Macbeth the Dead Butcher and His Fiend Like Queen
According to Aristotle, the tragedy by definition is constituted of certain structures. Of all these requirements, the most critical one is a tragic hero. Tragic hero by definition must possess one critical tragic flaw. Likewise, Shakespeare's famous tragedy Macbeth possesses the tragic heroes, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are both tragic heroes, because they share one tragic flaw; ambition. In the last scene of the play, Malcolm refers to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as "this dead butcher and his fiendlike queen." However, Malcolm's descriptions of Macbeth and his wife are not adequate, because Malcolm does not realize that their brutalities are due to their tragic flaw. Therefore, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are not "a butcher and fiendlike queen" but rather tragic heroes, for they attempt to be god-like, have moments of recognition, and ultimately fail.
By virtue of their ambition, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth aspire to control the divine privilege, changing the predestined fate of kingship. From the very beginning of the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are surely ambitious figures but somewhat latent ones. Macbeth’s startled reaction to witches’ prophecies about him becoming a king is odd and suspicious. Banquo states “Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear things that do sound so fair?” on Macbeth’s reaction. However, as they learn of the three witches' prophecies, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's ambition reaches its acme. Believing that heaven is favorable toward them, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth become too proud and too confident of their unjust scheme of stealing the throne. At this point, Macbeth steps across the line between man and God. Macbeth calls on evil forces for an aid to perform his villainous murder of Duncan. He says, "Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires; The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be, To which the eye fears, when it is done, to see," as if he can control the order of the nature, which only God can do so. Also, in attempt to be more godlike, Lady Macbeth betrays her own humanity, womanhood. She too calls on evil force and asks, " ... unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe topfull of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood, stop up the access and passage to remorse. ... Come to my woman's breasts, and take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers." This quotation proves that Lady Macbeth will do anything to achieve her ambitious goal. However, the improper claim to control fate does not stop there. Later on in the play, Macbeth decides to liquidate Banquo. Macbeth hires killers to carry out the murder of Banquo and evokes their abhorrence against Banquo. Also, out of his desperate ambition to sustain his throne, he slaughters the innocent Macduff family. For his obsessive ambition, Macbeth does any means of wrongdoing quite remorselessly. He just decides to change the fates of two random men, Banquo and the innocent Macduff family, all solely for his ambition. As Macbeth desires to become more godlike, he becomes rather more monstrous than ever because a man, like Macbeth, cannot ever become a God.
