macbeth is not a tragic hero essay

Essay Topics About Macbeth: Is Macbeth a Tragic Hero?

Is Macbeth a tragic hero? Dive into the key factors that support this idea and explore why many consider him a classic example of a tragic hero in literature.

Macbeth fits the role of a tragic hero because he is born into nobility, and has good character. But his fatal flaw, his ambition, leads to his death at the end of the play. It also pushes him to commit many atrocities, including murder, as he falls deeper and deeper into darkness. Some characteristics of the character are not perfect examples of tragic heroes, but overall, he fits this archetype.

William Shakespeare’s tragedies have several examples of tragic heroes, but many literary analysts are divided about whether or not Macbeth, the Thane of Cawdor, is one of them. Does the character and his tragic flaw fit the definition of the tragic hero, or is Shakespeare’s Macbeth a different type of character?

Here we will take a closer look at the answer to this question, for you to use in your next argumentative essay.

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Definition of a Tragic Hero

Ways macbeth fits the idea of a tragic hero, arguments against macbeth as a tragic hero, macbeth as a villain instead of a tragic hero, macbeth as a victim instead of a tragic hero, though not perfect, macbeth shows many characteristics of a tragic hero.

Before looking more closely at whether or not Macbeth is a tragic hero, first, you must understand what a tragic hero is.

According to the dictionary , a tragic hero is a character in a drama who is “destined for downfall, suffering, or defeat.” However, in literature, the definition is slightly more in-depth.

In Greek literature, Aristotle defined the tragic hero as someone whose mistakes or errors in judgment were the ultimate cause of their downfall. Other components of the tragic hero literary archetype are:

• Creates fear or pity in the audience’s mind, which creates a sense of catharsis at the end of the work.
• Have a tragic or fatal flaw, which is a character trait that causes the character’s downfall
• Be nobility, monarchy, or in leadership in some other way.
• Has heroic or potentially heroic tendencies.
• They endure great suffering and have a tragic ending

Based on these character traits, you can decide if Macbeth is, in fact, a tragic hero.

Macbeth Essay Topics

In the play Macbeth, the main character fulfills some of the characteristics of the tragic hero. Looking more closely at these will help you decide whether or not you believe that Macbeth is a tragic hero.

1. Macbeth’s Background

One of the characteristics of the tragic hero is being of noble background, and Macbeth fits this profile well. He starts the play as the Thane of Glamis and quickly becomes the Thane of Cawdor. From the very beginning of the play, he is in a leadership role.

Early in the play, Macbeth has the king’s trust. The king has this to say about him: 

“What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt. . . O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman! Dismay’d not this Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?” Macbeth

This quote shows a high level of trust between the king and captain.

Macbeth is also a member of the military. Early in the play, the three witches prophesy that he will become king of Scotland. Through their prophecy and the urging of his wife, Lady Macbeth, he pursues the throne very violently.

With all three of these roles and his leadership in the military, Macbeth fulfills the requirement of noble birth or being a member of the monarchy.

Similarly, at the start of the play, he seems to be a nice man and a military hero. Until he meets the three witches, he also appears to be loyal to his king. The classic tragic hero will start as a pleasant character until the tragic flaw takes over. in this way, Macbeth fits the archetype.

2. The Audience’s View of Macbeth

To be a tragic hero, the audience must develop feelings of fear or pity for the character, which often occurs in Macbeth. At the start of the play, he seems to be an honest man of noble character. The play describes how he killed McDonald, a traitor, which could cause the audience to view him as a hero.

However, as the play unfolds and the external forces, like the three witches, impact Thane, his moral character and mental health decline. He changes into a completely different type of person, eliciting the audience’s sympathy.

As the play continues, Macbeth’s outside influences grow stronger, as does his desire for power. Eventually, this causes him to become insane, and the audience feels fear and pity for the man and where his choices may take him.

Again, because the audience starts to feel this sense of pity for the once brave Macbeth, he fits the definition of a tragic hero.

That said, this is one area where Macbeth is not quite as clear a fit for the definition of a tragic hero. While some audience members may feel pity and fear, others will detest his fall from power and his poor character throughout the play.

“My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man That function is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is but what is not.” Macbeth

3. Macbeth’s Tragic Flaw

Macbeth’s tragic flaw is the subject of much debate in the literature. Many will state that Macbeth’s ambition  leads him down such a dangerous path. He wants to become king so badly that he is willing to murder.

Yet Macbeth also has a bit of hubris. He believes he can achieve everything in the witches’ prophecies without help, and he takes matters into his own hands to do so.

Finally, as the play progresses, he seems to develop some insanity. Though the vaulting ambition is likely the cause of some of his insanity, the insanity and mental health issues could be the fatal flaw that ultimately contributes to Macbeth’s downfall.

“For mine own good All causes shall give way. I am in blood Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er.” Macbeth

4. The Wicked Actions of the Character of Macbeth

Another component of a tragic hero is the errors in judgment that cause evil actions. As Macbeth pursues his desire for the throne, pushed toward that desire by the prophecy of the three witches and various other apparitions that encourage him, he commits many crimes.

His criminal behavior starts with the murder of the Scottish King Duncan, a necessary move for him to take the throne. However, as he ascends to rule Scotland, he becomes paranoid about keeping his power, especially since Duncan’s sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, got away and remained a threat to his power.

Yet Macbeth’s murderous path is not over after the murder of Duncan. His friend Banquo, who spoke against his murderous intentions, is the next to fall.

Macbeth then sights Macduff, a loyal thane who believes Macbeth is King Duncan’s assassin. Macduff flees to England to escape the treachery, yet he leaves his family behind. Macbeth kills Macduff’s family. Eventually, this action leads to Macbeth’s death at the hands of the grieving husband and father.

These actions further solidify that Macbeth is a tragic hero. He makes errors in judgment that lead him to murder to retain his power.

“It will have blood, they say. Blood will have blood.” Macbeth

5. Macbeth’s Tragic Ending

The final characteristic of a tragic hero is a tragic downfall. In a Shakespearean tragedy, this typically includes the main character’s death.

At the end of the play, Macbeth’s tragedy begins when his wife starts to show signs of mental decline and ends up taking her own life. This causes him to sink into despair, withdrawing to Dunsinane to try to protect his throne and defend himself. The English army, with Macduff, comes to the castle in search of him.

As the battle unfolds, Macbeth fights hard, but his castle is no match for Macduff’s forces. Macduff confronts Macbeth and cuts off his head, allowing Malcolm to become the King of Scotland. Peace comes back to the land, but only because the traitor Macbeth died.

“Despair they charm And let the angel whom thou still hast served Tell thee. Macduff was from his mother’s womb Untimely ripp’d” Macbeth

Though many literary analysts believe Macbeth to be a tragic hero, some will argue that he is not. Macbeth is not the perfect example of a tragic hero. Here are some of them.

