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How Macbeths subject matter themes form or other literary elements might or might not be characteristic of tragedy?
Wiki User
∙ 10y ago
Shakespearean tragedies do have recurring themes and subject matter, although not all of them are present in every play. Likewise, the classification of plays as tragedies or histories (or comedies) is somewhat artificial. The play of Shakespeare's which has the most in common with Macbeth is Richard III, which is usually thought of as a history. Calling Richard a history because it is drawn from English history, and Macbeth a tragedy because it is drawn from Scottish history is a pretty arbitrary distinction.
Some common themes that turn up sometimes in tragedy:
1. The main man is a king or leader or royalty or something. True of Hamlet, Lear, Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and also Marlowe's Tamburlaine, but not Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Timon, Marlowe's Faust, The Yorkshire Tragedy or the Spanish Tragedy really.
2. The supernatural, as in the witches. Yes in Hamlet, Caesar, Richard III, Dr. Faustus. Not Lear or Othello or Romeo and Juliet, or Antony and Cleopatra or quite a lot of them.
3. Pathetic fallacy, when Duncan's horses eat each other. Also in Caesar but not that common.
4. Madness, as in Lady Macbeth. Also Lear, Hamlet, the Spanish Tragedy, Othello, Titus Andronicus. Also The Two Noble Kinsmen but that's a comedy, or maybe a tragicomedy. Not the Roman plays.
5. Suicide, allegedly what happened to Lady Macbeth. Nowhere near as significant as it is in Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, Timon, or even Lear.
6. Rise and Fall: Macbeth becomes king after much scheming then loses it. This is the same as what happens to Richard III. It doesn't really happen in any of the other tragedies. They do tend to have a story arc involving things going ok for someone and then turning bad eventually, but not usually with a rise to fortune at the start. Timon starts rich, Hamlet starts a Prince, Lear starts a king, Othello starts a happily married man, and Antony starts out as one of the triple pillars of the world
7. Gruesomeness: The usurper's head at the end. But this play is much less gruesome than the revenge tragedies.
8. Right to the bitter end: once Macbeth is dead, the play is dead too. Tragedies do not drag on after the main man dies. Comedies sometimes do, as in A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is all wrapped up by the end of Act 4 and then has a joke play for Act 5. This can also happen in histories like Henry V, who has won the battle by the end of Act 4 and spends Act 5 wooing the princess. A play like Cymbeline or the Winter's Tale or even the Merry Wives of Windsor can have a lot of palaver at the end explaining how everything came about. But once Hamlet, Othello, Lear, Macbeth, Timon, Coriolanus, Brutus, Cleopatra, Juliet and Titus are dead, the curtain we know is close at hand. There's not much more to say.
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∙ 10y ago
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