Function of Fate/Space/Time in the Political Discourse of Macbeth

Bu makale, Macbeth tragedyasında zamanın nasıl ete bürünüp mekân ve tarih ilişkisi içinde görünür hale geldiğini incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Oyunda zamanın rolünü üstlenen Macbeth, oyunun hem tarihsel hem de iktidar politikasını belirleyen kader ile rekabet içince girer. Macbeth zamansal/mekânsal iktidar çatışmaları ve kültür/uygarlıktan kopukluğu ile bağlantılı olarak, metnin başında da referans verilmiş olan cesur kahramanlıklarına bağlı olan erkekliğini kaybetmeye başlar. Bu mertlik kaybı ve karakterindeki parçalanma, bize James VI/I’in İngiliz monarşisinde tahta çıkışının başlangıcını ve İskoçya ve İngiltere tahtlarını birleştiren yasayı ilan etmesini hatırlatır çünkü Macbeth İskoçya’yı, Malcolm ise İngiltere’yi temsile etmekte olup bu birleşmenin imkânsız olduğunu gerek Macbeth üzerinden gerekse tahta çıkan Malcolm’ın, Fleance’ın kaçması ile, belirsiz olan geleceği simgeler. Bu makalede, Bakhtin, Michel de Certeau, Lefebvre ve tarihsel kaynaklara dayanarak Macbeth’in zaman, mekân ve kader ile olan ilişkisi tartışılacaktır.

Function of Fate/Space/Time in the Political Discourse of Macbeth

This paper aims to scrutinize how time thickens and takes on flesh and how it becomes visible in relation to space and history in the tragedy of Macbeth. My argument is Macbeth, embodying time, gets into rivalry with fate, which alongside determines both the historical and also politics of power in the framework of the play. In relation to temporal/spatial and power stricken conflicts and Macbeth’s detachment from culture/civilization, Macbeth starts to lose his manliness attached to his brave deeds. This gradual loss of manliness, coherence in his bravery and disintegration in his character also reminds us of the beginning of James VI/I’s ascension to the throne in English monarchy and his declaration of the Act of Union of Two Crowns. Since Scotland represented by Macbeth and England by Malcolm, we see the failure of the Act of Union in the play both through the acts of Macbeth and Malcolm’s uncertain future because of the escape of Fleance. Thus, in this paper, by referring to Bakhtin, Michel de Certeau, Lefebvre and the historical sources on the Act of Union of Crowns, Macbeth’s state of mind in relation to time space and fate will be scrutinized.

___

  • Alker, S. & Nelson, H. F. (2007). “Macbeth”, the Jacobean Scot, and the Politics of the Union. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 47(2), 379–401. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4625116
  • Bakhtin, M. (1981). The Dialogic Imagination. Michael Holquist (Ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press.
  • Baldo, J. (2008). ‘A Rooted Sorrow’: Scotland’s Unusable Past, in Nick Moschovakis (Ed.), Macbeth: New Critical Essays, (pp. 88-103). New York: Routledge.
  • De Certeau, M. (1984). The Practice of Everyday Life. Trans. Steven Rendall California: University of California Press.
  • Eagleton, T. (2000). William Shakespeare. Blackwell Publishers.
  • Gardiner, M. (1992). The Dialogics of Critique: M. M. Bakhtin and the Theory of Ideology. London: Routledge.
  • Harper, D. (n.d.). Etymology of space. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved October 3, 2022, from https://www.etymonline.com/word/space
  • Harper, D. (n.d.). Etymology of heath. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://www.etymonline.com/word/heath
  • Lee, M. (1976). James VI’s Government of Scotland after 1603. The Scottish Historical Review, 55(159), 41–53. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25529146
  • Lefebvre, H. (1991b) Critique of Everyday Life - volume one. London: Verso
  • Mızıkyan, A. (2006). The Monstrous and Grotesque Images of the Feminine in Book 1 of The Faerie Queene and Paradise Lost. Unpublished PhD Thesis, İstanbul University.
  • Shakespeare, W. (1967). Macbeth. The New Penguin Shakespeare. London: Penguin Books.
  • Skene, W. F. ed. (1872). The Historians of Scotland Vol. IV: John of Fordun’s Chronicle of the Scottish Nation. Trans. Felix J. H Skene. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas.
  • Sommerville, J. P. ed. (1994). King James VI and I: Political Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.