Shakespearean Metaphysic

Wilson Knight

Wilson Knight in his influential work Wheel of Fire interprets Shakespeare’s somber tragedies
and locates the necessary conditions to enhance the tragic flaw in these plays. He tries to identify
the metaphysic or mystic in two groups of Shakespearean plays, the group of plays of hate theme
which include Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, King Lear, Othello and Timon of Athens. The other
group is the plays of evil in human mind which includes Macbeth, Julius Caesar and Hamlet.
However Wilson Knight hardly finds this contrast as absolute as the plays included in both
groups are sharing the themes of sex and temptations. He observes these plays show similar
rhythms of original surprise and self -conflict in the hero.

Imaginative transcendence

In these plays a swift and overpowering victory of temptation, a resultant agony of loneliness,
guilt, greed and fear is visible which is later followed by a rapid excess of crime(wheel of fire)
culminating in an open condemnation and failure. Macbeth identifies the true nature of his evil
which he expresses in an imaginative language. Wilson knight observes that this revelation is
dissociation from all external phenomena of the individual soul. He argues that the persons of
dramatic poetry at its intensest do not utter those things human beings normally aware, but
springs of action, deep floods of passion, the essence of human reality, all which normal self-
consciousness of individual blur and veil. In Measure for measure the hero, Angelo places his
will power against these strong emotions and his words are readily intelligible. Unlike Angelo
and Claudius in Hamlet, Shakespeare constructs his hero in Macbeth within the temptation theme
with deep insights. As a supreme play Macbeth gives imaginative details on a big scale of
experiences.

Wilson Knight observes that delirium quality of Macbeth, insanity of King Lear enhance the evil
hate theme in these plays. The state of extreme evil and supreme love has a definite imaginative
similarity. They stand out from ordinary realms and get placed with a certain supernormal
intensity a sudden, crushing conquering power. In this respect the hate-mode transcends to
madness. Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra are supreme in points of imaginative
transcendence.

The hate Theme in Shakespeare plays/ tragic flow of Shakespearean Heroes

The hate theme in Shakespeare is necessarily related to love. It is dependent on the failing of
love’s reality. Hamlet, Troilus, Othello, Lear and Timon all endure essentially the same pain with
reference to love. In Hamlet this is included within the wider death-consciousness. The flame of
love’s faith is distinguished leaving only the colour of oil and smoke. As the characters are
drained of the spiritual significance, the bestial elements of man assume disproportionate
significance. This justifies the animal references in Othello’s paroxysm and Lear’s madness. The
desires of flesh are not illuminated by divine love. In every instance the hero suffers through a
wrenching and a banishment of a soul from himself.

Wilson Knight refers to Troilus Speech and asserts that the Shakespearean heroes embody the
helplessness of human beings who have no knowledge of his own reality. They are unaware of
their qualities till they see themselves in others. The Shakespearean Hero suffers an agonizing
incertitude at the expulsion of his love or soul from its symbol. Hamlet dies at this agony and
uncertainty. Troilus projects his soul into war and revenge, directed against the Greek, the
symbol of his revenge. Othello finds his ideal too late and follows it to death Lear endures agony
till his love-soul regains a temporary home in Cordelia. Timon is a unique character of
Shakespeare who replaces this lost love with hate. In short Shakespearean heroes and their evils
and hate demand a metaphysical symbolism.

Metaphysical Symbolism and dualism of soul in Macbeth

Wilson Knight identifies Macbeth as Shakespeare’s most profound and mature vision of evil.
The ghost and death themes in Hamlet, traitor theme in Julius Caesar, parallel history of
individual crime in Richard II are perfectly united in Macbeth. This play also carries the hate
theme which was dealt in optimum in Timon of Athens. Man’s aspiring nature, unsatiated of
desire among the frailties and inconsistencies of its world are profoundly present in this play.
The evil in the play can be regarded as a negation of man’s positive longing. In Macbeth evil is
not relative but absolute “nightmare evil”.

Wilson Knight detects the two primary uses of soul in Shakespeare. First one is the
Shakespearean lover sees his soul reflected in his loved one, and second is the victim of evil
endures a hideous vision of the dreadful nothing of his own soul. Wilson Knight identifies this as
a bottomless conceit that comprehends blackest evil. Wilson Knight locates the encounter
between this dualism of soul and actuality. The hate theme is an awareness of the world of
actuality unspiritualized. The heroes of Shakespeare show a disgust and abhorrence to the finite
forms of infinite spirit, the failure of body. Shakespearean evil is a vision of naked spirit, which
appears as bottomless abyss of nothing since it is unfitted to any external symbols. However this
evil spirit creates phantasmal shapes of unholy imagination and acts of disorder and crime. Thus
these evil visions give them knowledge about the past as well as forbidden knowledge about
future, like half- truth and prophecy. The inmost knowledge about time succession is venomous
as it gets execution in their life.

Wilson Knight sees the dualistic function of soul, the actual and spiritual particularly in
Macbeth’s reaction to the wired sisters’ prophesies. Futurity has meaning only as an activity of
mind or spirit. In seeing the future Macbeth thus views the spiritual dissociated from the actual.
Human birth and artistic creating are the result of a union between earthly and divine elements.
Thus Macbeth’s vision of the future is knowledge of the essence without a clear shape. The
prophecy theme in Macbeth is of a metaphysical essence. Macbeth interprets prophecies too
readily into his own blundering shapes of actuality. His first crime deliberately puts prophecy
into immediate actions, instead of waiting for natural actions. His later crimes come from his
assurance of safety but turns out to be different from what he expected. Evil and hate are related
to spirit and actuality respectively. Each by itself inadequate and fullness of vision result in love-
mode where spirit and actuality are one.

In King Lear the illness or madness as well as remedy is natural. In Macbeth the evil as well as
remedy is supernatural. In Antony and Cleopatra the natural condition is changing into a dream.
In short the transcendental unreality of Macbeth, pure realism or naturalism of King Lear
combines in the transcendental realism of Antony and Cleopatra. Evil, hate and love are fear,
knowledge and recognition of reality. Macbeth is cast in a uniquely visionary, unrealistic mould,
it represents the spiritual and not actual reality. It is the most subjective of Shakespeare’s
tragedies. The whole Macbeth universe reflects the mental experience of the protagonist. A
metaphysical world is used as a technical device to make the reader/spectator feel his personal
experience. Wilson knight says that we can regard the play as throughout a single imaginative
creation of Shakespeare’s mind. It expresses on aspect of the poet’s soul rather than imitative of
humanity. The weird sisters, Banquo and his Ghost, the air drawn dagger Duncan’s horses and
poetry of darkness possess a lyric reality. Wilson Knight concludes his chapter by arguing that
the actual and the unreal modes of evil and hate are provisionally distinct. The supernatural
machinery influences the protagonist like in Hamlet and Macbeth. Death mysticism, mystery of
eternity is implicit in these tragedies. The metaphysic of experiences leads the plays to actions of
blood and destruction. Macbeth endures an awareness of nothingness, depravity of soul, leads
him to nihilism.