Tragedy occurs to some more often to others, but most define it differently. Webster’s Dictionary defines it as “a kind of drama in which some fatal or mournful event occurs” (764). To philosophers and traditional writers philosophy takes on another meaning. For example, to famous philosophical figure Aristotle, “tragedy occurs when noble or great persons are led, through pride or a secret flaw in their personalities, to suffering that changes their fortune. The tragic hero must begin in a high position and end in death or some sort of degraded role” (Definitions of Tragedy). Based on human nature, Aristotle’s philosophy of tragedy, and current literary criticism of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the main character, Macbeth, is classified as a tragic hero.
Born in 384 B.C. at Stagirus, well known philosopher Aristotle was a student to Plato for over twenty years. Growing up on this Greek Colony and attending lectures, he acquired and retained new information. His father was a well known physician and scientist therefore Aristotle’s knowledge was broadened by his father. Unlike Plato, Aristotle studied the natural and sensory world; “while Plato used his reason, Aristotle used his senses” (Gaarder 107) He said that “things that are in the human soul were purely reflections of natural objects” (Gaarder 107). Aristotle believed that reason is mans most distinguishing characteristic; Macbeth had great lack of reason. When the first murder occurred, Macbeth did not anticipate the outcomes of the events, thus is soul was infected with selfish thought, and to him, nothing else mattered.
A human soul in Aristotle’s words is “the perfect expression or realization of a natural body,” which Macbeth follows (Aristotle). His internal instinct led his actions and soon to his main goal. Fellow philosopher Democritus, (460-370 B.C.), believed that all men are just mechanical and made up of different substances (Gaarder 44). If, his belief that there is no spiritual fore in nature, and everything happens mechanically is true, then Macbeth could not control his actions thus is innocent of his crimes. To Macbeth, it meant that he was destined to become king, and mechanically could not manage his own actions. This is because Macbeth’s imagination is “plunging deeper and deeper into unreality,” and turns into uncontrollable desires and wants (Knight 42). These two elements of soul and imagination are able to cause a dreadful combination of tragedy and misfortune. A Shakespearian critic implies that, “once caught by the devils bait, only at the end he is able to express his inward state openly” (Davidson 92).
Firstly, Macbeth had an extremely active conscience and recognition of human moral values. His conscience put up a great deal of resistance to the prospect of murder, and after the act it continued to torment him until his death.
Perhaps the most fundamental theme of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is the inherent corruptibility of even a seemingly good man when ambition turns to greed, and Macbeth himself exemplifies this concept throughout the play. While at the outset he is seen to be loyal to his king, generally considered trustworthy, and displaying numerous other laudable qualities, Macbeth ultimately succumbs to the influence of those around him and becomes unequivocally evil, setting aside all his previously held morals and coming to be driven only by his lust for power. This transition is brought about by a wide variety of factors and plays an integral role in the development of the plot. In his tragedy Macbeth, William Shakespeare employs
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragedy in which the main characters are obsessed by the desire for power. Macbeth’s aspiration for power blinds him to the ethical implications of his dreadful acts. The more that Shakespeare’s Macbeth represses his murderous feelings, the more he is haunted by them. By analyzing his hallucinations it is possible to trace his deteriorating mental state and the trajectory of his ultimate fall. Throughout the play Macbeth is never satisfied with himself. He feels the need to keep committing crime in order to keep what he wants most: his kingship. The harder Macbeth tries to change his fate the more he tends to run into his fate. His ambition and struggle for power was Macbeth’s tragic flaw in the play. Macbeth’s rise to the throne was brought about by the same external forces that ensure his downfall.
On September 11, 2001, since the terrorist attacks, many American Muslims have been stereotyped negatively in the United States. Salma, a Muslim woman, says that the way Muslims have been recognized in the media has played a big role in the antagonisms directed to her. “I don’t know how many time I heard my classmates accuse me of being al-Qaeda or a terrorist” (Mayton 2013). Salma, along with other Muslims, even after a decade, are still struggling with trying to find their “American” and “Islamic” identities, while facing verbal attacks for their ethnicity. Too often, the general Muslin population gets lumped in with the immoral acts of a few because of the lack of knowledge about their culture.
One day that changed the United States forever was not a recession or a new government but a terrorist attack. In the aftermath of September eleventh, it left American’s brainwashed. To put it differently, the American media only tells one side of the story, in their favor. When an attack happens most Americans mind blame “Muslims” even before people know the full details. In post-September 11, hundreds of terrorist attacks, and actions by Western governments have produced widespread suspicion, detention, and deportation of Muslims. The number of hate crimes that are perpetrated towards Muslims has also grown dramatically. To enumerate this point, recently the act in Portland that left two men dead after they intervened against a man who had
Macbeth’s righteous mind is most clearly visible in his first soliloquy in which he debates whether or not to kill the old king Duncan. Macbeth distinctly reveals his tragic flaw as “Vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself/And falls on the other.”(I, vii, 27-28). Macbeth’s decisions are continuously influenced by Lady Macbeth and her overdriving ambition to become Queen of Scotland. Macbeth knows that in the past he has had spurts of motivation that were fueled by his wife’s encouragement, but when left alone he could piece together his thoughts and discover what was right. Macbeth evokes empathy from the audience during his moral debate becaus...
