How successful is Shakespeare's presentation of Macbeth as a tragic hero?

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Ciara Murphy St Helens School

How successful is Shakespeare’s presentation of Macbeth as a tragic hero?

        In order to make a precise conclusion on how successful Shakespeare is on making Macbeth a tragic hero, the great speeches and monologues by Macbeth must be analyzed. Also the audience or reader must have to understand what makes a person a tragic hero. Obviously there must be certain conditions that the tragic hero has to fulfill. These will be discussed.

        Macbeth has them and I will try to give evidence to back up my points.

           To start with the character must be of noble birth, Macbeth is of noble birth and this is a fact as he is born the Thane of Glamis. Secondly the tragic hero must be of high moral worth as if he isn’t the audience can’t admire him so he wouldn’t be heroic therefore he wouldn’t be a tragic hero. Macbeth is of high moral worth as one of the first times in the play when Macbeth is seen as a hero is after the great battle at the beginning. Everyone is praising him, including the king. The king, as a reward for his heroic actions, makes Macbeth Thane of Cawdor as the last Thane of Cawdor was found guilty of treason and was be-headed! The main thing that makes the audience respect Macbeth (helping us to see him as a tragic hero in the end) is when the sergeant reporting on the battle praises Macbeth calling him “brave Macbeth”, so we see that even from the beginning of the play Macbeth is seen as brave and people respect him.

          When Macbeth meets the king towards the beginning of the play the king has only nice things to say about Macbeth and clearly respects him as he call him his ‘valiant cousin’ and a ‘worthy gentleman’. Because the king is obviously noble we trust his opinion of Macbeth so then we too share his high opinion of him. We know the King thinks this as he represents his feelings when he says to Macbeth “more is due than more all can pay”. Here Duncan is saying that Macbeth means a lot to him and the country. As the king is so proud of him hen trusts him more and naturally is more willing to give him things and help him become more successful throughout his reign as king.

        The king’s whole idea of Macbeth shows him as a hero, which is often shown so frequently at the beginning of the play. This whole idea of Macbeth being a hero at the beginning of the play is very common in tragic heroes as always at the beginning they are brave and heroic, but then they go tragic things/or bad things, which makes them tragic heroes.

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         Another thing that a tragic hero must posses is a flaw in their character. In Macbeth his flaw could be seen as being his ambition (to be king) or him not thinking about the consequences of his actions, but personally I feel his flaw was ambition. I feel that this flaw was mainly the fault of the witches as after they told him he would become thane of Cawdor he did and they also told him he would become king so he proberly believed he would and as it was possible he would do anything ...

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