Shakespeare deconstructs the binary opposition between nature and culture
showing to dramatic effect how each one inheres the other.
Taking the terms nature and culture to mean that which is innate to humans and is not
learnt, and that which is cultivated, respectively, these two themes are a great source
of tension in Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice and Timon of Athens. Superficially,
by these definitions, these terms should be mutually exclusive, but within these plays
it is clear that they are not. The idea of culture, of cultivated behaviour and the way
characters are expected to behave, is often guided by qualities that are innate to the
characters as individuals and to Shakespeare’s presentation of humanity as a whole.
This inevitably raises the question of what is natural, as in what is a reaction
unaffected by cultural modifiers, and what is a reaction that is mitigated or covered by
cultural norms. Furthermore, culture is used to or at least meant to control nature, but
it is used by characters to excuse their morally reprehensible, or simply less
sympathetic, behaviour.
In Macbeth, the idea qualifying what is natural is of particular significance to female
characters, from the opening of the play with the weird sisters, to Lady Macbeth’s
rejection of femininity in Act 1, Scene 5.
Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here
And fill me from the crown to the toe topfull
Of direst cruelty;
(38-41)
Lady Macbeth wants to be completely removed from womanhood, emphasized by her
wish to be “topfull/ Of direst cruelty”. In this section it does seem to be a rejection of
natural womanhood, of what is essentially part of her nature, as she asks for her
“milk” to be transformed into “gall”, and in Act 1, Scene 7 the image of her dashing
out the brains of a child she has breastfed underscores her original brutal dedication to
the cause, and belief that it is in some way against female nature. This preconception
of women as passive and opposite to “direst cruelty” as definitive to their gender is
manipulated in Macbeth; although Lady Macbeth and the three witches don’t actually
do anything, they instigate and encourage brutality – Lady Macbeth’s greeting to her
husband after this speech is so similar to the witches’ greeting as to align her with
them. Likewise the masculinity of the witches is emphasises, when in Act 1, Scene 3,
Banquo and Macbeth are unsure at first whether or not the witches are female. The
women in Macbeth align themselves, or are aligned with masculinity when they
behave with brutality, whereas in The Merchant of Venice the women have to adopt a
male role in order to exercise power. Jessica dresses as a page in order to escape and
marry against her father’s wishes, and Portia is able to save Antonio when disguised
as a doctor of law. But many of the female characters in these two plays share a
desire for control and power, a desire which is innately part of these characters, and
humanity, but they can only express it when they give up femininity to some extent –
therefore this stereotype of femininity is a social convention, belonging far more to
culture than nature.
It is not so much Lady Macbeth’s ambition for the throne that is unnatural, but her
willingness for the murders to be carried out; ambition is not unnatural, for even
Banquo wants to know if his future is as bright as Macbeth’s in Act 1 Scene 3, but
being prepared to wantonly murder in cold blood in the pursuit of our ambitions is,
and it is what drives Lady Macbeth and Macbeth to madness; Lady Macbeth is unable
to live with her guilt, and Macbeth sees life as without any meaning. Though the
rejection of a stereotypical view of womanhood is the rejection of culture, rather than
an act against nature, it still heightens the sense of chaos and corruption in the play,
which Shakespeare reflects in Nature (i.e. the external world) with pathetic fallacy of
“fog and filthy air”. But Lady Macbeth is not just rejecting femininity, she rejects
human feeling; she is not just removed of gender, she is filled with “direst cruelty.
But because she throws off the trappings of a cultural perception of womanhood, it
does align that brutality with masculinity. She does not just reject womanhood, she
rejects value for the lives of others, and although culturally she perceives it as part of
masculinity, at this extreme it is inhuman. After the murder of Duncan, Macduff,
Malcolm and Donaldbain all flee, and it is only when these male characters return that
a sense of order is established in the play. When Macduff hears that his family has
been killed, Malcolm tells him to “Dispute it like a man” (4.3.222), to be manly and
avenge their deaths. This reassertion of manliness is essentially Macbeth’s downfall,
establishing order in the play, and simultaneously reestablishing the cultural paradigm
that Macduff neglected in abandoning his family, but also ending the unnatural
bloodshed of Macbeth’s short reign.
Macduff is encouraged to seek revenge for the murders of his family, and yet it is
Shylock’s thirst to uphold his agreement with Antonio for revenge that can make him
seem unsympathetic. Revenge in a Christian society is not often sanctioned, but in
Macbeth there is a sense of dramatic justice to it, and it is the only way to end his
reign. But in The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is bullied into the role of the cruelly
vengeful Jew – he is responding to the cultural stereotype that has been thrust upon
him.
Mark you this Bassanio,
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose,-
(1.3.92-93)
In this scene Antonio is talking about Shylock as though he is obsessed with money,
and the alignment with “The devil” implies that Shylock will lead Bassanio to
destruction, and that, since Shylock’s hoarding of money is greed, he is utterly
greedy, but Shylock clearly does uphold human values over money at time; his grief
that Jessica has sold her mother’s ring shows that he places sentimental value in
objects not just monetary. On a less sympathetic note, if he really were obsessed with
greed he would not hold out for Antonio’s pound of flesh over the money.
