Shakespeare's Macbeth As A Tragic Hero

What would you do if you made a choice which ultimately led to the compromise of someone’s life? A tragic hero is a person with a high position in society with the potential to be heroic. This hero is fated by the Gods or a supernatural force to great suffering. The hero struggles to fight against their fate, before fate wins the conflict (“Tragic” 1-3). In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth is classified as a tragic hero due to fatal flaws in his character, which led to consistent errors in judgement. This ultimately led to his timely death. Macbeth was a man of high position, being the Thane of Glamis. Throughout the play Macbeth, it is made evident that Macbeth has many fatal flaws, which in some circumstances are a virtue (“Characteristics” 4), but are actually what caused Macbeth’s ultimate demise. Macbeth shows great ambition throughout the play. Typically, ambition is a great characteristic to have, but in Macbeth’s case it goes unchecked. This is especially so after the witches tell him the first prophecy. The prophecy states that he is the Thane of Glamis, but will become the Thane of Cawdor, and eventually King (1.3.48-50). Directly after being told the prophecy, Macbeth is given

Typically some self-doubt is needed in order to allow someone to do the right thing, but Macbeth’s self-doubt is easily manipulated. Originally, he wondered if he truly should kill Duncan as they are friends, and Duncan truly trusts Macbeth (1.7.1-28). However, Lady Macbeth calls him out on this self-doubt and insults him, in hopes to get him to not doubt himself and her on the matter of killing Duncan (1.7.48-59). Macbeth begins to question what would happen if they should fail in killing Duncan (1.7.59), but Lady Macbeth continues to insult him and his manhood. She tells Macbeth how he is a coward if he does not go through with this (1.7.59-72), and convinces him to commit the murder