Macbeth as a Shakespearean Tragic Hero

Macbeth as a Shakespearean Tragic Hero

In this essay I will explore the theory made by A.C Bradley, that each

of Shakespeare's man characters, are tragic heroes. This is that at

the start of play, the character is usually somebody of high status;

for example, Macbeth is the Thane of Glamis and he has a very high

reputation for being a hero in war. Then as in A.C Bradley's theory,

his character starts to flaw and eventually at the end of the play he

dies. I will compare this essay to that theory and see whether the

theory is correct.

At the start of the play, Macbeth is portrayed as a Scottish hero. He

is well respected and has a great reputation, as he is according to

the Captain, very brave in battle.

"For brave Macbeth- well he deserves that name". That shows that how

Macbeth has built his reputation, not only as a great man, but also as

a brave warrior.

Macbeth is also shown to have a good reputation because hen is very

highly regarded by King Duncan.

"O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman." Shakespeare uses the words

'worthy' to show King Duncan's respect for Macbeth and 'cousin' shows

how close he feels Macbeth is to him.

To show how highly Duncan regards Macbeth, he promotes him from Thane

of Glamis to Thane of Cawdor; however, it is ironic that Macbeth is to

be made Thane of Cawdor, because the previous Thane was hanged for

being a traitor, as Macbeth will soon become.

"What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won,"

Macbeth is a very ambitious man, and his main ambition is to become

the King of Scotland. Macbeth's reaction to the witches' prediction is

one of shock because it has touched upon his secret ambi...

... middle of paper ...

... affect Scotland, and the

population turn against Macbeth.

"Those he commands, move only command." This shows the Scottish people

are no longer loyal to their king.

At the end of the play, I don't feel any sympathy for Macbeth because

even though he was put under immense pressure from his wife Lady

Macbeth, he did not have to go through with the murders. I feel he

should have sustained his reputation as a great man, because if the

witches' predictions were correct, he would have eventually become

king anyway.

Having now gone through the play I can now conclude that Macbeth is

A.C Bradley's Shakespearean tragic hero, because he starts off a man

with a very high reputation, and is a man of high status being a

Thane, to then becoming king, and slowly his character flaws, until he

dies at the end of the play.