by Derek Whited
Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumped-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking off;[1]
Thus says the newly appointed Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth, in William Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Macbeth. These lines come from one of Macbeth’s soliloquies early in the tragedy, at a moment when the Thane (a position similar to lord, earl, or vassal) has not yet entered into his moral downfall. Instead, at this moment Macbeth is considering whether to destroy his own moral code—indeed, the very moral fabric of medieval Scotland—by assassinating King Duncan. Macbeth strenuously debates with himself in this soliloquy, weighing the consequences of such an act and how he might encounter just repercussions throughout the rest of his life. As this quotation bears out, however, he considers more than simply temporal consequences. Macbeth knows that the unjust assassination of a king, motivated solely by selfish ambition, would have eternal repercussions.
Shakespeare is intentional with Macbeth’s words in this soliloquy. Words like meek, office, angels, trumpet-tongued, and damnation, allude to Christian beliefs or Biblical and ecclesiological diction. Macbeth has no need to utter such words to himself, in private, unless they arise from a rattled conscience––and not just any conscience but a conscience schooled in medieval Christianity, cognizant of the sacred office of King, and haunted by the inherent evil of such an assassination. This soliloquy, like all of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, is haunted by such shadows of God and Christianity. If anyone should wish to read and interpret this play, then, he should, at the most basic level of interpretation, consider the Christian worldview.
Tennessee Law
I am an English Language Arts IV (“Senior English”) teacher in Sumner County, Tennessee. As such, I am required by the state of Tennessee to teach the ELA grades 11–12 standards. Two of these standards require students to “Demonstrate knowledge of and analyze thematically related texts of literary significance” and to “Read and comprehend a variety of literature at the high end of the grades 11–12 text complexity.” It does not take an English major to know that Shakespeare serves as the epitome of “literary significance” as well as “grades 11-12 text complexity.”[2] Hence, I have my seniors read Shakespeare’s Macbeth, just as I, like generations of Americans before me, read it my senior year.
The Tennessee state standards also require students to read both “informational” and “literary” texts. Regardless of category, however, they are required to analyze these texts with the intention of determining themes, authorial intent, rhetorical strategies, effectiveness of craft and structure, aesthetic quality, and several other components of any text. Through such analysis, students are then to demonstrate “command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.” This command, then, is cultivated through engagement and criticism of great works, literary or informational, and is exercised through various writing assignments.[3]
If I, as an ELA IV teacher in Tennessee, am to be “so clear in my great office,” then I would be remiss if I did not have my students follow in the footsteps of their forebears by reading Macbeth, analyzing its contents, and mastering English grammar by writing about it. But what would such analysis require? Would it not involve asking my students questions like, “Why might Shakespeare have used ‘meek?’” or “In what other contexts is the word ‘office’ used in the way Macbeth is using it here?” or “Why does Macbeth say Duncan’s ‘taking off’ is a ‘deep damnation?’” What does Shakespeare mean by all of this language? Indeed, I am required by the state to ask: “What worldview is here being espoused by Shakespeare through Macbeth’s soliloquy?” The answer to these questions and so many like it in Macbeth is Christianity, the Gospel, and the teachings of Jesus Christ and His Church.
Fulfilling my duty as a high school teacher, according to the law, can in some cases require me to bring my students into direct contact with the Gospel. Now, of course, countless teachers teach Macbeth, or any other number of premodern, Christendom-era works, without a thought for the Christian influence in these works. And if they do, they might refer to it the way that some history teachers ashamedly admit that, yes, some of the Founding Fathers owned slaves. Or they might point to it in the same fashion a cosmopolitan and open-minded teacher might cheerfully point to the Transcendentalist influence in Moby-Dick. The Christian influence in a work, especially one like Macbeth, so steeped in witchcraft, bloodshed, and insanity as it is, is in no way the guarantee of an accidental evangelistic opportunity.
