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Recommended: Literary analysis of macbeths character

According to Aristotle, a tragedy has many distinct qualities, including a serious action, appropriate diction and rhythm, dramatic language, incidents arousing pity and fear, and a catharsis. In addition, there are six elements the play should generally have: plot, character, thought, melody, spectacle, and diction (Chicago). Finally, most tragedies contain a tragic hero, which is defined as a “great man” who makes a “mistake or harmatia” that has a large impact on the other characters (Ohio). Therefore, overall, Macbeth by William Shakespeare fulfills the definition of tragedy according to Aristotle to a large extent, as it includes all of the elements except melody.
One major element of a tragedy is the plot, which is the most important according to Aristotle. He stated that “All human happiness or misery takes the form of action....Character gives us qualities, but it is in our actions--what we do--that we are happy or miserable” (Chicago). Macbeth clearly exemplifies all of the qualities of a strong tragic plot, containing unity of action, peripety, and a seriously grave error. First, the play had a clearly defined unity of action, meaning it has one main action and storyline with few or no other subplots. In Macbeth, the title character’s aspirations to become king resulted in the murders of various characters, such as Duncan and Banquo, throughout the course of the story. The plot never strayed from this storyline and each action was the result of the previous, making it easier for the reader to follow. In addition, peripeteia was strongly used in Macbeth and is defined as “the change from one state of things at the beginning of the play to the exact opposite state by the end of the play” (Chicago). In the play, the turnin...

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...nvincible. However, this was not the case because Macduff was born from a Cesarean section, shown by the quote “tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb/Untimely ripped (Shakespeare 5.8.15-16). Thus, Macbeth truly was a good man at the start, but his flaws overcame him and he was killed for that reason.
A good tragedy should contain at least four of the elements defined by Aristotle: plot, spectacle, thought, melody, character, and diction. Macbeth demonstrates five of these, as well as a tragic hero, and fulfills the definition of tragedy to a very large extent. Shakespeare used these elements to his advantage and really enabled the reader to have pity for the title character and be able to imagine the story as he or she read. Therefore, Macbeth truly is a tragic story that nearly perfectly matches Aristotle’s definition and brings much to the genre of drama.

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