How does MacBeth tragic flaw lead him to disaster in the final act of the Tragedy of Mabeth by William Shakespeare?

Answer 1

1. If you want an answer which will satisfy your English teacher who obviously has a poor grasp of the play, you will say that Macbeth's ambition led him to usurp the throne so that naturally he gets overthrown in the final act. This answer is stupid and wrong, but it should satisfy any teacher who would ask such a question.
2. The truth of the matter, if you really want to get into this play, is that Macbeth makes one mistake: that of letting his wife talk him into murdering the king. The idea of a "tragic flaw" is a literary fantasy and doesn't have much to do with the way people behave in Shakespearean tragedy. Macbeth is not unusually ambitious (no more than Malcolm, for example), and his ambition is limited to becoming king, and is thus fully satisfied early on in the play. But he does not feel secure being king. He knows, because he told himself so in Act 1 Scene 7, that he does "but teach bloody instructions, which, being taught, return to plague the inventor." In other words, if you get the throne by murder, expect to lose it by murder. At the same time he becomes wracked with guilt. He cannot sleep ("Macbeth hath murdered sleep"), and is visited by the spectre of his victim. Feeling guilt about something you have done wrong is not a character flaw. But it is guilt and paranoia which do Macbeth in in the end, not "ambition".

Answer 2

Macbeth's tragic flaw is his ambition and an unchecked thirst for power. This flaw drives him to commit heinous acts to secure the throne, leading to a chain of events that ultimately result in his downfall in the final act. His ruthless pursuit of power blinds him to the consequences of his actions, leading to his tragic end.