Macbeth hero or villain?

Authors Avatar
Macbeth Hero or Villain Macbeth is tragic play written by William Shakespeare in early 1606. The Tragedie of Macbeth was first published in the First Folio of 1623, seven years after Shakespeare’s death and seventeen years after the play was first performed. Perhaps it was written for a Scottish King James I, who was given the English crown for the first time in history. In addition, he was particularly afraid of witches. It is Shakespeare’s most constricting and oppressive play; unpleasantly intimate human study of terror and paranoia, of the power of imagination and mistrust. In this essay, I would study Macbeth’s personality in more detail in order to enable myself to conclude whether he was a hero or villain.In accordance with the traditional specification of a hero requires being, a person who opposes a conflicting force, either externally or internally, a conflicting force from its
Join now!
own state or another. In the opening scenes of the play, Macbeth has come to be seen as hero. However, we can find abundant evidence in the play that he was a villain more than a hero. In act I sc. ii, Macbeth is described by his king as:“ O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman” (Act 1, Sc. 2) The quote mentioned above reinforces the idea that descriptions of Macbeth towards his king are positive. Moreover king is exultant at his cousin. Nevertheless, the descriptions are gory too as captain says:“ Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops” ...

This is a preview of the whole essay