Made in the Image of God
What then makes the teaching of works such as Macbeth different when in the hands of an intentional Christian educator? I believe the answer centers on anthropology, on what the Christian believes he is looking at when he looks into the eyes of his student. For the Christian does not look into the eyes of an evolved specimen of homo sapiens sapiens, nor does he look at a potential Republican or Democrat, nor does he look at a lonely wandering soul trying to make sense of this big confusing journey we all call life. Instead, he looks at a young man or a young woman made in the image of his or her God. And the God in whose image they were made is a God Who loves them and Who carefully created them. Additionally, He is a God Who is not willing that they should perish but that they should inherit eternal life, a process that sees them conforming, more and more, to the image of God’s one and only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
John Kilner has produced recent work that examines the image of God in man. He writes:
The basic idea here is that God has a likeness-image, and God created people with that in view. It is a standard for what God intends humanity ultimately to be. It is the goal toward which humanity is to develop. As the New Testament clarifies, sin prevents people from developing as God intends––in fact, it damages people so badly that they are much farther from God’s standard after their “fall” into sin than before it. However, Christ, as both the standard and the source of humanity’s renewal, breaks the power of sin and liberates people to resume their God-intended development to become fully conformed to Christ––to God’s image who is Christ.[4]
As Kilner explains in this quotation, men and women are made according to Christ, and they are to press on in their development toward conforming more and more to Christ. To be made “in the image of God” is not merely a way of saying that men and women have inherent dignity and worth; instead, it is the very reason for that dignity and worth. Men and women are all capable, “by the grace of Grace” (another phrase from Macbeth), not only of being restored to a right standing with their Creator, but also of receiving a total transformation into a man or woman after the example of Jesus Christ.
My students are these very men and women. They are broken, diseased, and desperately removed from their Creator. But Jesus Christ offers His life in their stead, and His sacrifice provides them with the ability to be conformed to Him in Whose likeness they were fashioned before the foundation of the world.
Eternity
As a Christian educator, I find that every day I keep this truth at the forefront of my mind is a blessing. I bring students to the font of Western literature and of our language, not just so that I might fulfil my duty as prescribed by Tennessee law but that their minds might be challenged, stretched, adorned, grown, and, indeed, reared. For their minds are not just organs inside a larger organism or a shell for a ghost to inhabit: their souls are fashioned after the One Who died that they might inherit eternal life—Love, Mercy, Grace, and Holiness Himself. Those made in His image are made for more than simply passing the time or idling away in ordinary ignorance of their heritage or civilizational trajectory––indeed, they were made according to omniscience. Their minds are capable of far more than simply writing an essay about a central theme in Macbeth: their minds were designed for eternity. If their brief time with me in high school English serves as even a single step in that direction, then I have lived a life worth living.
Teaching in the public school system as a Christian is to teach eternal beings according to an eternal telos. While the overtly secular system may let educators of all backgrounds and beliefs teach, some of those educators may unwittingly play a part in bringing those students closer toward Christ. Through presenting students with fruitful information about their world and challenging their minds to do difficult things, any educator is pushing students in the direction of Christ. But only the Christian educator has the prize of knowing to Whom and for what reason any education matters in the first place: eternity. Thus, as my students read Macbeth and hear his deliberation about killing his king and how that act might cause him to “jump the life to come,” I know that by the grace of Grace they might jump into that very same life to come.
About the Author: Derek Whited teaches English at Liberty Creek High School in Middle Tennessee. He holds a bachelor’s degree in the Humanities and Arts and a master’s degree in Humanities from Welch College. His writing and research center on twentieth-century Irish poetry, classical literary traditions, and humanities education. He spends his time attending First Baptist Church Hendersonville, following politics, and rooting for the Denver Broncos. He resides in Gallatin, Tennessee, with his wife, Libby.
[1] William Shakespeare, Macbeth, https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/macbeth/read/.
[2] Tennessee State Board of Education, “Non-Substantive Changes to Math, ELA, and Science Standards: Attachment 2 – ELA,” October 20, 2017, https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/stateboardofeducation/documents/massivemeetingsfolder/meetingfiles4/10-20-17_III_J_Non-Substantive_Changes_to_Math_ELA__Science_Standards_Attachment_2_-_ELA.pdf.
[3] Ibid.
[4] John Kilner, Dignity and Destiny: Humanity in the Image of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015), 92.
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