Macbeth: The Tragedy of Evil

Author(s): J. Lyndon Shanley

Source: College English, Vol. 22, No. 5 (Feb., 1961), pp. 305-311
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
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 Macbeth: The Tragedy of Evil
J.LYNDON
SHANLEY

Nowhere can we see the essential Othello, how can his fortunes win our
humanity of Shakespeare more clearly pity and arouse our fear?
than in Macbeth, as he shows that the
darkest evil may well be human, and I
so, though horrible, understandable in Macbeth is defeated as is no other of
terms of our own lives and therefore
Shakespeare's great tragic figures. No
pitiable and terrible. Yet nowhere ap- pity and reverent awe attend his death.
parently are we so likely to miss the Dying off-stage, he is, as it were, shuffled
center of Shakespeare's view of the ac-
off, in keeping with his dreadful state
tion; for Macbeth, while less complex and the desire of all in his world to be
than Shakespeare's other major tragedies, rid of him. The sight of his "cursed
frequently raises the crucial ques- head" is the signal for glad hailing of
tion: Is Macbeth's fall really tragic? Malcolm as king; all thought of him is
Many who are deeply moved by the dismissed with "this dead butcher and
action of the play cannot satisfactorily his fiend-like queen." The phrase is
explain their feelings. The doctrine of dramatically fitting, but it does not ex-
Tout comprendre,c'est tout pardonner press the whole truth that Shakespeare
leads them to think (most of the time) shows us of Macbeth's story. Seldom do
that there is no guilt, that there should we feel so strongly both the justice of
be no punishment. When faced with un- the judgment and the retribution and
pardonable evil and inescapable punish- at the same time pity for him on whom
ment for the guilty, and when moved at they fall; for behind this last scene lies
the same time to pity and fear by the the revelation of Macbeth's almost total
suffering of the evil-doer, they are con- destruction.
fused. Since they confound the under-
Hamlet, Lear, and Othello lose much
standing of an act with the excusing of that is wonderful in human life; their
it, they are prevented from understand- fortunes are sad and terrible. So
near,
ing acts (and their reactions to them) their stories seem to say, is man's en-
for which excuse is impossible. Some, of
joyment of the world's best gifts-and
course, find an excuse for Macbeth in yet so far, because his own errors and
the witches. But those who do not see weakness leave him unable to control
him as the victim of agents of destiny his world. To lose Hamlet's delight in
appear to wonder if they have not been man and his powers, and the glory of
tricked into sympathy by Shakespeare's life; to have Cordelia's love and tender
art. How, they ask, in view of Macbeth's care snatched away, after such suffering
monstrous career and sorry end, so dif- as Lear's; or to have thrown away the
ferent from those of Hamlet, Lear, or jewel of one's life as did Othello-this is
painful. But their fortunes might have
been worse. At one time they were:
A professor at Northwestern, Dr. Shanley when the losers thought that what they
has taught there since 1936, after taking his
had served and believed in were mere
degrees at Princeton. He is the author of
A Study of Spenser's Gentleman and The shows that made a mockery of their
Making of "Walden." noblest love; when life and all their
305
306 COLLEGE ENGLISH