1. He Is Not Born with His Tragic Flaw

Many tragic heroes have a tragic flaw that is part of their inborn character, but this is not the case with Macbeth. His ambition is not entirely present at the start of the play. It is the prophecies of the witches and the urging of Lady Macbeth that fuel the flame of Macbeth’s ambition. When he starts to believe that he is destined to be king, and Lady Macbeth perpetuates that belief, he starts down his dangerous path.

In addition, his tragic flaw of ambition and desire to keep his power dos not become evident until the play is well underway. Their tragic characteristic is present in most tragic heroes from the very beginning.

2. His Heroic Nature Is Suspect

Another reason some claim Macbeth is not a tragic hero is that the play shows little to indicate he has heroic tendencies. While it shows he is a good soldier, his descent into madness starts fairly early in the play, and thus he does not have much time to show his good character.

For someone to be a tragic hero, they must have good character qualities that take a wrong turn. Macbeth may not fulfill this role well, depending on how the audience views his character.

3. Little Pity From the Audience

Some literary analysts state that the character of Macbeth does not evoke much pity. When he dies at the end, you do not experience catharsis but rather a sense of justice. His ruthlessness makes it hard to pity the character, which is an essential part of the idea of a tragic hero.

That said, the feelings of an audience are not always the same from one reader to the next. Some may feel pity for Macbeth, thus allowing him to fulfill this role, while others may not.

Some literary scholars view Macbeth as the play’s villain, not a hero. The antagonist can still be a tragic hero if the audience has empathy for them, but if not, then he is just a villain.

To state that Macbeth is a villain, you must prove that he would have done the actions in the play regardless of the other events of the play. His character flaws would have pushed him to murder the king, even without the prophecy and his wife’s influence.

Shakespeare does not give enough detail in the play to draw this conclusion. However, Macbeth feels fear and defiance, not guilt, when he sees Banquo’s ghost, which may show that he is more villainous than heroic.

Another potential view is that Macbeth is the story’s victim . To prove this view, you must prove that the outside influences, including the witches and his wife, push him toward his murderous actions rather than his character.

The key question here is whether or not these influences force Macbeth’s hand or if they encourage him along a path that he would have followed on his own.

One argument toward Macbeth being a victim is the intense guilt he feels after killing Duncan. The guilt is almost enough to drive him mad, and it is the start of his loss of peace through the end of the play.

You could also argue that Macbeth is a victim of himself. At the end of the play, when Macduff strikes the fatal blow, it is the witches Macbeth curses. This points toward him viewing himself as a victim.

This question is probably one that literary analysts will continue to debate. However, one thing is clear: Macbeth is not a perfect example of a tragic hero, but he does display many of the characteristics.

In literature, characters are not always perfectly representative of the archetypes they portray. Writers can give their characters different traits that pull them away from a particular path. Yet more of Macbeth’s characteristics align with that of a tragic hero than do not, and thus the conclusion that he is one is valid.

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Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 25, 2020 • ( 0 )

Macbeth . . . is done upon a stronger and more systematic principle of contrast than any other of Shakespeare’s plays. It moves upon the verge of an abyss, and is a constant struggle between life and death. The action is desperate and the reaction is dreadful. It is a huddling together of fierce extremes, a war of opposite natures which of them shall destroy the other. There is nothing but what has a violent end or violent beginnings. The lights and shades are laid on with a determined hand; the transitions from triumph to despair, from the height of terror to the repose of death, are sudden and startling; every passion brings in its fellow-contrary, and the thoughts pitch and jostle against each other as in the dark. The whole play is an unruly chaos of strange and forbidden things, where the ground rocks under our feet. Shakespear’s genius here took its full swing, and trod upon the farthest bounds of nature and passion.

—William Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays

Macbeth completes William Shakespeare’s great tragic quartet while expanding, echoing, and altering key elements of Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear into one of the most terrifying stage experiences. Like Hamlet, Macbeth treats the  consequences  of  regicide,  but  from  the  perspective  of  the  usurpers,  not  the  dispossessed.  Like  Othello,  Macbeth   centers  its  intrigue  on  the  intimate  relations  of  husband  and  wife.  Like  Lear,  Macbeth   explores  female  villainy,  creating in Lady Macbeth one of Shakespeare’s most complex, powerful, and frightening woman characters. Different from Hamlet and Othello, in which the tragic action is reserved for their climaxes and an emphasis on cause over effect, Macbeth, like Lear, locates the tragic tipping point at the play’s outset to concentrate on inexorable consequences. Like Othello, Macbeth, Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy, achieves an almost unbearable intensity by eliminating subplots, inessential characters, and tonal shifts to focus almost exclusively on the crime’s devastating impact on husband and wife.

What is singular about Macbeth, compared to the other three great Shakespearean tragedies, is its villain-hero. If Hamlet mainly executes rather than murders,  if  Othello  is  “more  sinned  against  than  sinning,”  and  if  Lear  is  “a  very foolish fond old man” buffeted by surrounding evil, Macbeth knowingly chooses  evil  and  becomes  the  bloodiest  and  most  dehumanized  of  Shakespeare’s tragic protagonists. Macbeth treats coldblooded, premeditated murder from the killer’s perspective, anticipating the psychological dissection and guilt-ridden expressionism that Feodor Dostoevsky will employ in Crime and Punishment . Critic Harold Bloom groups the protagonist as “the culminating figure  in  the  sequence  of  what  might  be  called  Shakespeare’s  Grand  Negations: Richard III, Iago, Edmund, Macbeth.” With Macbeth, however, Shakespeare takes us further inside a villain’s mind and imagination, while daringly engaging  our  sympathy  and  identification  with  a  murderer.  “The  problem  Shakespeare  gave  himself  in  Macbeth  was  a  tremendous  one,”  Critic  Wayne  C. Booth has stated.

Take a good man, a noble man, a man admired by all who know him—and  destroy  him,  not  only  physically  and  emotionally,  as  the  Greeks  destroyed their heroes, but also morally and intellectually. As if this were not difficult enough as a dramatic hurdle, while transforming him into one of the most despicable mortals conceivable, maintain him as a tragic hero—that is, keep him so sympathetic that, when he comes to his death, the audience will pity rather than detest him and will be relieved to see him out of his misery rather than pleased to see him destroyed.

Unlike Richard III, Iago, or Edmund, Macbeth is less a virtuoso of villainy or an amoral nihilist than a man with a conscience who succumbs to evil and obliterates the humanity that he is compelled to suppress. Macbeth is Shakespeare’s  greatest  psychological  portrait  of  self-destruction  and  the  human  capacity for evil seen from inside with an intimacy that horrifies because of our forced identification with Macbeth.

