Austin White
Mrs. Morgan
ENG 3U1
05 November 2017 Macbeth Essay
Tragic heroes often have distinct qualities to them which makes them different compared to the other characters. Often times, the tragic hero has an abundance of ambition to acquire a certain goal. This leads to the tragic hero to obtain guilt,, as they have trouble accepting what they have done, or the person they have turned into because of their ambition. Lastly, pity and fear is felt by the audience, often during the downfall of the tragic hero. William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth displays a tragic hero perfectly. Macbeth displays a vast amount of ambition, guilt, and is capable of creating pity and fear within the audience making him a true tragic hero.
Firstly, Macbeth
Macbeth first illustrates a fair amount of guilt directly after murdering Duncan: “Methought heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep” (II.ii.35,36). Macbeth imagines a voice which states sleeping is no longer safe as Macbeth murdered Duncan in his sleep, heightening the cruelty of the crime and leaving Macbeth to mourn with guilt and remorse. He originally did not want to murder Duncan. He hoped there would be another way, until he realized it had to be done in order for him to be successful, which was the start to a future filled with astonishing amounts of guilt for him. Secondly, another example of Macbeth showing guilt is when he imagines Banquo's ghost: “Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake Thy gory locks at me” (III.iv.45). Macbeth imagines the ghost of Banquo, and tries to tell it that the murder is not his fault, which shows he is full of guilt over the fact that he murdered Banquo. This is when it becomes more evident that the guilt is tearing Macbeth apart, and he is starting to lose his sanity as he imagines ghosts and attempts to talk to them. Lastly, more guilt is shown during a conversation between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth: “I am in blood Stepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er.” (III,iv,143). Macbeth feels guilty here as he admits that everything he is doing is wrong, but he is so deeply involved
The audience feels pity, likely to start when the tragic hero begins his downfall. Firstly, the audience exhibits a great amount of pity for the tragic hero Macbeth after he assassinates King Duncan: “I’ll go no more: I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on ’t again I dare not” (II.ii.51-53) The audience feels pity for Macbeth in this instance as it is evident that he realizes that he has made a mistake and is sincerely sorry, and the guilt is eating him alive. Lady Macbeth has been a negative influence on him, giving him ambition to kill King Duncan. Macbeth is evidently scared for what he had done and deeply regrets it, creating pity within the audience. Next, fear joins the audience during the scenes which involves Macbeth and the murderers. Fear is given to the audience when it is evident Macbeth has turned into a cold blooded killer, who is unpredictable and easily influenced: “It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul’s flight, If it find heaven, must find it out tonight” (III.i.146,147). At this point, it is evident Macbeth will murder Banquo. This creates a vast amount of fear within the audience, because they can foresee Macbeth’s downfall as he turns into a murderer and will commit more until he is ultimately killed. The last point in which the audience exhibits the most pity throughout the play for Macbeth, is during his speech upon the realization that
In the Shakespearian tragedy Macbeth, though Macbeth manages to murder the Scottish king Duncan to actualize the prophecy of the three witches, yet the guilt emanating from such nefarious acts and intentions continues to foreshadow Macbeth’s life throughout the plot. The very moment Macbeth approaches lady Macbeth with hands dipped in the blood of Duncan, his deeps seated guilt oozes forth as he says, “Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more;/Macbeth does murder sleep (2.2.45-46)”. Thereby, from this moment onwards, Macbeth is shown to be strongly stung by an unrelenting and continually nagging sense of guilt that makes him engage in strange and suspicion generating acts and manners. Yet, Macbeth time and again interprets his guilt as a sign of cowardice and moves on to spill more blood to consolidate his hold over an ill gotten throne. The torment and anguish inherent in these lines that are imbued with the seeds of guilt eventually metamorphose into a full blown sense of guilt and shame that continues to torment his soul.
Have you ever felt so terrible for something you did, or even felt awful before you even do that dangerous act? A part of the human nature is the very complex brain which gives humans the thought that they have done something wrong or are about to do something wrong. This is called your conscience and if you do not listen to it, very bad things can occur as a direct consequence. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth comes across as a hero and then turned into an absolute monster due to the inhumane acts that he takes to become the most powerful leader and hold that position. Art Markman from phychology.com defines the use of guilt. He says, “Guilt is a valuable emotion, because it helps to maintain your ties to the people in your community.”(Psychology.com)
After Macbeth was successfully crowned, his fear did not let go of him. Earlier in the play right before the murder of Duncan, Macbeth was afraid that if he would kill Duncan this sin would come back to haunt him. “ This even handed justice commends the ingredience of our poisoned chalice to our own lips”(Act 1 Sc. 7 p. 39). So now when everything seemed fine, Macbeth was actually very afraid that something was wrong.
After Macbeth committed a dreadful crime at the start of the play, he realizes that by killing even more people he can get what he wants whenever he wants. Macbeth reaches a point where he is too busy fulfilling his own ambitions that he was not fulfilling his obligations as king. “Those he command move only in command, / Nothing in love…” (5.2.22-23). His obsession with power caused him to murder his good friend Banquo, and Banquo’s son. Macbeth’s out of control ambition has caused him to lose his emotion. He progressively sta...
Macbeth exhibits most, if not all, of the classic traits of a Shakespearean tragic hero almost flawlessly. From his rise to greatness to his ultimate destruction and death, he is most certainly a tragic hero.
