Macbeth Tragic Hero Essay

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Macbeth Meets the Definition of a Tragic Hero William Shakespeare's tragic play 'Macbeth' contains images of suffering and details the consequences of one's action. The story, set within medieval Scotland, follows the actions of a man destined for greatness. Macbeth is known to be noble, yet he falters and ultimately falls prey to his conscience. As a result, Macbeth is the tragic hero of this play because he makes a fatal mistake, he endures great suffering, and he possesses a destructive hamartia. As aforementioned Macbeth's first characteristic of the tragic hero is that he makes a fatal mistake. Macbeth's fatal mistake is that he listens to others too much and he is particularly credulous as to what they say. Macbeth …show more content…

Macbeth is saying that he only has ambition to kill Duncan, but he just has nothing to spark his plan into action. When Macbeth finally does kill Duncan and hears the bell "That summons [Duncan] to heaven or to hell"(Mac.2.1.77)", his ambition only grows because now that he has fulfilled his desire to become king, he now has to protect his ambition. Macbeth also shows his ambition when he kills Banquo, who was once one of his best friends. He hired a murderer that killed Banquo by inflicting "...Twenty gashes on his head"(Mac.3.4.28-30). Macbeth obviously wants to remain king since he kills his friend just to cover for himself and to remain at the top of the country. Macbeth's wife even admits that Macbeth has ambition when she accuses Macbeth of being "...too full o' th' milk of human kindness"(Mac.1.5.17.) before she asks, " Art not without ambition, but without/The illness should attend it"(Mac.1.5.19-20). Lady Macbeth is upset with Macbeth because he desires to be king so much, but he just does not have the guts to do it. Macbeth's ambition gets him into a lot of trouble and every time he acts on his ambition, he digs himself an even deeper

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