Macbeth, after all, is not a complete tragedy of fate. Compared with the tragedy of ancient Greece, this is very obvious. In the tragedy of fate in ancient Greece, the power of fate directly acted on people. Therefore, from the characters themselves, we can't come up with any logical explanation for their fate. At most, it is only a family inheritance (such as Agamemnon) or the sins of ancestors (such as Oedipus). But in Shakespeare's Macbeth, fate does not directly affect people, but indirectly affects people through their own desires, sins and personalities. As Hekate said, fate made "all kinds of false phantoms confuse his nature", which led him to his established ending step by step, driven by his own desires.
From the perspective of human physics, all Macbeth's behaviors and final outcome can be explained. From Lady Macbeth's mouth, we know Macbeth's character. He "wants to be a great man", he has ambition, but he "lacks the evil associated with that ambition", he "has great desire, but he just wants to use proper means" and "on the one hand, he doesn't want to play tricks on the machine, on the other hand, he wants to catch it". After putting down the rebellion and being named Sir Courtney, Macbeth was below one person and above ten thousand people, while Duncan, who was above him, relied entirely on him to ensure the stability of the country. At this time, even without the witch's prophecy, Macbeth will certainly have that idea in his heart. So when the witches disappeared, he said, "I hope they can stay a little longer." He told them to stay a little longer. Obviously, he has the idea of being king in his heart, so he wants to know more from the witch. Shakespeare's simple words vividly show the flow of Macbeth's subconscious.
The witch's prophecy made Macbeth's deep desire for power surface, and Duncan's excessive reward and praise strengthened his desire. Duncan said, "your contribution is so extraordinary that the fastest return can't catch up with you." If it is smaller, then maybe I can give you the thanks and rewards you deserve according to your birthright. Now I can only say that all rewards can't compensate for your great achievements. " Such words are too much and should not come from the mouth of a monarch, which objectively shows Duncan's dependence on Macbeth. It also stimulated Macbeth's ambition and made him think that it was not unreasonable to seize the throne: because he made great contributions.
After Macbeth usurped the throne, he assassinated his comrade-in-arms Banco. This is very reasonable. Banco is the only person Macbeth is afraid of. He tried to buy off Duncan before killing him. "You listened to my words and promised to give you a valuable hand." But Banco refused him: "I won't do anything that harms my honor just for the sake of being precious." Since I can't buy it, I know many of his secrets. In order to secure the throne, Macbeth killed him and wiped out dissidents, which is the usual trick of politicians, so it is not surprising at home and abroad. As for Macbeth's later failure, it was also his own making. A tyrannical and illegal king is bound to meet with resistance from all walks of life. People's resistance, combined with betrayal, can overthrow any king. In the play, Macbeth blames his failure on providence, which is correct in terms of personal fate; As far as the fact of its defeat is concerned, it is absurd, just as the overlord of China and Chu blamed his failure on heaven.
The fate of the characters can find a reasonable explanation from themselves, which is the aesthetic feature of Macbeth's tragedy as a character. But the most wonderful thing is the accurate portrayal of Macbeth and his wife's inner storm.
In order to depict Macbeth's character, Shakespeare spared no expense in pen and ink, and used a lot of narration and dreams to highlight the inner storm of Macbeth and his wife. Therefore, although there is a conflict between the moral aspects of Marcand and Macbeth, the main conflict is Macbeth's own inner conflict. The strength and momentum of one side of the external conflict is too weak to match Macbeth's momentum, so the conflict between the two sides is not touching and shocking; Only the conflict between Macbeth's inner goodness and evil, power desire and reason has moving power. Macbeth's desire for himself has always been sober and rational.
Some people think that Macbeth has the psychological characteristics of ordinary people committing crimes. In fact, there is a big difference between the two. When ordinary people commit crimes, they will forget the evil that desire may bring, but Macbeth is always very clear about the evil that his desire may bring. The reason why he realized his desire regardless of evil is because the amount of power desire is too strong and is constantly catalyzed by external forces. When Marcand was named Prince Brandt by Duncan, he realized that he was a boulder lying in front of him and he had to jump over it. At the same time, he also realized the evil that his desire might bring, so he said, "put away your flame, star!" " Don't let the light shine on my dark and deep desire. "From this, we can deeply and clearly understand the first inner storm aroused by Macbeth.
