Flaws in the Characters of Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Anyone who is not a god, is not perfect. Everyone has a weakness or a flaw. Some flaws are more deadly than others.

Some are addicted to heroin while others are unable to remember where they put their keys. Every major flaw in this story though, comes back to haunt them. The reason why anybody fails in this story is because of their “flaw”. Not everyone dies though, that is because their flaw is not fatal. Following will be an explanation of how the major flaws of the characters lead to their downfall.

Macbeth will be the first one discussed, since he was the main character. The play’s problems start when he kills Duncan.

This is done because he has a flaw; he is too determined. He doesn’t let anything in his way of the goal, to be king, proven here: The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;

Let not light see my black and deep desires:

The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be

2 which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.(Act I, Scene vii, lines 1-28)

If he had not been so determined to be king, then Duncan would never have had to die. Consequently, if Macbeth had not killed

Duncan, this story would not have any murders in it at all.

Macbeth is driven by greed and violence proven by William

Hazlitt:

Macbeth himself appears driven along by the violence of his fate like a vessel drifting before a storm: he reels to and fro like a drunken man; he staggers under the weight of his own purposes and the suggestions of others; he stands at bay with his situation; and from the superstitious awe and breathless suspense into which the communications of the Weird Sisters throw him, is hurried on with daring impatience to verify their predictions, and with impious and bloody hand to tear aside the veil which hides the uncertainty of the future.

(Hazlitt, pg. 28)

3

Macbeth’s fate was more deserving than any others since he killed so many people; Duncan, Banquo, and MacDuff’s family. Macbeth never did feel sorry for what he did until his deeds came back to haunt him. If Macbeth would have been patient and had waited, then he probably would have become king and enjoyed it.