The Subverted Hero
People tend to rely on and think of traditional concepts and ideas as absolute facts and fear redefine them. But there are some—like tragic heroes— who break these norms and get redefined. Aristotle, defines that a tragic hero must be pitied by the audience while also being feared. He says that the hero must make a mistake which ruins them, and there must be a sudden turning point where they experience the consequences of their mistakes. Shakespeare, a renowned English playwright and poet, rethinks the Aristotelian notion of a tragic hero through the character of Macbeth’s emotional unravelment as he is solely feared by the audience. Firstly, throughout the play, Macbeth is very much conscious about the crimes he is about to commit, yet chooses to do them nonetheless. Secondly, the audience/reader does not feel any pitiness for him because of the ruthless crime he knowingly commits. Lastly, Macbeth confesses about his mental defeat before getting physically lost in the battlefield, contrasting Aristotle’s concept of sudden change within tragic heroes. Overall, Shakespeare has completely reimagined the tragic heroic concepts of character consciousness, feeling of pitiness towards the character and the sudden internal turning point.
Firstly, Shakespeare uses Macbeth’s character to disprove the traditional, Aristotelian idea of a tragic hero through his emotional unravelment by making Macbeth conscious of his wrongful deeds. Macbeth is well-aware that he will be committing a crime as he is about to murder Duncan, and he knows that it is only he and his own ambition which drives him to kill Duncan. He says that he decided to commit the crime of killing Duncan: “I will exert every muscle in my body to commit this crime”(I.vii.79-80). Not only can it be inferred, but Macbeth himself confesses that the action that he is going to commit is indeed a crime. This realization proves that not all tragic heroes make unconscious mistakes which ruin them, but rather, consciously choose to ruin themselves. Furthermore, upon deciding to kill Duncan, Macbeth mentions that it is only his ambition which is motivating him to commit the murder: “The only thing motivating me is ambition, which makes people rush ahead of themselves toward disaster”(I.vii.27-28). This suggests that there are not any external forces which push him to commit the murder, but rather, it is his ambition, which is an internal force that forces him to do it, proving that he is responsible for all of his actions. Because of these reasons, it is justified that Macbeth’s character refutes Aristotle’s “Tragic Flow” because of his self-consciousness.
Secondly, Macbeth’s tragically heroic character is crafted in a way which does not resemble Aristotle’s. Throughout the play, Macbeth is solely feared by the audience/reader because of his terribly ruthless actions, such as the murder of Macduff’s family. He is also not pitied because of his moral abandonment—which he confesses to before going to the war against Macduff. Macbeth decides to kill Macduff’s family because of the paranoia he has of Macduff: “I’ll raid Macduff’s castle, seize the town of Fife, and kill his wife, his children, and anyone else unfortunate enough to stand in line for his inheritance”(IV.i.150-152). This idea of his to kill Macduff’s wife and children—who are entirely innocent— can be considered inherently evil. Therefore, it makes the audience/reader not feel bad for him but only feel fear. Additionally, Macbeth says that he will act immediately without morally thinking about his actions when he decides to kill Macduff’s inheritance: “From now on, as soon as I decide to do something, I’m going to act immediately. In fact, I’ll start following up my thoughts with actions right now”(IV.i.147-150). Here, he intentionally abandons his whole moral compass and reasoning in order to commit the immoral crime of killing innocent people. This further proves that his actions only make the audience/reader feel fear, but not pity. To conclude, Shakespeare’s tragic hero rejects the Aristotelian notion by making the audience not feel pity for the tragic hero because of his heartless actions and moral abandonment.
Thirdly, Shakespeare’s tragic hero debunks Aristotle's tragic hero concept by not using the traditional way of sudden change when the character is losing. Before the battle, he confesses that he is lost and his life is meaningless. He also starts acting delusional, the moment he conceives the idea of killing Duncan. When the news of Lady Macbeth's death got into Macbeth's ear, just before the battle, he says what he really feels about his current life: “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. The days creep slowly along until the end of time. And every day that’s already happened has taken fools that much closer to their deaths. Out, out, brief candle. Life is nothing more than an illusion. It’s like a poor actor who struts and worries for his hour on the stage and then is never heard from again. Life is a story told by an idiot, full of noise and emotional disturbance but devoid of meaning”(V.v.19-28). This shows his nihilistic views on life and the fact that he is aware of his defeat in life already, as he speaks about its sorrow. Moreover, he sees a floating dagger, which is a hallucination of his, when he commits to kill the king: “Is this a dagger I see in front of me, with its handle pointing toward my hand? (to the dagger) Come, let me hold you. (he grabs at the air in front of him without touching anything) I don’t have you but I can still see you. Fateful apparition, isn’t it possible to touch you as well as see you? Or are you nothing more than a dagger created by the mind, a hallucination from my fevered brain? I can still see you, and you look as real as this other dagger that I’m pulling out now”(II.i.33-40). This suggests that he becomes delusional, just after he conceived the idea of killing Duncan. It also demonstrates how he becomes emotionally broken before the real war, and his physical defeat. Because of these reasons of his pre-war emotional defeat, and the delusion before committing the “act”, Shakespeare shows that tragic Heroes can also not have a sudden change and can be only feared, in contrast to the traditional concept, through Macbeth's character in the Scottish play.
In summary, Shakespeare's Macbeth disproves the traditional, Aristotelian tragic heroism with a high degree of effectiveness. The reason for that being Macbeth's self-consciousness, the absence of pity from the audience and the lack of “sudden change” in defeat. In the modern world, many people deny and fear the rethinking of traditional concepts because it has always been like that. But it is important to question these traditional ideas and see if they match the modern society, and if not, rethink them in a way that matches the contemporary world.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth: No Fear Shakespeare. New York: Spark Publishing. 2003.