tragmac Shakespeare's Macbeth - A Tragic Hero Macbeth essays

Macbeth: Macbeth - A Tragic Hero

"(Sometimes a tragic hero is created, not through his own villainy),

but rather through some flaw in him, he being one of those who are in high

station and good fortune, like Oedipus and Thyestes and the famous men of such

families as those." (Poetics, Aristotle). Every great tragedy is dominated by

a protagonist who has within himself a tragic flaw, too much or too little of

one of Aristotle's twelve virtues. In Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Macbeth,

a great Scottish general and thane of Glamis, has just won an important battle,

when he is told by three witches that he will become thane of Cawdor and then

king of Scotland. After Macbeth is given Cawdor by King Duncan, he takes the

witches words for truth and conspires against Duncan with his wife. When

Duncan comes to Macbeth's castle that night, Macbeth kills him and takes the

crown for himself after Duncan's sons flee from Scotland. Then Macbeth reigns

for a while, has several people killed, and is eventually slain by Macduff when

he and Malcolm return leading the armies of England. Often people read the

play and automatically conclude that Macbeth's tragic flaw is his ambition;

that he is compelled to commit so many acts of violence by his lust for power.

However, by carefully examining the first act, one can determine the defect in

Macbeth's character that creates his ambition; his true tragic flaw. Macbeth's

tragic flaw is not his ambition as most people believe, but rather his trust in

the words of the witches and in his wife's decisions.

At the beginning of the play Macbeth has no designs on the throne, and

he does not start plotting until his wife comes up with a plan. When first

faced with the witches' words, Macbeth expresses astonishment and disbelief

rather than welcoming them when he says, "...to be King stands not within the

prospect of belief, no more than to be Cawdor...."(1.3.73-75). When confronted

with the witches' proclamation that he is to be king, Macbeth responds as a

loyal subject would; not as a man with secret aspirations in his heart. He has

no reason to hide his true feelings at this point so therefore it can be

assumed that Macbeth has not yet truly considered killing the king. Even after

the first of the witches' predictions comes true, Macbeth does not plot against

the king but instead decides to leave it to chance. "(Aside) If chance will

have me King, why, chance may crown me, Without my stir."(1.3.143-144).

Macbeth has already been granted the title of thane of Cawdor, but still he

acts as though a loyal subject would. His lack of ambition is stressed here by

the fact that the actor is speaking the thoughts of the character rather than

words that the character says aloud. It is Macbeth's wife that decides to

convince her husband to kill Duncan after she has learned what has happened,

"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."(1.5.14-17) Lady Macbeth is saying that her husband is too kind

to kill the king but that he will get what has been promised to him. She goes

on to say that she will bring him around to her way of thinking. So obviously,

Macbeth himself is not excessively ambitious, he has no desire to kill Duncan

until Lady Macbeth plants the thought within his heart.

Macbeth's true tragic flaw, the force behind his ambition, is his

gullibility, his willingness to trust the witches and his wife; no matter how

terrible their ideas may be. By the end of the fourth scene Macbeth is already

beginning to acknowledge the witches' words as truth after Malcolm becomes

Prince of Cumberland, the heir to throne, "(Aside) The Prince of Cumberland!

That is a step on which I must fall down or else o'erleap, for in my way it

lies."(1.4.48-50) Less than a day has passed, and already Macbeth is beginning

to believe in the words of the witches, Satan's representatives on Earth.

Despite centuries of tradition that tells Macbeth that witches are evil, and

therefore lie, he is already thinking that what they say is true. While

talking with his wife about her plans, Macbeth says, "We will proceed no

further in this business..."(1.7.31), and then, less than fifty lines later,

they are working out the details of their nefarious scheme. Macbeth quickly

accedes to his wife's wishes, displaying his willingness to trust his destiny

in the hands of others. If Macbeth had not placed so much trust in his wife

and in the witches, perhaps he would not have become ambitious and killed a man

he loved and admired. His gullibility is his true tragic flaw as it is the

cause of his ambition and the weakness that allows evil to take root in his

soul.

Macbeth's ambition is not the fatal flaw within his character, but

rather that which leads to his ambition; his trustful nature. This is evident

in that he does not desire the throne until after he finally accepts the

predictions of the witches as truth; and he does not want to kill the king

until after his wife convinces him that he should. If Macbeth had not trusted

the emissaries of Satan, then he never would have considered killing Duncan and

would have been satisfied with being thane of Glamis and Cawdor. And if he had

not trusted his wife, Macbeth would not have killed a man he loved and revered,

an act that eventually led to his downfall. Not everybody in this world can be

trusted, there are too many people who are only looking out for their own best

interests. While one should not become paranoid and trust nobody, lest they

become cut off from society, safeguards must be established against these

fraudulent people so that they cannot take advantage of an unprepared populace.