Philosophy in Macbeth

I realized doing my English assignment how easy it is to relate philosophy to almost anything if you just a little over analyze it. (=)

So I thought I'd share some philosophical issues the Shakespeare play "Macbeth" brings up - and I find interesting.

First of all, it could be called - A moral play, or a play with a moral. It is very clear that the play takes a stand on the actions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth (LM from now on) - that they are wrong and even immoral. So it deals with issues of morality - one could look for the reason of their plan to be wrong. Is it because they broke the contract between citizens and a fair king by murdering Duncan?(contractarianism and legitimacy issue, political philosophy) or is it because murder is wrong as a deed?

But the play seems not to support the last stand. As we read in the end - Macbeth is killed and it is a great joy for the crowd.

Is it wrong because Macbeth expressed a desire to become something he is not? because he has let his will to power take over him?

This brings up another issue - the issue of identity. The question is - how much of this tragedy has happened because of Macbeth's ambition (personality)? and to what degree was it caused by the witches and LM that encouraged him and pushed him towards fulfilling his secret desire?

We can look at the issue from different philosophical perspectives.

the first is the deterministic one - Macbeth was conditioned to desire power and had an inner ambition to become the king of Scotland. The witches and LM were just triggering off something that would have happened no matter what.

The second perspective is the witches prophecy has actually changed Macbeth's mind. That he can change as a person and change the direction to which his life is going by taking action.

Another philosophy we could bring in to Macbeth is Nietzsche's. His idea of will to power the will to power is very much present in the characters of Macbeth and LM in the play.

Also - his notion of guilt. Nietzsche says that human beings have impulses they act upon, like beasts, and that one of those is violence. That humans enjoy violence. He also says that with the course of time the animal that is the human being has tamed itself. That we now suppress our impulses and turn them inwards. This combined with the guilt (unredeemable debt) we have to our ancestors leads to our own destruction.

This idea is very much present in the character of Lady Macbeth in the play. She does express a will to power, an impulse that Nietzsche claims we all have. But then the consequences of her deed and her violence make her feel extreme guilt which is turned towards herself. That finally destroys her - as she starts sleepwalking, hallucinating and finally she kills herself.

Hope this is not too far stretched :p

Just thought it's kinda cool how you can apply Philosophy to this kind of things. :)