William Shakespeare's Macbeth as a Tragedy

William Shakespeare's Macbeth as a Tragedy

What is a tragedy? The dictionary states that in Theatre Literature a

tragic play or story is a serious play, with a tragic theme, often

involving a heroic struggle and the downfall of the main character.

This description of a tragedy matches the story of Macbeth superbly.

Throughout the play Macbeth struggles to keep a grip on his life, he

becomes paranoid and insecure as the play progresses.

It all begins when Macbeth and Banquo meet the three witches and they

both find out their futures. Once the witches have finished their

prophecies, Macbeth is oblivious to everything going on around him,

this is one of the main reasons for his downfall. Macbeth gets lost

into his own world and starts to become a person he would never

normally be, he lets his wife manipulate him into doing things he does

not want to, as she is more power hungry than he is. As soon as

Macbeth tells her about the witches she starts to play with his mind,

urging him to kill King Duncan. From the beginning of the play it is

clear that Macbeth has blood on his hands and even though he is

killing people because he is part an army, it proves that he is able

to kill someone or to send someone to their death.

However when his wife begins to tell him that he should not let anyone

or anything stand in his way he begins to worry about the consequences

and the only thing that makes him change his mind is his wife

questioning his manhood,

"...Are you a man?..."

Macbeth becomes paranoid and questions himself. He begins to go mad

with guilt and suspicion. After he kills King Duncan, Lady Macbeth

makes it look as though t...

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... they have killed Banquo but Fleance has escaped leaving Macbeth

even more worried and paranoid about the situation he now finds

himself in. He walks into the great hall to find the ghost of Banquo

in his seat, one of the men, Lennox, asks Macbeth to sit down;

" May't please your highness, sit."

To which he replies;

"The table's full."

Macbeth becomes confused as in his place sits the severed ghost of

Banquo, yet no one else can see him, he becomes angry and frustrated

and begins to shout;

" Which of you have done this?"

No one in the hall has a clue what he is going on about, he then makes

the mistake of saying;

" Thou canst not say I did it; never shake

Thy gory locks at me!"

This shows the audience and the men in the hall that Macbeth has a

guilty conscience and clearly is not well.