After the reward, Duncan had a sudden impulse to visit Macbeth's castle in Furness. Lady Macbeth urged Macbeth to kill Duncan at home. However, Macbeth's heart is full of contradictions, and it is difficult to choose at the moment. On the one hand, he is "eager to try" and "desperate to drive him" to "take the risk of drastic changes". On the other hand, as he himself said, "He came here with double trust. First, I am his relative and his courtier, and I can never do such a thing according to my birthright; Second, I am his master, and I should protect his personal safety. How can I stab him with a knife Moreover, this Duncan is kind in nature and has never been at fault in handling state affairs. If he is killed, his virtue before his death will sound as clear as an angel's horn and tell the world about my felony murder. "
In this dilemma, Lady Macbeth's encouragement played a vital role. Lady Macbeth is a very clever woman. She knows her husband's character and weaknesses very well. Therefore, its words of encouragement will have an immediate effect. She runs Macbeth with love first: "From now on, I will regard your love as something equally unreliable." Then, a soldier's most taboo cowardice angered Macbeth: "Would you rather be like a timid cat, regardless of your reputation as an ornament of life, and let you become a coward in your own eyes and let' I dare not' follow' I want' forever?" These two points were fatal to Macbeth, so he decided to murder Duncan. He said, "Please don't say anything. I dare to do anything a man does. No one has more courage than me. "
Macbeth and his wife decided to frame the guards and murder Duncan. Before the assassination, Macbeth saw an illusion-shaking a knife in front of him. The shape of the knife is exactly the same as the one you pulled out, indicating the direction he is going to and telling him what sharp weapon to use. Obviously, the knife is the externalization of Macbeth's vicious evil thoughts. The reason for externalization is that he is experiencing fierce internal conflicts. Facing the choice between good and evil, Macbeth is not as brave as he said. The evil thoughts of killing frightened him. He said: "Be firm on the primitive earth, be firm. I can't hear my footsteps. I am afraid that the stones on the road will expose my whereabouts. " He is not running away from anything external, but from his own judgment.
Later, Shakespeare's description of Macbeth's psychological state after Duncan's murder and Banco's assassination has the same effect. After murdering Duncan, Macbeth heard an imaginary voice: "Don't sleep! Grimes killed Sleepy Eyes. " After Banco's assassination, Macbeth saw Banco's ghost, which was the result of fierce conflict in Macbeth's heart and the externalization of his rational idea of being tried. When Macbeth killed Duncan and Banco, he killed his other half-the rational and kind one. Macbeth and Ke Ben Ben are two sides of the same person.
Like Macbeth, Banco has a deep desire for power, but his reason and moral power are equally powerful. The prophecy given by the witch is not aimed at him but at his descendants, which is beyond his efforts. If the witch interchanges the positions predicted by Banco and Macbeth, and Banco also has a Bancof person like Lady Macbeth, then Banco is likely to follow the same path as Macbeth. After killing Banco, Macbeth's inner conflict began to weaken. From then on, he "did whatever he thought, without any doubt" and became a walking corpse and a crazy tyrant. The conflict between man and fate has also begun to intensify.
"I have breast-fed babies and know how mothers lovingly suck breast-fed children; But when it looks at my face and smiles, I will take my nipple out of its soft and tender mouth and smash its head. " But after all, she is a woman, and her strong appearance can't hide her inner fragility. Her last dream trip revealed her inner secrets and showed her inner nature. However, it shows her humanity-with the feelings of ordinary people. Looking back at her sleepwalking, we find that the inner storm of Lady Macbeth is not as calm as described on the surface of the script. In fact, her inner storm has always been fierce, but in order to comfort Macbeth, she had to suppress her inner storm. In the second scene of Act III, when Lady Macbeth was alone, she said in a monologue, "We tried our best, but the result was not nothing. Although our goal has been achieved, we are not satisfied at all. If we fill ourselves with suspicion and pleasure by destroying others, it is better to let those who are hurt by us go unpunished. " Inner pain and conflict is profound, but after Macbeth came up, she immediately concealed her emotions and turned to comfort Macbeth:
"Oh, my Lord! Why are you alone, let the saddest fantasy be your partner, and focus your thoughts on a dead person? Irretrievable things have to be left to their own devices; It's no use crying over spilt milk. " (Act III, Scene II)
The difference in tone between the two paragraphs is so great because of the caring Macbeth. From this point of view, there are some lovely things about Lady Macbeth. There must be a certain way to vent inner conflicts. As a result, Mrs. Macbeth has been suppressing inner conflicts, which led to her sleepwalking and complete collapse. Therefore, compared with Macbeth's violent conflict, the storm in Lady Macbeth's heart is like the ocean current at the bottom of the sea, calm on the surface, but rough inside.
Macbeth has double aesthetic characteristics of fate tragedy and character tragedy, which is consistent with the spirit of the times at that time. The Renaissance advocated "humanism", which raised people's status to a very high level, and a number of talented giants emerged. Most characters in Shakespeare's plays are humanists. Macbeth's fighting spirit and his strength in Macbeth's plays reflect the strength of human beings. However, his ultimate failure shows the importance of the concept of fate in western literary creation, which profoundly affects their literary creation style. In fact, many of Shakespeare's other plays are fatalistic.