Indeed, Macbeth follows the "air-drawn dagger," a "false
creation," a "dagger of the mind" proceeding from his "heat oppressed brain." And it
mashals him the way to dusty death.
At the beginning of the
play, Macbeth is a perfect thane, willing to suffer bodily, to the death, for his King.
Matters of the body are easier for a thane to discern than are matters of the mind.
His body knows when it's being attacked and, with a sword, it can defend itself. But
with the mind, it's not so obvious.
After the first battle
in Act I, Macbeth suffers a psychological and moral dilemma when the witches, using
half-truths (and therefore lies), present him with the idea of becoming king. His mind
begins to race, and he writes his wife the news.
Macbeth,
unlike Banquo, cannot reconcile truths from lies, so he chooses only what he wants, the
ideal (King). He ignores all logic: the part about protecting his King, God's holy
vessel, his kinsman (relative), and his guest.
Pathos trumps logos:
vaulting ambition wins out.
Hearing of Macbeth's dilemma
through the letter, Lady Macbeth, who is not used to suffering bodily, casts off her
conscience (her Superego), leaving a moral vacuum. She invites "spirits" into her body,
the Id to reign. And so, from Act I on, Lady Macbeth becomes a walking, talking
overgrown child who selfishly wants and wants and who cannot deal well with suffering of
the body or mind. Her sleepwalking, mental illness, and suicide are all signs of an
irreconcilable division between body and mind and of an Id out of
control.
Macbeth too relies too heavily on his Id. In Act
III, he goes on a killing spree, murdering his best friend, women, and children--all
because he is paranoid of losing the crown. By Act V, he is so Id-driven that he thinks
he is invincible. He realizes he has lost all reason and compassion, but it's too late.
Ironically, he loses his head for it--a division of the body and mind
forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment