A Wave of Destruction: Time's Inexorable Effects in Hamlet and Macbeth

Abstract

This thesis explores the typically cited character flaws of Macbeth and Hamlet and asserts that these flaws are not the main cause of their tragic downfalls, but, rather, it is the immense psychological and corporeal stresses created by the inexorable progression of time on the chief characters of Shakespeare’s plays, Macbeth and Hamlet, which lead Macbeth and Hamlet to their destruction. This thesis begins by examining the typical “character flaw” interpretation of Macbeth and Hamlet, which many critics assert, led to their eventual ruin and deaths of many around them. Subsequently, I cite substantial critical evidence from major literary critics, as well as my own close readings of these two plays, both of which quite strongly support my novel argument that the extreme psychological and bodily stresses of time experienced by Hamlet and Macbeth, and, to a lesser extent, by the other main characters in these two plays, rather than simply their character flaws, ultimately lead to their tragedy, loss, and death. I elaborate on my argument by showing how it fits quite well with other major types of critical approaches to literature, including gender-based literary criticism and psychoanalytic and Freudian analysis of Hamlet and Macbeth. I conclude by demonstrating via a novel approach that only through a comprehensive analysis of the emotional and physical tolls of the inescapable progression of time as experienced by Hamlet and Macbeth, and other chief characters, can one achieve an accurate understanding of these two Shakespearean tragedies.