In Greek tragedy, inevitability plays an important role, depicting the protagonists as pawns of fate, whose roles in the tragedy are distributed arbitrarily and without justice. The outcomes of these roles are decided before the play even begins, for example in Sophocles' Antigone, and so any action of the characters during the play is in vain, because it cannot affect the outcome. In the worst tragedy, characters must return again and again to play the same roles, while the wheel turns. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayOf course, Shakespeare and the other Jacobean playwrights were not subject to the conventions of Greek tragedy, but would nevertheless have been aware of them and would have been influenced by them. Inevitability is also important in Shakespeare's tragedies, both as a dramatic device and as a tool to convey the message of the play. A sense of inevitability keeps audiences captivated as they watch seemingly hopeful events, knowing that an inexorable downturn will occur in the near future. This leads the audience to sympathize more with the tragic hero, as being caught in circumstances beyond his control, albeit of his own making (I will return to this point later). There is, however, an important difference between inevitability and predictability. If events are predictable, the audience will quickly become bored and the tragic effect will be lost; while pathetic incidents have a greater effect when they arise unexpectedly, but at the same time as a direct consequence of each other. An example of this is at the end of King Lear, when Lear enters carrying Cordelia "dead in his arms", as the production says. This event could not have been predicted, especially since in the previous lines there was a feeling of hope building for the first time in the play, but there is a feeling of inevitability, and this is a consequence of Edmund's evil. I believe the piece would be incomplete and much less powerful if it did not contain this final hammer blow to hope. If Cordelia were to survive, it would contradict everything the play has said thus far about the injustice and futility of life; Lear's death alone would not have been enough, because it would have brought about a sense of fulfillment and justice, because he was reconciled with Cordelia and would thus die a happy man. The tragedy is greatly multiplied by this denial of Lear's identity. contentment, and he consequently dies confused and wondering what all the pain, destruction and loss was for. One of the greatest tragedies of the play, and there are many, is that Lear dies without finding an answer to his question: "Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life, / And you , no breath at all? Cordelia in no way deserves the fate she receives, she is only in England because of her selfless love for her father, but it could be argued that she precipitated the tragedy by refusing to participate in the "love match" of his father. However, his suffering is completely disproportionate to the scale of his crime, which further compounds the tragedy. There is a sense of hope in other Shakespeare tragedies, for example in Hamlet, when the "young prince" returns from England in Act V, he is not as naive as he made himself out to be. been in the rest of the room; he has overcome some of his quirks and begins to take responsibility for the first time. However, at that moment, the tragedy is tooadvanced so that he can change the outcome. The death of Ophelia, due to the murder of Polonius, makes the situation irremediable for Hamlet, and only amplifies his hatred of the world, especially since he knows that it is his fault and that his selfishness does not doesn't like being reminded of his guilt. It is only after his fate is sealed and he is wounded with the poisoned rapier that Hamlet finally does what he should have done in the beginning and kills his uncle. This tragedy is similar to how Gloucester only achieves insight after having his eyes gouged out, for it is only when he is dying that Hamlet overcomes his hesitation and takes the act that could have saved the life lost and the promise that occurred because of it. Thus, hope is once again dashed by the inevitable passage of events. In Macbeth, there is hope at the beginning of the play that Macbeth can overcome his temptation and let the prophecy come true without him committing any illegal acts, as he says: "If by chance I should be king, then chance can crown me / Without my agitation.” (I:iii:141-3). However, Duncan's stupidity and tactlessness in the next scene, when he extols Macbeth's virtues for a page and a half, saying "You owe more than all can pay", then names the unimpressive Malcolm as his heir, effectively signing his own death warrant. Surely at least a step towards rewarding Macbeth with "more than all wages". " would be to name him Prince of Cumberland, rather than Malcolm, who was with his father several miles from the fighting while Macbeth and the other soldiers risked their lives for him. From this point on, the events of the play are inevitable , as Macbeth says of the appointment, "It is a step / On which I must fall, or else leap, / For in my way it lies, it was possible for Duncan to name Macbeth heir, and so." he would not have had to "stir up". It could be argued that the ambition and complete lack of self-control that Macbeth demonstrates later in the play must also be present at this point, and so not only is Duncan careful to not naming Macbeth heir, but even if the king had done so, Macbeth could not have waited for Duncan to die of natural causes to claim what had been prophesied as his own The “? ” of Macbeth can be seen as a feeble effort to convince himself that he will be strong enough to resist temptation when placed in the context of his previous actions. It is reported that Macbeth "jumps" (I: iii: 50) at the announcement of his accession to the throne, which could well mean that he