Although  there  is  no  certainty  in  dating  the  composition  or  the  first performance  of  Macbeth,   allusions  in  the  play  to  contemporary  events  fix the  likely  date  of  both  as  1606,  shortly  after  the  completion  and  debut  of  King Lear. Scholars have suggested that Macbeth was acted before James I at Hampton  Court  on  August  7,  1606,  during  the  royal  visit  of  King  Christian IV of Denmark and that it may have been especially written for a royal performance. Its subject, as well as its version of Scottish history, suggest an effort both to flatter and to avoid offending the Scottish king James. Macbeth is a chronicle play in which Shakespeare took his major plot elements from Raphael  Holinshed’s  Chronicles  of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland  (1587),  but  with  significant  modifications.  The  usurping  Macbeth’s  decade-long  (and  largely  successful)  reign  is  abbreviated  with  an  emphasis  on  the  internal  and external destruction caused by Macbeth’s seizing the throne and trying to hold onto it. For the details of King Duncan’s death, Shakespeare used Holinshed’s  account  of  the  murder  of  an  earlier  king  Duff  by  Donwald,  who cast suspicion on drunken servants and whose ambitious wife played a significant role in the crime. Shakespeare also eliminated Banquo as the historical Macbeth’s co-conspirator in the murder to promote Banquo’s innocence and nobility in originating a kingly line from which James traced his legitimacy. Additional prominence is also given to the Weird Sisters, whom Holinshed only mentions in their initial meeting of Macbeth on the heath. The prophetic warning “beware Macduff” is attributed to “certain wizards in whose words Macbeth put great confidence.” The importance of the witches and  the  occult  in  Macbeth   must  have  been  meant  to  appeal  to  a  king  who  produced a treatise, Daemonologie (1597), on witch-craft.

The uncanny sets the tone of moral ambiguity from the play’s outset as the three witches gather to encounter Macbeth “When the battle’s lost and won” in an inverted world in which “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” Nothing in the play will be what it seems, and the tragedy results from the confusion and  conflict  between  the  fair—honor,  nobility,  duty—and  the  foul—rank  ambition and bloody murder. Throughout the play nature reflects the disorder and violence of the action. Opening with thunder and lightning, the drama is set in a Scotland contending with the rebellion of the thane (feudal lord) of Cawdor, whom the fearless and courageous Macbeth has vanquished on the battlefield. The play, therefore, initially establishes Macbeth as a dutiful and trusted vassal of the king, Duncan of Scotland, deserving to be rewarded with the rebel’s title for restoring peace and order in the realm. “What he hath lost,” Duncan declares, “noble Macbeth hath won.” News of this honor reaches Macbeth through the witches, who greet him both as the thane of Cawdor and “king hereafter” and his comrade-in-arms Banquo as one who “shalt get kings, though thou be none.” Like the ghost in Hamlet , the  Weird  Sisters  are  left  purposefully  ambiguous  and  problematic.  Are  they  agents  of  fate  that  determine  Macbeth’s  doom,  predicting  and  even  dictating  the  inevitable,  or  do  they  merely  signal  a  latency  in  Macbeth’s  ambitious character?

When he is greeted by the king’s emissaries as thane of Cawdor, Macbeth begins to wonder if the first predictions of the witches came true and what will come of the second of “king hereafter”:

This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, Against the use of nature? Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings: My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man that function Is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is But what is not.

Macbeth  will  be  defined  by  his  “horrible  imaginings,”  by  his  considerable  intellectual and imaginative capacity both to understand what he knows to be true and right and his opposed desires and their frightful consequences. Only Hamlet has as fully a developed interior life and dramatized mental processes as  Macbeth  in  Shakespeare’s  plays.  Macbeth’s  ambition  is  initially  checked  by his conscience and by his fear of the unforeseen consequence of violating moral  laws.  Shakespeare  brilliantly  dramatizes  Macbeth’s  mental  conflict in near stream of consciousness, associational fashion:

If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly. If th’assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch With his surcease, success: that but this blow Might be the be all and the end all, here, But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases We still have judgement here, that we but teach Bloody instructions which, being taught, return To plague th’inventor. This even-handed justice Commends th’ingredients of our poison’d chalice To our own lips. He’s here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels trumpet-tongued against The deep damnation of his taking-off, And pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, horsed Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself And falls on the other.

Macbeth’s “spur” comes in the form of Lady Macbeth, who plays on her husband’s selfimage of courage and virility to commit to the murder. She also reveals her own shocking cancellation of gender imperatives in shaming her husband into action, in one of the most shocking passages of the play:

. . . I have given suck, and know How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn As you have done to this.

Horrified  at  his  wife’s  resolve  and  cold-blooded  calculation  in  devising  the  plot,  Macbeth  urges  his  wife  to  “Bring  forth  menchildren  only,  /  For  thy  undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males,” but commits “Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.”

With the decision to kill the king taken, the play accelerates unrelentingly through a succession of powerful scenes: Duncan’s and Banquo’s murders, the banquet scene in which Banquo’s ghost appears, Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking, and Macbeth’s final battle with Macduff, Thane of Fife. Duncan’s offstage murder  contrasts  Macbeth’s  “horrible  imaginings”  concerning  the  implications and Lady Macbeth’s chilling practicality. Macbeth’s question, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?” is answered by his wife: “A little water clears us of this deed; / How easy is it then!” The knocking at the door of the castle, ominously signaling the revelation of the crime, prompts the play’s one comic respite in the Porter’s drunken foolery that he is at the door of “Hell’s Gate” controlling the entrance of the damned. With the fl ight of Duncan’s sons, who fear for their lives, causing them to be suspected as murderers, Macbeth is named king, and the play’s focus shifts to Macbeth’s keeping and consolidating the power he has seized. Having gained what the witches prophesied, Macbeth next tries to prevent their prediction that Banquo’s descendants will reign by setting assassins to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance. The plan goes awry, and Fleance escapes, leaving Macbeth again at the mercy of the witches’ prophecy. His psychic breakdown is dramatized by his seeing Banquo’s ghost occupying Macbeth’s place at the banquet. Pushed to  the  edge  of  mental  collapse,  Macbeth  steels  himself  to  meet  the  witches  again to learn what is in store for him: “Iam in blood,” he declares, “Stepp’d in so far that, should Iwade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er.”

The witches reassure him that “none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth” and that he will never be vanquished until “Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill / Shall come against him.” Confident that he is invulnerable, Macbeth  responds  to  the  rebellion  mounted  by  Duncan’s  son  Malcolm  and  Macduff, who has joined him in England, by ordering the slaughter of Lady Macduff and her children. Macbeth has progressed from a murderer in fulfillment of the witches predictions to a murderer (of Banquo) in order to subvert their predictions and then to pointless butchery that serves no other purpose than as an exercise in willful destruction. Ironically, Macbeth, whom his wife feared  was  “too  full  o’  the  milk  of  human  kindness  /  To  catch  the  nearest  way” to serve his ambition, displays the same cold calculation that frightened him  about  his  wife,  while  Lady  Macbeth  succumbs  psychically  to  her  own  “horrible  imaginings.”  Lady  Macbeth  relives  the  murder  as  she  sleepwalks,  Shakespeare’s version of the workings of the unconscious. The blood in her tormented  conscience  that  formerly  could  be  removed  with  a  little  water  is  now a permanent noxious stain in which “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten.” Women’s cries announcing her offstage death are greeted by Macbeth with detached indifference:

I have almost forgot the taste of fears: The time has been, my senses would have cool’d To hear a nightshriek, and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir As life were in’t. Ihave supp’d full with horrors; Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, Cannot once start me.

