What do you understand by the term "poetic justice?" Write a note

What do you understand by the term “poetic justice?” Write a note on the application of “poetic justice” in Macbeth.

What is meant by “Poetic Justice? Do you have “Poetic Justice” in Macbeth.?

Ans.

1. Introduction

The phrase “poetic justice” is widely used nowadays in critical literature, especially in connection with the drama or the novel. It means that in literature the fate of a character should be guided by the rules of a so-called moral universe. It means that a good character in the play should be rewarded, and a bad one should be punished, according as he deserves. Shipley has explained the idea of “poetic Justice” in the following manner, “The literary scholar uses it to refer to the doctrine that all conflicts between good and evil. whether in the drama, the epic, or the novel, must be concluded with the reward of the virtuous and the punishment of the evil in order that good persons may be encouraged to preserves in their good works and that evil-does may be frightened from a persistence in evil course.”

2. “Poetic Justice” in Shakespeare’s plays

in spite of the thorough romantic appeal of most of his plays, Shakespeare is strictly realistic in his attitude to life. Therefore he does not always follow strictly the rules of poetic justice in his plays. In his tragedies, especially, he follows the facts of life. In life we often come across people who suffer a lot for on fault of their own. We know that a man is not always rewarded or punished according to his desert. Following these grim realities of life, Shakespeare does not always stick to the rules of poetic justice. In his tragedies quite often the good and the virtuous are crushed. For them the reward of virtue is not happiness. But one thing is noticeable in his plays: it is that the villains are never allowed to escape. For them the wages of sin are always death. The pity in his tragedies. just as in human life, is that much good is wasted along with the wicked and the sinful. Thus Desdemona is destroyed along with lago; Cordelia is destroyed along With Goneril and Regan; Othello and Lear suffer out of proportion to their faults. In spite of all this we cannot say that Shakespeare’s tragic world is opposed to the moral order. It is certainly a moral world in the sense that it is opposed to evil. We can, therefore, say that in his tragedies there is only partial application of “poetic Justice.”

3. Poetic Justice in “Macbeth”

In Macbeth, however, Shakespeare seems to have observed the rules of poetic justice. It is the only one of his great tragedies in which the hero turns a villain. In all his other great tragedies the hero is on the side of virtue, and yet he suffers because of some inherent weakness (often called the “tragic flaw”) in his character. This inherent weakness comes in conflict with hostile circumstances and leads to tragedy. But in Macbeth the hero himself turns into a villain and most callously violates the moral order. His wife, too, becomes his accomplice in crime, and the two follow the path of evil out of their own choice Therefore, when they are punished in the end, we feel that they have boon justly punished for their sins. Our sense of justice is thus fully satisfied in Macbeth.

4. The fall of Macbeth

At the start of the play Macbeth is a noble and heroic figure. He commands the respect of everybody. But there is one great flaw in his character, and that is his inordinate ambition. It is this soaring ambition which works as a motive force behind all his actions and ultimately brings about his downfall.

As time passes, Macbeth’s ambition turns into a burning passion and then into an obsession. It first of all complex him to commit the murder of King Duncan who is not only a noble patron and guest to him but also his kinsman. After murdering Duncan, Macbeth usurps the throne of Scotland. making the lawful successor to throne flee the country. After this first crime and the consequent fulfilment of his great ambition, we expect Macbeth to follow the path of good. But his inner weakness does not let him rest, for, as Hecate says in the play, “security is mortals’ chiefest enemy.” In order to make his position more secure, Macbeth indulges in even more terrible and heinous crimes than the first one. As a result his position becomes more and more shaky. He loses self-confidence altogether and depends more and more on superstition. He behaves like a hardened criminal. He hires assassins and gets his friend Banquo murdered. This is followed by the most inhuman murder of Macduff’s wife and children. He is a tyrant now and his own people turn and fice in terror from him. He is turned into a “hell-hound” as Macduff calls him.

Soon, however, his sins begin to recoil on his own head. He feels frustration, isolation, and mental affliction as a consequence. He face desertion of his friends and well-wishers. His crimes and tyrannies cause widespread dissatisfaction among the people and in the end the silent rebellion brewing against him takes the form of an open struggle in which he is destroyed.

5. The fall of Lady Macbeth

Like her husband, Lady Macbeth, too. follows the path of evil and pays heavily for it. She becomes his accomplice in crime. She incites him to murder the King. When he hesitates to do so, she brings all her will-power to bear upon him and goads him to performs the heinous deed. Without her active support Macbeth would never have committed the murder. But very soon Lady Macbeth too realizes the futility of her position as a queen. She feels that the fulfilment of their ambition has not brought happiness to them, but it has become rather a source of great anxiety. They now live in a kind of “doubtful joy.” Her sins also recoil upon her and she constantly suffers from deep spiritual anguish. Nemesis overtakes her. On the night of Duncan’s murder she had confidently asserted, “A little water clears us of this deed.” But a time comes when she feels that “all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” She rubs her hands together all the time in order to get rid of the blood-spots which, she feels, have stuck permanently on them. This is a symbolic action of the deepest significance. Lady Macbeth’s conscience will never let her alone now for her sinful violation of her womanly nature. In the end, we are informed, she dies at her own hands. Thus in her case, too. our sense of justice is fully satisfied.

6. Conclusion

Thus we find that both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are guilty of most unnatural and inhuman crimes, for which both of them suffer greatly. Both are subjected to deep mental and spiritual tortures, and in the end both of them perish as a result of their crimes. But Shakespeare does not paint them as monsters: he pictures them very much as human beings, who are led astray because of their misconceived notions of glory and greatness. He enlists our sympathy for them by presenting before us their minds and hearts torn by internal conflict. We do not so much hate them as pity them. But in spite of all our sympathy we feel that they have justly suffered for all that they have done in the earlier part of the play. Poetic justice has been fully observed in their case.