Macbeth tragedy belongs to the period of Great
Macbeth was written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare.
This great tragedy belongs to the period of Great Tragedies and Bitter Comedies, 1601-1607. This is a period of gloom and depression and it marks the full maturity of his powers. His dramatic power, his intellectual power and his power of expression are at their highest. In this period, he wrote his supreme masterpieces.
His attention is, however, occupied exclusively with the darker side of human experience.The sins and weaknesses of man form the theme of his plays. From the beginning of the play, Macbeth appears as a good and loyal soldier, but his overriding ambition and the motivation of the three witches and mainly his wife lead him to lose love, friendship, respect and eventually he pays with his own life.
In my opinion, Lady Macbeth is the real and main driving force behind the murder of Duncan and I can see that very clearly throughout the play. In Scene 5 of Act 1, ” Macbeth: My dearest love, Duncan comes here tonight.Lady Macbeth: And when goes hence? Macbeth: Tomorrow, as he purposes. Lady Macbeth: O! never Shall sun that tomorrow see! Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters. To beguile the time, Look like the time, bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t. He that’s coming Must be provided for; and you shall put This night’s great business into my dispatch; Which shall to all our nights and days to come Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
In this dialogue, Lady Macbeth tells her husband, Macbeth, that King Duncan will not be able to see and live the next day because she will devise a plan to kill him. She also asks Macbeth to look like the innocent flower, but to be like the snake that hides underneath the flower. In addition, she asks her husband to leave everything to her. In scene 7 of Act I, Macbeth in a soliloquy mentions that Duncan has been gracious, a kind king and that he has no reason to murder Duncan except for his ‘overriding ambition.
‘ At this point, Macbeth has decided that he shall not commit the murder.When he informs his wife of his decision, she pokes at his manliness and concludes that he is not worthy of being called a man. After Macbeth hears the plan that she has devised for committing the horrendous deed, he is immensely pleased with her and cannot find any loophole in the plan. In my opinion, the moral lesson from reading this great play is to separate the irrational side, feelings and emotions, from the rational side, knowledge, wisdom and so on. Macbeth chose to follow his wife’s motivation, he didn’t think wisely before he killed the king, Duncan.Also, if I connect this play with The Holy Quran, I can see very clearly that Allah warned us in several surahs such as Surat Al-Nas, The Men. He warned us in the last ayah to be careful from the Jinns and men who whisper and motivate mankind to do bad deeds.
In conclusion, Macbeth is one of the greatest tragedies and enjoyable plays to spend your free time reading it. I know its language is a little bit difficult to read, but you can use dictionaries of literary terms or you can read the modern text in the famous educational website, Sparknotes.
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