THE TRAGEDY OF CONSCIENCE IN MACBETH
Lim, Gyoung-Jun
Department of English Language and Literature
The Graduate School
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Macbeth is fundamentally a religious play; that is, its main area of interest is in the struggle in a man's soul between the courses of goo...
THE TRAGEDY OF CONSCIENCE IN MACBETH
Lim, Gyoung-Jun
Department of English Language and Literature
The Graduate School
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Macbeth is fundamentally a religious play; that is, its main area of interest is in the struggle in a man's soul between the courses of good and evil, where the choice of good leads to developing his full potential, and the choice of evil to his utter and complete loss of being and identity. The question of Macbeth's freedom of will and action is central to the play. I argue that understanding Macbeth as a free agent gives both coherence and dignity to his character. To see Macbeth as a free agent allows us to ask a much more interesting question; that is, to what extent, was Macbeth trapped into becoming a willing agent of his own damnation? Macbeth's inordinate ambition - of which he is fully conscious - makes murder a lesser evil than not enjoying the kingship.
Macbeth is thus the spiritual tragedy of a man who rejects his honoured and virtuous place in the hierarchy of both Scotland and the universe through coveting the throne, and thus reduces himself to nothingness. He is a man, moreover, who assumes that the knowledge of the future the Witches seem to have leaves him no escape from his destiny. Macbeth has more in common with Milton's Satan, an unlikely hero whose freedom of action is rendered obsolete by the consequences of his choices, to the point where he is unable to escape the prison of his own self. What is striking about Macbeth is the self-awareness he shows in his own self-destruction. He knows exactly what he is doing and is at all stages aware of his own progress.
In the point of attitudes toward conscience, there is a structural contrast between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. Asserting that to suppress conscience is just masculinity, Lady Macbeth tries to remove her femininity. But finally she faces her death because of the disease of conscience called a sleepwalking. On the other hand, Macbeth shows a gradual insensibility to the whip of conscience. Although Lady Macbeth and the Witches motivate Macbeth and seduce him into murdering Duncan, Macbeth himself makes a final decision to kill him by his own free will.
Though he is ruined and destroyed due to his selfishness and by his ambition to usurp the throne, in the process, he clearly recognizes his evil deeds. Macbeth has suffered from and has been in conflict with his conscience. In Macbeth, as the light of Macbeth's conscience does not become finally extinct, we have come to comprehend the greatness of his immortal conscience, the never extinguished light.
THE TRAGEDY OF CONSCIENCE IN MACBETH
Lim, Gyoung-Jun
Department of English Language and Literature
The Graduate School
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Macbeth is fundamentally a religious play; that is, its main area of interest is in the struggle in a man's soul between the courses of good and evil, where the choice of good leads to developing his full potential, and the choice of evil to his utter and complete loss of being and identity. The question of Macbeth's freedom of will and action is central to the play. I argue that understanding Macbeth as a free agent gives both coherence and dignity to his character. To see Macbeth as a free agent allows us to ask a much more interesting question; that is, to what extent, was Macbeth trapped into becoming a willing agent of his own damnation? Macbeth's inordinate ambition - of which he is fully conscious - makes murder a lesser evil than not enjoying the kingship.
Macbeth is thus the spiritual tragedy of a man who rejects his honoured and virtuous place in the hierarchy of both Scotland and the universe through coveting the throne, and thus reduces himself to nothingness. He is a man, moreover, who assumes that the knowledge of the future the Witches seem to have leaves him no escape from his destiny. Macbeth has more in common with Milton's Satan, an unlikely hero whose freedom of action is rendered obsolete by the consequences of his choices, to the point where he is unable to escape the prison of his own self. What is striking about Macbeth is the self-awareness he shows in his own self-destruction. He knows exactly what he is doing and is at all stages aware of his own progress.
In the point of attitudes toward conscience, there is a structural contrast between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. Asserting that to suppress conscience is just masculinity, Lady Macbeth tries to remove her femininity. But finally she faces her death because of the disease of conscience called a sleepwalking. On the other hand, Macbeth shows a gradual insensibility to the whip of conscience. Although Lady Macbeth and the Witches motivate Macbeth and seduce him into murdering Duncan, Macbeth himself makes a final decision to kill him by his own free will.
Though he is ruined and destroyed due to his selfishness and by his ambition to usurp the throne, in the process, he clearly recognizes his evil deeds. Macbeth has suffered from and has been in conflict with his conscience. In Macbeth, as the light of Macbeth's conscience does not become finally extinct, we have come to comprehend the greatness of his immortal conscience, the never extinguished light.
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