Modern Age - Spring 2016 - 45

VIRTUE IS NOT BORING

blance to his avowal to Lady Macbeth's tauntings above: "I dare
do all that may become a man; / who dares do more is none." In
that statement he "dares" to uphold the status and stature that
his fortunate high social birth and chivalric deeds have attained
for him; at that moment, exercising proper discipline and restraint
represents a daring and virtuous adventure for Macbeth, requiring just the additional touch of Viola's patience for its perfection.
But just a few lines later, "manliness" becomes something quite
different. Irony and pathos pervade Macbeth's subsequent use of
the term. After Duncan is found dead, Macbeth calls on the other
lords and Duncan's sons to "put on manly readiness" and meet in
council to determine a course of action. In doing so, he is appealing to a quality that he no longer has.
The Macbeths continue to explore exactly how far human
nature can be pushed before it breaks. When Macbeth later sees
Banquo's ghost (seen by no one else) at a dinner party given for
assembled Scottish lairds, his emotional reaction is so extreme
that Lady Macbeth asks, "Are you a man?" He replies, "Aye, and a
bold one, that dare look on that / Which might appal the devil."
She later complains that he is "quite unmanned in folly" (3.4.58-
60, 74). Lady Macbeth apologizes to the peers for Macbeth's
unmanly behavior, but he defends himself by saying, "What man
dare, I dare," adding that he could stand against "the rugged Russian bear" and "never tremble." It is only the "horrible shadow"
and the "unreal mockery" of the ghost that disturbs him. When
the ghost leaves, he says, "I am a man again" (11.100-109).
But how diminished his idea of human dignity now is. Before
he told Lady Macbeth that he would "dare do all that may become
a man [emphasis added]"-the whole scope of human possibility
was open to him. Now to be a man for Macbeth means only that
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Modern Age - Spring 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Modern Age - Spring 2016

Contents
Modern Age - Spring 2016 - Cover1
Modern Age - Spring 2016 - Cover2
Modern Age - Spring 2016 - Contents
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