Macbeth is Shakespeare's first study in pure villainy". Discuss.

Macbeth is Shakespeare’s first study in pure villainy”. Discuss.

Ans.

Introduction

Shakespeare seems to have experimented widely in the creation of the plays. He rarely repeats what he had done once. There is thus a great variety in the form and expression of his plots and characters. He was not content to bank upon his successes, however tremendous and thundering they might have been. He never lived upon his artistic capital, as it ware, but dared always to invent fresh forms. The spirit of experiment is seen for example, in the variety of villains he has introduced in his plays.

The Arch Villains

Macbeth and his wife are surely presented as villainous, though on a heroic scale. But they are not comparable with other villains in other plays, either of his own or of his contemporaries. There is a vast difference between them. Before Macbeth, he had created several villains. The younger of the Dukes in ‘As you Like it’ is a usurper who has banished the rightful Duke Senior, his own brother, and the theme of ingratitude is lyrically presented in the banished Duke’s reactions to the situation. More seriously there are villains of ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Othello’ and ‘King Lear’. Claudius is a regicide, lago a motiveless malignity personified and the sisters Goneril and Regan are ungrateful daughters who banish their own father King Lear. The theme of ingratitude seems to have haunted Shakespeare’s Imagination throughout his dramatic career, for in most of his plays, tragedies and comedies alike, this theme is introduced and villainy is associated with it.

Points of Differences Between other Villains

But what a difference between the villains in other plays and the villains-husband and wife in “Macbeth”! The first and obvious difference is that the villains in ‘Macbeth’ are the protagonists of the tragedy. The villain is heroically presented or more correctly, the hero is shown as becoming a villains. The other villains Claudius and lago (in ‘Hamlet’ even are secondary figures despite their powerful villainy. They are foils to the heroes and other good characters. They are not studied in themselves or for themselves. They are in the background of the action which they affect.

Pure Villainy

‘Macbeth’ is on the other hand, a study in pure villainy in the sense that Macbeth is the hero whom we see from the beginning to the end. His villainy is more sinful. his ingratitude less excusable. As Professor Nicoll puts it: “There is no attempt on Shakespeare’s part to relieve the hateness of his villainy by emphasising the goodness of other characters.” The crimes of Macbeth are not whitewashed by sentimental sympathy, nor are they extenuated. They are given fullest expression, showing the blackness of their deeds. Indeed blackness is the very atmosphere of Macbeth.

The results to the unrelieved villainy is that it is impossible to feel sympathy for Macbeth and his wife. But Shakespeare has created sympathy for them all the same. This, in fact, is the novel success of his experiment in pure villainy. This is the special interest of ‘Macbeth’ And it will be interesting to see how the experiment succeeds.

Presentation of Pure Villainy on the stage

There are, it has been pointed out three ways of presenting villainy on the stage. The first is that as opted in Othello where the evil is set alongside of, and is lessened by, the presence of good and noble characters. The second is the Method where the evil is, as it were, whitewashed and passed over so that the highest spirit of universal morality is sacrificed by sentimental indulgence towards the villain. The third is that which Shakespeare employs in ‘Macbeth’ and this is the most difficult thing to do namely not to mitigate the villainy in any way but to create sympathy for it inspite of its blackness. Shakespeare has done this by showing us that Macbeth was sorely tempted and that the good in him rebelled against evil and that good triumphed in the sense that the villain feels that the he has brought on his tragedy through his own folly.

Conclusion

‘Macbeth’ is a study in pure villainy. That is to say it is a play in which a hero of noble qualities is temped to become, and does become, a villain and suffers for his own crimes.