Furthermore, the reason Bassanio first cites for going to Belmont to seek Portia’s
hand in marriage is because he is in debt. Bassanio and Shylock both exhibit forms of
greed and awareness of profit, which though ugly, is part of human nature. The desire
to make Shylock into a scapegoat with this cultural stereotype is due in part to antiSemitism at the time; Antonio enjoys asserting his Christian beliefs, particularly about
money over Shylock, it ultimately gives him power in the trial, and means that his
beliefs are unquestioned. The Lords of Athens’ excuse for Timon’s behaviour at his
final dinner party is also in part to make him a scapegoat in Act 3, Scene 6,
Second Lord: Lord Timon’s mad.
Third Lord:
I feel ‘t upon my bones.
Fourth Lord: One day he gives us diamonds, next day stones.
Timon does seem to be driven hysterical by the lack of generosity demonstrated by
the lords, but more than anything he is disillusioned by their lack of generosity. But
the Lords, in an shoddy attempt to excuse their own selfishness call Timon mad and
drive him away from Athens – they make him a scapegoat, just like Shylock, in an
attempt to cover up the gap between the way they behave and the way they should
behave.
The drive towards culture can also be treated as a desire to evaluate and categorise
characters, in a world where it isn’t always clear who is worthy, particularly in The
Merchant Of Venice, and also in Timon of Athens. In The Merchant of Venice, the
importance of being able to interpret and who can interpret is stressed, particularly by
the challenge of the caskets (though also by Shylock citing scripture). They are
designed to test the suitors of Portia to ensure that she marries the suitable one, as her
father is not alive to supervise. As it is, Portia ends up married to the character who is
in debt, and for whom one of the main reasons for pursuing her was to relieve his debt
issues. In cultural terms, this man is not suitable at all, but he is the man who is able
to correctly understand the riddle, he has the natural talent, and is also the man who
Portia loves. By answering the riddle, Bassanio shows the link between nature and
culture, because the casket problem was an attempt to sort the suitors by cultivated
behaviour, by learning and wisdom, but ended up choosing the right one by nature.
Likewise, the outcome of the trial in The Merchant of Venice appears as though it
comes down to culture. Portia is able to argue Antonio free by citing Venetian law; by
using custom and culture she is able to undermine Shylock’s attempts at revenge. But
her success is also a mark of nature; the Venetian Court wants Antonio to go free, but
cannot find a way around it. Shylock is meant to be the scapegoat not Antonio, and
though Shylock has the upper hand in legal terms, the other characters at the trial are
all on Antonio’s side. In this way it is weighted in Antonio’s favour because of the
natural instinct to protect one’s own – to protect they people you are aligned to from
outsiders. Furthermore, the Venetians do not demonstrate much mercy to Shylock.
They could strip Shylock of his wealth, but then essentially, Antonio was still in the
wrong. Furthermore, Shylock is forced to give up his religion in order to gain their
mercy, and since Shylock’s culture has made the other characters uncomfortable all
along, we can see how they have managed to manipulate the idea of mercy in order to
erase an irreconcilable social difference. In Timon of Athens this desire to erase an
uncomfortable social gap functions differently. The Athenian Court will not show
mercy to Alcibides friend, but their lack of mercy is reminiscent of the lack of
generosity shown by the lords of Athens (Act 3, Scene 5). They say of revenge,
You cannot make gross sins look clear;
To revenge is no valour, but to bear.”
(39-40)
Firstly, this is not always true in drama; in Macbeth, the drama requires for Macduff
to take revenge on Macbeth – revenge is valour for him, it is seen as manly.
“Revenge is no valour” is a value judgement of the court. Furthermore, they may not
be offering revenge, but in upholding capital punishment they are offering retribution,
and their actions, aside from being bloody, simply cause more bloodshed; once again
the theme of who has the right to interpret, and who controls meaning is raised. They
offer no mercy, just as their citizen show no mercy to Timon, and it comes back to
haunt them. The law upholds the lack of generosity in their natures. The senators tell
Alcibides that he is,
Striving to make an ugly deed look fair. (25)
Yet this is precisely what the Senators are doing. The act of killing is “an ugly deed”
and though Alcibides strives to make his friend appear noble, the Senators try and
justify capital punishment.
This theme of the disparity between words and deeds is particularly relevant to the
link between nature and culture in Timon of Athens. It is brought to the fore in Act 5,
Scene 1 when the Painter and the Poet go to visit Timon because they think he is now
in a position to offer them a kind of patronage. The Poet tells the Painter,
Promising in the very air o’ th’
time; it opens the eyes of expectation. Performance
is ever duller for his act; and, but in the plainer
and simpler kind of people, the deed of saying is quite
out of use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable; performance is a kind of will or testament
which argues a great sickness in his judgement that
makes it.
(22-29)
It shows poor judgement on the part of the Painter to think that Timon, having been
betrayed by the Lords of Athens, would want anything “courtly and fashionable”.
The poet is using culture to blind himself; to say that actual action is “a kind of will”,
an act of desperation, when his visit to Timon is born out of economic need is
hypocritical. The Poet is trying not to appear as though he is doing anything so vulgar
as coming to beg for money from Timon. He is using culture to disguise his own
natural greed.
Culture seems to be created in these plays to offer forms of control over human
nature, but this desire to control others is innately human. It dictates who can
interpret in Timon of Athens and The Merchant of Venice. It also allows characters in
these plays to create scapegoats, and erase those who question cultural norms. In
manipulating cultural expectations, some characters, particularly women, are able to
gain power, but only for a short while.