In a short essay, explain how this soliloquy contributes to plot development in the play, Macbeth.
Macbeth is a play which is written by William Shakespeare. It is about a man who is tricked by some witches and is very ambitious to be the king of Scotland. He is not afraid of murdering anyone who gets in his way. The witches are the ones that he believes. Besides the fact that he believes them more than anyone, they trick him with word-play and caused his death. Similarly, at the end of the book we see that Macbeth curses the witches. As we see in the other parts of the book, he has many conflicts with himself. Similarly, in this soliloquy he has a conflict with himself. This time it is about killing Duncan. He is not sure if he should kill him or not. As he is dying for being king, his conscience doesn’t stop to bother his mind and he constantly thinks about the consequences that he will have to face after the murder. I think this soliloquy has an important role in this play, since it shows Macbeth’s conscience, the conflicts between him and his wife and finally foreshadows his end.
Firstly, via showing Macbeth’s conscience, this soliloquy gains some importance in the play. As we read the soliloquy, we see a lot of times Macbeth’s conscience’s sings. To illustrate that we can examine these lines “He’s here in double trust: First as I am his kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed-then, as his host, who should against his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife myself.” As Macbeth says, he is Duncan’s both host and kinsman. The thought of killing the guest instead of showing hospitality to him is the thing that affects Macbeth so much. Similar to our society, according to Macbeth and most probably his society, showing hospitality is a thing that reflects the host’s morals. In other words, being hospital is a sign of being a good and ethical human. Similarly, he thinks that Duncan is great king. “Besides, this Duncan hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great office, that his virtues will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against the deep damnation of his taking off” Even thinking about how a good king Duncan is, is enough to understand his conscience. If he would be bad person, he wouldn’t care if the victim is good or a bad person. However, since his mind is got confused with the thoughts that Duncan is good king; we can predict that in fact he is good person. So, being under the effects and pressure of those thoughts, it is very normal to Macbeth to not easily decide to do the murder. Actually, I think because of having such a conscience he wouldn’t kill the king, but there is something more that he is under control of. That is his wife. Lady Macbeth kills his conscience and makes him to do the evil deed.
The difference in ideas of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is another fact that we can see in this soliloquy. Actually, just before this part, in Act 1 Scene 5 Line 10, Macbeth was calling his wife as “my dearest partner of greatness”. However, as the time passes and some event occurred, the difference between their ideas becomes clearer and Macbeth’s conscience starts to contradict with Lady Macbeth’s oppressed ideas. Furthermore, as Macbeth shows her his good side by telling her his doubts about the murder, she scolds him and calls him as freak and insults his manhood. Very normally being under his wife’s insulting words’ pressure Macbeth gets confused and his confusion reaches its highest point through this soliloquy. It is also one of the most important conflicts in the play. I think Lady Macbeth is the most effective reason that causes Macbeth to kill Duncan and makes him to face this dilemma, because when he understands that Lady Macbeth thinks differently, he feels lonely and this dilemma occurs. Unfortunately, she beats his conscience. However I think if she would not be there, Macbeth wouldn’t kill Duncan.
Finally, foreshadowing Macbeth’s end is one of the reasons that this soliloquy has an important role in this play. As Macbeth says in the play “”But in these cases we still have judgment here-that we but teach bloody instructions, which, being taught, return to plague th’ inventor.” (1:7:7-14), the world is fair and most of the times people have to face the consequences of their deeds. According to Macbeth, if you do something evil to people to harm them, in the end the evil thing comes back to you and harms you too, just like a boomerang. That is exactly what has happened to him. In the beginning of the play, he believed witches’ words and with their evil ideas, killed Duncan and similarly in the end he is tricked by the witches and this time he is the one who is killed. To sum up, we can say that he is the one who caused his own death by believing witches and killing the king. The boomerang turns back to its owner.
Last but not least, this soliloquy has a great importance in the play, due to the fact that it shows the dilemma between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s dilemma with himself and contains a foreshadowing. It is one of the most significant part of the play which concerns the most of the other parts.
No comments:
Post a Comment