Robert Pack’s main point of view on Macbeth is this. “Macbeth is a good man whose intention is to do evil.” Pack compares the story to those of Hamlet, Othello, and Lear. He says “Shakespeare’s plays all reward retribution, and punishment take place on earth and within the sphere of mortal life.” Macbeth is punished by his soul, not punished physically
Macbeth is about a man who violates the moral order and is punished for it. Pack compares the story to Dante’s “Inferno” by saying, “we see that no torture is imposed upon Macbeth to fit his crimes, but the blessings of Macbeth’s natural humanity fall from him one by one, until he is ultimately deprived of all human ties” He is punished to lose humanity in himself. He ends up driving himself crazy.
He shows a balance of hard and soft virtues. Bravery, strength, defiance, pride, and ambition are his strongest traits, although he exhibits a few smaller traits of kindness and conscience. Later on in the play, Pack says that Macbeth “loses his soft virtues and we cease so feel sympathy for him.”
He seems to lose trust in men who work for him. He loses the sense of seriousness of life. He loses the ability to pray. He loses trust in senses, and is taken over by him second guessing everything. Pact thinks “Our feelings for Macbeth move from sympathy and admiration to horror and awe, where as our feelings for Lady Macbeth move the other way.”
In conclusion, “Macbeth is egotistically romantic to the end, unwilling to bow himself to an order other than his own. The penalties follow; for him there is not any recovery, no pardon, no tender memory.” He will always be haunted and punished for what he has done. It’s Macbeths karma. The once loved character has twisted himself into a symbol of hate.
The Essay on Macbeth as a Machiavellian man
Macbeth was a Machiavellian man. He committed many devilish crimes and he bribed men to do his murderous schemes. He used the power he had against other men to get what he wanted. Macbeth wanted to rule Scotland and when he was in command, if he was worried about someone or something, he made sure everything was taken care of to keep his mind at rest. He had regrets when he killed Duncan, but ...
