Shakespeare Essay: It Is Not a Tragedy Unless You Have a Long Way to Fall
Summary:
The theme of fear within Macbeth and King Lear ties the plays together and links them into the same category. Fear within Macbeth is another motivation that drives so many of the characters actions. For Macbeth, his fear of the prophecies is his driving action. Macbeth fears the prophecies that he will be king because it calls for him to act.
Shakespeare Essay:
It's Not a Tragedy Unless You Have a Long Way to
The story of life is a rollercoaster. It has its ups, its downs, its turn-a-rounds and dead stops. People go though life and never know what it is that defines what they feel and experience. Pain and happiness are felt by everyone. We all fall on hard times, but does it make our lives tragic? Shakespeare's tragedies are what help to define what a tragedy is. What classifies something, especially a play, as tragic? To be a tragedy, the play must have a hero of high status that possesses a tragic flaw that initiated the tragedy. The hero must suffer a fall that is felt not only by him/her, but those below him/her. The story must depict his/her suffering and calamity to happier times and show how his/her troubles and death are instantaneously caused by his/her pains and troubles. What is it that links these events into the tragic category? Similarities and contrasts within the plot, the characters, and the themes, all link the plays as tragedies. Shakespeare's greatest tragedies are King Lear and Macbeth which perfectly demonstrate what a tragedy is and how they both fall into this category.
Similarities and contrasts between themes is a major link of Shakespeare's tragedies. Within Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth, the themes of independence, fear, and fate are all present. The theme of independence is introduced through Macbeth's actions. Macbeth's actions are a result of the prophecies that he was told. The prophecies helped inspire the evil plot for Macbeth's independence and taking of the crown. It was this desire for sovereignty that led to his inevitable defeat. Macbeth's independence was like a house of cards, remove one card and the whole house goes, it was not a good thing. His independence was the card that was removed and caused Scotland to fall into a state of turmoil (Lyndon). It caused for his soldiers to desert him, a split of he and Lady Macbeth, and inevitably his and her death. Macbeth's independence was found in his crimes that all started with the prophecies. When Macbeth was told he was to be king, it started the thought of power and independence. The crime brought both he and Lady Macbeth closer while they plotted but the actual act separated them. The scene of the actual murder shows the painful split that has now developed between the two. After the first crime, they both soon begin to lose it when the "affliction of these terrible dreams that shake us nightly" (III,iii,,18-19). Lady Macbeth begins to sleepwalk and talk in her sleep stating that "[she is] in blood stepp'd in so far that should [she] wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o're" (III,iv,135-137). Macbeth also becomes a stranger and becomes completely independent of others with the killing of the guards. After his independence, everyone soon falls. Macbeth becomes insecure over everything trying desperately to keep his throne. It becomes evident in the end that Macbeth's ambition was greater than his ability (Van Doren). And though he thinks he has gained independence he has crippled himself to depend on the prophecies that were his downfall. These of course were the tragic downfall that is needed for the tragedy.
The theme of independence takes the opposite stance in King Lear. The theme is dependence rather than independence. Within the play, the characters are so dependent upon others for their actions to be complete. Lear becomes dependent upon his daughters after he has given away his kingdom. Quickly after he has made the rash decision to banish Cordelia, Lear states that "Ourself, by monthly course, With reservation of an hundred knights By you to be sustained, shall our abode Make with you by due turns." (I,I,132-135) Lear also becomes dependent upon Kent and his servants when he begins to lose his mind, as well as being dependent upon Cordelia to nurse him back to health. The irony can be seen in that; it was those who Lear banished that he came to depend the most upon. Others are also dependent upon the actions of fellow characters. An example would be the lust triangle of Regan, Goneril and Edmund. They all rest their actions upon the decisions of the other. Goneril wishes Edmund to be with her and kill her husband. Regan wishes Edmund to marry her since her husband is dead and to "be not familiar with [Goneril]" (V,i,17), while Edmund merely wants the throne, no matter through whom. Edmund's flirting with both women causes them to become enraged and to turn against each other. Another example would be Edgar. Edgar's position is dependent upon the actions of Edmund and Gloucester. Edgar's actions depended upon Edmund becoming a traitor and being "False to thy gods, thy brother, and they father." (V,iii,137-138)
The theme of fear within Macbeth and King Lear is another theme that ties the plays together and links them into the same category. Fear within Macbeth is another motivation that drives so many of the characters actions. For Macbeth, his fear of the prophecies is his driving action. Macbeth fears the prophecies that he will be king because it calls for him to act. For the first prophecies, Macbeth did not have to act, they merely came true, Macbeth hoped that "chance would crown [him] without [his stir]" (I,iii,145-147) He also fears Banquo's prophecies. Macbeth is enraged that "they hailed him father to a line of kings. Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown" (III,i,60-61). Macbeth didn't risk so much to lose it to Banquo. Macbeth also fears Banquo because "he hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor" (III,i,53) The prophecies of Macduff also drive Macbeth to act. All call for Macbeth to commit crimes that cannot be undone. Lady Macbeth is also driven by fear in the play. Lady Macbeth at first is strong and brave and calls upon spirits to "unsex" her so that she may commit the acts her husband lacks the strength to commit. She fears for her husband, that he will not rise to what he can be. She later fears the act that her husband has committed (Ramsey). She fears that they will be caught and that she will never be cleansed of the sin she has committed. To escape, she kills herself, damning her soul either way. Lady Macbeth's greatest fear after committing the murders was sin. She had sinned, and because of it her soul was damned. No matter what she tried to cleanse her soul, but "the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." (V,I,42-43). The fact that she was already damned allowed for Lady Macbeth to see no sin in committing suicide, an act that damns your soul.
