Launching the Tragedy of Macbeth: Temptation, Deliberation, and Consent in Act I

Macbeth is the only one of Shakespeare's great tragic heroes who is also a great villain. When he is first presented with the tempting prophecy of kingship, he appears to be a decent human being, greatly respected by all who know him, but the seduction of power steadily consumes and destroys him. Once having accepted the goal of solely sovereign sway and masterdom, he comes to act on the twin principles that things bad begun make strong themselves by ill and that mine own good / All causes shall give way.' Regardless of the cost to himself or to anyone else, he seeks total success and security. In one sense we can call Macbeth a totalitarian, applying to him a word of twentieth-century coinage introduced to cover the vastly repressive and destructive tyrannies of our time. Modem technology has made much of this possible, enabling a contemporary tyrant to establish control and coercion beyond anything available to despots in earlier centuries. In this way, totalitarian states and systems are distinctively modem, but the underlying problem itself is not. The dream of a total control and inviolable security is universally human, present as a temptation to people of every social status, even the least conspicuous. The higher the status, of course, the greater are the possibilities for evil effects, but the basic problem on whatever level of influence is the drive for success and security regardless of any humane distinction between fair and foul. Such idolatry of success can be found in every period of history, but for centuries it was put in perspective and to some extent countered by ethical and