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Essay / Psychological analysis of the character of Macbeth
The tragic hero presents a gap between mind and feeling as well as between recognition and action. Macbeth is the drama of self-alienation, derealization, loss of identity, opportunism, nihilism and self-destruction; but at the same time, it is the drama of emotional intensity, of intuitive self-understanding and of 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 Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay From Macbeth speaks of the deep philosophical wisdom that, ultimately, the human is an unexplorable and impenetrable secret, which resists the access of our regulator to thought and the attempt at rational control. In this tragedy it becomes clear that there is a boundary beyond which reason fails. Macbeth continues his journey to this end and discovers the secret in the form of his psychomachia – the conflict with himself and the failure to understand himself – as a reality all the darker and more real (see Unterstenhöfer , p.189, ll.1 -9), namely his death. In Macbeth, the tyrant's decline is depicted in a psychological pathology. The experience of suffering as an inner process, namely the suffering of evil, has completely come to the fore (Unterstenhöfer, p. 193, l. 13-17). In general, both the story and the crime are shown entirely through personal experiences (see Kott, p.111, l.1-3) – in keeping with the internalized portrayal of characters that began around this time with Shakespeare.With the emancipation of the individual, however, there is now also the possibility of freedom from evil, which ultimately leads to 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 wickedness as a conflict within his own soul (see Unterstenhöfer, p. 193, ll. 25-34). What is central to the humanist conception of man is the idea of the harmony of body and soul, a prerequisite for a well-regulated soul as a God-given unity of the soul. on the basis of a divine reason to which the passions are subordinate. However, this harmony is deeply disrupted in Macbeth's case due to his sacrilegious assassination of the king because, possessed by ambition, he acts without ethics or responsibility and entirely abandons the Ciceronian ideal of just state governance. his mania for power. (see Unterstenhöfer, p.191, l.8-10; l.23-28). With the capital crime of his regicide – which, especially for the Elizabethans, presents sacrilegious, almost blasphemous features and for this reason alone can finally by no means goes unpunished – the knot of excited and torturous hesitation and procrastination has finally burst for Macbeth and the way is now clear for many new crimes – since he now harbors various fears and hopes due to his misdeeds and his usurpation of the throne. These crimes must all be understood as reactions to this crucial first murder. Thus, in order to secure his power, Macbeth's crimes become more and more horrible but, at the same time, also ineffective. The climax is the Macduff family bloodbath ordered by Macbeth. With increasing fear, which must be overcome by ever more senseless and murderous courage, the tyrant's ego degrades more and more (Unterstenhöfer, p. 194, l. 20-21; l. 23-26). In the end, Macbeth becomes the victim of divine Providence through the armies united against him and dies as he had previously celebrated his greatest victory, namely in a duel, as a soldier, on the battlefield – as a tragic hero ..