Macbeth is a tragedy as it obeys these rules. The play begins with Macbeth as a general. He is a brave soldier with good qualities; he is in a position of trust. “For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name).” Macbeth has fought for his country and he is a hero. “O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman.” Duncan, the king, is pleased with him too, he is in an elevated position therefore there is a chance of him becoming king.
Macbeth had a character flaw which was very fatal in the end, it was first suggested by the witches. His character flaw was his ambition. The witches built up his ambition by predicting the future, hence putting ideas into Macbeth's mind. When the witches first meet Macbeth they tell him that he will become king. “All hail Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter.” Macbeth’s first reaction to this is that it could not happen:“……to be King, stands not within the prospect of belief,……” Macbeth doesn’t believe the witches, he thinks that they are talking nonsense.
“He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor…” Ross has been sent by Duncan to make Macbeth Thane of Cawdor because he fought well in the last battle. Duncan making Macbeth Thane of Cawdor gets Macbeth thinking about the witches’ prophecies. This is the start of his ambition. “Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor! The greatest is behind.” He starts to believe the witches because two out of their three predictions have come true. Now that he begins to believe the witches more and more, I believe that this puts more pressure on him to believe the witches and to make himself believe that what they said will come true.
Macbeth in my eyes is a tragic hero because of the drastic change which occurred after the power got to his head. He thought that once killed Duncan that he will become king and this thought of extreme power and wealth kept his ambition growing, so one event lead to another. He changed from being a hero and being very loyal to Duncan(his king) at the beginning to becoming an evil and selfish man. What may have encouraged him maybe what the witches had said to him which kept on playing in his mind and unconscientiously lead him to murdering all of these innocent people. His fatal flaw, which was his ambition, eventually took over his whole nature and became ninety nine percent bad and evil. Lady Macbeth also didn’t help him, she was encouraging him to kill Duncan and the guilt that Macbeth felt after killing Duncan never ever wore off and also at the end wee hear from Macbeth that the guilt of killing the whole of Macduffs family was too great for him and he could not kill another member of that family.
When Macbeth was the thane of Glamis and thane of Cawdor, he was only under physical pressure which he could cope with, but then when he encountered the great task of being the king, which is a great responsibility, he failed miserably as the, now, mental pressure just became too much for him to handle and he basically lost everything, he killed many innocent people and became insane.
At the end of the story we are shown short glimpses of the old Macbeth, these are given to us so that we can compare the evil Macbeth with the old Macbeth. We are shown the brave and courageous Macbeth who would do anything to help anyone: “the service, and the loyalty I owe in doing it, pays itself. Your highness’ part is to receive our duties: and to our duties are to your throne, and state children, servants; which do but what they should, by doing everything safe toward your love and honour.” This shows Macbeth comforting the king and reassuring him. Later on in this tale we see a totally different side of Macbeth we see that his character changes immensely, after killing Duncan he not like the old Macbeth ever again, the reason for this is that there was too much guilt in his conscience.
