Is Macbeth A Hero Or A Villain

The question that is going to be answered in this paper “Is Macbeth a tragic hero or a villain?.”

Now many people if they had read the book would most likely think that Macbeth is a villain,

but in my opinion I think not. I say that because he has not been a villain in his entire existence

in fact he has been more of a hero than a villain. A tragic hero is described as a person of noble

birth with heroic or potentially heroic qualities. His person is fated by the Gods or by some

supernatural force to doom and destruction or at least to great suffering. Now I think this sums

up the back story to what a tragic villain is.

Macbeth was a war hero and I personally can’t see him being a villain because of all he did

and is currently doing

I say that because they were both doing

well until they were given power. Once they both got put in powerful positions they got greedy

and it’s like they couldn’t get enough.

The Bible talked about Saul and how his army would fall to the enemy and Macbeth had the

same experience and it was prophesied by witches. Believe it or not Macbeth and King Saul did

have a lot of similarities. They both had a time period in their life where they did evil but

eventually came back to reality. So yes I do consider Macbeth a tragic hero and my main

reasoning is comparing is to Saul which later became known as Paul. Macbeth seems like a

villain now but I am sure in the long run he will turn out to be just like Paul and right now that’s

my guess because of how far we along we are in the book.

Another reason that I can’t see Macbeth being villain is because of what Lady Macbeth said

to him. She basically said “you don’t like to lie and you don’t like to cheat”. A villain in my

opinion is one who likes to do all of those things and enjoys doing them as well. Also the fact

that he said he needed to put on a mask to cover his sin so that his heart will not see or

Yes, you most likely did have a few that

did that but for the most part the most evil villains did not have a problem with doing a single

crime.

a bad person who harms other people or breaks the law, or a cruel evil character in a book,

play, or film: That is a true definition from the Cambridge dictionary. Now when you take this

definition and compare this to Macbeth can you honestly say he is a villain with a hundred

percent certainty. Which you could say that he committed a villainous crime but overall you

can’t say he is a pure villain. Macbeth is one of the most interesting characters I have ever read

about and I am not talking about just Shakespearean characters I am talking about any characters

in any other book. He is a versatile character and it may not just be him it may also be the

characters around him as well.

Now another reason that Macbeth is not a villain, I honestly think that he is being tricked into

the killings. If he were not being tricked I would say with a hundred percent certainty that he is

being manipulated into killing the people. Macbeth was a war hero and in my opinion a true

soldier does not turn his back on his country. If he were a real soldier than he would be willing