Macbeth Story in Short Summary: Macbeth as a Shakespearean Tragedy
So far as William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is concerned, it is one of the most eminent and successful tragedies. It is a five act play and shortest of Shakespeare’s tragedies. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. William Shakespeare wrote a galaxy of tragedies and comedy in his life, including – “Hamlet”, “King Lear”, “Othello”, “Julius Caesar”, “The Tempest”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Much Ado About Nothing” and many more.
D. H. Lawrence, a great English writer and poet says about Shakespeare’s works and greatness –
When I read Shakespeare, I am struck with wonder that such trival people should muse and thunder in such lovely language.”
Macbeth is written between 1606-1607 and published in the first folio of 1623. Whole story of the play moves around its major character – Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Banque, Duncan and Macduff. Besides these, there are also many minor character in the play.
Macbeth Story in Short:
The opening scene of “Macbeth” comprises of twelve lines only. The three witches met in thunder and lightning in a desert place and hover through the fog and filthy air. They speak of a battle and proposed to meet Macbeth.
The play starts with war that is being fought between Norway and Scotland and in which Scotland won. All the credit for the victory of war is given to Macbeth. Macbeth and Banque were very faithful General of Scotland’s king, named Duncan.
When both Macbeth and Banque were coming back then they saw three weird sisters who are witches, who prophesies that Macbeth will become “Thane of Cowdor” and one day will become the king of Scotland. They prophesy that Banque’s son would become the king of Scotland after Macbeth.
Having heard the prophesy of the three witches, both of them were very shocked and then suddenly the envoy of the king of Scotland announced that Macbeth was as the ‘Thane of Cowdar” for the bravery in the battlefield.
So the prediction of the witches became true partly. Macbeth immediately fantasizes about murdering Duncan and becoming King of Scotland. But he actually felt the prick of conscience of murdering a good king like Duncan. He thought of material consequences of the murder and decided not proceed further.
Lady Macbeth received a letter from her husband about the prophesy and Duncan’s imminent arrival. She knew that her husband’s heart is too full of milk of kindness to fulfill the ambition. So Lady Macbeth pushed Macbeth to murder the king Duncan. Lady Macbeth urged him to the deed by rebuking him for his hesitation and cowardice.
Macbeth first resisted his wife to carry forward with the plan of murdering Duncan when the king paid a visit in Macbeth’s castle. But his ambition and Lady Macbeth’s constant instigation ultimately won over him. That night, Macbeth murdered Duncan and put the blame entirely on the men guarding the room of Duncan.
The next morning, Macduff, another Scottish Thane discovered the dead body of Duncan and raised the alarm. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth pretended to be shocked and outraged. Duncan’s sons thought that they might be the next target and fled from Scotland. So, Macbeth was made king and because they ran, Duncan’s sons became the prime suspects in their father’s murder.
Banque knew the witches’ prophesy. So he is suspicious of Macbeth. Macbeth remembers the prophesy that Banque’s son would be the king hereafter. So he decided to kill Banquo’s son. To fulfill this purpose, Macbeth arranged a feast and invited Banquo, along with his son and many other thanes. Macbeth hired two murderers to kill Banquo and his son on their way to Banquet. Macbeth came to know that Banquo was murdered, but his son, Fleance managed to escape.
Macbeth came back to the banquet hall. When he was about to take his seat, he found that Banquo was seated in his place. Macbeth was stricken with horror at the sight of the blood-boltered ghost of Banquo and made some compromising disclosures.
Macbeth once again revisited the three witches. The three witches enter the heath amidst the thunder. They showed him three apparitions – an armed head warning him against Macduff, a bloody child exhorting him to be bloody, bold and resolute and declaring that none of woman born would harm him, a child crowned with a tree in his hand, assuring him that he would never be vanquished until Great Birnam Wood to high Dansinance Hill would come against him.
Meanwhile, Macbeth sends men to Macduff’s castle to kill Macduff’s family. Meanwhile in England, Macduff and Malcom prepared to invade Scotland. When news came to England of the murder of Macduff’s family, Macduff vowed to revenge.
While the English and Scottish under Malcom marched towards Dansinance, doctor informed Macbeth about the present condition of Lady Macbeth who had become frantic due to the effect of the bloody act they were engaged. She began to sleep-walking and imagined blood on her hands that could not be washed off.
Suddenly, a cry of women was heard within the castle and Seyton came with the news that Lady Macbeth was dead. Hearing the news of Lady Macbeth’s death, Macbeth compared the life to a senseless tale told by a fool, full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Macbeth understood that the witches had equivocated. Macbeth remained firm in his decision to fight the battle till end.
In Birnam Wood, Malcom and his generals to take the strategy to hide their actual numbers, cut branches of the Birnam Wood to hold up in front of them. Malcom’s forces marching forward looking like forest marching marching towards the castle.
Malcom’s forces quickly captured Dansinance but Macbeth himself continued fighting mocking all who dared to face him as “men born of woman”. But Macduff revealed that he was untimely ripped from mother’s womb. Macbeth realized that the juggling fiends had trifled with him in a double sense. Macbeth refused to fight but Macduff killed Macbeth in a gory duel.
