Nicholas Rand's Macbeth As A Moral Tragedy

This piece of creative, analytical writing needs to offer a review of extant literature on one of the well-critiqued tragedies of Shakespearean origin, ‘Macbeth’, which describes the rise and fall of once valiant and loyal King Macbeth, who later, not only came to possess destructive ‘vaulting ambition’ which heralded his doom, but whose mind and actions became absolutely controlled by his Machiavellian wife, Lady Macbeth, whose ruthlessness and egocentricity was only matched by her wile, craftiness, manipulative nature and depravity of the highest order. Lady Macbeth’s depravity was so complete that she did not even hesitate to goad her once loyal and servile husband, Macbeth, to kill their benefactor and King in their own battlements. Unwittingly, …show more content…
Macbeth’s moral squalor is portrayed more as a sin than it is portrayed as a crime, this as per Nicholas Rand in ‘Macbeth: New Critical Essays’ is so because of the nature of the acts he is spurred to execute by his wife. Rand states that if Macbeth’s acts were a crime there would not be so much of the portrayal of moral issues such as guilt rather of a character flaw in Macbeth. The reason as to this being referred to as a moral catastrophe is to do with the consequences of the actions to the perpetrator of the act. Sin as per the illustration by Rand is defined as a defiance against one’s …show more content…
In the analysis ‘Macbeth: Comprehension, Analysis, Composition’ Bloy states that Macbeth should not bear all the responsibility of his actions and that his decision-making during this time was heavily influenced by the one person who he confided, his wife. When looking at the actions of Lady Macbeth, Bloy argues that she is simply acting as a good wife and supporting her husband in what she believes to be best for him. Her advice cannot be taken as vile in such as situation as she is the confidant to her husband and therefore should be listened