Home > Shakespearean Criticism > Macbeth (Vol. 29) - Macbeth

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page
4. Tweet This

MACBETH

Robert B. Heilman (essay date 1966)

SOURCE: "The Criminal as Tragic Hero: Dramatic Methods," in Shakespeare Survey: An Annual Survey of Shakespearian Study and Production, Vol. 19, 1966, pp. 12-24.

[In the following essay, Heilman presents an analysis of Macbeth as a moral agent, focusing on the protagonist's ability to elicit positive feelings from the audience.]

The difficulties presented by the character of Macbeth—the criminal as tragic hero—have led some critics to charge Shakespeare with inconsistency, others to seek consistency by viewing the initial Macbeth as in some way morally defective, and still others to normalize the hero by viewing the final Macbeth as in some way morally triumphant. Perhaps a recollection of Lascelles Abercrombie's enthusiastic phrase, [The Idea of Great Poetry], 'the zest and terrible splendour of his own unquenchable mind' (1925), and of Wilson Knight's comparable 'emerges...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Introduction
2. Language And Symbolism
3. Supernatural Elements
4. Gender Issues
5. Macbeth
6. Further Reading
7. Copyright