efforts seemed to have been utterly with- world, to the truth of which his own
out meaning. state bears overwhelming evidence: that
But before the end they learned that man's life signifies everything.
their love had value and that life had It is the despair and irony in this blas-
meaning. On this knowledge depends the phemy that makes Macbeth's lot so
twofold effect of the heroes' deaths: awful and pitiful. We see the paralyzing,
death at once seals, without hope of the almost complete destruction of a
restitution, the loss of the world and its human spirit. The threat of hostile action
gifts, but at the same time it brings re- galvanizes Macbeth into action to pro-
lief from the pain of loss. Furthermore, tect himself, but the action is little more
this knowledge restores the courage and than an instinctive move toward self-
nobility of soul that raise them far above preservation and the last gesture of des-
their enemies and the ruins of their pair. "At least," he cries, "we'll die with
world. Without this knowledge, Hamlet harness on our back." There is no sense
and Lear and Othello were far less than of effective power and will to give life
themselves, and life but a fevered mad- meaning, such as there is in Hopkins'
ness. With it, there is tragedy but not lines:
defeat, for the value of what is best in Not, I'll not, carrion comfort, Despair,
them is confirmed beyond question. not feast on thee;
But in the end of Macbeth we have Not untwist-slack they may be-these
something fundamentally different. Mac- last strands of man
beth's spirit, as well as his world, is all In me or, most weary, cry I can no
but destroyed; no great recovery is pos- more. I can;
sible for him. He does not, for he cannot, Can something, hope, wish day come,
not choose not to be.
see that what he sought and valued most
was good and worthy of his efforts. He Here the speaker knows despair for what
is aware that he has missed much; shortly it is, and knows that something else is
before Lady Macbeth dies, he broods both possible and worth any effort. But
over the "honour, love, obedience, troops not so Macbeth; he can see only the cir-
of friends" he has lost and cannot hope cumstances from which his despair arises;
to regain. But this knowledge wins no he can imagine no condition of life other
ease for his heart. It does not raise him than that he is in.
above the conditions that have ruined He has not even the bitter satisfaction
him. Macbeth, it is true, is no longer of rebelling and saying, "As flies to
tortured as he once was, but freedom wanton boys, are we to the gods." Only
from torture has led only to the peace sheer animal courage remains to flash
of despair in which he looks at life and out and remind us of a Macbeth once
denounces it as "a tale told by an idiot." courageous in an honorable cause. This
Bitter as life was for Hamlet, Lear, and reminder is pitiful, for Macbeth has not
Othello, it was not empty. But all Mac- even the slim hope of a trapped animal
beth's efforts, all his hopes and dreams which, if it fights loose, has something
were in vain, because of the way he to escape to. All Macbeth did resulted in
went; and when he discovers that they nothing; whatever he does now will re-
were, he concludes that nothing can be sult in nothing but the anguish of mean-
realized in life. Hence his terrible in- ingless action. It is hard enough to realize
dictment of life-terrible because it re- that one has been on the wrong track
veals him to be all but hopelessly lost for part of life; to be convinced that
in the world of Shakespearean tragedy, there is no right track to get on because
as he desperately and ironically blas- there is no place for any track to go-
phemes against a basic tenet of that this is to be lost with no hope at all.
 MACBETH: THE TRAGEDY OF EVIL 307

At the very end we see some saving which it depends do not decrease our
touches of humanity in Macbeth: he pity and fear; they produce it; for
has not lost all human virtue; he would Shakespeare presents Macbeth as one
have no more of Macduff's blood on his who had hardly any chance to escape
soul; and even with the collapse of his guilt.
last security, his bravery does not falter. The concatenation of circumstances
These touches show him a man still, and which make Macbeth's temptation is
not a fiend, but they by no means re- such as to seem a trap. At the very
establish him in his former self. There is moment when he is returning victorious
no greatness in death for him. Rather from a battle in which he has played a
than the human spirit's capacity for chief part in saving his country from
greatness in adversity, we see its possible disaster, there comes to him a suggestion
ruin in evil. Because we never see Mac-
-touching old dreams and desires-that
beth enjoying the possession of the great he may be king. Shakespeare uses the
prize he sought, and because from the witches to convey the danger of the
beginning of his temptation we have no suggestion. The witches and their
hope that he will be able to enjoy it, prophecies are poetic symbols of the baf-
his loss of the world's gifts is not so
flingly indeterminate character of the
poignant as that of Hamlet, Lear, or events that surround men. The witches
Othello. But to a degree that none of force nothing; they advise nothing; they
them does, Macbeth loses himself, and
simply present facts. But they confound
this is most tragic of all. fair and foul; just so, events may be good
or ill. The witches will not stay to ex-
II plain their greetings any more than
It may be objected, however, that events will interpret themselves. The
Macbeth alone of Shakespeare's great witches' prophecies and the events that
tragic figures is fully aware of the evil forever surround men are dangerous be-
of the act by which he sets in motion cause they may appear simple and are
the train of events leading to his ruin. not, because they may be so alluring as
His culpability seriously weakens the to stultify prudence, and because their
sympathy of many. In the face of this true significance may be very hard to
difficulty, some interpreters justify sym- come at. Depending on conditions, they
pathy for Macbeth by seeing him as the may be harmless, or they may be delu-
victim of the witches, the agents of sive, insidious, and all but impossible to
destiny. This point of view, however, read correctly.
seems to cut through the complex knot Macbeth is in no condition to read
of human life as Shakespeare saw it, in- them aright. He had restrained his desire
stead of following the various strands for greatness in the past since he would
which make it up. We cannot dodge not do the wrong which was needed to
Macbeth's responsibility and guilt-he win greatness. The hunger of his ambiti-
never does. ous mind had not died, however; it had
His ruin is caused by the fact that he only been denied satisfaction. Now,
sins: he wilfully commits an act which when the sense of his own power and
he knows to be wrong. This ruin and his taste of it are high indeed, the old
sin are seen to be tragic, as Shakespeare, hunger is more than reawakened; it is
like Dante, reveals the pity and fear in nourished with hope, as immediate events
a man's succumbing to grievous temp- seem to establish the soundness of the
tation, and in the effects of sin on his suggestion. Enough hope to lead him to
subsequent thoughts and deeds. Mac- ponder the suggestion seriously, and
beth's guilt and the circumstances upon then, in spite of an attempt to put it out
308 COLLEGE ENGLISH

