The Responsibility of Michael Henchard For His Own Ruin in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

The Responsibility of Michael Henchard For His Own Ruin in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Aristotle described a tragic hero as someone who has a fatal flaw that

bring about ruin along with matters that are out of their own control.

An example of this is Macbeth in the play written by Shakespeare where

he gets himself into a position of eminence through sins but cannot

stop his fate as it is left out of his control. The same can be said

for Michael Henchard. We meet Michael Henchard first as a young hay

trusser walking along the road leading to Weydon Priors with his wife

and daughter. It soon occurs to the reader that there is some tension

between husband and wife, underlined when Hardy describes, "she had no

idea of taking his arm, nor he offering it". I believe that this shows

that Michael Henchard sees his wife as obligatory and is holding him

back from making something of his life.

The next significant part in the story is in the ferimity tent of the

village fare. This helps underline a drink problem with Henchard that

later in life helps catapult Henchard to his downfall. Michael

Henchard believes if he did not have to look after his wife and child

he would be "worth a thousand pound". This is merely an observation

and many at this part in the story would not have believed him, but as

we later find out this observation turns into the truth. Henchard

sells his wife to a complete stranger from the back of the tent

proving Henchard has no respect for his wife and child. Henchard is so

selfish that he will just let his wife and child walk off with a man

he has never met in his life before, ironically he did not even

believe the stra...

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...hat he just wants to be

forgotten and makes sure that everyone leaves him in the past. This is

the one thing Michael can actually see and realise that he has not

treated people with respect and he deserved to die alone with "no

mourners ……at my funeral".

I feel Henchard can be described as a tragic hero as he fits the frame

for my description earlier on. He have two vital flaws in his

character, hastiness and naivete, which eventually lead to his

downfall from prominence. The other factor is hastiness for example

when things are out of the person's control and in this case when the

bad weather occurred around the harvest time. By showing no

self-control and being so hasty it turned out to be obvious that

Henchard's fall was going to be fast and dramatic making him the

perfect character to base a story around.