Macbeth is both protagonist and antagonist. While he fits both criteria very well, but he passes both and takes more on a role of a Byronic hero. His desire to be king has consumed him to the point where he no longer sees what was once treachery, but is just something he has to do in order to become king.
And once he is king, the desire changes into the desire to stay king, which is much more difficult than he originally planned. This, plus his irrational fear that someone knows about him murdering Duncan push him into paranoia and to places he never could have possibly imagined while he was a Thane to Duncan. This causes him to see the witches again in a last ditch effort to restore his sanity and possibly learn of how he can stay king and if there is any chance of his past will come back to bite him
In some ways, you are right. More modern readers could read Macbeth as Byronic, if we feel that he is rebelling against an order that did not support him in the way he saw fit. He is flawed, certainly, and, as such, also fits the bill. As the play evolves, however, he almost becomes more of an antagonist than anything else, more so even than an anti hero
Macbeth is both protagonist and antagonist. While he fits both criteria very well, but he passes both and takes more on a role of a Byronic hero. His desire to be king has consumed him to the point where he no longer sees what was once treachery, but is just something he has to do in order to become king.
ReplyDeleteAnd once he is king, the desire changes into the desire to stay king, which is much more difficult than he originally planned. This, plus his irrational fear that someone knows about him murdering Duncan push him into paranoia and to places he never could have possibly imagined while he was a Thane to Duncan. This causes him to see the witches again in a last ditch effort to restore his sanity and possibly learn of how he can stay king and if there is any chance of his past will come back to bite him
ReplyDeleteIn some ways, you are right. More modern readers could read Macbeth as Byronic, if we feel that he is rebelling against an order that did not support him in the way he saw fit. He is flawed, certainly, and, as such, also fits the bill. As the play evolves, however, he almost becomes more of an antagonist than anything else, more so even than an anti hero
ReplyDelete