Probably my all-time favorite play. Here just a few wise words about it.
“Indeed, the whole action takes place in a kind of hell and is pitched to the demons’ shriek of hyperbole. This would appear to be a peculiar setting for a study of the commonplace. But only at first sight. The fact that an ordinary philistine like Macbeth goes on the rampage and commits a series of murders is a sign that human nature, like nature, is capable of any mischief if left to its “natural” self. The witches, unnatural beings, are Nature spirits, stirring their snake-filet and owl’s wing, newt’s eye and frog toe in a camp stew: earthy ingredients boil down to an unearthly broth. It is the same with the man Macbeth. Ordinary ambition, fear, and a kind of stupidity make a deadly combination. Macbeth, a self-made king, is not kingly, but simply the original Adam, the social animal, and Lady Macbeth is the Mother Eve.”
Source: Mary McCarthy’s “General Macbeth”, Harper’s Magazine, June 1962
-tgs-
Posted by Tommi 