Macbeth reveals himself here as an emotional and moral void. Confirmation that “The Queen, my lord, is dead” prompts only the bitter comment, “She should have died hereafter.” For Macbeth, life has lost all meaning, refl ected in the bleakest lines Shakespeare ever composed:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

Time and the world that Macbeth had sought to rule are revealed to him as empty and futile, embodied in a metaphor from the theater with life as a histrionic, talentless actor in a tedious, pointless play.

Macbeth’s final testing comes when Malcolm orders his troops to camoufl  age  their  movement  by  carrying  boughs  from  Birnam  Woods  in  their march toward Dunsinane and from Macduff, whom he faces in combat and reveals that he was “from his mother’s womb / Untimely ripp’d,” that is, born by cesarean section and therefore not “of woman born.” This revelation, the final fulfillment of the witches’ prophecies, causes Macbeth to fl ee, but he is prompted  by  Macduff’s  taunt  of  cowardice  and  order  to  surrender  to  meet  Macduff’s challenge, despite knowing the deadly outcome:

Yet I will try the last. Before my body I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, And damn’d be him that first cries, “Hold, enough!”

Macbeth  returns  to  the  world  of  combat  where  his  initial  distinctions  were  honorably earned and tragically lost.

The play concludes with order restored to Scotland, as Macduff presents Macbeth’s severed head to Malcolm, who is hailed as king. Malcolm may assert his control and diminish Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as “this dead butcher and his fiendlike queen,” but the audience knows more than that. We know what  Malcolm  does  not,  that  it  will  not  be  his  royal  line  but  Banquo’s  that  will eventually rule Scotland, and inevitably another round of rebellion and murder is to come. We also know in horrifying human terms the making of a butcher and a fiend who refuse to be so easily dismissed as aberrations.

Macbeth Oxford Lecture by Emma Smith

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Plays

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Shakespearean Macbeth as a Tragic Hero Essay

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Greek mythology gave birth to the idea of the tragic hero, in which the concepts of the hero play a tremendous role. Aristotelian thought indicates “the tragic effect will be stronger if the hero is ‘better than we are’, in that he is of higher than ordinary moral worth. Such a man is shown as suffering a change in fortune from happiness to misery because of a mistaken act, to which he is led by his hamartia (his ‘effort of judgment’) or, as it is often literally translated, his tragic flaw” (Zarro, 2001).

There are two types of tragic heroes, those that are born into nobility with a tragic flaw inherent in their character who are therefore responsible for their own fate and doomed to make a serious error in judgment and those who have achieved great heights or esteem through hard work who eventually realize they have made a huge mistake causing them to face and accept their tragic death with honor (Zarro, 2001).

Greek tragedy abounds with examples of tragic heroes, as does much of Shakespearean tragedy. “Shakespeare wished to exhibit a more sublime picture – an ambitious but noble hero, yielding to a deep-laid hellish temptation, and in whom all the crimes to which, in order to secure the fruits of his first crime, he is impelled by necessity, cannot altogether eradicate the stamp of native heroism” (Bates, 1906: 36). In many ways, it can be argued that Macbeth of Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, was a tragic hero.

As the play opens, Macbeth’s nobility of spirit is revealed as reports come in to King Duncan regarding his exploits on the battlefield. The first two acts don’t even see Macbeth as he is busy on the battlefield, attempting to defend Duncan’s kingdom from the forces of Macdonwald, a man from the ‘Western Isles.’ Macbeth’s loyalty is shown in the fierceness of the battle being fought as it is reported by the wounded captain in Act I, Scene ii. He tells the king the battle was “As two spent swimmers that do cling together / And choke their art” (I, ii, 8-9), indicating that the two sides were equally matched and Fortune was favoring Macdonwald. “But all’s too weak / For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name) / Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel … unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops” (I, ii, 15-17, 22).

In addition to fighting for his king, Macbeth is quickly and well rewarded for his efforts as King Duncan makes him the new Thane of Cawdor in addition to his already holding the title of Thane of Glamis. “According to Holinshed, Macbeth’s parents were Sinel, Thane of Glamis (whose existence is otherwise unattested) and a daughter of Malcolm II named Doada (again, modern genealogies mention no such person)” (Friedlander, 2005).

In addition to his supposed genealogy and position of rank, Macbeth himself demonstrates nobility of spirit as he considers the idea of assassinating King Duncan in his own home: “He’s here in double trust: / First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, / Strong both against the deed; then, as his hose, / Who should against his murderer shut the door” (I, vii, 12-15). Beyond this, he also knows that Duncan has been a good and fair king and killing him is unjustified.

However, once the idea that he might be king has entered his brain, thanks to the three witches, Macbeth can’t seem to shake it, particularly as his wife continues to press the issue. “One common form of hamartia in Greek tragedies was hubris, that ‘pride’ or overweening self-confidence which leads a protagonist to disregard a divine warning or to violate an important law” (Zarro, 2001).

Although he knows he has no reason to move against his king other than “vaunting ambition, which o’erleaps itself” (I, vii, 25-27), his commitment to his wife and his greed proves overpowering, forcing him to the act. “Lady Macbeth bitches at her husband and ridicules his masculinity in order to make him commit murder. She talks about a smiling baby she once nursed and what it would have been like to smash its brains out – she would prefer this to having a husband who is unwilling to kill in cold blood” (Friedlander, 2005).

Macbeth’s single evil action of killing his king thus commits him to further evil acts. “That same Macbeth, who once as a warrior could spurn at death, now that he dreads the prospect of the life to come, clings with growing anxiety to his earthly existence the more miserable it becomes, and pitilessly removes out of the way whatever to his dark and suspicious mind seems to threaten danger” (Bates, 1906: 37).

When Macbeth willingly participates in murder, this quickly escalates to massacres of perceived enemies and the propagation of lies and deceits as a means of maintaining the perception others have of him. His own deceit of Duncan forces him to consider the possible schemes of Banquo, thus leading him to order murder once again. In avenge himself on Macduff, he orders the massacre of Macduff’s family, and the evil flows on. In this process, he loses his heath and sanity.

Finally, after having made a mistake in judgment causing a fall from his nobility and high moral station, Macbeth is forced to participate in numerous other actions that continually wear away at his nobility and sanity until he is finally, mercifully, killed by a man who was not born of woman. “Macbeth is still found worthy to die the death of a hero on the field of battle. The noble Macduff is allowed the satisfaction of saving his country by punishing with his own hand the tyrant who had murdered his wife and children” (Bates, 1906: 38).

