Valerie Chen

Prof. David Kastan

ENGL 017
28 April 2016
The Intimate Tragedy
To understand Shakespearean tragedy, it is useful to first look at its antithesis
Shakespearean comedy. The theatregoer expects to leave a comedy with an easy sense of
satisfaction, and the comedies accomplish this through intricate plot that precedes happy
endings, supported by witty language and characters that are more caricatures or
representations of ideas than realistically flawed humans. A typical Shakespearean
comedy can bring about joy, but not joy that is particularly heartfeltmore a result of
pleasant laughs and appreciation for the playwrights intellect than deep, personal
happiness. On the other hand, someone who reads or watches a tragedy is not looking to
feel gratification, but sorrow. Shakespeares tragedies are gripping because at its end, the
audience grieves on a personal levelthroughout the course of a tragedy, Shakespeare
develops a connection (or complicity) between the audience and the hero that rarely
occurs in comedy. This is accomplished through an emphasis on the individual, rather
than the society or plot, beginning from the title of the playShakespeares tragedies are
always named for their hero (Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear), rather than some feature of
the plot or setting in comedies (A Midsummer Nights Dream, The Two Gentlemen of
Verona). The audience is made aware of the heros burdens, so that by the time of the
heros death, they feel a personal loss. The tragedy is emphasized following the heros
death, as the remaining characters search for a resolutionin Macbeth, they
optimistically assert that the order shattered by Macbeth has been restored, and in King
Lear, they attempt to formulate an appropriate course of action for dealing with the loss.

However, both fall short of being an adequate response to the injustices felt by the
audience over the course of the plays; there is no successful method of coping with the
grief.
Out of Shakespeares great tragedies, Macbeth is the least obviously tragic. Not
long into the play, Macbeth evolves from valiant and worthy (1.2.26) into a
seemingly cold-blooded murderer, not just of soldiers and kings but innocent women and
children as well. He dies at the hand of Macduff, who in many aspects is his foil (and
Shakespeare invites the comparison with the similar names). Macduff gains many of the
typical qualifications of an epic hero in conjunction with the deterioration of Macbeths
sense of morality. First, Shakespeare devotes a scene to Malcolm subjecting Macduff to a
test of loyaltyunnecessary to the plot except to prove Macduffs heroism. Then, he is
revealed to be the fated one to defeat Macbeth in the Witches prophecy. The Witches told
Macbeth to Laugh to scorn / The power of man, for none of woman born / Shall harm
Macbeth (4.1.90-92). Macbeth has no need to fear the power of manbut as he
should fear Macduff, Macduff no longer exists as an ordinary man but something more.
The play ends with Macduff by Malcolms side as he ascends to the throne.
With this foil close at hand, Macbeth should appear particularly deplorable. After
Macbeth dies, Malcolm calls him a dead butcher, as if brutality was in his nature
(5.8.82). However, this is a simplification that does not ring true with the audience. He is
introduced to them as an admirable man; the reporting Captain in 1.2 describes Macbeth
as brave and deserving before he has even appeared onstage. Following the
interaction with the Witches, Macbeth grapples for a long time with internal conflict
between his moral obligations and his desire to usurp the throne, even resolving at one

point not to commit the murder. Evidence of this conflict mostly materializes in the form
of soliloquies, in which Macbeth voices a thought process that normally would be
conducted in the mind. Soliloquizing always involves the audience more than dialogue
between multiple characters, but even more so in the case of Macbeths If it were done
when tis done speech in the very beginning of 1.7. Macbeth ponders that if the murder
of Duncan Might be the be-all and end-all here Wed jump the life to come (1.7.5-7).
He uses plural first person, we, to describe the action taking. This pronoun most
directly refers to Lady Macbeth, but as she is not present in the scene at this moment, the
we also implicates the audience, whom Macbeth would likely face as he speaks. Lady
Macbeth may be his partner in crime, but she does not have full access to Macbeths
thoughts. Before Macbeth can finish this speech, Lady Macbeth enters, and he quickly
transitions to How now, what news? He eventually tells her that We will no longer
proceed with this business, informing her of his decision while not explaining any of the
thinking that led him there. His justification to her is first that Duncan hath honored
[him] of late, and second that he has bought golden opinions from all sorts of people, /
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, / Not cast aside so soon (1.7.35-37).
However, these arguments are absent from the soliloquy, where he expresses his true
sentiments. There, he worries about the consequences of the murder (as in if Duncans
death were not to be the be-all and end-all), since Duncan had so many virtues that
would plead like angels. He describes the murder with a sense of deeper moral
wrongdoing than just owing Duncan some loyalty because of a recent promotion.
Moreover, Macbeth is situated in the middle of the spectrum between merciless
Macdonwald and noble Macduffnot an honorable servant, but not completely cold-

