Why could we consider Macbeth a tragic hero?

Answer 1

The Shakespearean play 'Macbeth' was a tragedy. One tragic element was the struggle of the heroic main character, Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057], against the superior force of destiny. The witches represented Macbeth's destiny, in that they informed Macbeth of his possibilities and thereby set his fatally flawed, raging ambition in motion. The fatal flaw in an otherwise brave, noble character was another tragic element. Still another tragic element was the destruction and deathof the heroic main character. That destruction was put into motion with the killing of Macbeth's conscience and soul with the murders of King Duncan I [d. August 14, 1040], the two royal guards, his best friend and fellow General Banquo, and the entire family and household of his noble peer Macduff. The destruction culminated in the loss of his beloved Lady [b. c. 1015] to madness and then suicide by unspecified means. The bloodied path between the gaining and the losing of the Scottish throne was paved with the deaths of friends and then of members from just about every household of Scotland. That slow, steady, sure movement through life to death culminated in the heroic main character's own death at the hands of his archenemy, Macduff.

Answer 2

What is Tragedy and Why is Macbeth a Shakespearean Tragedy.

Tragedy is a very ancient form of literature. It is the imitation of an action which is serious and complete. The aim of a tragedy is to rouse the emotions of sympathy and fear in the soul of it's spectator. Tragedy should have literary decorations like poetry, philosophy and humour. It should be in the form of action, and not be narrative. It should also have the appropriate length to be acted on a stage. These definitions and prescriptions for tragedy were framed by none other than Aristotle, the philosopher of Greece where Tragedy ascended the peaks.

Tragedy has a high educative value. It makes man 'sadder and wise' as Coleridge in The Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner has phrased. The combined effect of the emotions of pity and fear through which the spectator's mind goes through purges and purifies his mind, which process, in Greek, is denoted by the word Catharsis. Modern medicine has borrowed this word to mean discharge of emotions as a pressure valve.

The source of Shakespeare's Macbeth is Holinshed's Chronicles. The time of action covered in the play is the seventeen years from 1040 to 1057 of the Eleventh Century. 1040 was the year of the King of Scotland Duncan's death and 1057 the year of his General, Macbeth's death in real history. When Scotland was threatened with a civil war and foreign attacks, King Duncan deputed his Generals Macbeth and Banquo to suppress the enemies. Both fought very bravely till their enemies were either slaughtered or they surrendered. Macbeth began to be considered as a hero and a saviour by the King as well as by his subjects. But under the spell of three witches and also tempted by his wicked wife, Macbeth sought the very Kingship of Scotland for him. This spell and temptation was so strong and irresistible to him that eventually Macbeth assassinated Duncan when the King paid him the honour of visiting him and staying in his castle. A series of assassinations took place one after the other, all done by him or his spies. The sum total of all these murders are spread in 5 Acts and 29 Scenes in the play. It may be said that Macbeth was written in blood by Shakespeare.

Answer 3

The Shakespearean play 'Macbeth' was titled a tragedy. The play was tragic, because the main character of the same name destroyed himself and others, and died. There were supernatural beings in the play. But Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057] was mortal. So his death was inevitable. But it was the fact of how he brought about his death and those of others that made the play tragic. In fact, Macbeth fit into the heroic mold. He was brave, courageous, dependable, hardworking, loyal, noble, organized, practical, respectful, and responsible. But he was fatally, tragically flawed by ambition and by manipulability. The ambitiousness and the manipulability were never more obvious that when he was interacting with his equally ambitious wife, Lady Macbeth [b. c. 1015].

Answer 4

A tragedy is a play which turns out sadly for the characters, often with most of them dying. Macbeth is a Shakespearean tragedy because it was written by Shakespeare (except the scenes with Hecate).

Answer 5

The play 'Macbeth' was a tragedy, because of the loss and destruction of lives. Specifically, it dealt with the large-scale destruction and loss that resulted from the rise to power, rule, and downfall of Macbeth. Macbeth was a hardworking individual who tried to do a good job in defense of his king and his country. But Macbeth suffered from the fatal flaws of ambition and manipulability. He wanted to be rewarded, recognized, and promoted for doing the good, conscientious job that he did in service of king and country. But he was uncontrolled in that desire. As he put it, he suffered from 'vaulting ambition' [Act 1 Scene 7 Line 27]. Additionally, as much as he was courageous, he was also weak in the sense of being influenced to do wrong. This weakness showed up in his manipulability by the three witches, who weren't good forces in the universe; and by his wife, Lady Macbeth. These two flaws were fatal, and tragic. Indeed, they led to the murders of King Duncan I [d. August 14, 1040], two royal guards, Banquo, and Macduff's family and household. They also led to the attempted killing of Banquo's son Fleance. And they led to the misery and suffering of the entire Scottish nation.

Answer 6

A tragedy is a play where things end badly for the main character or characters. We don't feel this to be tragic unless we like the main character or characters in some way and feel sorry for them. Shakespeare's play Timon of Athens is supposed to be a tragedy but yet is one of Shakespeare's least successful plays because the character is so unlikeable we cannot feel sorry for him when disaster overtakes him. Shakespeare also wrote characters to whom bad things happen into his comedies, such as Malvolio in Twelfth Night. What happens to Malvolio is bad but not that bad and we don't feel sorry for him because he has a bad characteristic, a flaw, of being stuck up and arrogant, which makes him hard to like. Timon and Malvolio are not tragic because although bad things happen to them, we rather think they deserve it and don't feel sorry for them. Macbeth, we feel, deserves what he gets (killing children is the ultimate crime), but we still feel sorry for him because at the start, he was a war hero and an honourable man. We know that, left to his own devices, he would never have killed Duncan, and it was that one act which changed him from a likeable hero into a monster. It's an act he regrets almost immediately ("Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!") but which he can never undo.

Answer 7

cos he is in browngang!

Answer 8

His tragic flaw helps to cause his downfall