This, again, is something he has brought on himself as it was Macbeth who ordered the murder of Macduff’s entire household once he learned that Macduff had fled the country in search of justice for Duncan’s murder. “Holinshed spends a lot of time on the incident in which Malcolm (who became a popular king) tests Macduff by pretending to be mean when he is really nice” (Friedlander, 2005), thus establishing the difference between a noble man who would lie and cheat his way to the throne and a noble man who would lie and cheat to determine another’s honesty. In the end, though, Macbeth can be seen to be a tragic hero because he started noble, made a terrible decision based upon his own foolish pride egged on by his ambitious wife and finally died a disgraceful death as the result of his actions.

Works Cited

Bates, Alfred (Ed.). “Macbeth: An Analysis of the Play by Shakespeare.” The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization. London: Historical Publishing Company, 1906, Vol. 14: 34-39.

Friedlander, Ed. “Enjoying Macbeth, by William Shakespeare.” Pathguy. (2005). Web.

Shakespeare. “Macbeth.” William Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Alfred Harbage (Ed.). New York: Viking Books, 1969, pp. 1107-1135.

Zarro, Josephine. “More Terms Defined: Aristotelian Definition of Tragedy.” eGallery of Tragic Heroes in Literature and Life. (2001). Teach the Teachers. Web.

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Essay On Macbeth Is Not A Tragic Hero

Cade Salyers Mr. Vanover English August 24, 2016 I believe that Macbeth is a tragic hero. “A tragic hero is a character who makes a judgement error that inevitably leads to his/her destruction (Tragic Hero As Defined by Aristotle, bisd303.org).” He is not a villain, because “a villain is a bad guy, the one who comes up with diabolical plots to somehow cause ruin or harm (villain, literary terms.net).” Despite the fact that Macbeth caused ruin or harm to certain people, it does not mean that is what he has done his whole life. Also, he is not the one who came up with the idea to murder King Duncan anyways. He simply made a rather large judgement error that (I am guessing) will eventually lead to his own destruction. A great way to solve this problem/argument would be to state fas from both sides and then use all of the facts together to prove a point or come out with the correct assumption. Which in this case would be “tragic hero.” Point number one, if it hadn't been for the three witches, none of this would have happened in the first place. They are the ones who put all of the ideas into Macbeth’s head and corrupted his heart and brain. Point one for the villain side, they did not force his hand. He still could've said no, but he did not. Nor did they force his head, even though they did at the same time. Macbeth is to blame …show more content…

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To What Extent Is Macbeth A Tragic Hero

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Is Macbeth a tragic hero or a villain? This question is very complex because so far in the Shakespearean play, we’ve seen Macbeth be the perfect right hand man towards King Duncan. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is introduced to us as a very victories Scottish military man. Also the cousin of King Duncan. In Act 1 scene 3, three witches met with Macbeth, there in that moment the witches cast a spell; the sky turned dark as they spoke a prophecy over Macbeth. The prophecy was that he would become two important things in the kingdom, one is that he’d be thane of Cawdor and the second one is that he’d be king hereafter. With that being said Macbeth believed the witches and made sure he would attain the remaining two of those high positions. In the start of the

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Macbeth is a tragic hero for the following reasons that will be listed in this paragraph, please take these reasons into consideration. At the start of Macbeth, you see him kill a traitor that threatened the king of Scotland (Duncan), from the beginning we all see Macbeth is a hero. However, in Act 1 Scene 3 on line 86 Macbeth runs into witches which tell him he shall be king and this leads to the following dialogue of “Malcom your children shall be kings” which signals Macbeths start as a tragic hero. Now if we go even further into the story of Macbeth you also hear Macbeth say “To prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself” (Act 1 scene 7 lines 26-29). This line from the story shows you Macbeth’s greatest character flaw which is essential to a tragic hero. However, even with strong evidence like this there are still people who refuse to believe Macbeth is a tragic hero for the following reasons.

Macbeth as a Tragic Hero

In William shakespeare’s Macbeth,Macbeth is a classic example of a tragic hero in shakesperean work.Macbeth display the major characteristics of a tragic hero throughout the play until his tragic end.The play potrays Macbeth as a lost cause by showing how he fell from being a honest and just man who fought for whats right, to a cruel,superstitious,ambicious dictator.In william shakespreares Macbeth,Macbeth is a tragic hero because he compromises his honor and negates his moral values in order to obtain power which results with lots of tragic events such as character deaths leading to his tragic end.

The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare Essay

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Macbeth is the leading character of Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, in which he struggles to deal with the consequences of his actions. Is he a Tragic Hero? His brutal actions make it very questionable, but yes, Macbeth is a Hero in his own Tragedy.

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Starter quiz

6 questions.

Macbeth -  

dies in battle with Macduff

Lady Macbeth -  

dies by implied suicide due to guilt

is killed by murderers employed by Macbeth

Macduff -  

survives Macbeth's reign, killing him in the process

King Duncan -  

is murdered in his sleep by Macbeth

Fleance -  

escapes the murderers sent to kill him

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Macbeth: A Tragic Hero

There is much debate to whether Macbeth is a villain or hero, but it truly is clear that Macbeth is a tragic hero based on that he has the fatal flaw of having too much ambition, he was doomed to make a serious error in judgment which was killing Duncan, and that he suffered greatly in order to accomplish what he believed was right. Macbeth’s flaw of his extreme ambition is demonstrated by how he kills Duncan, how he kills Banquo, and how he kills MacDuff’s family.

This is shown when he killed the King in his quest for power, when he killed his friend Banquo, and when he killed the wife and child of MacDuff. Early in the play Macbeth was told that he would become King of Scotland, and that really put the gears in motion for the terrible decisions he would make throughout the play. His first one was to kill Duncan, who was not only the King whom he had loyally served for a long time, but also his own cousin. He killed his own flesh and blood in order to get the opportunity to gain power.

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He figured that if he killed Duncan he would have a chance at being king, and he acted upon that thought. This thought process is shown in the quote, “If good, why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs, against the use of nature? Present fears are less than horrible imaginings: My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man that function is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is but what is not. ” (Act1, Scene3).

This showed that he knew what a terrible deed he would be doing, but that couldn’t stop his need to become king. Also, Macbeth killed his dear friend Banquo and even attempted to kill Fleance, Banquo’s son, in order to keep the throne. The witches prophesized that Fleance would become king, and Macbeth decided that he had already done so much to become king that there was no point in letting the throne leave him so soon, and that is shown in the quote, "I am in blood, stepped in so far that should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go'oer" (Act3, Scene4).

He decided that he had already hit the point of no return and acted accordingly. Finally, the fact that he killed the wife and child of his enemy MacDuff, proved that Macbeth was willing to cross any line to keep his spot as king, and would let nothing stand in the way of his ambition. The quote, “The castle of Macduff I will surprise; Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls that trace him in his line. ” (Act4, Scene1), shows that Macbeth was willing to kill an innocent family to prove that he was not ready to be defeated.

Basically Macbeth showed that his fatal flaw was too much ambition, and that was demonstrated through him killing Duncan, killing Banquo, and killing the family of MacDuff. Macbeth appeared to be destined to make the serious judgment error that was killing Duncan because when you take his ambition as talked about above, and that he was told by witches that it was his future to be king, that his wife thought it was the right thing to do, and that he even had hallucinations pointing towards killing him, it seemed like he had no other choice.

