The New Nation - Internet Edition

(From previous issue)

Shakespeare's tragedies surely inspire both pity and terror in our hearts when we read them or see them performed upon the stage. Of course, Shakespeare's tragedies are not like the domestic tragedies of the eighteenth century. Shakespeare s tragedies are said to be Kathartic in the sense that they help to purge our hearts of some of the pains and sorrows from which we all suffer more or less in our actual life. When we see before our eyes how much the hero in a Shakespearean tragedy suffers, we feel at the end of the play that our sufferings are too little or insignificant.

In all the tragic plays of Shakespeare the play is the story of one person i.e. the hero of play. In Romeo and Juliet and Antony Cleopatra, the hero and the heroine are equally prominent and they suffer equally. But in the other tragedies we find that the entire story circles round the hero only. In all the tragedies of Shakespeare the hero suffers death invariably. According to the medieval conception of tragedy, as we find in Chaucer's Monk's Tale, the tragedy, lies in the complete change of fortune from good to evil, and it visits the man who was in the beginning happy and fortunate and who stood also on a high position. Shakespeare's tragic heroes are one and all of a high position-either a king or an emperor or a military general. They suffer also very greatly to the point of death, and their sufferings involve the lives of other characters in the play. When the hero falls from a high position, we feel invariably that his tragic end bas been brought about by his own character-it may become serious flow or defect of his character such as vaulting ambition in the case of Macbeth, unduly speculative spirit of Hamlet, abnormal suspicion of Othello, undue addiction to woman and wine on the part of Antony, pride and prejubice of Coriolanus, and so on. When we find the tragedy of the hero before our eyes, we have a very strong feeling of waste just as Bradley has correctly descrihed, "The pity and fear which are stirred by the tragic story seem to unite with, and even to merge in, a profound sense of sadness and mystery, which is due to this impression of waste." Shakespeare believes in fate as much as in human action.

By fate Shakespeare means certain circumstances which are beyond human control; and it is the conspiracy of circumstance as much as the flaw of human character which lead to the tragedy of the hero in all tragic plays of Shakespeare.

So if we say merely that character is destiny or destiny is character, we shall not be able to explain in the tragic incidents or situations which arise more or less in all Shakespearean tragedies and which lead to the find disaster or catastrophe in the play. We will have to accept both the theories as true as we accept them in the case of all human beings whose lives end in a tragedy or even in a comedy. There are innumerable instances in ruman life which lead a person to a dizzy height of eminence, power, wealth, publicity or fame and which at the same time, all of a sudden, throw him into the deepest and darkest pit of human misery, suffering, disgrace and pain or sorrow. How can we account for such cases without believing in both the theories, that character is destiny and also destiny is character?

But a few critics and scholars believe that there are a few other factors which can be the cause of the tragedy in the tragic plays of Shakespeare. They think that some abnormal condition of the mind of the hero such as insanity, somnambulism or hallucination or some supernatural agency, or some chance or accident influences the life and character of the hero, and thus brings about the tragedy.

For example, Lear or Hamlet suffers from some kind of insanity; even Ophelia is not free from the infection of insanity at the end of her career; Lady Macbeth and Macbeth suffer from somnambulism (walking and talking in sleep) and hallucinations respectively, Lear suffers from idiocy due to his extreme old age.

Hamlet suffers from his unduly speculative mind which prevents him at every step from carrying out any of his plans or putting it into action because his speculative spirit weakens or slackens his will-power or determination and thereby deprives him of the power of action, Bradley, however, believes that "these abnormal conditions of the mind are never introduced as the origin of deeds of any dramatic moment."

We come across the supernatural element particularly in the form of ghosts and witches in Hamlet, Macbeth and Julius Caesar, which according to certain critics and scholars greatly influence the mind and character and also the action of the hero.

