Shakespeare's Macbeth - The Character Flaw

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Character Flaw of Macbeth

Everyone who is mortal has at least one flaw. Some flaws are more serious than others. For example, some people have addictions to gambling, while other people can not remember to put milk away after they use it. After a while though, a person's flaws come back to haunt them.

The tragedy MacBeth is no exception to this rule. In it, many of the characters die. The reason is that they have a flaw that eventually leads to their downfall. Not every character is deserving of his fate though. Some characters have a minor flaw that should not lead to their death. Others, however, have a major flaw that eventually leads to their death.

MacBeth kills the first Thane of Cawdor for trying to lead a revolution against England. His fatal flaw was that he was, according to Ross, "a disloyal traitor". The thane of Cawdor was greedy and wanted the throne of England for himself. As a result, he was murdered. His murder was not really disheartening, though, because the Thane of Cawdor deserved his fate. He was leading a battle in which many lost their lives for the sake of greed, and deserved to die because of his flaw. Duncan was the King of England, and was murdered by MacBeth. He was murdered because in order for MacBeth to fulfill his plan and become king, Duncan would have to die. Duncan's fatal flaw was that he was too trusting. For example, he thought that none of his friends could really be enemies. If Duncan was more careful about his safety at MacBeth's castle, he may have had a chance to survive. However, Duncan's flaw was not something so horrible that he should die because of it.

Most people need to trust each other more, and just because one

person did, he should not have to die for it. MacBeth's former best

friend, Banquo, was also killed by MacBeth. Banquo was killed

because he knew too much about the murder of Duncan. That was

not his fatal flaw, though. Banquo's fatal flaw was that, although he knew

that MacBeth killed Duncan, he really did not do anything about

it. Banquo had many opportunities to tell someone such as MacDuff

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