Essay On Macbeth As A Tragic Hero

Throughout the history of literature, there have been many tales of tragic heroes. These heroes include Oedipus from Oedipus Rex, Cassius from The Tragedy of Julius Caesar and many others. Many may ask, “What is a tragic hero?” A tragic hero is a person of noble birth with heroic or potentially heroic qualities. This person is fated by the gods or by some supernatural force to doom and destruction or at least to great suffering. But the hero struggles greatly against this fate and this cosmic conflict wins our admiration. In short, a tragic hero is a character of noble beginnings who is doomed and destined for defeat, downfall or suffering. Macbeth is the perfect example of a tragic hero because he embodies all these traits and characteristics. Through his actions in the drama Macbeth, Macbeth epitomizes the classic example of a tragic hero. Macbeth initially only has one trait of a tragic hero which was his noble beginnings fighting for King Duncan. The major contributions that caused Macbeth to become a tragic hero were the intervention of Macbeth’s ambition, his wife Lady Macbeth and the prophecies of the three witches but in spite of all his downfalls Shakespeare manages to cause the audience to have sympathy for Macbeth.

The greatest contributor to Macbeth becoming a tragic hero was no one - but himself. Macbeth began in nobility being a brave soldier in the war against Norway. This is what set him for the status of a tragic hero, his background in nobility. Macbeth played a key role in his downfall. His ambition drove him to kill his own king and this was the genesis of the decline of his moral compass and initiated his becoming of a tragic hero. Macbeth’s ambition merged with the two other contributors to his downfall and...

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...were awakened and enlightened and led him to come to constantly inquire from the witches about how he could become the King of Scotland. As the story goes on, Macbeth puts all of his faith and trust in the prophecies of these witches and this ultimately led to his downfall.

At the beginning of this play, Shakespeare effectively creates sympathy for Macbeth by showing his unwillingness to comply with killing King Duncan for the throne. Initially, it seemed like Macbeth would end up not killing King Duncan but he did and with the influences of many external forces such as the prophecies of the three witches and the wife of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Macbeth is portrayed as killing King Duncan because it was what was to be done. Shakespeare, in the beginning of the play tries to make it seem like Macbeth had no choice in the matter but had to kill to get what he wanted.