Violence and Politics in Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood
In a provocative reading of the early scenes of Macbeth, Harry Berger argues that critics have failed to notice the deeper irony of the play. Most readers view Macbeth as a tyrant whose violent occupation of the Scottish throne represents an aberration from Scotland’s usual, and therefore also sacr...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2019
|
| In: |
Mimetic theory and film
Year: 2019, Pages: 97-108 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Violence
B Shakespeare, William 1564-1616 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In a provocative reading of the early scenes of Macbeth, Harry Berger argues that critics have failed to notice the deeper irony of the play. Most readers view Macbeth as a tyrant whose violent occupation of the Scottish throne represents an aberration from Scotland’s usual, and therefore also sacred, political order. On this view Macbeth’s defeat by Macduff returns Scotland to its rightful order in both the human and natural worlds. The restoration of human (i.e., moral) order is signaled by the return of the legitimate heir (Duncan’s son Malcolm) from his exile in England, where he has taken shelter under the English king Edward the Confessor (whose piety is explicitly alluded to by Malcolm in the fourth act). Shakespeare, critics argue, is implying that Malcolm’s reign will be as peaceful and benevolent as both his father’s and the pious English king’s. This renewal of moral order is simultaneously a return of natural or cosmological order, symbolized by the arrival of spring when the greenery of Birnam wood rises to envelop Macbeth’s dark and wintry castle on high Dunsinane Hill.... |
|---|---|
| ISBN: | 9781501334863 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Mimetic theory and film
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.5040/9781501334863.0010 |