Fear was also a driving factor in King Lear for Lear. Lear feared that he was nothing but an old man without his crown. He also feared to be left with nothing. Throughout the play, Lear has said that "nothing will come of nothing" (I,i,89 & I, iv, 117) Within the play we see that his fears came true however. Lear was left with nothing. He had no power, no family to back him, no knights behind him, and no kingdom or title. His fears of nothing and that he was nothing drove him insane and caused him to wander like a lost child in a raging storm. His fears were the storm raging around him. Since he had no title or family, Lear felt naked and unshielded, and most importantly, weak. Lear becomes a child in the face of the storm because he has no faith in himself or anyone to stand by him. His fears also eventually lead to his death. Lear's fears ate away at his soul and gradually corroding the inner workings of his mind. His corrosive fears bring him to the brink and leave him in a very unstable state. It is the death of Cordelia that pushes him over the edge and kills him. After so much and after he has been diminished to the smallest piece of the man he used to be, his daughter, who was his angel, his guiding light, leaves him. The harsh reality of her death is too much for him and he dies hoping "her breath will mist the stone" (V,iii,270)
Another theme that ties the plays together is fate. Within both plays fate has a major role. Within Macbeth, fate is portrayed through the witches, while in King Lear it is displayed through the wheel of fortune that the fool constantly mentions. Within Macbeth, the major role of fate is to question, was Macbeth a slave to fate? Was it really that his fate was predestined and that despite all his efforts there was nothing he could do to change it? Fate was the prophecies told to him through the witches which all came true, supporting the thought that he was bound to fate and had to obey what was already set before him. Fate could also have been interpreted as Lady Macbeth in the play. The fact that it was Lady Macbeth that pushed Macbeth so much and that she conjured evil spirits to give her strength supports this. Lady Macbeth pushes and prods Macbeth and is ultimately the deciding factor in whether or not Macbeth kills Duncan. She can be seen as fate in that she leads Macbeth and shoves him in the path that fate has planned for him. Lady Macbeth can also be looked at as an aide to the witches who state the path that lies before Macbeth. Throughout the play, fate was something that nobody could escape.
Within King Lear, fate was the wheel of fortune. It was not so much that everything was predestined in Lear, but rather that fortune was in your favor. You either had good fortune or bad, depending on where the wheel fell. Kent and the fool mention the wheel throughout the play. Within the play you can tell who is in favor and who is not and when it is that the wheel turns. The wheel turned for all the characters. For Lear it started in favor, and then turned to bad, then to good in the end. Lear was in favor to start when he divided his kingdom but quickly fell out of favor by the end of act one when Regan and Goneril are shown discussing plans for something. Lear remained out of favor for almost the entire play, it was not until the very end that the wheel turned once more for him. It was after Lear had been found gone Cordelia's soldiers that it becomes apparent that Lear is once again in favor. Lear's death can be looked as either in favor, or another turn of the wheel. It can be seen as in favor because Lear ends up having his daughter back and dying thinking she is alive. But it can also be looked at as another turn because it is after he has gotten Cordelia back that he loses her to death. This was the same for Edgar. Edgar was also in favor in the start of the play and has fortune quickly turn on him when he is banished. Edgar remains out of fortune only until he catches up with his blinded father. After his savior of his father, Edgar is once again in fortune, slowly regaining all that fortune had taken from him. For Goneril, Regan and Edmund, they started out on top and then fortune turned and was not in their favor. With the start of the play, fortune seems to be in favor of the evil doers and those with hidden agendas. They have gotten rid of Lear and have taken over the kingdom; the only thing that stands in their way is each other. It is with Edmund that the wheel slowly begins to turn on them. It is only after they have each confessed that Edmund should be with them that everything begins to fall apart. Cordelia returns with arms from France, and Lear and Edgar have returned. The turn was unexpected by all three, causing for reason of such sudden, unseen deaths in the play.
The tragedy of life is not in that it ends with the hero's death, but that is goes on until all the wrongs have been rectified through the good left in the world (Ribner). Macbeth and Lear both suffered their fall from grace and had the wheel of fortune/fate turn upon them, and they both looked back and saw their own downfall. But it was not until after their deaths that all was set right and the evils and wrongdoings they had committed were rectified. Lear and Macbeth are perfect demonstrations of how present people's everyday problems are never as tragic unless you have a long way to fall.
Work cited:
Scott, Mark W., editor. Shakespeare for Students: Book 1: "Macbeth." Detroit, MI: Gale Research Inc, 1992
"Ribner, Irving" Scott, Mark W., editor. Shakespeare for Students: Book 1: "Macbeth." Detroit, MI: Gale Research Inc, 1992
"Lyndon, J." Scott, Mark W., editor. Shakespeare for Students: Book 1: "Macbeth." Detroit, MI: Gale Research Inc, 1992
"Van Doren, Mark" Scott, Mark W., editor. Shakespeare for Students: Book 1: "Macbeth." Detroit, MI: Gale Research Inc, 1992
Terry A. Gray. "Criticism: King Lear: Bushnell, Rebecca." 24 Jan 2003. 28 Oct 2004.