Macduff entered with Macbeth’s head and everyone rejoiced in the fall of the tyrant. Malcom is crowned as king of Scotland.
What is a Shakespearean tragedy?
A Shakespearean tragedy is a play which presents the life and frame of a great man as well as his fall from grace due to some tragic flaw in his character. Thus, it is a story of extreme suffering and even death of a great man who has one flaw, one weakness among his many virtues which ultimately leads to his downfall.
In this article, we will discuss about Macbeth as a Shakespearean tragedy and find out the main characteristics that make Macbeth as a Shakespearean tragedy.
Most Important Characteristics of Macbeth as a Shakespearean Tragedy
■ Macbeth, the most vehement and concentrated of the tragedies:
Macbeth is the shortest of the four great tragedies of Shakespeare but the impression which it leaves on the mind is not one of shortness but of speed. It has classical simplicity and symmetry, but it is also the most vehement and concentrated of the tragedies. In its construction, Shakespeare has almost achieved perfection that made Macbeth as Shakespearean tragedy so famous for all time.
■ Simplicity of its plot in Macbeth:
One of the distinctive features of Macbeth as a Shakespearean tragedy is the extreme simplicity of its plot. There is no subplot, episode, and no digression to retard the action or divert the attention. There is no extraneous matter with the possible exception of the witch-scene in Act-III which is generally regarded as an interpolation. Macbeth is classical in its simplicity, and this simplicity makes it concentrate on the main theme, to the entire exclusion of everything superfluous, and this creates the impression of speed.
■ Macbeth as a tragedy of atmosphere:
It is said that Macbeth is a tragedy of atmosphere. The dramatist has concentrated more on the creation of atmosphere than on the subtitles and complexities of character. This atmosphere is one of all pervasive darkness, even blackness, relieved by flashes of garish light or splashes of blood.
■ Simple in characterisation and construction:
Macbeth is one of the greatest tragedies of Shakespeare can be remembered for its simplicity both in characterisation and construction. The characters have been delineated boldly and broadly and are lacking in those subtle touches and delicate hints which we get in other tragedies.
Still the dramatist has succeeded in imparting a rare loftiness and grandeur to the figure of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth who stand out sublime above the others. Its construction too is equally simple. Its action moves swiftly, even vehemently onwards. Macbeth is the shortest play of Shakespeare, and this brevity results from its classical simplicity.
■ Strong melodramatic elements in Macbeth:
Macbeth as a tragedy stands strong in the melodramatic element, and this makes it a greater success on the stage. This feature has been concentrated on the two leading characters of the play – Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. After the murder of Duncan, Macbeth grows more and more the centre of interest. Prof. Chambers rightly says, “the whole interest is concentrated on the rise and fall of Macbeth and his wife.” Thus the dramatic element lies in the rise and fall of Macbeth, the working out of Nemesis or Retribution.
■ Introduction of Witches in Macbeth:
It is the only tragedy in which Shakespeare has introduced the witches. The witches impart the touch of mystery, awe and supernatural dread to it. The horror of the atmosphere is further intensified and a touch of supernatural dread is added to it by the appearance of the witches and the ghost. As H.B Chariton remarks,
“The witches are the embodied malevolence which bubbles up from nature’s earth, roaming the darkness, in thunder, rain and lightning, secret black and midnight hags, who hover the borderland between the natural and the supernatural and fuse the two in the dark mystery of man’s universe.“
■ Tale of murder became dramatic poem:
Macbeth is considered as a tale of murder, but the dramatist has made out of it a great dramatic poem. There is no other of Shakespeare’s tragic heroes who invariably speaks such pure poetry as does Macbeth.
Besides his vaulting ambition and weakness of will, Macbeth also has the imagination of a born poet. Macbeth is essentially a melodramatic tale of murder, but it is raised to the level of pure tragedy by the poetic imagination of its central figure. His poetic imagination makes him see visions of the terrible consequences of his crime and it intensifies its horror. Macbeth’s imagination is pictorial and it is in conflict with his ambition.
■ Conflict in it is more violent and more swift:
Conflict in the play is more violent and more swift than the other tragedies. The external conflict is violent and powerful. It is more powerful and more keenly felt than in the others, and this lends to the play a certain violence of passion which is very impressive. This conflict sustains the interest of the readers throughout.
■ Hero turned villain in Macbeth:
It is the only play where Shakespeare has depicted a hero turned villain. Macbeth turns a villain soon after the play opens; this is not the case with Hamlet, Lear or Othello. The Fate which overtakes him is not undeserved; Macbeth is the only tragedy in which the suffering of the hero is proportionate to his wickedness. It is the only tragedy in which poetic justice is meted out to the hero. Bailey remarks, “The tragedy of Macbeth is the greatest murder in Shakespeare, done in the most supernatural atmosphere, and by Shakespeare’s greatest poet.“
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