Topic > Psychological analysis of Macbeth's character

The tragic hero shows a discrepancy between mind and feeling as well as between recognition and action. Macbeth is the drama of self-alienation, derealization, loss of identity, opportunity, nihilism and self-destruction; but at the same time it is the drama of emotional intensity, intuitive self-understanding and suffering (see Unterstenhöfer, p.187, l.5-8; l.16-20). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Macbeth speaks to the profound philosophical wisdom that, ultimately, the human is an unexplorable and impenetrable secret, resisting access by our normative forces. thought and the attempt at rational mastery. In this tragedy it becomes clear that there is a limit beyond which reason fails. Macbeth travels his way to this point and discovers the secret in the form of his psychomachia – the conflict with himself and the lack of understanding of himself – as a reality all the more dark and real (see Unterstenhöfer, p.189, ll. 1 -9), or his death. In Macbeth the tyrant's decadence is depicted in a psychological pathology. The experience of suffering as an internal process, i.e. the suffering of evil, has moved completely into the foreground (Unterstenhöfer, p. 193, l.13-17). In general, both the story and the crime are represented completely through personal experiences (see Kott, p.111, l.1-3) – in accordance with the internalized representation of the character that began at that time with Shakespeare. With the emancipation However, the individual now also has the possibility of freedom from evil, which ultimately causes the loss of the soul. The protagonist's disintegration begins with the conception of evil itself. Like a psychomachia, Macbeth experiences his conscious decision to commit an evil act as an internal conflict within his own soul (see Unterstenhöfer, p. 193, ll.25-34). What is central to the humanistic conception of man is the idea of ​​the harmony of body and soul, a prerequisite for a well-regulated soul as a unity of the soul given by God on the basis of a divine reason to which the passions are subordinate. However, this harmony is deeply disturbed in Macbeth's case due to the sacrilegious murder of the king since, like someone possessed by ambition, he acts without ethics and responsibility and entirely abandons the Ciceronian ideal of a just state government to his lust for power. (see Unterstenhöfer, p.191, l.8-10; l.23-28). With the capital crime of his regicide – which, especially for the Elizabethans, has sacrilegious, almost blasphemous features and for this reason alone nothing can finally go unpunished – the knot of excited, torturous hesitation and procrastination has finally broken out for Macbeth and his the way is now clear for numerous new crimes – as he now harbors several fears and hopes due to his misdeeds and usurpation of the throne. These crimes must all be understood as reactions to this crucial first murder. Thus, to ensure his power, Macbeth's crimes become increasingly bloody but, at the same time, also ineffective. The climax is the massacre of Macduff's family ordered by Macbeth. With growing fear, which must be overcome with increasingly senseless and murderous courage, the tyrant's ego decays more and more (Unterstenhöfer, p.194, l.20-21; l.23-26). Ultimately Macbeth becomes the victim of divine providence in the form of the armies united against him and dies just as he had previously celebrated his greatest victory, that is, in a duel, as a soldier, on the battlefield – as a tragic hero. In this process we, as recipients, have difficulty perceiving Macbeth exclusively as an executioner or as a victim, since.