Tragedies and Historical Plays

Shakespeare used several different genres for his plays over the course of his life. Macbeth is generally considered a tragedy; however, it also has many historical elements to it. The following are some elements of both genres and how they relate to Macbeth:

Tragic Plays
o The concept of a tragedy was formed by Aristotle during ancient times but has changed drastically over the years.
o According to Aristotle, a tragedy is defined as “an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude.”
o Shakespeare characterized a tragedy as having six principle parts: plot, characters, diction, thought, spectacle, and melody. These six components not only make up a tragedy, but they affect the quality and perception of a piece of writing.
o Aristotle also stressed the importance of a catharsis at the end of tragedy, involving some sort of purgatory or spiritual cleansing.
o Greek and Roman tragedies, as Aristotle characterized them, were forgotten until the early 17th century when writers and playwrights began to translate ancient texts and adapt them, thus familiarizing themselves with the genre.
o Shakespearean tragedies are mainly characterized by the downfall of the protagonist. Shakespeare's tragedies always portray tragic heroes as noble men who have high social statuses and are respected. In addition, they tend to have some moral or inner weaknesses that may eventually lead to their downfall.
o Apart from internal factors, such as inner weaknesses, external forces such as fate or antagonists also play an important role in the inevitable demise of a tragic hero. For example, in Macbeth, the three witches take on the role of the antagonists that wield Macbeth's fate.
o Similar to Aristotle, Shakespeare’s tragic hero is always an admirable but flawed character; however, unlike Aristotle, Shakespeare’s protagonists are always given a chance to opt out and avoid their imminent fate, but never choose to do so.

Historical Plays
o A Shakespearean history is one that covers English history from the 12th – 16th century.
o Most of the characters in Shakespeare’s historical plays were living people but the plot and details that embellish their story were generally exaggerations written by Shakespeare.
o The definite historical plays written by Shakespeare are King John, Richard II, Henry IV Parts I and II, Henry V, Henry VI Parts I, II and III, Richard III and Henry VIII.
o Shakespeare’s source for his history was Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, placecountry-regionScotland and placecountry-regionIreland.
o English plays were considered to be Tudor propaganda at the time because they portrayed the Tudor kings in a very positive light compared to the previous monarchs.
o Roman plays were based upon the popularity of Greek and Roman culture at the time.
o The English considered themselves the next generation of the placeRoman empire and tried to imitate this style.

Macbeth is generally considered to be a tragedy due to the historical inaccuracies presented throughout the play that differ greatly from the life of the 11th century Scottish king that the story was based upon.


Works Cited/Bibliography
Brooke, Michael. Shakespeare's Histories. 2006. BFI Screen Online. 31 January 2007.

McManus, Barbara F.. “Outline of Aristotle’s Theory of Tragedy in the POETICS.” The College of New Rochelle. November 1999. 27 January 2007 http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/poetics.html.

“Tragedy.” Wikipedia. 26 January 2007. 27 January 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy#Origin_of_Western_tragedy.

Schwartz, Debora. English 339: Introduction to Shakespeare. 2002. California Polytechnic State University. 31 January 2007.

Comparing the Oxford and MIT Editions of Macbeth

The comparison of various editions of literary works, especially of plays, allows the reader to gain greater insight, as well as a deeper appreciation and understanding of the work. Upon doing a thorough comparison, it is possible to clearly identify language use, punctuation and formatting that either enhances or detracts from the text.
After comparing the Oxford World’s Classics edition of Macbeth and the online version provided by MIT, it is apparent that the Oxford edition’s use and presentation of language, punctuation, stage directions and character information is more effective than the online text’s. One of the most significant differences between the Oxford version and the MIT version is the use of punctuation in the text. The MIT version tends to omit much of the punctuation present in the Oxford version. For example, the MIT version omits a question mark in line 1 or one comma line 4 of act 1 scene 1. Overall, the punctuation in the Oxford version is more effective than in the MIT version as it excellently accentuates Shakespeare’s language-choice and phrases, providing for a clearer and more comprehensive reading and understanding of the text.
The stage directions in these two versions are also rather different. For example, the MIT version adds an extra stage direction that is powerful enough to change the disposition of the scene. “Exit Sergeant, attended” is added in into the middle act 1 scene 2 of the MIT version, which causes the atmosphere of the rest of the scene to be less somber than in the Oxford version where the bleeding Captain remains present for the rest of the scene.
The word choice in the MIT version of the play differs from the word choice in the Oxford version. For example, the Captain is referred to as “The Sergeant” in the former version of Macbeth. In addition, there are different spellings of certain words in both versions. In the Oxford version, some of the words that differ include “galloglasses” instead of “gallowglasses”, and “chops” instead of the misspelled word in the MIT version, “chaps”.
The physical differences between the two texts are also extensive— ranging from the font and layout to the capitalization of certain characters’ names. The MIT version is not at all aesthetically pleasing. The text is double spaced, requiring constant scrolling; it capitalizes the true name of characters, such as “MACBETH”, but does not capitalize the titles of characters, such as “Seargent”, which proves to be distracting. Also, the lines are not numbered and no notes on the text are provided as in the Oxford version, so these helpful components are missing. The only major addition in the MIT version that is not present in the Oxford edition is a description of the location of each scene. For example, scene 1 is introduced as “SCENE I. A desert place.”
Although the text itself does not differ greatly between the two versions of Macbeth, numerous details such as punctuation and stage directions are significantly different, but because they are capable of altering one’s perception of the text, they prove to be critical in one’s reading of the text. Overall the Oxford Edition tends to provide a better rendition of Macbeth than the MIT on-line version.