blooded either. Because the audience has been privy to Macbeths struggle, the extreme
label of butcher is unsatisfying and burdensome, as no one who survives in this world
can sustain a different, more accurate memory of Macbeth.
There is further overestimation of Macbeth at the end, related to the motif of time.
When Macbeth has been defeated, Macduff declares, the time is free, implying that
Macbeth had it under his control (5.8.66). This recalls a line from 1.3, as Macbeth
considers the Witches assertion that he will become king: Come what come may / Time
and the hour run through the roughest day (1.3.161-162). While Macduffs use of time
is more of a reference to Scotland than clock-time, it nevertheless opposes the idea
behind Macbeths statement. For Macbeth, the movement of time is a constant, the
ultimate power that will not stop for anyone or anything, even the roughest of days. He
grows to become frustrated with this fact: Time, thou anticipatst my dread exploits. /
The flighty purpose never is oertook / Unless the deed go with it (4.1.166). Macbeth is
unable to be the master of his time as he had hoped, and feels that it has thwarted him
from carrying out his intentions (3.1.44). Thus, at the end, when Macduff optimistically
declares that Macbeths defeat has untethered time, the audience is inclined to doubt him.
Macbeth was a slave to time, and died as the prophecy said he would, even in his
roughest day. This contributes to a sense that the conclusion to the story is unsuitable,
as Macbeth is made out to be the sole poison in society that prevents its function. The
play ends with a speech by Malcolm: So thanks to all at once and to each one, / Whom
we invite to see us crowned at Scone. The couplet lends a tone of completeness and
finality, but this supposedly happy ending is not reassuring. Malcolm replaces the void
left by Macbeth, but he is unfamiliarthe audience can derive no satisfaction from

Malcolm ascending to the throne, because it is purely a logical result of Macbeths death.
Furthermore, the audience knows that Malcolms lineage is not sustainable either, as
Banquos descendants will eventually take the Scottish throne. The resolution is not
perfect, but is discussed by the remaining characters as one that is and seems like a
discourtesy to the painful, death-ridden aftermath of the story.
We can contrast Macbeth with King Lear, in which the heros death is not a result
of moral wrongdoing but a welcome resolution to pain. Right before Lears death, he is
holding Cordelias corpse in his arms, in a state of insufferable agony. His directs his
anger at the natural order of the worldNo, no, no, life! / Why should a dog, a horse, a
rat have life / And thou no breath at all? (5.3.304-306). As a king, Lear is the most
powerful of menbut has come to realize that even he is still powerless to control his
fortunes. This realization begins with Goneril, whose role as daughter is to be obedient to
her father, having the power to shake [his] manhood (1.4.289). Then, in Act 3, he
accuses the forces of nature of abusing him as a form of horrible pleasure (3.2.19). And
finally, by losing Cordelia, he is confronted with his utter helplessness against the chaos
in the worldthat the source of his happiness can be taken away from him without him
being able to fight it. The echoes of no are his last rebuke against the force of life,
and his question sounds defeated, especially followed by five repetitions of never; at
this point, he has completely processed the hollowness of his life. Lear dies of grief, but
this death is relief; as Kent says, Vex not his ghost; O, let him pass. He hates him / That
would upon the rack of this tough world / Stretch him out longer (5.3.312-314). Unlike
in the case of Macbeth, who fought against his destruction until the very end (though
more out of duty towards his own success than a strong desire to liveperhaps like his

wife, he should have died hereafter), Lears death is his surrender. If the Break, heart,
I prithee break line is attributed to Lear (in the Quarto) rather than Kent (in the Folio), it
is additional evidence that Lear is ready to escape rather than continue fighting.
However, despite the differing circumstances of Lears death, it is still followed
by an inadequate attempt to reflect on the events that have transpired. Unlike in Macbeth,
the surviving characters in King Lear share the burden of loss. This is demonstrated
aurally as the final eight lines of the play are a series of couplets, split amongst Albany,
Kent, and Edgar, as opposed to a single character delivering the concluding, rhyming
verse. The final speech of the play is attributed to Edgar (in the Folio): The weight of
this sad time we must obey / Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. / The oldest
hath borne most; we that are young / Shall never see so much, nor live so long (5.3.323).
Only Edgar remains to bear the responsibility of power, as Albany has relinquished it and
Kent hints at his plan to pass on as well. He describes how the living is duty-bound to
obey the weight of this sad timethese lines are a directive to mourn earnestly,
based on feeling rather than propriety, a nod to Cordelias original error. But her loyalty
to her feeling was precisely what caused the conflict in the first place. Edgars advice is
noble, but an oversight. He also frames the tragedy as a finality, supposing that conditions
could no longer become worse in future generations; the young shall never see so much,
nor live so long, which in context seems to be a blessing, given that Lears long life was
usurped and miserable at its end. However, the process of King Lear is one of slow,
ceaseless deteriorationit appears too hopeful to assume that the young will never have
to experience what Lear has experienced.

Shakespeares great tragedies all end with the downfall of the tragic herobut to
truly be able to convey loss at the end, the audience must become intimately
knowledgeable of the heros condition during his struggle. Macbeths audience learns to
mourn for him despite his evil actions, as it is clear his descent was frequently agitated by
his awareness of the immorality of his pursuits. On the other hand, Lears audience
mourns for him because he is perpetually fighting a losing battle. In both plays, the
morally functional world presented at the beginning (with heroic Macbeth, kingly Lear)
has crumbledand no matter what other characters attempt in the wake of the heros
death, that system of justice cannot be restored.