly reflected in his eagerness to exchange his kingly robes for armour in Act 5, Scene 3.


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Macbeth


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