of his mind since he recognizes the evil cumstances-especially when some of

of his thoughts, to retail the wonderful them are such as may be for good or
news of possible greatness to his wife. evil.
There follow immediately two events This was the nature of Lady Macbeth's
which press the matter on most hastily. influence on Macbeth. She could sway
The king proclaims his eldest son as his him because she understood him and
heir, and in the next breath announces loved him, and because he loved her and
his visit to Macbeth's castle. Thus, while depended on her love and good thoughts
desire and hope are fresh, Macbeth sees of him. She could and would have urged
put before him, first, an obstacle which him to noble deeds had occasion arisen.
time will only make greater, and then an To prevent her from urging him on to
opportunity for him to prevent time evil ones, he needed more than the or-
from working against him. "If it were dinary firmness to act as he saw right.
done when 'tis done, then 'twere well But to cut clear of such a source of
it were done quickly." In fact, it must strength and comfort is difficult; too
be done quickly if it is to be done at difficult for Macbeth. It is the old story
all. of the perversion of the potentially good,
Desire, apparent promise of fulfill- and of the problem of getting only the
ment, need for speedy action, and im- good from the baffling mixture of good
mediate opportunity fall together so and evil in all things.
rapidly as to create an all but inescapable Just after Macbeth has decided to give
force. up his murderous plot, but before inten-
Yet Macbeth would have resisted tion can harden to resolve, Lady Mac-
temptation had he been left to himself. beth adds the force of her appeals to that
Great though his hunger for power and of Macbeth's desires and the press of cir-
glory, especially when whetted by such cumstance. She sees his chance to win the
circumstances, it would not have com- prize of life; she knows he wants it, as
pletely overcome his fears and scruples. she does not know in their full strength
Even if he were to jump the life to come, his reasons for renouncing it. She beats
he knew that if he could and would kill down, at least long enough for her
Duncan, another might well do the same immediate purpose, the fears and scruples
for him. On a higher plane, the double which would otherwise have kept him
loyalty he owed to the king held him from the crown, and murder and
back. Finally, a point that reveals the ruin. She does not answer Macbeth's
virtue that was in him, he felt the good- scruples; her attack is personal. Whether
ness of Duncan so strongly that killing she knows or simply feels his need of her
him seemed too terrible a thing to do. admiration and support, she strikes at
Worldly prudence, loyalty, reverence the right point. The spur of ambition did
for what is good-these turned Macbeth not drive Macbeth too hard toward his
back. Lady Macbeth's fears were well great opportunity, but her goading taunts
founded; his nature was not such as to he could not withstand, though they
let him "catch the nearest way." drove him on to horrors.
But that nature could, as she felt, be All this does not excuse Macbeth; no
worked. It was good, but not firm in its excuse is possible for one who, with full
goodness. Macbeth is a moderately good knowledge of the nature of the act,
man, no better, but also no worse, than murders a good man to whom he owes
the next one. The point is (and it is a hospitality, loyalty, and gratitude.
grim one) that the virtue of the ordi- Shakespeare makes us realize, however,
narily good man is not enough to keep how dangerous the battle, how practi-
him from disaster under all possible cir- cally irresistible may be the forces ar-
 MACBETH: THE TRAGEDY OF EVIL 309

