Macbeth as a Tragic Hero in William Shakespeare's Play

Macbeth as a Tragic Hero in William Shakespeare's Play

Macbeth is a Shakespearian play involving an ambitious brave warrior,

(Macbeth) who is cousin to the King of Scotland. The play focuses on

Macbeths ambitions. Macbeth meets three weird sisters, who predict

that one day he would be king. But Macbeth's ambition over took his

life as he ended up doing anything to become king, even kill the ones

closest to him. There is a great battle at the end of the play in

which Macbeth is killed, proving that Macbeth would even be prepared

to die to make his ambitions come true.

Is Macbeth a Shakespearian tragic hero? To fulfill the role of a

tragic hero the character must complete some criteria.

The character should be a central character of noble birth and status.

The character should build up tragic flaws throughout the play and

should have a fall from grace

de casibus near the end. The audience must identify the character as

not a fully bad person but should have a personality of almost

innocent in a chaotic ensuring sense and the character must be aware

of their own faults, to make the audience feel a sense of waste and

catharsis. To fulfill the role of a Shakespearian tragic hero Macbeth

must complete this criterion.

Macbeth's character has many different aspects and characteristics and

his tone to other characters change throughout the play. Near the

beginning of the play Macbeth writes a letter to his wife lady

Macbeth, in the letter there is evidence of his love towards her, as

he writes, 'my dearest love' and 'my dearest partner in greatness.'

These two quotes show lady Macbeth that Macbeth is in love with her

and this...

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...fulfills the role of a Shakespearian tragic

hero to the extent that he is his own self and not the character that

is under the influence of Lady Macbeth or the weird sisters. Macbeth

is his own self when he is not hiding underneath a mask from the

truth, when he is not being bullied by his possessive wife Lady

Macbeth or when he has his ambition of becoming king in his mind.

Noble Macbeth, Thane of Glaimis, the great warrior Macbeth fulfills

the role of a tragic hero because the last piece of criteria for a

Shakespearian tragic hero is that the audience must feel a sense of

waste and catharsis and losing a great warrior is a waste, while

losing an over ambitious, murdering King is not. Macbeth fulfills the

role of a Shakespearian tragic hero to the extent where he is his own

man, not under the influence of anyone else.