Macbeth Journel

"Macbeth: The Pattern of Idea and Action." EXPLORING Shakespeare. Online Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Bronze. Thomson Gale. Boyd-Buchanan School. 22 Nov. 2006

Summery

It maintains that Macbeth symbolizes Shakespeare's larger view of evil's operation in the world. Therefore, the tragedy is not resolved through the fallen hero's redemption, but through good correcting the evil that Macbeth has unleashed. This "voluntary choice of evil," Ribner notes, "closes the way of redemption to ( Macbeth), for in denying nature he cuts off his source of redemption, and he must end in total destruction and despair." According to the critic, the other major characters serve similar symbolic functions in Macbeth: the witches represent evil, tempting man's sinful nature by means of prophecy; Banquo, in contrast to Macbeth, stands as a kind of morality figure who is able to resist the witches' temptation because the grace of God inherent in his nature is stronger than his propensity to sin; Lady Macbeth, who supports her husband in his wrong moral choice and quells the forces in him opposed to evil, signifies an unnatural reversal of the common symbol of woman as the giver of life and nourishment. Shakespeare chiefly focuses on the disintegration of Macbeth himself, the critic asserts, initially portraying him as a great man and savior of his country, but one who ultimately becomes the symbol of unnatural man, "cut off from his fellow men and from God." Macbeth's spiritual ruin must be reflected in ignoble physical destruction, Ribner concludes, and "thus the play ends with the gruesome spectacle of the murderer's head held aloft in triumph."

Reaction

In the article there is a reference about a “great bond” (act three scene two) that supposed to indicate a bond between humanity and God and I don’t agree with what the author is saying. I don’t think that the bond is between humanity and God but rather between humanity and Satan. The reason I think