rayed against a man. Some men are saved he suffers quite rightly who lives in sins,
from evil because they marry a Cordelia and each sin fosters a special spiritual
or a Viola; others because opportunity suffering. . .. This kind of suffering is
never favors their desires; and still others similar to the suffering in hell, for the
because the stakes do not justify the risk more one suffers there the worse one
of being caught in evil doing. For Mac- becomes. This happens to sinners; the
beth, the stakes are the highest, the more they suffer through sin the more
opportunity golden, and the encourage- wicked they become and they fall more
ment to evil from a wife whom he loves and more into sufferings in their effort
and needs. to escape." Just so did Shakespeare con-
Macbeth is terrified by the warnings of ceive of Macbeth's state.
his conscience, but he cannot surrender. Macbeth has no enemy he can see,
That he acts with full knowledge of the such as lago or one of Lear's savage
evil only increases the pity and fear
daughters; he is within himself. In first
aroused by his deed. For this knowledge
overriding the warnings of his con-
causes much of his suffering; it makes science, he brings on the blindness which
his condition far worse than it would makes it impossible for him to perceive
have been had he acted with less than his own state and things outside him as
complete knowledge; and, finally, it they really are, and which therefore
emphazises the power of the trickery, sends him in pursuit of a wholly illusory
the lure, and the urging to which he was
safety. When he puts away all thought
subjected. We pity his suffering even of going back on his first evil deed, he
as he does evil because we understand deals the last blow to his conscience
why he could not hold on to the chance which once urged him to the right, and
which he ought to have taken to save he blinds himself entirely.
himself; and we are moved to fear when
we see his suffering and understand how No sooner does he gain what he
wanted than he is beset by fears worse
slight may be the chance to escape it.
than those he overrode in murdering
III Duncan. But having overridden the pro-
Once that chance is lost greater suffer- per fears, he cannot deal rightly with the
new ones. His horror of murder is lost
ing and evil follow inescapably. The in the fear of and
bloody career on which Macbeth now and the fear ofdiscovery what revenge, he has
embarks can no more be excused than losing
could his first crime, but it increases sacrificed so much to gain. Briefly at
rather than detracts from our pity and least he wishes the murder undone and
fear. The trap of temptation having been Duncan waking to the knocking at the
But as earlier he but
sprung, there is no escape for Macbeth, gate. to justthe witches' thought,
and his struggles to escape the conse- failed, put prophecies and
his evil out of so now
quences of his sin serve only to ensnare his betterthoughts die. mind, the time he
him more deeply. As we witness that thoughts By
appears in answer to the knocking at
struggle, our pity and fear increase be- the
cause we feel how incompetent he is to gate, he is firmly set on a course to
do anything but struggle as he does. make good the murder of Duncan and to
himself safe.
Evil brings its own suffering with it, keep
but Macbeth cannot learn from it. The All is terrible irony from this point
unknown fifteenth-century author of on. With a new decisiveness Macbeth
The Book of the Poor in Spirit wrote kills the grooms in Duncan's chamber;
of evil and suffering: "One's own proper alive, they were potential witnesses;
suffering comes from one's own sins and dead, they can serve as plausible crimi-
310 COLLEGE ENGLISH

