Two Examples Of Greek Hubris In Macbeth

Hubris in Macbeth
According to Merriam Webster, hubris is “exaggerated pride or self-confidence.” When hubris is displayed in classical Greek works, it often leads to the downfall of the character and a bleak outcome. However, when hubris is used in Christian forms, it has a happier and more hopeful ending as opposed to that in Greek works. Both Christian hubris and Greek hubris can be found in Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth. Throughout the play, we see Greek hubris affecting Macbeth, until he reaches the point where he believes nothing can hurt him. This belief and his ego are ultimately what lead to his destruction and death at the end of the play. Despite Macbeth’s deterioration throughout the play, we do see small glimmers of hope and Christian

hubris with the beginning of the reign of a new king, Malcom, who returns from England to rule after Macbeth’s death.

Macbeth does not always display the characteristics of Greek hubris. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is almost a completely different person. In the first act, when the three witches first give Macbeth his prophecy, “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to you, thane of Glamis!” (1.3, line 49), “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to you, thane of Cawdor!” (1.3 line 50), “All hail, Macbeth, the future king!” (1.3, line 51), he is doubtful of what they are saying because he believes it is too good to be true. Banquo is confused as to why Macbeth would doubt something that provided him such prosperity, “Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear things that do sound so fair?” (1.3, lines 52-53). The way Macbeth first reacts to the witches’ prophecy proves how Macbeth begins the play as innocent and loyal, and how he does not want to hurt anybody to earn

those titles. As far as he is concerned, when the witches give their prophecy, the Thane of Cawdor and the king are alive and well and have no plans of going anywhere anytime soon, and he has no plans on changing the current state of affairs. Macbeth’s reaction to the fact that he will become the Thane of Cawdor further proves that his ego and pride, which ultimately lead to his death and destruction, grow throughout the play. When Macbeth receives the news from Angus that he will become the next Thane of Cawdor, he responds in a shocked manner and questions the three witches’ prophecy actually coming true. However, he refers to the three witches as devils, “What, can the devil speak true?” (1.3, line 108). By referring to the witches as devils, we see more examples of Macbeth’s doubt in the honesty of the three witches, only further proving his innocence in the play.
However, as the play progresses, Macbeth grows to become more egotistical and adopts hubris as a quality.

Having already possessed the title of Thane of Glamis and Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth yearns to have the last part of the witches prophecy come true, the one part he secretly longs for – to have the title of king. As King Duncan sleeps, Macbeth comes forward and is prepared to commit murder in order to achieve his secret desire of becoming king. But before he can commit the act, he sees a dagger in front of him. This dagger represents the small amount of innocence Macbeth still possesses before he commits the murder. “Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible, to feeling as to sight? Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?” (2.1, lines 37-41). But soon after the murder has been committed, we see Macbeth begin a downward spiral created by the presence of his Greek hubris. When Lady Macbeth commits suicide in act 5, scene 5, Macbeth has given up hope and his hubris has almost led him to his death. However, at this point, he still believes in the witches’ prophecy and the fact that he cannot be killed of anything born of woman. In his speech after his wife’s death, Macbeth says, “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and

fury,
signifying nothing.” (5.5, lines 23-27). By describing how life “is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury” (5.5, lines 25-27), this line signifies the fact that Macbeth has almost given up, his wife has taken her own life, and he has killed one of his best friends, Banquo, and King Duncan, just to ensure himself the crown and the fact that he will be and remain king. Like most plays that use Greek hubris, Macbeth’s pride is leading him to uncertain tragedy. However, even in his darkest moment, Macbeth still is full of hubris and still foolishly believes that nothing will hurt him, and in the end, his crimes “signify nothing” (5.5, line 27). Moments before his own death, Macbeth still lets his pride come before him. When Macduff is threatening to kill him for all of the evil he has caused him and his family, Macbeth does not even consider the threat and laughs it off saying, “Thou losest labor. As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air with thy keen sword impress as make me bleed. Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; I bear a charmèd life, which must not yield to one of woman born.” (5.8, lines 9-13). Since Macbeth’s pride and ego have grown so dramatically, he does not even take threats to his own life seriously because he believes he is above all of them. His pride and ignorance are what lead him to his death merely moments later by Macduff who was “from his mother’s womb untimely ripped.” (5.8, lines 15-16). This moment is the final straw of tragedy that strikes the play, due to Greek hubris and the destruction it causes Macbeth.
Macbeth ends with a glimmer of hope, though, which is where we find Christian hubris in the play. After Macduff kills Macbeth, Scotland is left without a king. Malcom, King Duncan’s oldest son, is the heir to the throne, and with Macbeth’s death, he becomes king. Macduff announces this to him, bringing the news of the end of Macbeth’s tyrannous reign, “Hail, king! For so thou art. Behold where stands the usurper’s cursèd head. The time is free. I see thee compassed with thy kingdom’s pearl, that speak my salutation in their minds, whose voices I desire aloud with mine. Hail, King of Scotland!”(5.8, lines 54-59). This change in leadership represents a glimmer of hope, a change from a society reddened with death and destruction to a more peaceful era. The very last lines of the play represent the promise of what Malcom’s character represents to the play. Before he is even crowned king, he is full of pride and hubris, but unlike the kind of hubris that filled Macbeth. This pride is pride in the new nation that he is going to create, pride in restoring Scotland to its former glory. In his final speech, Malcom says he wants to call “home our exiled friends abroad that fled the snares of watchful tyranny” (5.8, lines 68-69). He wants to bring home those who fled so that everybody can forget the reign of Macbeth and its effects and instead focus on a future full of hope where Scotland will flourish. In this final scene, Malcom’s character represents how Christian hubris is shown in Macbeth.