Macbeth is a Tragic Hero According to Aristotle the tragic hero must be a great personality with a flaw in character that leads to his downfall at the end of the tragedy. Aristotle's definition can be safely applied to Macbeth as he is a well-known General and his flaw is his "vaulted ambition." he is also a villain in the case that he is emerged in the blood of Banquo and Macduff's family. But Macbeth ends up as a tragic hero. Shakespeare developed Macbeth's role through three phases; the first phase covers the murder of Duncan the King and it is done tragically. the actual act is done off-stage while the audience's attention is focused on Macbeth undergoing the mental torture. Hence the pity and fear are directed to Macbeth and they lead to the Aristotelean catharsis. Furthermore, Shakespeare succeeded in shifting the guilt to the witches and their prophesies and lady Macbeth who appears in the first act worse than Satan in her evil. It is the prophesies of the witches that awakened the ambition which was sleeping in the soul of
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