“All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis
All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor
All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter”
Here we have actually met Macbeth and he has listened to the witches prophecies. Macbeth has just come out of a battle successfully killing the traitor the Thane of Cawdor. Duncan immediately makes Macbeth Thane of Cawdor, “what he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won”. Macbeth even before being introduced into the play at this point we already know he has good characteristics. Shakespeare used this as a link to Aristotle’s idea of a tragic hero. The tragic hero is a man who is characterised by good and evil, Macbeth starts as the honourable Thane of Glamis. Also the witches are linked to Aristotle’s tragedy idea because they could be the hubris surrounding him. This is the person or thing that sets the stage for his fall, because of the witches predictions coming true, this makes Macbeth think which then leads him to having evil thoughts in his soliloquy,
“Two truths are told… I am Thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion, whose horrid image doth unfix my hair… present fears are less than horrible imaginings. My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical.”
Macbeth is having thoughts about killing his own King Duncan. These thoughts eventually lead Macbeth into actually doing the deed and killing Duncan. This is support again that Macbeth is a tragic hero, because this shows that Macbeth has bad characteristics. But although Macbeth did physically kill Duncan, Macbeth had a strong force behind him, his wife Lady Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth begins to scheme so to influence Macbeth and asks herself if Macbeth is evil enough to get his goal,
“I fear thy nature, it is too full o’th’milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way.” But she begins to think if she could manipulate him so much as if to put her character into him,
“That I may pour my spirits in thine ear and characterise with the valour of my tongue.”
Lady Macbeth then goes on to taunt Macbeth into performing the crime of killing Duncan by questioning his manhood and bravery,
“When you durst do it, then you were a man. And to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man.” This way she is trying to direct him into what seems the wrong decision. Lady Macbeth could also be seen as a hubris like the witches.
Macbeth’s second visit to see the witches, leads to bad consequences.
“Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth: beware Macduff,
Beware the Thane of Fife. “
He has put belief into all the witches have said, and that led him to kill Duncan. After this episode we see that murderers have been sent to kill Macduff. But kill his children instead.
“Where is your husband? He’s a traitor”
The murderers claim that Macduff is a traitor and because he is isn’t present at his house the murderers kill the wife and children instead.
The tragic hero is someone people can relate to; Macbeth feels the guilt afterward,
“Sleep no more to all the house; Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more.” When we ourselves do a wrong deed we don’t just forget it we feel guilty afterward just as Macbeth is. If we were put into the tragic hero’s position we should see that they would probably do the same things the hero does.
Lady Macbeth the hubris is behind him again “worthy thane, you do unbend your noble strength to think so brain sickly of things.” She foretells the future that will afflict her.
Lady Macbeth eventually takes her own life because she is unable to take the guilt,
“…come, give me your hand; what’s done cannot be undone. To bed…” She has breed “unnatural troubles; infected minds,” which leads to her fall.
Macbeth has lost self-belief in his life in one of his soliloquies,
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day… out, out brief candle, life’s but a walking shadow.” The tragic hero always falls in the end, that is why he is called a tragic hero. Lady Macbeth has already died because of Macbeth’s vaulting ambition, and Macbeth falls to his death in battle.
“I will try the last. Before my, body I throw my warlike shield”
As a result of all the flaws of a tragic hero Macbeth has fallen to his death. The evidence from the play suggests that Macbeth was Aristotle’s version of a tragic hero and Shakespeare portrayed this well throughout the play with the language he used. The play is a long thread leading from one situation to another, if Macbeth hadn’t listened to the witches from the start would he have gone ahead and killed Duncan? He wanted the power so much one thing lead to another and his bad judgement on the situations he was in lead him to his fall.