nals. Then he plays brilliantly the part that reassurance in his course which he
of a grief-stricken host and loyal sub- cannot find in himself. Although they
ect: will not stay for all his questions, he un-
Had I but died an hour before this hesitatingly accepts their equivocations;
chance, since they do reassure him, his doubts of
them are gone. With their answers, and
I had liv'd a blessedtime;for from this
instant having lost "the initiate fear that wants
There's nothing seriousin mortality; hard use" and being no longer "young
All is but toys; renown and grace is in deed," Macbeth enjoys the sense of
dead; security of any gangster or tyrant who
The wine of life is drawn,andthe mere has the unshrinking will to crush any
lees
Is left this vault to brag of. possible opponents, and who thinks he
has power to do so with impunity. All
Irony could not be sharper.At the very that he has gained, however, is the free-
moment when he seems to himself to be dom to commit "every sin that has a
complete master of the situation, Mac- name to it."
beth, all unknowingly, utters the bitter His delusion is complete; his ruin in-
truth about his state. He is still to be evitable. Not until he experiences the
troubled by thoughts of evil, but the bitter fruition of his earthly crown does
drive of his desire for peace from fear he discover what has happened to him.
is greater; and to win security he is Even then, however, he sees only in part;
hurrying on the way in which he thinks the blindness he suffered when he suc-
it lies, but it is the way to the utter, cumbed to temptation was never to be
empty loneliness he describes for us lightened; and hence the final irony of
here.
a tale
Macbeth finds that the death of the Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
grooms was not enough; Banquo and Signifying nothing.
Fleance must go if he is to be free from
torment. Through Macbeth's conver- In The Scarlet Letter when Hester
sation first with Banquo about his jour- Prynne seeks mercy for Dimmesdale
from Roger Chillingworth, the old phy-
ney, then with the murderers, and
sician replies: "It is not granted me to
finally with Lady Macbeth,we compre-
hend to its full extent the disastrous pardon. I have no such power as thou
tellest me of. My old faith, long forgot-
change in him; he now contemplates
murder with hope rather than horror. ten, comes back to me, and explains all
that we do, and all we suffer. By thy
He still sees it as somethingto be hidden:
"Come,seeling night, scarf up the tender first step awry thou didst plant the germ
of evil; but since that moment, it has all
eye of pitiful day." But he is willing to been a dark necessity." So we feel, in
do more evil since he believes it will in-
sure his safety: "Thingsbad begun make part, about Macbeth, since we see him,
not as a victim of destiny, but as one
good themselves by ill." With the ap-
pearance of Banquo's ghost comes the responsible for the misery and deaths of
last flicker of conscience, but also an others as well as for his own suffering.
But in spite of his responsibility we can-
increasing terror of discovery and re- not withhold our sympathy from him.
venge which drives Macbeth further
than ever: "For mine own good all The action of Macbeth evokes a som-
causes shall give way." ber "there but for the grace of God."
The only thing he can gain in his We understand but we do not therefore
blinded state is the very worst for him. pardon all. Rather we acknowledge the
He now seeks out the witches to get evil and the guilt and so acquiesce in the
 DOCTRINAL DESIGN OF AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM 311

inevitable retribution, but at the same drawal or escape. As we watch him, we

time we are deeply moved by Macbeth's know that he should not have fallen; he
suffering and ruin because we are acutely might have resisted; but Shakespeare's
aware of the dangerous forces before vision here is of a world in which men
which he falls, and because we recognize can hardly do better amid the forces of
their power over one like ourselves-a circumstance;and in which, if men do
moderately good man who succumbs to no better, they must suffer, and lose not
temptation and who, having succumbed, only the world but themselves as well.
is led to more evil to make good the first Of such suffering and loss is tragedy
misstep, until there is no chance of with- made.

The Doctrinal Design of An Essay

On Criticism
JOHN M. ADEN

The reader first approaching Pope's Pope is concerned in the Essay with
Essay on Criticismis often disconcerted what art is and with how it is to be
by what appearsa bewilderingdiversity attained (by the poet) and appreciated
of doctrinal proposition with no ap- (by the critic). His whole doctrine re-
parent unity or ready principle of inte- solves itself ultimately to the principle
gration. He is confused by Pope's rapid of Nature. It is here that art has its be-
invocation of a series of seemingly com- ginning and its end:
petitive, if not actually contradictory, First follow Nature, and your judg-
tenets, each in its turn appearingto jostle ment frame
its predecessorout of postion, and leav-
ing the onlooker with the feeling that By her just standard,which is still the
same:
this new philosophy calls all in doubt.
Here he is invited to attendNature, there still divinelybright,
UnerringNATURE,
Art; now Wit and now Judgment; on One clear, unchanged, and universal
this handthe Ancients,on that the Rules. light,
It takes a practiced eye to see the har- Life, force, and beauty,mustto all im-
mony of all this, which Pope took so part,
much for grantedthat he let his couplets At once the source,and end, andtest of
Art.
sing along as he called together the
various stones for his edifice of poetic "Art from that fund each just supply
theory. Yet the Essay, mighty maze that provides" (68-74).' For this imitation
it is to the chance reader,is not without of Nature which he urges upon poet
a plan, at once brilliant, unified, and and critic alike,Pope recognizestwo dis-
simple. tinct and yet interrelatedmedia, which
we may distinguishas internal and ex-
Associate Professor at Vanderbilt Uni- ternal. The internal
versity, Dr. Aden is the author of articles faculty is twofold,
on Dryden's criticism and the poetry of consisting of the wit and judgment,both
Pope, Phillips, and Thomson. His "'First of which, in turn, are derived from that
Follow Nature': Strategy and Stratification
in An Essay on Criticism" appeared in JEGP, 'Quotations from The Best of Pope, ed.
LV (1956).
George Sherburn (New York, 1940).