Proceedings of The 5th International Conference on Research in Humanities and Social Sciences
Year: 2021
DOI:
Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Vishal Bharadwaj’s Maqbool: A study of Evolving Consciousness
Laxmi Rai and Dhananjay Tripathi
ABSTRACT:
The evolution of consciousness in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Vishal Bharadwaj’s Maqbool an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth subverts the idea of a unified self. The evolution in their consciousness is confronting their own unconscious self (the unconscious self within) which would justify them as flat characters as they do not change but discover their real selves having a natural inclination towards evil. The term ‘evolution’, the moot point for discussion, is based on a series of interrelated concepts blending into other subtle notions primarily the unseen inward movement between the conscious and unconscious creating such propensity to vary. The characters of Macbeth and Maqbool alike display such variability as they constantly and consistently merge into the realms of the unconscious to define their conscious thoughts. Therefore, the tenets of variability would serve as a basis for the study of evolution of consciousness. Underlining such variability in the characters of the protagonists we would take refuge to the subtle notions of the inherent unconscious of human nature – suppressed yet dominant and assertive self. The paper through the text Macbeth and film Maqbool would attempt to unearth the perspective of static variability by emphasizing on the unique human quality of an individual which may appear to be evolving, but in reality is bound by fixity.
keywords: consciousness, evolution, variability, flat characters, fixity.