공성욱 -- ｢맥베스｣: 실패한 배우, 실패한 극작가


Sung-Uk Kong, "Macbeth Fails His Own Drama"

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to research the main character, Macbeth’s role in Macbeth. From the first to the last this drama shows Macbeth’s consciousness and intention as a usurper. To reach that goal Macbeth himself performs double-roles, one as a dramatist who writes his own drama for will to kingship and the other is an actor in his own drama.

Meeting with witches is to Macbeth a chance of soaring up his own imagination for kingship and in this process he performs many devilish acts successively for or against his own will, which at last he himself cannot control. As a dramatist he cannot manipulate the dramatic conditions—time, place, and action—in the bloodshed tragedy he writes and plays. Instead he is overruled by time and situation, which means he cannot display his own intention and imagination as he will. This makes his drama failed. In failed drama Macbeth himself performs an incompetent action which is metaphorized in the phrase, “a giant’s robe upon a dwarfish thief” (5.2.21-22).

The main cause to his failure as a dramatist and an actor is his overflowing imagination. All his actions are derived from the witches’ prophet-like words. He accepts their words blindly. There are many dramatic terms and allusions in this drama, which have a relation with his successive murders that metaphorically show the result that he himself is isolated from the audience and the drama itself. At last he falls into the failed dramatist and the failed actor.


Key Words
Macbeth, dramatist, actor, self-consciousness, stage, theme, imagination, witch, metadrama, unconsciousness