「멕베드」에 나타난 아이덴티티 문제

Abstract

Chung Seok KoMacbeth is a tragedy of identity in that a series of supernatural happenings threatens to overshadow the sphere of human existence, making a mockery of man's desperate efforts to establish his identity. The titular hero is at first hailed as a brave and loyal defender of Scotland against its traitors and invaders, but then he turns into a bloody tyrant as he gets trapped in the identity game, a familiar pursuit of cultivating one's social, political or other false identity in the name of one's authentic identity―despite of his foreboding that the game would make everyone a destructive role player, not a creative individual. By murdering king Duncan, Macbeth usurps the throne of his dreams only to play king and dispose of any potential enemies instead of fulfilling his proper role as king. While his social identity is a king, his conscious identity is no better than a murderer wearing "the golden round." There won't be any more tomorrow he longs for because it is he himself who rejects his own social identity. Macbeth embodies the despairs of man's existential choice involving a bitter paradox that whoever thirsts for more may well end up losing everything, even his soul. There remains nothing in the end, nothing but this awful sense of nothingness.