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- 1Macbeth is considered by many people to be the darkest of Shakespeare's plays. The play is a tragedy about death and betrayal amongst the Scottish noblemen. It focuses on the rise and fall of Macbeth. The argument on whether Macbeth is a tragic hero or a bloody tyrant still remains unanswered.In order to answer this question, we have to find the characteristics that make up a tragic hero. Firstly, the character must be noble, meaning he is a man of outstanding quality this is shown when Macbeth is loyal to Duncan during the start of the play.
- 2His actions must affect a lot of people. Secondly, his downfall is the result of his tragic flaw. However, the most common flaw is his excessive pride. Thirdly the hero's decline is the result of his own free will. Although fate has a very important part in the play.Fourthly the audiences are usually left feeling that the hero's misfortune is not really deserved. The fifth is that the tragic hero, in this case, Macbeth will eventually realize what went wrong but it is too late to undo the mistake.
- 3However, Macbeth's conscience was troubled. He knew that by killing Duncan who represented a figure of decent human being, heaven itself would not like his decision and he would go to hell. After struggling with his conscience and showing his reluctance to betray the king, he finally decided not to kill Duncan.He said, "We will proceed no further in this business He hath honored me of late, and I have bought a Golden opinion from all sorts of people".
- 4Macbeth was, perhaps, being selfish and wanted to be admired by the people for a bit longer, or his conscience might be causing his determination to weaken. Both reasons demonstrated that he was showing mercy, and mercy was definitely not a quality of a bloody tyrant.At this stage, he was not yet a bloody tyrant. However, later when Lady Macbeth insulted him by calling him a coward and questioning his manhood, Macbeth changed his mind. Lady Macbeth's speech was considered to be very persuasive.
- 5Macbeth said "We are yet but young in deed" Macbeth was saying that he has done so many bad deeds that he could barely wait to engage in the evil acts again. We could clearly see at this stage that Macbeth's character has developed into someone who appeared to be showing a wish to do evil to others by nature.He had lost all his good qualities. His speech showed his extreme hunger for power and control. He would kill according to his will.
- 6Macbeth later went to see the witches again. The witches told him that someone who was "none of woman born" would bring about his death. This prophecy has made him even more arrogant thinking that he was invincible, and it seemed to give him new pleasure for killing.He has Macduff's family murdered and his castle demolished. After the death of Lady Macbeth, he took actions into his own hands. In the end, he suffered from internal revolt and eventually killed by Macduff, who later revealed that he was born by cesarean (Woman who died during birth, child removed from woman's womb).
- 7Our emotions are cleansed knowing that the throne is now in charge of good people. Macbeth started off as being a "tragic hero", but eventually, towards the end, his madness and hallucination have transformed him into a "bloody tyrant".
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- Flashcards on Untitled, created by Cameron Lancaster on 06/02/2018.
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- Cameron Lancaster
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