evilmac Macbeths Profound Evil Essay -- Macbeth essays

Macbeths Profound Evil When the audience experiences Macbeth by William Shakespeare, it is subjected to a heavy dose of atrocious in the form of intent and actions by the witches, by Lady Macbeth and by Macbeth. L.C. Knights in the essay Macbeth specifies the particular species of fell present within the play Macbeth defines a particular kind of evil - the evil that results from a lust for power. The defining, as in all the tragedies, is in strictly poetic and dramatic terms. It is certainly not an abstract formulation, save lies rather in the drawing out of necessary consequences and implications of that lust twain in the external and the spiritual worlds. (93) D. F. Bratchell in Shakespearian Tragedy delineates the proper(postnominal) type of evil within the tragedy Long regarded as a profound vision of evil, Macbeth differs from the other Shakespearean tragedies in that the evil is transferred from the scoundrel to the hero not that Shakespeares tragic figures are eve r conceived in the simple tones of black and white. Although the Elizabethans took liberties with Aristotles dictum that tragedy does not deal with the overthrow of a bad character, it would be accepted by them that concentration on the evil deed itself does not constitute tragedy. (132-33) In his book, On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy, H. S. Wilson emphasizes the evil coexisting with traces of good in the play He is loose of gentleness and generosity there is a tender human dear between him and his wife, though they are both abandoned to evil we may recall the relation between Claudius and Gertrude, and Shakespeares capacity for seeing some worth even in wicked people. (77) R... ...n Women Reading Shakespeare 1660-1900. Ann Thompson and Sasha Roberts, eds. Manchester, UK Manchester University Press, 1997. Kermode, Frank. Macbeth. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston Houghton Mifflin Company, 1972. Knights, L.C. Macbeth. Shakespeare The Tragedie s. A Collectiion of Critical Essays. Alfred Harbage, ed. Englewwod Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964. Mack, Maynard. Everybodys Shakespeare Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies. Lincoln, NB University of Nebraska Press, 1993. Warren, Roger. Shakespeare watch over 30. N.p. n.p., 1977. Pp. 177-78. Rpt. in Shakespeare in the Theatre An Anthology of Criticism. Stanley Wells, ed. England Oxford University Press, 2000. Wilson, H. S. On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy. Toronto, Canada University of Toronto Press, 1957.