First off, Macbeth was approached by witches who told him that he would become king of Scotland and that intrigued him very much, especially with his crazy ambition. He took this to heart and because he wanted to become king and he now thought it was in the realm of possibility, yet he knew it would not happen legally, he was really left with just one option. This was despite that at the time he knew it wasn’t the right thing to do. This is shown by the quote, “All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter! ” (Act1, Scene3).

This was just the beginning of the seed that would grow in Macbeth that eventually culminated into a plant of terrible things. Next, Lady Macbeth also influenced Macbeth, and that was presented in the quote, “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be what thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great; Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it. ” (Act1, Scene5). This just showed how Lady Macbeth reacted to the situation as though killing Duncan was the right thing to do and that Macbeth would be greatly benefited from it.

Lastly, Macbeth was influenced by a hallucination of a blood stained dagger that was meant to be stained by the blood of Duncan. One night Macbeth saw the dagger and didn’t know whether it was real or fake, and what to do with it, but then it became clear in the quote, “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee… … I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell hat summons thee to heaven or to hell. ” (Act2, Scene2) This showed how Macbeth was basically shown the way to murdering Duncan by the dagger.

And from being influenced by the witches, his wife, and the dagger, it was obviously meant to be that Macbeth was going to make a serious judgment of error in killing Duncan. A tragic hero must have a capacity for suffering, and suffer because he believes in what he is doing, and because he feels both guilt and guiltlessness. Macbeth in my mind does fit into this category through all the pain and suffering he experiences throughout the play after he murders Duncan. A quote that shows he is suffering is “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?

No, this my hand will rather turn the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red. ” (Act 2, Scene2). Macbeth is just realizing that what he has done is irreversible and he will never be able to get it off of his conscious. He therefore must have the capacity for suffering, and though there are many moments when he is unsure, I believe that he truly believes in what he is doing. There are also times when Macbeth feels guilt over the act he has committed and he is never really able to shake these feelings off, but he still gladly takes over as king and moves on in life, therefore showing he feels both guilt and guiltlessness.

Again, the point is now raised that yes, he believes in what he is doing, but what he is doing is a terrible thing, and how does this make him a hero? I believe that while Macbeth isn’t your typical hero, whether his actions were right or wrong he still meets the criteria, and it is on that that I’m basing the decision. Overall, it was clear in the story that Macbeth was definitely a tragic hero. He displayed his fatal flaw that was his insane ambition, he was destined to make the disastrous make of killing Duncan, and that he is willing so suffer to achieve what he believes is right.

Macbeth showed his ambition through killing Duncan, killing Banquo, and killing Macduff’s wife and child. His serious error in judgment of killing the king was always meant to happen because three witches gave him the thought, his wife wanted him to do it, and his hallucination even pointed him towards it. To sum it up, the debate over whether Macbeth is a hero or villain should be put to rest because it is quite evident that Macbeth is a tragic, tragic hero.

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"Macbeth", Not a Tragic Hero: This paper was written to expose the misconception that Macbeth is a tragic hero when in fact he is not.

Essay by lilgurlgone ,  High School, 12th grade ,  A , November 2006

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The definition of a classical tragic hero is defined by Aristotle in The Poetics as "A man slightly better than most who falls from a high to a low position due to a hamartia. His fall is cathartic, evoking in the audience the feelings of fear and pity." Macbeth violates all three of these standards. Macbeth is not the only man slightly better than others, he rises in position instead of falling, his fall is not entirely his own fault, and does not evoke that much pity from the audience.

Macbeth starts out at the beginning of the play as a general in King Duncan's army and a distant relation of the king. He distinguishes himself as a fierce warrior but not as a great man or military strategist. The messenger tells the king "Doubtful it stood," with the army and the battle. (Act I, Scene 2, p.5) So this already proves that Macbeth is not that great because initially he did not have the situation under control.

Also there are other men who are just as great if not greater than Macbeth in the play. Duncan is a king which puts him above Macbeth and Banquo seems smarter than Macbeth because he does not believe everything that the witches say. (Act I, Scene 3, p.15) Also Macbeth lacks any real morals throughout most of the play. He orders the murder of women and children without much thought. ( Act IV, Scene 2, p.133) These types of behavior are something you do not expect from "a man slightly better than most."

Macbeth also does not follow the pattern of the fall. After he murders Duncan, Macbeth is not punished but promoted to the rank of the person he killed. (Act II, Scene 4, p.75) By the end of the play he dies, but that's not really a fall. Macbeth's death is more of a relief for him than it is a punishment. So Macbeth eventually does fall but not before he rises to a position above other men. Macbeth therefore breaks the classical tragic hero by starting low and rising before he falls.

Then there is the problem of Macbeth's hammartia. Macbeth's hammartia seems to be his ambition to acquire and keep power, but this is not totally clear until well into the play. At the beginning his ambition is sparked by the witches and fed by his wife, Lady Macbeth, so his hammartia is not entirely his fault. (Act I, Scenes 3 &7) He seems to genuinely be adverse to killing Duncan but his wife pushes him into it, this eventually brings about his downfall making it not entirely his own fault. This makes him seem sort of helplessly pushed toward his fate by outside forces which is something that is not part of the tradition of tragic heroes. At the end when he becomes desensitized to killing and is intent on keeping his power, he speeds up his own downfall, but Macbeth does not initiate the chain of events that lead up to his downfall by himself. This violates the standard of the hero falling through a fault of his own unassisted by fate or outside forces.

Macbeth is also helped along towards his downfall by the witches. They show Macbeth deceptive imagery and tell him half truths that encourage him to further his ambitions. (Act I, Scene 3; Act IV, Scene I) Along with Lady Macbeth, the witches help fan the flames of Macbeth's hammartia. This is another outside force exerting influence on the "tragic hero's" fate. This also breaks the standard of the hero falling because of his own flaw and not due to outside forces.

The final way that Macbeth breaks the tragic tradition is that he does not evoke much, if any, pity from the audience. At the beginning of the play you might feel some pity for Macbeth as he is goaded into murder by Lady Macbeth. However this pity soon disappears as you see him effortlessly and ruthlessly order the deaths of Banquo, Fleance, Lady MacDuff, and MacDuff's son. (Act III, Scene 2; Act IV Scene 3) This callus behavior towards innocents like the child of MacDuff makes you dislike Macbeth and hope for his downfall. Even more pity evaporates whenever Lady Macbeth dies and Macbeth gives her no more than a few thoughts before moving on to the military matters at hand. (Act V, Scene 5, p.183) The lack of grief experienced by Macbeth makes you realize how cold and ruthless he has become. At the end when he says he does not wish to kill MacDuff, a little pity resurfaces but it is crushed under all his previous bad actions and by his deciding to actually fight MacDuff instead of just letting MacDuff end his misery. (Act V, Scene 8, p.193)

One must conclude from all of these circumstances that Macbeth is not a classical tragic hero. He manages to violate all three of the standards of a classical hero. The two standards that are more violated pertain to his hammartia not being his own and to the fact that he does not evoke much pity. The third, which is that he is not better than most men, is violated but not as badly as the other too. Thus Macbeth is definitely not a classical hero as defined by Aristotle in The Poetics.