In Macbeth we notice how greatly Macbeth is influenced by the predictions of the witches although the predictions in the long run are proved to be nothing but equivocations which tempt the human lives to their ruin, because the witches in Macbeth are found to tempt Macbeth with honest trifles and betray him ill the deepest consquence. In Hamlet too we find how the Ghost of Hamlet's father influences the mind and heart of the son i.e. Hamlet by revealing the secrets of the murder of the father by his own brother. The Elizabethans used to believe in ghosts and witches, and Seckespeare must have partly believed in them, and that is why, he introduces these supernatural creatures into his plays in order to bring about the tragedy of the hero and heroine directy or indirectly. It is immaterial whether Shakespeare actually believed or not in ghosts and witches but we find these supernatural creatures actually influencing the life of the hero and leading him to the final disaster i.e. death in everyone of Shakespeare's tragic plays.

Chance or accident also exerts no less an influence than the supernatural factor in bringing about the tragedy in Shakespearean plays. For example, Desdemona drops her handkerchief at the most psychological moment while Edgar arrives at the prison just too late to save the life of Cordelia both of which are brilliant examples of accidents in Othello and King Lear which bring about the tragedy in each of the plays.

There are two kinds of conflicts external and internal-in all the tragedies of Shakespeare. The external conflict lies between either two groups of characters or between the hero and any other leading character in each of the plays, while the internal conflict lies in the mental struggle of the hero, which, according to certain critics, is far more important or decisive in bringing about the tragedy in the play.

For example, in Homlet the external conflict lies between Hamlet and his uncle Claudius, the murderer of his father, while the external conflict in Macbeth lies between Macbeth and Duncan, which drives Macbeth to murder Duncan although there is no real cause of the conflict except Macbeth's vaulting ambition and the favourable opportunity which is offered by chance to commit the murder.

The conflict is further intensified by the predictions of the witches. In the case of Othello the external conflict lies between him and Iago, the villain of the play. The internal conflict in Hamlet is created by the revelations made by the ghost of Hamlet's father about the father's murder by his own brother Claudius.

The internal conflict in Othello is produced by Iago who creates suspicion in the husband about the fidelity of his wife. In the case of Macbeth the internal conflict lies between his vaulting ambition and his loyalty to the King. In Shakespearean tragedy both the inward and outward conflicts are clearly visible although the inward conflict is far more important than the external conflict in bringing about the tragedy in the play.

There is also a kind of fatality in the play of Fate in Shakespearean tragic plays. This fatality is more or less the conspiracy of circumstance or the play of chance or accident which we find also in our actual daily life. Certain critics and scholars believe that this fatality is often one of the causes, if not the chief cause, of the tragedy in a play.

Certain scholars and crities have raised the question of poetic justice in the tragedies of. Shakespare. Poetic justice means that villainy is punished while virtue is rewarded. But Shakespeare never observes any poetic justice in any of his plays consciously or unconsciously because the real aim of his dramatic art is to hold the mirror upto nature.

It may be by accident that poetic justice seems to be observed to some of his tragedies as we find in Macbeth-the hero is punished for his vaulting ambition, how in Lear, the King is punished for his folly of old age or senility, how to Hamlet, the hero suffers due to his unduly speculative spirit. But why does innocent Desdemona or Ophelia suffer while Iago escapes the due penalty template of his motiveless villainy throughout the play? In actual life too we do not find retribution or justice of any kind because we find that the honest and virtuous people suffer grievously whereas the wicked knaves prosper in their lives. Of course, to Shakespearean tragedy the evil does not triumph, but then, it does a lot of injury to the good.

It is only when we believe in some moral or spiritual triumph which is of course merely a sentimental view or a speculative theory, we can say that poetic justice is maintained in Shakespeare's tragic plays. Bradley remarks to this connection, "In Shakespearean tragedy the main source of the convulsion which produces suffering and death is never good. Tragic suffering and death arise from collision, not with a fate or blank power, but with a moral power, a power akin to all that we admire and revere in the characters themselves."

