Responsibility for the Tragedy in Macbeth

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Responsibility for the Tragedy in Macbeth

A tragedy is the story of a noble persons fall from goodness into

evil. We watch the life that was once full of promise being thrown

away. Macbeth is a tragedy because it is about how Macbeth ruins his

reputation through circumstances and his own mistakes and his own

ambition.

There are many different viewpoints to take in answering this

question, and it is possible to argue many different cases, and give

good reason for them all, so it is my opinion that there are many

characters in Shakespeare’s play that are responsible for the tragedy

in Macbeth.

The first person that comes to mind is Macbeth himself because as we

know, he committed all the murders himself therefore making him the

most obvious person to point the finger at. If he claims to be such a

good person why would he do these things? Macbeth committing these

murders makes me question his personality and character. This is a

strong argument and I do agree that Macbeth has a dark side to him

that drives him to commit these deeds. But, as we know, no civil

person can turn from being a decent human being to a murderer without

any justification.

A lot of people would say that Macbeth does have an ounce of goodness

because he recognises that his actions are wrong; but would this not

be a major flaw in his character as he continues to do the deed all

the same? The thing that makes me feel that Macbeth is a partly good

man and could never do this without outside interference is the guilt

he feels after he has done these terrible things and indeed before

them he is in doubt whether to do them (e.g. Act One Scene Seven lines

...

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...sh and indecisive as the play goes on. First he

is swayed by Lady Macbeth, and then he seems to act very illogically.

This is another facet of his paranoia. Macbeth wants to stay king, so

he hires murderers to slay all who oppose him. In the last act he

becomes crueller and crueller, lashing out with feverish intensity at

all those around him, even those trying to help him and innocent

bystanders. That last statement is not just metaphysical, though:

Macbeth is diseased of both the mind and soul.

Like most tragedies, Macbeth, the main character, has a fatal flaw in

his character. Macbeth's weakness is the fact that he is too sharing

in his ambition. He opens up his path in life to include others as

well, namely the withes and his wife. After that event, the true

Macbeth is gone, another traveller on the road of evil.

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