The Machiavellian villains in Shakespeare's tragedies

Abstract

This dissertation engages in the examination of the roles of three villains, Iago, Macbeth and Claudius with respect to the plot and the pivotal importance each of them have throughout the progression of the tragedies. This includes a study of how the villainous characters are revealed and portrayed to the audience and to the other characters of the play. Together with the motives of the villains' actions and the ways they each twist things round so as to attain their goal and fulfill their selfish ambitions without taking into account the chaos they create all around them and the lives they destroy in the process. It includes an observation of how these characters fit into the genre of tragedy, where there is an evil deed, leading to destruction, and ultimately either retribution or death. The different characters have been examined separately. Reference is made to the Machiavellian stereotypical villain who tends to be amoral, politically ambitious, sneaky, ruthless and treacherous and Shakespeare's villains are examined to see to what extent they fit into this stereotype. Each villain is examined to see if they acted with the premise of personal gain, nevertheless, in the end their actions are revealed to all and they are punished, thus showing the strong polar forces of good and evil, light and darkness and how good wins over evil and light wins over darkness. However keeping in mind that although justice is achieved, destruction may still have occurred and it would be too late to put right the damage created by the treacherous villains.