Macbeth As A Tragic Hero Essays

1899 Words Dec 17th, 2015 8 Pages
Macbeth who is a mighty figure in Scotland held a high and prestigious stature and was looked upon by many for his noble qualities which shaped his character. He was a courageous man who suffered from his tragic flaw of ambition. He was power driven and wanted to gain everything possible in his life disregarding all fatal outcomes. As a result, he ultimately faced his inevitable downfall and three factors which are to blame for his downfall are the witches who gave misleading prophecies, Lady Macbeth’s influence and control, and Macbeth’s destructive desire of becoming the King of Scotland.
To illustrate Macbeth’s downfall, the first factor which contributed to Macbeth being a tragic hero was the misleading words said from the witches’ prophecies. Although the witches did not exactly lie to Macbeth, their words held double meanings which caused Macbeth to misinterpret their sayings. For instance, the first moment when Macbeth encountered the witches, the third witch said to Macbeth, “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” (1.3.51). Basically, the witches have triggered Macbeth’s thought process and Macbeth has started to wonder how it would feel like to become King. In other words, this is the spark which ignited Macbeth’s ambition to become King. Furthermore, as Macbeth’s ambitious thoughts continued to grow, he started to feel threats from other thanes, and thus he decided to take them out of his way so that he could remain King uninterrupted. To seek guidance…

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