Shakespeare's Heroes, Tragic and Comedic

I have recently, for reasons relatively embarrassing and which will therefore be left unsaid, dove into the works of Shakespeare. I have read King Lear, Macbeth, and Cymbeline, and Othello, watched Henry V, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and re-watched Much Ado About Nothing (movie with Emma Thompson), and watched the Hollow Crown (Henry IV, parts 1 and 2, and Henry V) trilogy. Haven't gotten to Richard III yet but I will.

And I have found a peculiar, recurring thread that I just noticed after finishing Cymbeline. No, it started niggling in my head while reading Macbeth, which opens with glowing praise of Macbeth. Says King Duncan-- "O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!"
And you know, even if you don't know anything about Macbeth, that during the course of the play Macbeth's character will regress from valiant and worthy to base and violent. Just the simple fact that his goodness is pointed out makes you suspicious. I remembered Othello, which starts out similarly (oh how wonderful Othello is I'm actually glad my daughter married you). I remembered Much Ado About Nothing, which has most of the cast calling Hero's faithfulness into question. Then I read Cymbeline, and most of the action starts with Posthumus praising his wife's virtue. This, of course, is quickly challenged.

Then it finally hit me. Whether or not the heroes of Shakespeare remain heroes, or fall and are known as tragic heroes because of their flaws, their goodness or lack thereof is the turning point of everything. Either they win because they are good or they fail because they are not. It seems none of his characters can simply say "Yeah she's pretty good, isn't she" and continue their lives.

None of us can, either. If we see a good person, it's almost though it becomes a challenge-- when will they fall, not will they fall. Because surely, such goodness isn't natural and cannot remain? Maybe it's jealousy on our part, and a kind of shame because we are not as good or virtuous as this other person, but we want to tear them down off their pedestal and show the world that really, they weren't all that.

It made me think of Jesus, actually, and the quote that...oh, somebody said, I can't remember who. "If there ever was someone perfect, the world would kill him because they couldn't stand it." How true it is. We're not good, not at all--

But He provided a way for us to be. Not by anything we can do-- because there's nothing--but by what He's done. It's putting on His clothes, His perfection, His goodness. It's accepting Him, the only Good One.