The Tragic Heros in Macbeth and Things Fall Apart

Macbeth, a tragedy that was written by William Shakespeare in the 17th century is a play that expresses how ambition destroys people and how a strong pull for desire of power can have over a man. Macbeth is a tragic hero and had it not been for the witches prophecies and his wife's ambition and interaction with him, the play would be been ended very differently. From the beginning, Macbeth is doomed by fate to descend into the madness, which in the end he did. Of course like every other tragic hero, Macbeth had a tragic fall which lead him to his ultimate downfall. His tragic flaw was his vaulting ambition and his hunger overall for power. Macbeth realizes his ambition when he himself says “ I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on th’ other—”(1.7.25-28) Macbeth shows regret. He is regretful because his only form of motivation is by ambition and not by some other more worthy motive. He has just explained to himself that there is no actual real justification for his murder of Duncan. Even though at the beginning of the play, Macbeth was portrayed as an energized, assertive and strategic warrior, who was ironically the bravest and loyalist soldier to his king, Duncan. Macbeth showed nothing but pure respect and admiration towards his king but his ambition had always resided with him. His ambition is triggered and causes problems when the witches arrive and tell their prophecies to Macbeth. Though initially at first Macbeth brushed the witches prophecies off, once he was granted the title of Thane of Cawdor, he started to reconsider the witches prophecies. Afterwards he doesn’t just view the idea of him becoming a king as a possibility, but rather the inevitable...

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...hat upset but he doesn’t show any emotion.

Overall the reason why Okonkwo is the stronger tragic hero than Macbeth is because Macbeth decides to do the wrong thing, and kill his king and Okonkwo is trying to do the right thing, which is to get rid of the white people so they can leave his land and gods alone, and gain respect. Both of them end up being gruesome but the difference is Macbeth gets killed by his own people and Okonkwo decides to take his life.

Works Cited

Eddie Borey, author of ClassicNote. Completed on March 03, 2000, copyright held by GradeSaver.

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart.. First published by Heinemann in 1958. Reading, UK: Heinemann, 1986.

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Vol. XLVI, Part 4. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909–14; Bartleby.com, 2001. www.bartleby.com/46/4/. [Date of Printout].