A Shakespedrean tragedy represents a conflict ending in a catastrophe. This conflict can be divided into three stages, In the first stage, which we call the Exposition, the situation, out of which the conflict arises, is set forth. In the second stage, the conflict begins, develops and declines; while in the last stage the conflict leads to the catastrophe. Of course, this kind of division of the conflict into various stages is rather arbitrary. In a Shakespearean tragedy, we find the play beginning with a short but a dramatic scene such as a strict fight in Romeo and Juliet, a crowd in excitement in Julius Caesar, the appearance of a ghost in Hamlet, a scene of the witches, thunder and storm in Macbeth. In most of the tragedies Shakespeare does not introduce the hero of the play in the very beginning: but King Lear forms an exception. Very often Shakespeare uses some dramatic irony in order to remind the audience that the hero to the play is doomed particularly when the play is a tragedy.

So far the development of the conflict in the play is concerned there are three important facts about it as Bradley has pointed out. The emotional pitch or the tension is not uniform at all stages of the play but it is spread out into alternate fits of rise and fall, intensification and reduction of the tension, made possible by the introduction of certain incidents or situations.

Another point which is striking about the development of the tension is that certain scenes are more exciting while others are less exciting or in other words, the intensity of the conflict rises and falls and vice' versa throughout a Shakespearean tragedy. Shakespeare makes the principle of alternation work in order to show the conflict by sometimes advancing the cause while at other times reducing or weakening the cause of the conflict either external or internal; and thus he helps to maintain a regular development of the conflict leading to a crisis. At a particular point of the play the crisis arrives when the fate of the opposing parties or of the opposing infleunce, is undecided. The crisis arrives somewhere near the middle of the play. This crisis is nothing but an undecided condition of each of the opposing parties involved in the conflict.

Most of Shakespeare's tragedies undoubtedly show a tendency to "'drag" particularly in the latter parts of the play; but then Shakeprare knows how to maintain the interest of his audience. Professor Bradley mentions seven following means of counter balancing the tendency to 'drag' and also of maintaining the tragic interest of the conflict in all the tragedies of Shakespeare:

(1) "A very effective means is to introduce an equally exciting counter-action almost immediately after the crisis. In Julius Caesar, the assassination of Caesar is followed by the scene in the Forum in which Antony makes his famous speech and turns the sympathy of his audience against the conspirators. In Hamlet, the brilliant success of the play-scene is immediately followed by the counter-stroke of Hamlet's failure to take vengeance and his misfortune in killing Polonius."

(2) "Sometimes we are reminded, after tine crisis has been reduced, of the state of affairs in which the conflict began. This is seen in Hamlet where the ghost reappears after the counter-stroke. In Macbeth, the witches appear again after the banquet scene and goad Macbeth to further action."

(3) "A clever device used by Shakespeare in most of his tragedies is to an appeal to emotion different from the ones excited in the first half of the play. The new emotion is generally pathetic. In Lear there is the scene where Lear wakes up from sleep to find Cordelia bending over him. In Macbeth we have the touching scene between Lady Macduff and her little boy, and in Hamlet we have the introduction of Ophelia in her madness, a scene so moving in its beauty. In Othello there is the intensely pathetic scene in which Desdemona and Emilia converse and the willow-song is sung."

(4) "Sometimes in this action of the tragedy humorous or semi-humorous passages are introduced. The conversation between Lady Macduff and her boy is not without a touch of comedy; and a little before the catastrophe in Hamlet we have the welcome relief of the gravedigger passage."

(5) "In many of his plays, Shakespeare introduced battle scenes towards the close, and these scenes were extremely popular in the Elizabethan theatre. This is seen in Macbeth, King Lear, Julius Caesar and other plays."

(6) "Though Shakespeare never really tries to surprise us by his catastrophe, he sometimes offers us a gleam of false hope that the hero may somehow be saved. The most remarkable example of this is in King Lear, where Edgar's victory and the death of Goneril, Regan and Edmund almost make us forget the design on the lives of Lear and Cordelia."

(7) "In some cases Shakespeare spreads the catastrophe over a considerable space and shortens the counteraction. Sometime is allowed to elapse between the death of Desdemona and the death of Othello. The famous sleep-walking scene in Macbeth which my be said to mark the catastrophe of Lady Macbeth, does not take place before the fifth Act. The fate of Lady Macbeth deeply interests us, and this very powerful scene coming so late in the play helps sustain our interest."

(From Shakespeare's 'The Tempest, edited by TK Dutt and R.Singh)