Discuss the statement that 'Macbeth' is a tragedy of ambition.

Discuss the statement that ‘Macbeth’ is a tragedy of ambition.

Ans.

Dramatisation of Evil

It is a commonplace of Shakespearean criticism that his tragedies are dramatisation of particular evil or weakness embodied in the characters of the heroes. In tragedies we are shown a dominating figure by his own errors and wrong choices, comes to ruin and brings ruin upon others. Each of his tragic heroes is observed by some powerful, overmastering passion, on account of which he is driven to commit errors which have tragic consequences. For example “Hamlet” is the tragedy of thought, of idealism, “Othello” the tragedy of jealousy, “King Lear” the tragedy of obstinacy and want of judgment. Even so “Macbeth” is a tragedy of ambition, the royal ambition of Macbeth and his wife.

It is the soaring ambition on Macbeth to become the sole authority and power everywhere that compelled him to stoop down so low as to commit murder of Duncan. The tragedy in ‘Macbeth’ is the direct result of ambivalent ambition and nothing else. Macbeth is shown both as a hero and villain. Shakespeare made him a hero out of a villain and a villain out of hero. Like other people Macbeth too is a mixture of good and evil. The true tragic motions of pity and horror are aroused only due to the worst sin and flaw, predominant in Macbeth i.e., the ambition to become great and powerful and wield vast influence through and through; this drew him to commit the crime of murder. All his virtues and goodness stand sacrificed on the altar of his ambition.

Shakespeare conceived Macbeth as a noble and gifted man, who falls into treachery and crime in order to realize his royal ambition. He is not a born criminal. He is not even a man with a predisposition to crime, for that would make him a wholesale villain. He is, on the contrary, an ambitious person who thinks that murder is a lesser evil than failure to achieve his ambition. That is the reason for his choice of evil means to gain his ends.

The conception of Macbeth’s character is that he is a noble and gifted man worthy of honour and respect. It is made quite clear before he falls a victim to evil powers. His soliloquies as well as the references of other characters testify to this ‘goodness’ of his character. Even Duncan praises him as “worthy gentleman worthiest cousin’, a brave Macbeth’, ‘a valour’s minion’ and ‘Bellona’s bridegroom’. He is shown to be loyal, risking his life in battles fought against traitors and enemies to the state honours, and the gratitude of Lis king. He is worthy indeed of these honours and rightly ambitious to achieve and retain those honours. Macbeth is virtually king of Scotland de facto, though not de jure, and according to the custom of the age, he had, as a cousin, even the right to be elected to the throne. Besides the state, exposed to the rebellion and invasion of traitors and enemies, needed a ruler of Macbeth’s caliber strong, valiant, loyal and chivalrous.

It is Macbeth’s wife who motivates him towards ambition and makes him jump into crime by her policy of enticements and persuasions when she says:

I do fear thy nature

It’s too full of the milk of human kindness.

To catch the nearest way, Thou wouldst be great.

Art not without ambition: but without,

The illness should attend it; what thou wouldst highly,

That wouldst thou holily: wouldst not play false,

And yet wouldst wrongly win.

Macbeth is, in other words, one who shrinks from doing an unnatural act. He is too full of this human nature to permit himself to do anything which is inhuman and unnatural. He is disposed to be benevolent and good towards others. He is a good man in every sense of the word: practical, strong, benevolent and sensitive. He is meant by nature to be a hero not a villain.

But what he does and what he is, happens to be two opposite things. And therein lies his tragedy. The first thought that comes to him after the prophecy of the witches in one of extreme horror at murder as a means of achieving his ambition to be king. So overpowering is this horror indeed that he leaves the whole business to chance, fate and circumstances.

If chance will have me king why,

Chance may crown me.

Macbeth’s deed of murder is done in a situation over which he had no control. He does it when he is literally pushed and driven to do it. He is wholly influenced by his wife whom he loves and who possesses a stronger will.

Further, it was Duncan’s announcement of Malcolm’s nominations as the next king which immediately spurs Macbeth to the murder, His reaction to this announcement is unmistakably recorded as his resolve:

The prince of Cumberland! That is step,

On which I must fall down, or else overleap,

For in my way it lies.

(Act 1, Scene V)

This is notable because Macbeth cherished the hope that he, not Malcolm, will be so nominated. This sense of injustice was with him til his death. He prefers to die fighting because he refuses to bow his head before the boy Malcolm. This great injustice with him prompted him to commit the crime. We are made to feel that no less than three outside forces led Macbeth to commit the murder of King Duncan-the prophecy of the witches, the influence of his wife and the tactlessness of his own victim (Duncan). Those who argue that Macbeth is a bad man, a monster and a merciless villain overlook these factors which Shakespeare is anxious to set forth in the play.