Macbeth Essay Topics Tragic Hero Text

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Macbeth: a tragic hero the macbeth character in macbeth by william shakespeare can be played many ways. Macbeth's relationship with other characters in the play and aristotle's theory of a tragedy are ways in which macbeth is shown as a at the very beginning of the play, macbeth and banquo are returning to scotland from a fierce battle between the norwegians and the scottish. This shows a noble virtue of macbeth, a requirement of a tragic hero according to aristotle.

It shows that macbeth is a loyal person to the king and that he is a great warrior. As they are returning to scotland, three witches appear and make prophecies about macbeth and banquo. The three witches say all hail, macbeth! hail to thee, thane of glamis! all hail, macbeth! hail to thee, thane of cawdor! all hail macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter! a 1, s 3, 48.

Here, macbeth is interested in what the witches have to say, but he does not really believe them. He tells macbeth that the thane of cawdor is in line for death and that duncan has named macbeth the new thane of cawdor. The witches prophecy has come true! he can not believe it! but now macbeth has a lot more on his mind the third prophecy about becoming the king. Macbeth knows that if something were to happen to duncan, malcolm and donalbain, duncan's sons, would be the rightful heirs to the throne.

How can macbeth be king when he is nowhere near the next in line to the throne? another requirement for a tragic hero is that he must have a tragic flaw. Macbeth's tragic flaw is that of ambition macbeth's ambition will cause him to decline. She really wants to be queen of scotland so she encourages macbeth to do what he has to do to get rid of duncan. He thinks that duncan is a great king and he considers duncan to be a good friend. Finally macbeth gives in to lady macbeth and decides that he will kill duncan while he is visiting macbeth's castle that same night. His ambition has caused him to kill a good friend and even worse, the king! here, macbeth is going crazy.

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He is so crazy right now that he brought the daggers he used to kill duncan with him to his room. Lady macbeth screams at him to go back to return the daggers but he says i'll go no more i am afraid to think what i have done look on 't again i dare not. After a while, macbeth becomes content with what he has done especially after malcolm and donalbain leave scotland for fear of their lives. Now, the third prophecy has come true macbeth is king of scotland! now, all macbeth cares about is his throne. He does not care if he loses his life, if he loses his wife, however if he lost his throne, he would be devastated. This is why he will do absolutely anything to keep the throne, banquo and macduff are the only characters in the play that are suspicious of macbeth. Macbeth also wants banquo and his son dead because of the then comes my fit again i had else been perfect, whole as the marble, founded as the rock, as broad and general as the casing air.

But banquo's safe? a 3, s 4, 21 to add to macbeth's outrage, he begins to see things at a banquet. No one else in the room sees banquo and macbeth thinks that they are messing with his mind. Macbeth says which of you have done this? and thou canst not say i did it never shake thy gory locks at me. Macbeth becomes ever more outraged and he starts to yell and scream at everyone in the room.

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Lady macbeth senses that something is definitely wrong and she asks everyone to leave immediately. He was not afraid of the consequences of his actions although he knew very well what they would be. They say to beware macduff, beware that which is not born of woman, and beware of birnam woods coming towards him. He is not afraid of macduff, he does not think that anyone can be not born of woman, and he thinks there is no way the woods can get up and move towards him.

This is another example of hubris in the macbeth was a true shakespearean tragic hero. He was a courageous, brave and good nobleman who was haunted by superstition, moral cowardice and an overwhelming ambition. The three points which contribute greatly to macbeths degeneration are the prophecy which was told to him by the witches, lady macbeth influenced and manipulated macbeths judgment, and finally macbeths long time ambition which drove his desire to be king. Although he was so far courageous and brave and he is seen as the hero at the beginning of the play, his sky high ambition causes his damnation. His personal powers and strength as a general won him the battle as described by the captain, but all's too brave macbeth well he deserved that name /disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel,/which smoked with bloody execution,/like valor's minion carved out his passage/till he faced the slave .

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I,2 macbeth was even undiscouraged when he was attacked by the king of norway, assisted by that most disloyal traitor, the thane of cawdor. Lady macbeth convinced her husband to murder duncan by putting his manhood and courage at stake, when you durst do it, then you were a man /and to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man i,7 as macbeth started degrading he lost some bravery iv, 1, that i may tell pale hearted fear it lies . Macbeth could be brave when it came to action but when he started thinking he would hesitate and would have to be urged into action by his wife or by the sense of security that he obtained from the prophecies of the supernatural. The witches' prophecy that he would be king made him decide to leave it to chance, but duncan's announcement that malcolm was to be his heir made macbeth realize that he would have to take a course of action for the prophecies to come true. He changed his mind again before he reached home until his wife persuaded him that it could be done safely. Then he changed his mind again before finally being forced by lady macbeth to make up his mind to commit the murder. Macbeth also did not fear the moral consequences of his crimes i,7, we'd jump the life to come .

He was in a savage frenzy when he planned the murder of banquo and macduff's family. He had absolutely no feelings for others and he only cared about what others would think of him. The witches who symbolized macbeth's evil ambitions put his thoughts into actual words. The idea of murder had already occurred to him, my thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, i,3. Macbeth himself acknowledged his vaulting ambition that would drive him to murder after duncan evaded fate i,3, if chance will have me king, why,/ chance may crown me by announcing malcolm as his successor. Macbeth did not want to wait any longer and he thought the only way to become king was to kill the present king duncan. Macbeth later told lady macbeth about this and she just wanted to help him and do whatever she could for him, so that he would be happy and be king.