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Macbeth Tragic Hero Essay | Essay on Macbeth Tragic Hero for Students and Children in English

February 12, 2024 by Prasanna

Macbeth Tragic Hero Essay:  Macbeth is considered one of Shakespeare’s classic tragic heroes. Usually, the tragic hero is a figure of high stature.

The person is most righteous but suffers a self-inflicted downfall due to flaws in their personality. Macbeth, the play’s protagonist, was a good character, but he faces his decline due to his wrong decisions.

You can also find more  Essay Writing  articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more.

Long and Short Essays on Macbeth Tragic Hero for Students and Kids in English

We provide students with essay samples on an extended essay of 500 words and a short essay of 150 words on Macbeth Tragic Hero for reference.

Long Essay on Macbeth Tragic Hero 500 Words in English

Long Essay on Macbeth Tragic Hero is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10.

The Shakespearean play Macbeth focuses on a war hero whose desire for power, leading to his ultimate coronation as King and downfall. At the start of the drama, Macbeth was shown as a war hero who came back from his latest campaign and was given a new title.

Macbeth’s one mistake fills his life with regret and fear at every step. Macbeth was a good soldier who was loyal to his King, and his bravery and performance in Scotland’s battle were celebrated. His courage and greatness in the battle for his country ultimately lead him to be a great knight, and finally, an influential king, making his actions have a substantial impression on his land. His guilt and unwillingness in assassinating King Duncan also reveal his heroic nature. His potential in being a hero and positive attributes was displayed to justify his guilt. Macbeth’s conscience does not agree to kill Duncan because he was a loyal subject of King Duncan, and his obedience towards his King was also shown in the play.

Macbeth highly respected King Duncan and knew that everyone would mourn his death. He may not have committed assassination without the presence of Lady Macbeth, which shows that he is a tragic hero because he knew that he was making a wrong decision under the temptation of Lady Macbeth. His ambition to be a king and gain power, which turns into an obsession, is the only flaw in his character, and this flaw is responsible for the tragic events that occur in the whole play. He recognizes from the beginning of the tragedy that his ambition could be his demise, which shows that he is a tragic hero.

In the beginning, Macbeth used to be a good character, but he became corrupted and was shown as a tragic hero at the essential point at which all is lost. Although he was a man with good morals, at every step, his morals were taken over by his temptations and ambitions. Despite being a hero at heart, which readers and audience have seen from the start, his mistakes create an insight into evil.

With the manipulation and influence of Lady Macbeth, the hidden ambitions in Macbeth are strengthened, and her evil arrangement gradually tempts Macbeth. So although ambition and fate are the primary factors in Macbeth’s downfall, Lady Macbeth is also at fault. Macbeth’s weakness overturns his whole life and changes his honorable and respectable character into an evil and violent one hated by everyone.

The outcome of Macbeth’s decisions did not just affect him, but the whole of Scotland was also shaken. His character changed from a courageous and loyal man to an evil being despised by most Scotland due to his ill-fated decision, the witches’ prophecies, the influence of fate, and Lady Macbeth’s temptations. Due to his ambitions to reach his goals from the very beginning and maintaining this desire, Macbeth is seen as a tragic hero.

Short Essay on Macbeth Tragic Hero 150 Words in English

Short Essay on Macbeth Tragic Hero is usually given to classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

One of the classic examples of a Shakespearean tragic hero is shown in the play Macbeth, where the protagonist Macbeth can be seen as a tragic hero. Macbeth was established as a hero with great stature. He earned the King’s trust with his loyalty and his extraordinary abilities on the battlefield. He was someone with noble and respectable nature, and king Duncan spoke of him with great fondness, but he was unaware of the destiny Macbeth imposed on him later on.

Macbeth’s blind ambition and provocation from his wife lead him to take a bloody and violent path where he murdered his own King and ultimately lead to his demise. Macbeth was a righteous and noble person who could have achieved much more and would have been adored by all. If he did not commit Duncan’s assassination, Macbeth was consumed by a sinful life after Duncan’s murder, making him a tragic hero.

10 Lines on Macbeth Tragic Hero in English

• Macbeth is a tragic Shakespearean hero who made a judgment error that inevitably leads to his downfall.
• Macbeth gains insight into his tragic, fatal flaw, although it was too late.
• Macbeth was unable to admit his grievous fault, which made him fall from grace and lead to tragedy.
• Macbeth was guided by his unrestrained ambition, due to which he refused to accept things as they are.
• Macbeth was forced to face the pushing fate and the supernatural’s consequences, supporting his acceptance of life.
• Macbeth was terrified by his desires, and his ambitions were too powerful, but his wife fuelled it.
• Macbeth was trusted by Duncan, who referred to him as a worthy gentleman but, he betrayed his King’s trust by assassinating him.
• Although Macbeth regretted his decision to assassinate Duncan, he still murdered Duncan to retain his throne.
• In the end, Macbeth saw that the crown, which he thought would bring him prosperity, brought him destruction instead.
• During the whole play, Macbeth was seen as a tragic hero caused by his ambitions.

FAQ’s on Macbeth Tragic Hero Essay

Question 1. Can Macbeth be considered a fatal hero or villain?

Answer: Many scholars see Macbeth as a villain instead of a hero due to his vile actions. But a tragic hero can be either an antagonist or a protagonist. The point is that the audience can empathize with the character.

Question 2.  Was Macbeth aware of his tragic flaw?

Answer: Macbeth was aware of his tragic flaw, but he kept going for what he wanted, no matter even if people have to die because of it.

Question 3. Who was the main antagonist in the play?

Answer: Lady Macbeth was the real antagonist of the play because she was evil, ambitious, and eventually insane. Due to her, Macbeth’s unrestricted ambition was fuelled and ultimately led to his downfall.

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Argumentative Essay – Macbeth is a Tragic Hero not a Villain

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a story of regicide and a warning against black magic. It’s easy to see Macbeth as the primary antagonist, because he becomes the face of the cast of villains, and the focus of the main characters’ anger. Macbeth, though, was not a maker of his destiny. The true antagonists lie behind him in both Lady Macbeth and the three witches.

The three witches are the most obvious villains. To see this, we have to look at the time in which this was written. Shakespeare wrote his plays in a time where black magic was considered taboo. People were deathly afraid of it and the sentence was death for anyone who practiced it. Shakespeare wanted to appease his audience, therefore he invented the witches as the main driving force of villainy.

Macbeth was the hero of Scotland at the beginning of the story. It’s why he was presented with the title of Thane of Cawdor and Glamis in the first place. In the beginning, Macbeth never entertains the prospect of becoming king or killing his monarch in King Duncan. It’s the witches who leave these toxic thoughts to fester in his mind.

