Macbeth is a tragedy play by William Shakespeare centered in Scotland during the ancient times before the advent of colonialism and civilization. It is one of Shakespeare greatest plays that is not only dark but also full of supernatural influence and evil characters. For instance, Macbeth illuminates the harmful mental and bodily influences of political objectives and greed for fame. The tragedy play is connected to the topic of discussion in the sense that Macbeth thirst propelled him to commit a lot of injustices to the people. The tragedy play has many themes including the divine right of kings and the great chain of being as well as various symbols such as blood, regicide, the three witches and the weather that aids in understanding the plot of the play. It is through the themes and symbols that help the audi
...ence view the injustices committed by the king as well as the extent of punishment that he received. In my opinion, the Jacobean audience did not believe that Macbeth was justly punished for his crimes as the punishment administered was inadequate considering the violations and injustices he had committed due to political greediness.
The divine rights of the kings is a clear theme illustrated in the play that relates to Macbeth punishment. Regardless of the fact that Macbeth clearly knew that Duncan was the rightful king chosen by God, the three witches successfully convinced him that he would be the next king, an act that prompted him to plot with his wife, Lady Macbeth, to murder Duncan where he took the throne by usurpation. Shakespeare is admired for his proficiency in employing fine techniques to liven the
greatness of his plays. Blood is an apparent symbol incorporated in the play that adds sense to shame, fear, insanity, anger and fear (Nicoll 85). Through the symbol of blood, the audiences are allowed to vision Duncan’s crime scenes. Macbeth’s actions when he killed the king were not inconsistent with divine rights of the kings owing to the fact that he killed the king chosen by God thus opposing God’s will. As Ornella and Knauss (n.p) reveals, when Macbeth committed regicide, he was guilty as he deemed himself a sinner such that he was afraid of his acts. When he killed a king to become the king, he was supposed to face the ultimate form of punishment, hanged, drawn and quartered as killing a king was a violation not only to the king but also the transcendent nature of kingship. However, on the basis of the divine rights of the king, the king was not punished as ordinary individuals in that his punishment was more lenient and light considering his offense. The punishment only came in the form of loss of reputation, honor, influence and power.
The great chain of being can be deemed as the main influence on Macbeth in that Macbeth disturbed the natural order by not only stealing from the king but also murdering him. These acts marked Macbeth’s ruination by the inconsistencies between what was and what should have been. For instance, he planned on achieving power through assuming Duncan’s place in the great chain thereby breaking what ought to have been. Additionally, the death of Duncan manifested the disorder of the great chain in the natural world as evidenced in the
breakdowns of the animals’ behaviors where an owl for instance killed the hawk. As the saying commonly goes, “whenever there is evil, the natural world often reacts accordingly”.
Of the many inconsistencies employed in the play, witchcraft clearly illustrates darkness and punishment. The three witches embody both the inward temptations as well as the personifications of the evil forces as the dynamic principles of evil by introducing an atmosphere of wickedness and guilty. During the time of the development of the play, witchcraft was an issue of enormous societal concern in that anybody who had an association with the evil spirits of witchcraft was sentenced to death by burning, hanging or drowning (Hort, Hort and Shakespeare 9). By incorporating witches, the audiences can perceive the struggles between the good and the evil where Macbeth is involved in the resulting conflict. It is through the use of weather as a symbol that Shakespeare creates an environment of mystery, evil, and superstition as portrayed by the three witches. For instance, fog, thunder, and rain underline the broad atmosphere of insecurity and doubt that filled the mind of Macbeth to an extent that he could not sleep well. The weather (thunder and lightning) represented the conflicts in nature. Often, people do not perceive a day filed with thunder and lightning as a great day, and thus the main reason as to why the witches were surrounded by shrouds of thunder and lightning. For instance, in scene 1, line 2, the witches asks where they would meet, whether in thunder or lightning (Walker 79). This reveals that that the weather not only symbolized evil but also mischievous deeds.
Conclusion
From the above
analysis, it is evident that the punishment administered to Macbeth mostly arose from his conscience and character rather the physical torture. Going by his status a king, his moral character was on a deterioration path due to his unfair practices and justice, and this was more of a cruel punishment as compared to death. This created a lot of moral and emotional sufferings from his conscience from the horrific crimes he had committed during his reign as king due to the involvement with the three witches. Macbeth characters as a king as well as a person in the position of power slowly degraded due to his involvement in immoral issues.
Work Cited
- Hort, John, Leela Hort, and William Shakespeare. Shakespeare's Macbeth: A Shortened Version in Modern English. Nottingham: Kabet, 1989. Print.
- Nicoll, Allardyce. Shakespeare Survey: Vol. 5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Print.
- Ornella Alexander D., Stefanie Knauss. Fascinatingly Disturbing: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Michael Haneke's Cinema. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2010
- Walker, Robert. Macbeth on the Loose. Oxford: Heinemann Educational, 2002. Print.
