Before a writer can create a brilliant story, he must conjure up a provocative idea. Before he can have that idea, his brain needs the fuel to process that idea: Influence. It’s obvious that Shakespeare didn’t just completely make up the story of Macbeth on the spot, he was clearly influenced by the history of the medieval Scots, with their rises to victory and glory, as well as their falls due to corruption and defeat. Although Shakespeare’s Macbeth is truly original, it definitely took inspiration and influence from famous medieval authors before Shakespeare’s time, such as that of the writings of Jeffery Chaucer and Christopher Marlowe.
Even Shakespeare himself took inspiration from his own ideas! It may seem unusual, but it happens more than you may know. For example, Shakespeare’s Macbeth had similar influences to that of his own previous play Hamlet, such as ghosts, violence, insanity, tyrants, and revenge. If you have read, studied, or are familiar with any of Shakespeare plays, at first glance you may think to yourself, “He was ripping himself off”“! Not so fast. Just because an author uses similar themes and elements in their stories, that doesn’t mean that they are “unoriginal”.
It merely means that they are comfortable with writing what they like to write and want to keep exploring such topics in more depth. Now, being an unoriginal author would comprise of this: the use of characters, dialogue, setting, or plot that are recycled, semi-altered versions of characters from yours or somebody else’s previous or current works. When you do this to yourself, it’s a mistake that compromises your own creativity. When you do it with someone else’s work, that’s plagiarism, and that will get you into some seriously hot water!
In Macbeth, our title hero (or anti-hero) oes mad with bloodlust after killing the villainously cruel king Duncan out of pure hatred for him demonstrating Shakespeare’s altered hero interpretation. What this leads up to is a series of continuous violent acts towards others, including one of his best friend’s, Banquo. Eventually, Macbeth is haunted by the ghost of Banquo, and Macbeth’s wife (who has assisted her husband by participating in these murders) begins to see bloodstains on her hands that are only visible to her own haunted eves. When we read Macbeth, we come to realize that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s sense of freewill is held hostage by the consequences of killing Duncan.
Right after that dreadful decision, they lose their reasonability and become power hungry, blood thirsty tyrants. Was this their fate, or could they have had a brighter outcome? Unfortunately, speaking in the way of death and despair, their fate was set by Shakespeare’s definition of heroism or anti heroism, designating them to become murderous rulers, dying painful deaths and being seen as tyrants! Now, speaking in a more sympathetic and lighter tone, Shakespeare could have written them to escape their treacherous fate and endure to heroism.
Instead, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth let the worst of immoral emotion get the best of them as they chose the path of evil and greed out of pure hate and unholy want, with the purpose of ridding themselves of their foes, and becoming king and queen for all of the wrong reasons. Could this have been prevented in the play? Of course it could have, but Shakespeare’s sense of dark fate and altered heroic understanding and definition was deeper displayed as these two were destined to become the monsters we know them as today.
Now, in a typical hero vs. illain tale, what would you expect from a hero? You would usually expect your hero to triumph over the villain and defeat him or die gallantly in the lines of the battle, yet still have the villain lose. In Macbeth, the sequence of events is quite different than you might expect. Macbeth (the protagonist), begins as a man who wants to end the rule of the evil King Duncan by slaying him. At first, we see him that as a headstrong, brave and intense hero and we begin to root for him. That is until Macbeth kills Duncan in way that demonstrates his lust for power.
This further proves Shakespeare’s desire to explain heroism as a potentially destructive journey rather than a challenge ridden path with a happily-ever-after ending like many of today’s predictable stories of heroism. Although we realize that even though Duncan was murderous, he still ruled Scotland fairly well. We then find that killing Duncan leads to Macbeth becoming King, which we think is going to be for the better. The irony is that Macbeth becomes an even worse political leader than even Duncan was.
Shakespeare’s hero definition demonstrates over and over the path to heroism can be too great, creating overwhelming destructive behavior. He develops an overwhelming st sense of bloodlust that overtakes his sensibility, and causes him (and his wife) to become crazed and violent fiends. This leads Macbeth to kill his own friend and companion, Banquo, to insure that he wouldn’t take over the throne. After killing him, he attends a great feast in his honor, but makes a big scene due to the fact that the ghost of Banquo, only visible to Macbeth, is constantly appearing and reappearing in his dining chair, to torment his guilty conscience.
As if that isn’t enough, Macbeth’s equally evil wife is cursed with sleepwalking and compulsively scrubbing her hands to rid them of bloodstains that only she can see. Not only have our protagonists lost their minds, but they have also lost all of the good that was left in them. Our new heroes are found in the characters Malcolm, who, ironically is Duncan’s son, and Macduff, a nobleman who has always been skeptical of Macbeth’s ability to be a just ruler of Scotland. In the final, epic battle, Macduff fights Macbeth to the death, beheads him, and takes the severed head to Malcolm as revenge for the murder of his father.
During this scene, the heroic Macduff declares the young and just Malcolm as the new king of Scotland. In many ways, the end of Macbeth can be seen as a surprising plot twist due to the fact that our supposed hero becomes the villain, and the son of the original villain becomes the hero. Shakespeare is determined to engage his audience in the journey of heroism by giving them a deeper understanding of its potential destruction and unpredictability. Thus the tables are turned onto Macbeth, and Macduff and Malcolm proceeds to save the day. Now, what makes the setting of Shakespeare’s Macbeth so impactful?
Let’s recap briefly: Macbeth is set in medieval Scotland, a land of rolling green hills, beautifully cloudy skies, colossal stone castles, and cobblestone roads. This effectively cements the mood of this dramatic and tragic parable with its beautiful and romantic setting. The setting blends perfectly with the time period and sets the stage for intense battles on the lush fields of Scotland, giving our story the needed epic and dramatic feel. The scene in which the castle of Macbeth is under siege, we feel as if we are alongside Malcolm and Macduff, fighting beside the walls of this great stone castle.
Finally, is there or is there not any relationship between a character and their actions? Macbeth obviously shows a great connection with his anger and hatred when committing evils, as does his wife, Lady Macbeth. They both begin to have this sort of pattern to their behavior and actions where they’ll do something awful and then act incredibly paranoid and skeptical about what they’ve done. This makes so much sense because this is exactly what can happen in real lives, and we don’t even have to be cursed to do that!
Shakespeare’s hero definition is deeply rooted in a clear and sometimes dark understanding of human nature rather than today’s predictable theme that good almost always triumphs over evil. In conclusion, we’ve realized that Shakespeare, one of the greatest playwrights used both influences of history, a unique understanding of human nature, and fiction alike in Macbeth. Engaging his audience in the journey he defines as heroism vs. anti-heroism, and relishing the temptation and challenge of the conflicts involving fate and free will in a character, he clearly illustrates the relationship between a haracter and his actions.
The most interesting thing about all of this is the fact that Shakespeare created a story of pure fiction involving ghosts, witches, and corrupt kings defining a much more thoughtful heroic journey compared to today’s predictable tales. Shakespeare’s example is so rich and descriptive that we may begin to forget how fictional the story is. Shakespeare’s heroic definition explains vividly that the power of potential heroism is many times too destructive and greedily alluring to produce a typical positive and predictably victorious outcome like today’s definition of heroism.