has already dreamed of ruling, and that he knows that he will have difficulty in doing so. resist. is reinforced by his desire to know more about witches and by his weak assertion that "to be king / is not in the prospect of belief - / No more than to be Cawdor", since he already knows at this point that one of the three prophecies has already come true. This attempt to deceive himself and his companion Banquo fails when, upon learning that he is indeed the Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth displays clear ambition: "? Thane of Cawdor! / The greatest is behind - Thank you for your efforts. " Thus, it could be argued that even before the play begins, these character traits of Macbeth, dangerous when combined, make the events of the play inevitable. It is therefore questionable whether the events of the play are directly precipitated by the prophecies of the Weird Sisters, or whether they simply reflect the desires and still-hidden state of mind of Macbeth at the beginning of the play. If he is a puppet of the witches, it could be argued that he garners more sympathy because his actions are beyond his control, which increases the tragedybecause the suffering he endures is even greater than the level of his crimes. However, if one believes that the source of Macbeth's actions comes from within himself, only discovered and encouraged by outside influences, then, as in King Lear, if one believes that he n There are no gods in the play, all actions are carried out by humans and it gives a dark impression of the underlying cruelty and selfishness of human nature. This view is supported when one of the witches says of the first apparition: "He knows your thoughts" (IV: 1: 68), implying that the root of their words is found in Macbeth's. head and thoughts Macbeth simply does not have the will to act on his impulses without what he presents as promises of success. Macbeth, under the orders of the witches (who could therefore be considered temptresses of Satan), “rejects fate, despises death and carries / His hopes above wisdom, grace and fear” (III: v : 30-31). Othello, there is always the hope that "the Moor" can come to his senses, see through Iago's intrigues (it would not, frankly, be difficult to do so) and forgive Desdemona. Even at the end, when Othello is about to suffocate Desdemona, the audience hopes that he can give in to what seems blatant common sense and believe his wife and not Iago. The plea of ​​Desdemona, innocent and self-condemning, arouses our deepest sympathy and makes the tragic atrocity committed by the deceived Othello even worse, because we cannot quite believe that she would be executed. Again, like Gloucester in King Lear, whose deception strongly resembles Othello's disturbingly easy dupe, the tragedy is that it is only after an irrevocable act has taken place that the deceived party becomes report what happened. Othello obviously cannot make up for his wrongdoing. , and Gloucester cannot help his son after his eyes are gouged out, although he wishes him prosperity, and both wish to commit suicide; but Gloucester's attempt is foiled by Edgar. In Othello, once the council decides to let Desdemona accompany Othello to Cyprus, there is a sense of foreboding about the events to come. As Richard II's failure as king shows, a leader's personal life and role must be kept separate, and a leader's personality and intelligence are not necessarily indicators of how well he will carry out its work. Henry V was a great king. , but he had many failures as a man. So when Othello mixes work and family life, it is inevitable that there will be trouble. What cannot be predicted in Othello is the ease with which Othello allows himself to be fooled by Iago, and this stupidity on the part of the hero puts a strain on the tragedy, because the audience can be divided as to whether he sympathizes with Othello, given his stupidity and his willingness, even his eagerness, to believe that his wife has been unfaithful to him. It is absolutely necessary for the audience to sympathize with the plight of the protagonist, because if they did not, they would not care about his death and the tragic element would be lost. The audience must see in the main character a reflection, however small in itself and representation of human limitations, we feel pity for a man who does not deserve his misfortunes, and we fear for someone like us1. Furthermore, the protagonist must be fundamentally virtuous or righteous, suffering misfortune not because of depravity or vice but because of an error of judgment,2 often because the character is temporarily "blinded" by a character flaw which prevents him from acting as he normally would. So, it depends on one's personal reaction as to whether theOthello's tragedy works or not, and his willingness to forgive Othello for his stupidity. Personally, I think the tragedy still works, but it's nowhere near as overwhelming as the other "major tragedies": King Lear, Hamlet, and Macbeth. This “blindness”, which causes lack of reason, is another common characteristic of Shakespeare’s tragedies3. This is akin to the Greek concept of “Hamartia,” the “fatal flaw” that causes the character to contribute to their own downfall. Hamlet is blinded by his hatred of the world around him, and his obsessive nature and deep-rooted selfishness cause him to pontificate unreasonably about the larger connotations of the acts he must perform. He knows his hesitation is pointless and guiltily tries to find excuses to delay his decision, first claiming he needs more proof, saying "I'll have reasons/More relative than this: the room is the thing, / Where I will catch the king's conscience" (II:ii:605-8). This reasoning is invalidated because it ends with a undistic, symbolizing Hamlet's acceptance of the fact that he is making excuses. In the most famous of his soliloquies (III:I:58-92), Hamlet wonders whether it is "nobler" to abandon himself to "scandalous