It would be easy to argue Macbeth could have easily ignored the witches. Although he willingly collaborated with them, it could be argued his loyalty to his family and his country would have overwritten the words of the witches. Macbeth does initially refute the idea of killing Duncan. It’s only when Lady Macbeth convinces him he does it.

Lady Macbeth uses all the powers at her disposal to convince Macbeth to kill Duncan, including questioning his manhood. To further cast Lady Macbeth in the shadow of an antagonist, Shakespeare causes her to die because of her own guilt. When she begins sleepwalking and rubbing her hands together, it’s clear her guilt has overtaken her. Her admission of guilt is an example that she herself knows she did wrong, although she never admits this on stage before her suicide.

The issue with Macbeth is once he kills Duncan he would find it impossible to return to what he was before. He had no choice but to become king and rule the country. Some people may argue the killing of his former friend Banquo is an example of the villainy that lays beneath Macbeth’s character, but this is not the case.

By this point, Macbeth is an inescapable position. He has reacted like humans do in such situations, by entering a form of survival. He knows he has to be harsh to maintain himself. The presence of the ghosts and his subsequent madness demonstrates he always feels guilty and he never revels in his new position. In many ways, he despises what he has become and he doesn’t thank Lady Macbeth or the three witches for the parts they played in his story.

Overall, Macbeth has been directed by powerful forces influencing him. After he kills Duncan, he has no choice but to keep up the charade, because he knows if the truth was ever known he and his family would be executed.

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by William Shakespeare

Editor's Choice

How does Macbeth, as a tragic hero in Shakespeare's Macbeth , cause others to suffer?

characters: Macbeth

themes: Tragic Flaw

Expert Answers

Who are the experts? Our certified Educators are real professors, teachers, and scholars who use their academic expertise to tackle your toughest questions. Educators go through a rigorous application process, and every answer they submit is reviewed by our in-house editorial team.

Teacher (K-12), Editor

M.A. from Kent State University

Educator since 2016

7,702 answers

High school English and Literature teacher who has also taught at the college level.

Macbeth causes the suffering of others beginning with his murder of the king, his friend, cousin, and guest, Duncan . Macbeth was told by the Weird Sisters that he would be king, and, not long after, he began to contemplate how to make this happen. Obviously, he not only wounds Duncan but he causes the suffering of Duncan's sons and all his true friends, and all of Scotland, because Duncan was such a good man and king.

Macbeth next causes the suffering of Banquo and Fleance when he hires men to murder them on the road. The sisters told Banquo that, although he would not be king, he would father kings, and the thought that Macbeth has murdered Duncan all so Banquo's descendants can come to the throne incenses Macbeth. During this time, Macbeth's behavior begins to cause the suffering of Lady Macbeth as well; she feels that they now "dwell in doubtful joy" rather than enjoying their power and status. They are not happy, and Macbeth has even begun to leave his wife out of his plans; for example, he does not tell her about ordering Banquo's murder let alone consult her about his actions.

Macbeth next causes suffering for Macduff when he murders Macduff's wife and children. Macduff fails to appear at Macbeth's dinner party, a significant snub (especially after failing to attend Macbeth's coronation in Scone) that is not lost on the king; Macbeth becomes suspicious of Macduff and lashes out at his family when he cannot reach the man himself.

Macbeth also causes suffering for the people of Scotland. When Macduff travels to England to compel Malcolm , the rightful king of Scotland, to come home and fight Macbeth, the pair discuss the ravages to the country, ravages that have resulted from Macbeth's reign. Macduff tells Malcolm that every morning, "new widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows strike heaven on the face." Macbeth has caused the suffering of the entire kingdom.

Cite this page as follows:

Guggenheim, Laura. "How does Macbeth, as a tragic hero in Shakespeare's Macbeth , cause others to suffer?" edited by eNotes Editorial, 8 Jan. 2019, https://www.enotes.com/topics/macbeth/questions/consider-how-bacbeth-his-role-tragic-hero-578936.

College Lecturer, Professional Writer

M.A. from Earlham School of Religion

14,730 answers

Reynolds has taught for more than ten years at the university level.

Macbeth is a tragic hero because he starts out as a fundamentally decent man of power who is brought down by his fatal flaw of too much ambition to be king of Scotland.

Macbeth brings suffering on the people around him. He murders Duncan and his guards. Duncan's sons are forced to flee, fearing they will be murdered next. Macbeth has his former friend Banquo murdered, and then, as his heart hardens and he becomes wholly cruel, Macbeth has Macduff's wife and young children ruthlessly killed. Because he let his wife push him into the initial murder of Duncan against his better judgment, Macbeth's assassination of this good king leads Lady Macbeth to suicide after she can no longer deal with the guilt.

Shakespeare also makes the point near the end of the play that a tyrant like Macbeth brings suffering on his people as a whole. If nothing else, the common folk get caught in a civil war when Malcolm brings an army to Scotland to retake the throne.

Reynolds, D.. "How does Macbeth, as a tragic hero in Shakespeare's Macbeth , cause others to suffer?" edited by eNotes Editorial, 8 Jan. 2019, https://www.enotes.com/topics/macbeth/questions/consider-how-bacbeth-his-role-tragic-hero-578936.

Teacher (K-12)

M.A. from University of Florida

Educator since 2012

1,471 answers

Nationally certified English teacher in the Atlanta, Georgia area.

William Shakespeare created one of his most despicable, yet pathetic, characters with the tragic hero of Macbeth. Tragic heroes have a tragic flaw, a weakness that brings about their downfall. Macbeth's flaw is his failure to understand the consequences of his ambition.

One of the primary consequences of Macbeth's ambition is the misery it causes for others. As Macbeth slips deeper and deeper into his single-minded madness, he becomes less and less concerned about the devastation he creates.

The first object of his ambition is, of course, King Duncan. This causes a broad range of misery, as Duncan's sons and subjects all feel sorrow at his death.

Next, he kills the faithful and innocent Banquo, rendering his son fatherless.

Ironically, Macbeth's actions result in the suicide of his wife, Lady Macbeth, who cannot shake the guilt of the plot she originated. She is an unexpected victim, since we saw her behave so ruthlessly in acts I and II.

Although at this point he has already gained the throne, his ambition breeds a paranoia that leaves him feeling threatened and exposed. Macbeth sinks to his deepest point when he orders the killing of Macduff's wife and children. Macduff's suffering at the loss of his family is the most poignant moment in the play, and it underscores how evil Macbeth has become. 

Finally, Macbeth brings misery to himself, as evidenced by his famous soliloquy “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,” in which he reveals how pointless his life has become with lines “Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

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Walter, Mike. "How does Macbeth, as a tragic hero in Shakespeare's Macbeth , cause others to suffer?" edited by eNotes Editorial, 3 Jan. 2016, https://www.enotes.com/topics/macbeth/questions/consider-how-bacbeth-his-role-tragic-hero-578936.

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