“I have begun to plant thee…”
However Macbeth begins to turn form the path of a typical hero when he starts to let his main flaw, ambition, overrule his loyalty, this is first made evident to the reader when after the witches have called him king of Scotland he says: (Act 1 Scene 3)
“would they have stayed!”
We can gauge from this that instead of being alarmed at the thought of his King’s death Macbeth, instead wants to hear more of what the witches have to say for him, it is almost as if he wishes them to tell him what it is he must do to gain the position of king, even though he knows that a witch is an evil creature.
It is further highlighted to me that Macbeth is beginning to lose his heroic qualities when in Act 1 Scene 3 he says, even though his friend and comrade Banquo warns that the witches may be leading him into evil:
“This supernatural soliciting…is smothered in surmise, and nothing is but what is not.”
In this Macbeth demonstrates that his ambition is getting the better of him and that he is beginning to think of killing Duncan. He again proves that he is truly thinking of claiming the crown of Scotland for himself when after hearing that Malcolm is to succeed Duncan as king he says: (Act 1 Scene 5)
“The Prince of Cumberland! – That is a step on which I must fall down or else o’erleap, for in my way it lies.”
From here is where Macbeth begins to plot how he could overcome this obstacle to the throne. He sends a letter telling his wife that the king is coming to stay in their home; he also mentions the witches’ prophecies, hoping that she will be able to help him on his self appointed task. Nevertheless Macbeth has not lost all his traces of humanity (Act 1 Scene 7):
“If it were done when‘t is done, then‘t were well… vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other-”
Macbeth exposes in this speech that he is deeply troubled by all the inevitable consequences of killing the King, he goes over all the reasons against the deed. He then switches his thoughts to Duncan’s virtues and imagines the awful reaction that would follow his murder.
Nevertheless, although he tells Lady Macbeth that:
“we will proceed no further in this business”
There is no real conviction in his words as the only encouragement to follow this path is for Lady Macbeth to call him a coward.
“…Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour,
As thou art in desire?
…And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting “ dare not” wait upon “I would,”
When Macbeth kills Duncan he can be seen to be the villain of the piece as he murdered an innocent man over his own greed. Banquo who was with Macbeth when the witches made their prophecy is perhaps the only one with a true idea of the fate of his last king, this is shown in Act 3 Scene 1:
“Thou hast it now, King, Cawdor, Glamis, all, as the weird women promised; and I fear you played most foully for‘t…”
When Macbeth becomes King he reaches his own pinnacle of achievement.
Macbeth is becoming very conniving and has decided that now he is the King he wants all those who may interfere with his crown eliminated.
“To be thus is nothing but to be safely thus”
This includes Banquo, his one time friend, he shows this when he says:
“Our fears in Banquo…who’s there?” and “well then…thus did Banquo.”
He wants Banquo to be killed because he was the only other one present when the witches made their predication to Macbeth; he is scared that Banquo will suspect that it was he who killed Duncan. He has paid two murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance, in doing this he also shows he is utterly amoral when the situation suits him, this is shown when a third murderer turns up for the killings of Banquo and Fleance, and is more informed then the previous two.
Macbeth, in the tradition of all tragic heroes’ is spiritually wounded by his experiences, this is highlighted in several places, mainly Act 2 Scene 1, when he sees a dagger hovering infront of him:
“Is this a dagger which I see before me…that summons thee to heaven or hell”.
then Act 2 scene 2 when he is troubled by his inability to say amen;
“could not I pronounce ”Amen”…stuck in my throat”.
and finally Act 3 Scene 4 when he sees Banquo’s ghost and nearly gives the game away as he says:
“Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake thy gory locks at me.”
Here and in latter parts of the play he is showing the signs that what he has done is driving him mad.
Macbeth is driven to meet the witches again and in doing so he is trying to determine his fate. Act 3 Scene 5:
“I will tomorrow… ere they may be scanned.”
In going to the witches they tell him his fate but he is tricked and so in a sense doomed, by his own sense of false hope and security.
It is towards the end of the play that we begin to see that Macbeth has truly changed from the noble character he was at the start, an example of this is shown in Act 5 Scene 2:
“Some say he’s mad: others, that lesser hate him. Do call it valiant fury; but’ for certain, he can not buckle his distempered cause within the belt of rule.”
This is in a stark contrast to the soldier who previously praised him and called him brave and worthy.
Macbeth is a lamentable character at the end of the play, he has lost all sense of purpose and sees life as a pointless experience, and this is shown in Act 5 Scene 5 when just after a messenger has been to tell him that his wife, Lady Macbeth has died he exclaims:
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow… signifying nothing.”
In saying this he is in truth reflecting on the pointlessness of life.
At the climax of the play Macbeth shows a further trait of a tragic hero as he realises his flaw and that his demise is at hand, in doing so we are reminded of the noble character furnished with the courage he had before his greed and ambition took over, this is shown in Act 5 Scene 9:
“I will not yield…Hold, enough!”
Even in yielding to death he shows bravery as even though he realises that Macduff is going to kill him he still chooses to fight rather then be taken captive and executed as a traitor.
In conclusion, Macbeth as the hero in this piece rouses little feelings of pity in the reader. He has the tragic flaw of being power-hungry, conniving and utterly immoral. A traditional tragic hero has our characteristics, Macbeth does not have two of these: he lacks goodness, it seems that all he does he does for himself or as a means of gaining for himself. He also is not superior as he was referred to by other thanes as a tyrant and incompetent ruler during his kingship. However at the beginning of the play Macbeth is seen as great by several characters, including one in the elevated position of King. Macbeth can also be seen as a tragic hero as he dies at the end of the play and his death has a large impact on the people around him. Also he is in part responsible for his own downfall, in Macbeth’s case this is because he chose to let his greed get the better of him. Finally Macbeth could be judged as a Shakespearean tragedy as other people die as part of a tragic chain of events, e.g. Duncan, and Banquo.
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