The Moral Order of Macbeth
Mar 5th, 2008 by John Murphy
There’s a very thoughtful commentary on Macbeth by Harry V. Jaffa over at the Claremont Institute. The essay investigates the declining morality of Western civilization vis-a-vis three of its literature’s most memorable anti-heroes: Macbeth, Raskolnikov of Dostovesky’s Crime and Punishment, and Camus’ Stranger, Merseault.
The message—I am tempted to call it the moral—of Macbeth, is the inexorability of the moral order. Macbeth’s soliloquy in act 1 tells us with perfect clarity why the murder must fail. The action that follows bears out the truth of that soliloquy. Not only does the plot fail, but neither Macbeth nor Lady Macbeth is allowed one moment of enjoyment of the fruit of their crime. Their punishment begins almost immediately with the murder. The crime is therefore in every sense self-defeating. The moral order, accordingly, is more powerful than the evil spirits that Lady Macbeth called upon. The moral order, according to The Stranger or Crime and Punishment, lacks any such power. Both of these works record the declining power of morality in Western civilization, and in this sense they record the decline of the West. Yet Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address reaffirms the same power of morality as Macbeth. Perhaps that is why Lincoln said that “nothing equals Macbeth.”
Read the whole essay here.
