SparkNotes: Macbeth: How is Macbeth a Tragic Hero?
There is much debate about whether Macbeth is a hero or if he is purely villainous. Shakespeare has created many villains and heroes throughout his plays. Macbeth is a character unlike any of these. Macbeth is neither purely villainous nor heroic though he does show characteristics of both.Macbeth is also a villain in the beginning of the tragedy. A villain is defined to be an evil person who goes by evil approaches to get what he needs. First, Macbeth determines he wants to be King of Scotland. He decided this when the witches predicted that he would be Thane of Cawdor.Is Macbeth a hero or a villain essays There are several ways people regard Macbeth. Some people see Macbeth as an innocent person lead astray by a personality flaw, others believe that he was wicked at heart and used the witches' prophecies as an excuse for killing his friends and their familie.
A tragic hero has a tragic flaw of an exaggerated trait that leads to their downfall and eventually to death. William Shakespeare often made his main characters tragic heroes in his plays. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the role of the tragic hero is given to the main character: Macbeth.Oedipus is an example of a tragic hero that features as a main protagonist but meets his untimely demise. I shall analyse the character of Macbeth and see if he was always a villain or just a hero who failed in his pursuits, due to how Shakespeare pushes him to that fate.
Macbeth Macbeth is a tragic hero because a grave error of judgment and his own ambition cause him to murder Duncan, leading to chaos, destruction, and eventually his own death. According to Aristotle’s theory of tragedy, the tragic hero must begin the play as a high status individual so that his fall from grace carries impact.
