Macbeth: Macbeth The Tragic HeroThe most recent meaning of the word Tragic Hero as defined by MicrosoftWorks dictionary is “A hero of noble stature whose fortunes are reversed as aresult of weakness. ” Many characters in the play were affected by tragedy fora number of reasons, but without argue, Macbeth and his reverse of fortunes aredue to his own actions, and the rest of the cast were merely victims of this. Macbeth’s action’s lead to his very nemises. From the beginning of the play thistragedy of his was manifested through forces beyond human; the supernatural ifyou will. These forces were that of the witches. The next factor in determininghis fate was his own decision’s and action’s.
Lady Macbeth is the second reasonfor Macbeth’s tragedy; without her support in aiding his decision, Macbeth wouldhave never had the strength to lie, scheme, and destroy to such extremes. Thelast, and most devastating to Macbeth, was his cripled conscious which made himact out of selfeshness and lust. The sequence of these factors were mostdefenitely provoked by the evilness and twisted nature of the witches, for if itweren’t for their influence, then Macbeth would have never turned his desiresinto reality. At the very beginning of the play Macbeth is nothing but a generalfighting for his country. His fellow fighter’s admire Macbeth, for in theireyes, and even in the eyes of the highest of authority, his nobility andcouragousness is looked up to. His success for his acheivement is rewarded, andhis confidence is made stronger because of this.
But this is only the beginning,and soon these good fortunes will come to a tragic end. The audience is thenintroduced to a group of witches. Three witches who appear as wicked andrepulsive. They seem to signify all that is wrong and corrupt. Macbeth’s over-confident attitude is the first characteristic the witches detect, and they takeadvantage of this trait to make his life as miserable as they possibly can. Heencounters the witches in Act1, scene1, and from this point he is now a stepcloser to realising what his future holds.
. . so he thinks. The witches firstaddress Macbeth as king, and Banguo as one “Lesser than Macbeth.
“(1. 2. 65) Infact,Macbeth isn’t king, never the less, the witches insist in prophecising that heis and will be. The witches are already planting seeds of persuation into hishead which are made to bloom into tragedy. These destructive and manipulativeforces the witches have power over alter his viewpoints about his values andmorals beyond the point of no return. Already, it is a tragedy in itself thatMacbeth’s invulnarability lead him to believing such evilness.
Macbeth may have listened and considered what may be true about thewitch’s prophecie’s, but he should be credited with the fact that he did havedoubt. It is true that Macbeth thought about what he had to do in order to everbecome king, and he could never imagined himself going as far as killing kingDuncan: “Why, if fate will have me king, fate may crown me. “(1. 7.
14) In otherwords, he hasn’t established his decision yet. But now we are introduced to Lady Macbeth. She is very pleased to hearof Macbeth’s victory and she is very supportive once he’s successfullyconsidered thane of Cawdor. She sees the horizon for her husband is now broader,and she wants only the best for him. Macbeth tells her what the witches see inhis future, and this gives her scope to an even grander possibilty; they cankill the king and make the vision actuality.
So at this point it is LadyMacbeth’s to encourage Macbeth into following his dreams, despite what is rightor wrong. She doesn’t allow Macbeth to be coward and she makes it very clear tohim that he lacks manhood:What beast was’t then/ That made you break this enterprise to me?/ Whenyou durst do it, then you were a man;/ And, to be more than what you were,you would Be so much more the man. Nor time nore place Did then adhere,and yet you would make both;/They have made themselves, and that theirfitness now/ Does unmake you. I have given suck, and konw How tender ’tisto love the babe that milks me:/ I would, while it was smiling in my face,/Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums,/ And dash’d the brainsout, had I so sworn as you/ Have done to this. (1.
7. 48-59)Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to follow through with the killing of King Duncan. She’s now the second persuasive factor which aids Macbeth into the tragicdemise which is soon to come. Now it is up to Macbeth to analyze his thoughtsand decide his fate.
He great “hero of noble stature”, Macbeth, chose the wrong path forhimself; he chose to follow his greed as well the depraved influences around him. These components lead to his killing the king, killing innocent people likewomen and children, which is cruel in itself, the loss of his morals and sanity,the lose of love for his wife, and at the end of the play, the loss of his verylife. All that he worked for was “reversed as a result of his weakness”, asdefined by the word tragic hero. His conversion from bad to good ultimatelyaffected his fortunes.”