A way that the audience is enabled by his tyranny is through Macbeth’s guilt. The fact that an individual could keep killing with no remorse makes it difficult for an audience to connect. Macbeth’s guilt symbolizes craziness during Act V when the ghost of Banquo visits him. It almost causes Macbeth to reveal the truth about king Duncan’s murder. ‘’I am in blood stepp’d in so far, that should wade no more…” III.IV. In act II. ii the blood symbolizes guilt from King Duncan’s murder. Blood stains and will stay with Macbeth forever. The insomnia proves to be another symbol of guilt by Macbeth due to his inability to, sleep from the guilt. In act II.ii, “God bless us! And ‘Amen,’ the other.. ‘Macbeth does murder sleep.’’ It talks about Macbeth’s inability to relate to a higher power due to his guilt from his
In Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, the main character Macbeth is labeled as either a tragic hero or a villain. A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgement error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. A villain is the bad guy of the story. They are the ones who come up with a diabolical plot to somehow cause harm or ruin (“Literary Terms.”). As of now where we are at in the play, it seems as if Macbeth is a character who does reckless things but intends to do the right thing. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is faithfully serving the king by slaying the enemies who try to invade the great land of Scotland. Although selfish by killing King Duncan, his righteous morals and servant attitude says otherwise in the
Shakespeare uses the title character of Macbeth to effectively develop the theme of guilt and conscience in his play. Several times in the play we see Macbeth’s character crumbling as a result of a guilty conscience. At the beginning of the play he meets the witches with Banquo, and this prompts the first step toward killing the King. This helps in developing the theme because we get the idea that Macbeth does not trust the witches, nor does he fully believe them. Unfortunately his ambitious nature gets the better of him and causes him to listen carefully to how he might acquire his kingship. Macbeth feels guilty that he is thinking about killing the King because he’s basing his entire thought upon belief in the ‘evil creatures’. We see this when Macbeth has a soliloquy in which he says, “Cannot be ill, cannot be good” and also asks himself why the thought of becoming King makes his “seated heart” knock against his ribs.
A combination of Macbeth’s ambition and paranoia lead to many senseless murders. He killed his best friend Banquo out of fear and he senselessly murdered Macduff’s family. The hallucination of Banquo’s ghost is a representation of Macbeth 's guilt, all of Macbeth’s guilt is manifested in the ghost. Macbeth states that he feels guilty because of the murders. “Ay, and since too, murders have been performed Too terrible for the ear.” (III, iv, 80-81) Seeing the ghost of Banquo is the breaking point for Macbeth. The ghost also causes him to think more irrationally which leads to the murder of Macduff. Also, after the murder of Duncan, Macbeth is full of regret and guilt. The voices he hears reflect his mental state. “Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more!” (II, ii, 35) His innocence was killed and he knows that he has to live with this guilt for the rest of his life, hence Macbeth will never sleep peacefully ever again. After each successive murder, Macbeth becomes more and more inhumane. “I am in blood Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o 'er.” (III, iv, 143-145) Macbeth claims that after committing a murder, there is no turning back. He killed his best friend due to his ambition and fear. The third murder was outright moralless and unnecessary, he compulsively killed Macduff’s wife and children. Macbeth shows no remorse in his murders, he becomes an absolute monster towards the end of the play. As Macbeth loses his human morales, hallucinations appear to remind him of the sins he
Fear motivates us to do many things, whether they are right or wrong. In the play Macbeth, fear was the main motivation that influenced the outcome of the play. This can be proved by the subsequent murders after Duncan's. Why were these committed? Macbeth was scared of being caught and having to pay for the wrongs he had done. Also, look at Lady Macbeth. The constant washing of her hands, sleepwalking, and other behavior like this is done out of fear. It resembles her husband fear of being caught. The final piece of proof is Macbeth's actions. They were all due to fear, not only of being caught but of the witches' prophecies. He was scared of them coming true and tried to stop them from happening. This whole play was inspired by fear and what it can do to a person.
One particular instance where the reader has the potential to feel pity for Macbeth appears in the dialogue immediately before Macbeth decides whether or not to kill King Duncan. Macbeth is unsure of the morality of the murder. During much self-deliberation, he agonizes in the monologue,
Macbeth further reinforces his evil nature as he acts surprised and outraged after Duncan’s death (II, iii, 107 – 109). Macbeth, instead of listening to his conscience, suppresses his guilt and continues with his ambition. This proves his vaulting ambition and how it has taken over Macbeth. Macbeth continues to murder Banquo and does so out of fear of losing the throne.
Tragic heroes, who destined for a serious downfall, are the protagonist of a dramatic tragedy. A tragic hero is usually a great hero, who gets the most respect from other people; on the other hand, a tragic hero can also lose everything he gained because of his mistakes. His downfall is the result of a wrong judgment, a flaw which might combined with fated and external forces. The downfall can cause the tragic hero to suffer for the rest of his life. In many literary works, the downfall of the tragic heroes usually happen in their highest point. In the same way, Macbeth is a tragic hero in the play called “The Tragedy of Macbeth” which is written by a legendary writer, William Shakespeares. Macbeth is a great general who gained many respect from the people and even the king. In the highest point of his life, because of seeking for greater power, it created Macbeth’s downfall. Macbeth, a tragic hero, causes suffering for himself and others by committing murders and creating distress, which are the negative effects of seeking for a greater power.
Macbeth could justly be classified a “Tragic Hero” as his tragic story fills out the defined criteria for a tragic hero. Macbeth holds a significant social status, reveals essential truths about humanity through his suffering, has tragically wasted talent, contains a “tragic flaw” leading to his downfall and finally he finds some relief in his death.
Macbeth is scared at this point. For a great warrior king to be scared is a big deal in the eyes of the lords and the audience. The audience feels pity for him because he is at a time of weakness which at this stage is uncharacteristic for Macbeth.