Reading Shakespeare: The Negation of Being and Becoming in Othello and Macbeth

 Reading Shakespeare:  The Negation of  Being and Becoming in Othello and Macbeth 

In Othello and Macbeth we do not find an unequivocal reaffirmation of communal values and reassertion of harmony in the universe.  Like the ancient tragedies we have considered, the plays reflect uncertainty about the strength and centrality of the hero's sense of self, misgivings about the social order and doubt about the morality and divinity of the cosmos.  In fact, as Jonathan Dollimore argues, in Radical Tragedy , we sense in the drama of Elizabethan and Jacobean England a sharp experience of cultural crisis, of the limits of current religion and science, and of the imminent disintegration of the social and cultural order. 1  Equivocation and a sense of disintegration, doubt, and the need for  exploration find clear expression in Othello and Macbeth .   

     Although, as H. S. Wilson argues in his book, On the Design of Shakespearian Tragedy , Othello and Macbeth  may be seen as plays of similar worldview, in terms of what is negated, in terms of how the realities of the respective heroes are characterized, the plays stand in almost direct opposition to one another.   Othello I would characterize as a tragedy of "being;" Macbeth , on the other hand, is a tragedy of "becoming."  Whereas Macbeth searches for his place in the world, his self completion, and manliness, and suffers the taunts and preoccupations of being less than a man,  Othello is whole, manly, a  recognized general and admired warrior (. . . I have served with him, and he commands/ like a full soldier." (II. i. 35-6) 2 ), a man acknowledged by the state, recognized as one of "solid virtue" "whom passion could not shake" (IV. i. 264), and complete in the love of a fair and virtuous woman.  Macbeth's past military accomplishments are never referred to, and his recent daring in battle is apparently surprising.  While Macbeth is married to a woman who seems older than he, Othello's marriage is to a younger woman.  It was Desdemona's ingenuous admiration for Othello's stories of his exploits which attracted her to the accomplished warrior and, as the play opens, she has only just been carried off  from her father's house.  In comparison to Othello's, Macbeth's relations to the social hierarchy  seem uncertain and tentative.  Macbeth approaches the King in the obsequious--though not necessarily insincere--guise of servant and child.  Othello bends to no-one.  He knows his position and the value of his service to the state.  In contrast to Macbeth's implied "youth," Othello is "declined into the vale of years" (III. iii. 265).