Within Macbeth the tragedy and demise of Macbeth is an important factor in determining his character as a tragic hero. However in order to elucidate on this point we need to define what is a tragedy. Aristotle within ‘Poetics’ highlighted what characteristics he believed to define tragedy these being;
William Shakespeare’s seventeenth century tragedy, Macbeth, tells the story of Macbeth, whose ambition leads him to murder his close friends. In the play, he is told that he will become king, but to speed up the process he is convinced to kill the current king, Duncan. Although he is portrayed as a vile, evil character, the scene before he murders Duncan, his thoughts after the murder, and his encounters with his friend’s ghost show that Macbeth truly is a man of conscience.
The various terrorist attacks performed by hijackers across America created a stigma around the Muslim religion. The events were categorized as terrorist attacks by the Islamic extremists who wish to overpower other governments. Islam is a religion founded upon peace and high morality as stated within the Quran. After the attacks on 9/11 the image of the Muslim religion became filled with violence and bloodshed. As statistics show from the FBI, “anti-Muslim hate crimes are approximately five times more frequent than they were before 2001” (Frumin). With the rise in discrimination against the religious group as a whole, extremists, radicals, and moderate everyday worshiping believers have been categorized together into one general group. In accordance to this assumption, the number of mosque vandalism has increased since the events of September 11th. There has also been a production of anti-Muslim rhetoric produced, fueling the discrimination against the religious group. The FBI has heightened surveillance around mosques and conducted ‘voluntary interviews of Arab and Muslim Americans (Frumin). The Muslim population within America has received many discriminatory actions against them from the government and the American population as a whole, all stemming from the events of 9/11 created by Islamic
It may be hard for the afflicted to sufficiently determine or communicate the source of this fear, but it exists. In recent years, a specific phobia has gripped Western societies - Islamophobia. Researchers and policy groups define Islamophobia in differing detail, but the term's essence is essentially the same, no matter the source: An exaggerated fear, hatred, and hostility toward Islam and Muslims that is perpetuated by negative stereotypes resulting in bias, discrimination, and the marginalization and exclusion of Muslims from social, political, and civic life. Research shows that the U.S. identified more than 160 Muslim-American terrorist suspects and perpetrators in the decade since 9/11, just a percentage of the thousands of acts of violence that occur in the United States each year. It is from this overall collection of violence that "an efficient system of government prosecution and media coverage brings Muslim-American terrorism suspects to national attention, creating the impression - perhaps unintentionally - that Muslim-American terrorism is more prevalent than it really is." Never mind that since 9/11, the Muslim-American community has helped security and law enforcement officials prevent nearly two of every five al Qaeda terrorist plots threatening the United States and that tips from the
Ever since the traumatic and unforgivable events that took place on 9/11, Muslims in America have been viewed as a potential terrorist. In contradiction, 94% of the terrorist attacks performed in the United States from 1980 to 2005 were committed by non-Muslims (Alnatour). The same study concludes that the rates of Jewish terrorism were higher than the Islamic rates, but when these felonies reach the news the Islamic crimes are publicized on a greater and more urgent scale. The media in America helps to expand and create these prejudices. As the world becomes more technologically advanced, one must look between the lines and identify fact from
Characterized as a hatred of Islam, or feelings of fear and abhorrence toward Muslims (Samari 1920), Islamophobia in the United States has increased at rapid rates, and as a result, has caused negative health implications in the American Muslim community. Reinforced by the terrorist attacks in Orlando, San Bernardino, Paris, and the sudden emergence of The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Islamophobia is not concerned with anti-Muslim sentiment only, but is instead representative of a history of U.S. policy that has reinforced xenophobic and discriminatory attitudes toward Muslims starting from the 17th century (Samari 1920). Because of this enduring stigmatization and subsequent damage to interpersonal and structural systems (Samari
Tragic heroes, who destined for a serious downfall, are the protagonist of a dramatic tragedy. A tragic hero is usually a great hero, who gets the most respect from other people; on the other hand, a tragic hero can also lose everything he gained because of his mistakes. His downfall is the result of a wrong judgment, a flaw which might combined with fated and external forces. The downfall can cause the tragic hero to suffer for the rest of his life. In many literary works, the downfall of the tragic heroes usually happen in their highest point. In the same way, Macbeth is a tragic hero in the play called “The Tragedy of Macbeth” which is written by a legendary writer, William Shakespeares. Macbeth is a great general who gained many respect from the people and even the king. In the highest point of his life, because of seeking for greater power, it created Macbeth’s downfall. Macbeth, a tragic hero, causes suffering for himself and others by committing murders and creating distress, which are the negative effects of seeking for a greater power.
He “acts badly” (Bradley, 136) and loses his composure whenever his imagination triumphs over his practical side; however, Bradley also asserts that Macbeth’s imagination is “the best of him, something usually deeper and higher than his conscious thoughts” (133). Macbeth is therefore unable to make use of the “better” imagination with which he was endowed and instead only appears “firm, self-controlled and practical” when he is “hateful” (136). A product of these clashing sides, Macbeth’s murder of Duncan is borne of his inability to properly acknowledge the conclusions drawn by his imagination. In his soliloquies and in his visions, he recognizes that his planned act is immoral, but his “practical” side has other, higher priorities.... ...
Through Macbeth, Shakespeare makes the case that being human is not merely physical; rather, to be human one must also have emotions and that anything less makes one ‘weird.’ With Macbeth’s tragic flaw Shakespeare probes the gray area between biology and philosophy. Although an explicit discussion of this connection does not arise in the play, Macbeth’s tragic flaw does provide insight into how one can avoid departing this world a “dead butcher” (5:8:70), one who has lost his emotions and thus his humanity.