Empathy In Macbeth
Question: Macbeth fails as a play because we are unable to empathise with the protagonist.
Introduction:
Body: * Firstly, we must define Macbeth as the ‘tragic hero’ of the play. It is the protagonist in a tragedy who possesses a tragic flaw eventually leading to their downfall. Aristotle’s view of the effect of tragedy was to arouse empathy for the ‘tragic hero’ and then to purge it from the audience, at the end an audience can be drained of all emotion. Macbeth parallels all of the characteristics of a ‘tragic hero’ because he is a very important character in the play, his persona is given a ‘tragic flaw’ i.e. Macbeth’s ambition and he is a respected noble who’s error in judgement leads to his death. * If the audience did not feel some empathy for Macbeth the play would not succeed as a tragedy, because a tragedy depends upon that engagement of the audience with the hero. He is so courageous at the beginning, yet becomes so fearful at the end. The composer, Shakespeare, manipulates our feelings for Macbeth by depicting women as part of the source of his downfall: the witches on the one hand and his wife on the other. Macbeth says to …show more content…
Without the prophecies he would not have killed his king, he would not have ordered the murder of Banquo and Macduff’s family and he would not have thought he was invincible and gone into battle only to get him killed. It is not Macbeth’s actions that made him what he became but rather the actions of those around him i.e. Lady Macbeth. Throughout the whole play we are constantly reminded that Macbeth never made any decision alone to do the things that he did. It is always the interference of external elements that causes all these detrimental events to occur. Readers feel the deepest sympathy for Macbeth who commits one horrific crime after another at the urgings of others when he would have been content to just being the Thane of Cawdor – and illustrious title in
Introduction:
Body: * Firstly, we must define Macbeth as the ‘tragic hero’ of the play. It is the protagonist in a tragedy who possesses a tragic flaw eventually leading to their downfall. Aristotle’s view of the effect of tragedy was to arouse empathy for the ‘tragic hero’ and then to purge it from the audience, at the end an audience can be drained of all emotion. Macbeth parallels all of the characteristics of a ‘tragic hero’ because he is a very important character in the play, his persona is given a ‘tragic flaw’ i.e. Macbeth’s ambition and he is a respected noble who’s error in judgement leads to his death. * If the audience did not feel some empathy for Macbeth the play would not succeed as a tragedy, because a tragedy depends upon that engagement of the audience with the hero. He is so courageous at the beginning, yet becomes so fearful at the end. The composer, Shakespeare, manipulates our feelings for Macbeth by depicting women as part of the source of his downfall: the witches on the one hand and his wife on the other. Macbeth says to …show more content…
Without the prophecies he would not have killed his king, he would not have ordered the murder of Banquo and Macduff’s family and he would not have thought he was invincible and gone into battle only to get him killed. It is not Macbeth’s actions that made him what he became but rather the actions of those around him i.e. Lady Macbeth. Throughout the whole play we are constantly reminded that Macbeth never made any decision alone to do the things that he did. It is always the interference of external elements that causes all these detrimental events to occur. Readers feel the deepest sympathy for Macbeth who commits one horrific crime after another at the urgings of others when he would have been content to just being the Thane of Cawdor – and illustrious title in