Macbeth, in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, is an example of a tragic hero. A tragedy is drama that has a hero with a flaw that causes his downfall and gives the audience a feeling of catharsis. Macbeth’s character degenerates from a noble man toa violent person because of the witches’ prophecies, Lady Macbeth, and Macbeth’s own ambition. His ambition is the tragic flaw.
At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a noble man who is described as the “brave Macbeth” (I: ii: 18) by the Sergeant and “valiant cousin” and “worthy gentleman” (I: ii: 26) by Duncan, the king, for slaying a rebel. Macbeth respects the king and would not even think of doing anything to harm him, that is, until the witches get involved and his wife convinces him to. Macbeth loves his wife and he would kill for her, literally. She is a manipulative woman who takes advantage of Macbeth and could make him do anything like killing the king, towards whom he feels no malevolence. When Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches, they give Macbeth two prophecies: he becomes thane of Candor and he becomes king. At first, Macbeth is a bit curious when the first prophecy comes true but he does not really want to do anything about the second one.
Once he tells his wife about it, she makes Macbeth think about killing the king. His ambition, at first, is not strong enough, but Lady Macbeth pushes him further. He then kills the king and his character starts to degenerate from that point. Later in the play, Macbeth kills many people.
The Term Paper on Macbeth King Duncan Witches
... witches prophesize that he will be king, Macbeth thinks that he must kill the current king to become king himself. (web) Without the prophecy, even Lady Macbeth ... impact on Macbeth are the witches, his wife and Lady, and King Duncan of Scotland. The witches introduce the idea, King Duncan gives ... On another point, the witches continue to influence Macbeth much later on in the play than we see evidence ...
After the first murder, killing others becomes easier for him. He hires murderers to kill Banquo and Macduff’s family without thinking about it twice and without the help of his wife. When his wife dies, he seems too involved with war to care. This shows that Macbeth’s conscience is gone and that he is desensitized to murder and death. Macbeth’s character is mentally weak and is misguided by his ambition. Hec anno make decisions on his own so he counts on other people to make decisions for him like his wife and the witches.
His ambition and other things cause the change of his character. That ambition is the tragic flaw in that causes Macbeth’s downfall and make shim an example of a tragic hero in this play. Other things also add to this change, like his wife who seems mentally stronger than Macbeth. It is also Macbeth s ambition and his trust in the witches which ultimately change him for the worse and bring about his downfall.
