Macbeth’s Greatest Flaw

The play The Tragedy of Macbeth written by William Shakespeare is about a humble Lord named Macbeth, who loses himself throughout his rise to power. In the beginning of Act 1 Macbeth happened across three witches who tricked him into thinking he will become king after the death of King Duncan. Soon after Macbeth hears the witches’ prophecy he learns that Duncan named his son Malcolm to be his successor. This drives Macbeth mad with greed and envy as he tells Lady Macbeth his future of being king. Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to devise a rigorous plan to assassinate the king. Macbeth murders the king and with the fear that their own lives might be in danger Duncan’s sons evacuate the country which left Macbeth to be the new king. Throughout Macbeths rule his guilt eats away at him which to paranoia. Macbeth is a tragic hero unlike Beowulf the perfect hero Macbeth has flaws about his personality that cause his own downfall. Macbeth demonstrates multiple traits that have led to his downfall, but none is more important than his ability to be persuaded otherwise known as gullibility.

The most important tragic flaw that led to Macbeth’s downfall is that he was incredibly gullible. For example, when Macbeth came across three strange, unusual witches, they told him that he was to become king after the death of King Duncan. This labels him as gullible because Macbeth knew nothing about the three witches and had never seen them before but believed them anyway. “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter” (1. 3. 47-50). This line from the play demonstrates the witches informing Macbeth that he will be king. After the witches vanished Banquo helped convince Macbeth that he will be king. The witches mislead Macbeth and took advantage...

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...me king he did not have the desire and could not achieve this goal without others because he is simple minded. Therefore ambition is not Macbeth’s major flaw because he cannot think for himself and he had to be controlled to gain the achievement of being king.

In conclusion Macbeth had many flaws the caused his downfall. His gullibility and naive nature was the main reason he was defeated by Macduff at the end of the play. Macbeth’s ambition only played a small part in his passage to become king if it was not for others he still would have been a lord and Malcolm would have been the new king but because Macbeth was simple minded and gullible it was easy to deceive him into causing his own downfall.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” Prentice Hall Literature Missouri. Ed.

Grant Wiggins. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2010. 322-415. Print.