Macbeth is a Tragic Hero

Macbeth. It is the materialization of their second prophesy "thane of Cawdor" which misleads him and blurs his vision:   "this supernatural soliciting   cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,   why hath it given me earnest of success   commencing in a truth? I am thane of cawdor   And it might be very true that it was the words of lady Macbeth, and her challenge of Macbeth's manhood that led him to commit the murder. "The values of christian humanity,acknowledge and understood by Macbeth are pitied against the more primitive code of the cavern." Lady Macbeth exemplifies this code. She is considered to be the forth of the witches by some critics and she is able to bewitch Macbeth with her argument . she harps on Macbeth's manliness and he is caught between his own vision of manliness and his wife's vision of it. She asks him: "Art thou afeard" just after he has given an argument against murder.   However Shakespeare made it clear through his soliloquies that he is responsible as he is fully aware of his guilt but cannot help himself. Going to the King's room the vision of the dagger indicates his feverish mind. The dagger indicates Macbeth's awareness, at least his emotional awareness that he is comitting a treason but he tries to distract himself, to personally blur his own vision about the significance of this "dagger of the mind", when he decides that the dagger represents the weapon he will use to commit the murder. the dagger scene shows Macbeth as a victim of an unseen force which leads him to the king's room. This unseen force is his ambition and that keeps him in the eye of the viewer a tragic hero.   After the act he was distrustful as he heard voices crying:"Macbeth kills sleep! Macbeth sleeps no more!" Macbeth cannot sleep. he is kept from the rest he needs by the guilt he feels over Duncan's murder. if he has sent Duncan to eternal rest, he lives in eternal disturbance and torment over his bloody deeds. Bu murdering Duncan, Macbeth has murdered his clear conscience and will never be able to sleep soundly. Hence the first phase is a complete tragedy and Macbeth is a tragic hero.   the second phase covers the murder of Banqou and that of Macduff's family which are done melodramatically and thus Macbeth plays the role of the villain. He arranged both murders cold bloodedly, plotting with murderers, released from prison. Macbeth killed Banquo out of jealousy; because he is "lesser than Macbeth and greater" and "not so happy, yet much happier." He kills Banquo because Banquo will father kings while he is childless. he tries to work against fate and change the part of the prophesy that does not benefit him. It is not satisfactory for him to content his own ambition. he wants to establish a dynasty of kings. he cannot satisfy his ambition and that changes into burning anger, which knows nothing but destruction.   Macbeth killed Macduff's family out of revenge. It shows that Macbeth has lost all his human qualities and has become a mere villain who is unable to resist his love for blood. The murder of the child is done on stage and this is to show the cruelty of Macbeth.   Macbeth's last visit to the witches marks the third phase, when Macbeth goes back o his role as a tragic hero. Macbeth decides to fight till the end never to surrender or kill himself: "I'll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked."   He also says:" Blow,wind! Come, wrack!/ At least we'll die with harness on our back." the witches last prophesies show him capable of fighting his fate.   However, Shakespeare provides Macbeth with a sense of guilt when he was trying to avoid Macduff of all people.   "Of all men else I have avoided thee:   But get thee back, my soul is too much charged   With blood of thine already"   Macbeth feels guilty because he has killed Macduff's family.   Furthermore the speech he gives after the death of Lady Macbeth indicates his philosophical principle of life. After the first murder Macbeth has stepped into blood and he cannot retreat. Macbeth has killed because he was searching for peace of mind, but this gradually dehumanizes him. He loses any power to feel sensitivity about life. The bond that links him to the human world disappears. That is why when he receives the news of his wife's death he accepts it with horrifying calm. In his famous speech he admits the empty mockery his life has become because he ceased to care about anything. After this speech he decides to end everything in a final battle, not because of his desire to win but to be in control of the final event, his own death.