Comparing Macbeth To A Tragic Hero

Comparing Macbeth to a tragic hero would be like comparing Spiderman to Venom. Although Spiderman was the hero in the beginning, he had a bad side too. This is much like Macbeth in the beginning of the story. He went against his wife and did not want to kill until she finally got into his head and convinced him that it was the only way for him to receive the throne. Now, is Macbeth a tragic hero? No. Macbeth is not a tragic hero due to the fact that tragic heros always learn from their mistake and always undergo some sort of meaningful suffering; Macbeth did neither.

With this in mind, Macbeth killed multiple people. After the first kill, Duncan, he grew and uncontrollable thirst for power. Duncan was first, and then it was Banquo. After

Banquo, he killed all of the the people in the castle. There was what seems like an endless line of people that Macbeth needed to get out of the way in order to get the throne. Not the only problem, but a big one, was the fact that he never felt any remorse for any of the crimes that he committed throughout the book. The only thing circling through his mind was how badly he wanted to be the king. Together, this would mean that he never learned from his mistakes of killing the first 4 times he did it.
Another characteristic of a tragic hero, that Macbeth did not have, was suffering.

All tragic heroes suffer from something meaningful in their lifetime. As far back in Macbeth's life that we can see in the book, he did not suffer from anything except his own deranged thoughts. As far as he knew, he had nothing to suffer from. He would not suffer from death because he could not be harmed by anyone not ¨born of woman¨ (55). Also, he did not suffer when his wife died and he simply said that she should have waited.

Although Macbeth does not have all of the characteristics that a tragic hero holds, some may argue that he is because he was not the mastermind behind the plans of getting the throne. His wife was. She pressured him and questioned his manhood and called him a coward until he finally gave in a did the first dirty deed (16). Still, he even went against Lady Macbeth and even after she was dead and gone and was no longer there to pressure him, he continued on his bad path until he finally met his end.

This together proves that Macbeth was not a tragic hero. Even saying that he did not have the two previously spoken of characteristics, he also never did a single thing for the good of his people. He immediately let the witches prophecy go to his head. His thirst for power got the best of him which ultimately led to his death. Therefor, Macbeth should have taken responsibility for his actions just as a mass murdered and not a tragic

hero.