Fortune" or to put an end to his situation. all this by committing suicide. He states that "conscience makes cowards of us all" and concludes that without "fear of something after death" which "baffles the will", no one "would endure the whips and scorns of time". Thus, he lacks the determination necessary to commit suicide or to commit the murder of his uncle, although he "[has] a reason, a will, a strength and means / To do it" (IV: iv : 47-8), and even admits that "... thinking precisely about the event, / A divided thought has only one part of wisdom, / And always three parts of cowardice." (IV:iv:44-5) Only when he is dying does Hamlet overcome his scruples and cowardice, "whether it be bestial forgetfulness or some cowardly scruple", and commits the deed. Of course, by then it's too late. King Lear's case is more complicated, because he is blinded by a mixture of anger, pride and vanity. The vain “love marriage” that he organizes to flatter himself publicly is a political error of considerable magnitude, as is the very idea of ​​dividing a kingdom. According to Machiavelli, this is one of the worst things a ruler can do, and this is certainly reinforced by the events of the play. From the moment Lear divides his kingdom, it is inevitable that there will be unrest, the various factions will eventually succumb to greed and there will be war. To make matters worse, Lear has already decided which region of the kingdom will go to which daughter, telling Cordelia: "What can you say to draw / A third more opulent than your sisters?" (I:i:82) This shows that the competition does not even have a practical purpose; it is only for the benefit of Lear's ego that he asks his daughters to flatter him in public, and it is for this reason that he reacts so badly to Cordelia's response: "Nothing." It's a blow to his ego, and a direct blow. insulting him in public, in court. This hurts his pride and causes him to express his anger at her, but in his rage he fails to understand the true meaning of Cordelia's response, which is that she can't beat complicated declarations of love and falsified from his sisters, because his love is obvious. a simple and pure nature. It is in this fit of anger that Lear banishes Cordelia and Kent, the two people who love him most and whom he needs to protect him from his other daughters, in a truly spectacular display of political incompetence that makes his fall and the all-pervasive waste of life that occurs in thefinal stages of the piece. Although Lear is undoubtedly guilty, the suffering he endures is out of all proportion to the crimes he commits. His subsequent reduction to the level of an "unaccommodated man" allows him to rid himself of the pride and vanity that provoked his anger, and thus he is able to make informed decisions and understand his previous mistakes, even if it is too late to do so. nothing about the state of events in the play, since he has renounced all his power. Ironically, he had to lose power to gain insight, but he needs power to use that insight. In this way, the audience gains sympathy for Lear, "a man who has sinned against more than sinned" (III:ii:58-9), and this makes the tragedy work. Macbeth is blinded by "hunched ambition": even though he knows that the witches' prophecies will cause trouble and, as Banquo says, "[fears] / Of things that seem so right" (I:iii:51- 2). Still, he tells his wife, in an act he must know will lead her to encourage his ambition, hers being just as enthusiastic as his. Either Macbeth knows this and doesn't have the judgment or strength to resist telling her, or he doesn't know his wife as well as he thinks he does. He may tell her that she will help him overcome his weakness and his strength will allow him to act, which he could not do alone. Macbeth's ambition makes him impatient when it would be more prudent to wait for his prophecy to come true, especially since he has "no sting / To prick the sides of my content but only / A hunched ambition which goes beyond itself. King, he could stop there and get away with his crime. However, his ambition wants his sons to be kings as well, meaning he must stop Banquo's prophecy from coming true. With his high level of intelligence, Macbeth should realize that if something is predetermined, and as these prophecies have proven true, nothing he can do will change the course of events. It is futile to try to change the inevitable, but his judgment is tainted by ambition and he refuses to accept it. Having discovered that witches' fortune-telling is a "poisoned chalice" the first time, that indeed "bloody instructions which, being taught, return / torment the inventor" (I; vii: 9-10), Macbeth should know better than to go back and ask them for more, and even says: “Even if you untie the winds and let them fight / Against the churches; although the waves yes / confuse and swallow up navigation? answer me” (IV: 1: 51) -9). However, once again his ambition interferes with his reasoning skills and he succumbs to temptation. Macbeth's ambition is similar to Edmund's in King Lear, in that they both go against the natural order. The difference is that Macbeth suffers terribly from the guilt of being "[Duncan's] kinsman and his subject, both strong against the act (I: vii: 13-14), whereas Edmund declares: "All is with me so that I can shape what suits me.” a very Machiavellian response which shows that unlike Macbeth, he has no respect for the natural order which he overthrows. Macbeth's guilt and resulting mental turmoil are symbolized by the storm, which Lennox describes by saying, "My young memory cannot be compared with it." " (II:iii:58-9). This is similar to Lear's tempest, of which Kent says: "Since I was a man, / Such leaves of fire? I never remember hearing of them » (III: ii:44-6). Although Macbeth's guilt is the reason why he fails, causing him to betray himself when he sees the appearance of Banquo's ghost, it is also the reason. For