Essay on Definitions of a Tragedy: Shakespeare's and Aristotle's

Coincidentally, Duncan, honoring the hero, decides to stay at Macbeth’s castle overnight. Lady Macbeth believes that this is a perfect opportunity given by fate to kill Duncan and usurp his power. Exhibiting extreme ambition and masculinity, Lady Macbeth orchestrates the entire scheme and persuades her husband into committing evil deeds, chiding him for behaving like a feminine and coward. Macbeth eventually yields to his wife’s pressure and manipulation. After the murder is discovered, Malcolm and Donalbain, Duncan’s sons, flee to England and Ireland, respectively, while Macbeth assumes a dictatorial sovereignty of Scotland. Macbeth, however, becomes insecure about his power, for the witches have prophesied that Banquo’s descendants will be kings and Macduff, another Scottish nobleman in England, may threaten him. Hence, the vicious tyrant assassinates Banquo and Macduff’s family. As a result, Macduff, with aids from Malcolm and England, vows to retaliate against Macbeth. Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth is greatly agonized by guilt, sleepwalking, rubbing her hands as if trying to wash away the bloodstains, and finally committing suicide. The downfall of Macbeth immediately succeeds when the English army invades his castle and is marked by Macduff outplaying Macbeth in a fierce

His next targets are Banquo and Fleance. Macbeth hires murderers to kill them both. The murderers successfully kill Banquo but Fleance escapes. Macbeth becomes king and hosts a banquet. The guilt comes back. Macbeth acknowledges. “When now I think you can behold such sights, and keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, when mine is blanch’d with fear” (3.4.45). Macbeth thinks everyone at the table can see Banquo’s ghost when really he is the only one who sees it. Everyone is confused and concerned because Macbeth is going crazy and practically yelling at an empty chair. Macbeth almost spills the truth that he was the one who arranged Banquo’s death. Also, Lady Macbeth claims that, “I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse; Question enrages him; at once, good night: stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once” (3.4.45). Lady Macbeth tries to cover the up the outburst by telling their quests that Macbeth is not well. She knows that the guilt is taking over him because he initially did not want to kill

Macbeth is considered to be one of the greatest Shakespearean tragedies written by William Shakespeare. According to A.C. Bradley, it is the "most vehement, the most concentrated, perhaps we may say the most tremendous, of the tragedies" (Bradley 333). Macbeth, written by Shakespeare is a Shakespearean tragedy because it has a tragic hero, mathemata, and a hamartia. These three characteristics are crucial to have in a Shakespearean tragedy and prove that Macbeth is indeed one. More specifically, the tragic hero is one of the most important of the three because without the hero, sympathy cannot be evoked.

Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that he “heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep,’ to all the house”, which forewarns Macbeth’s fate (2.2.47-48,54). The voices that Macbeth hears reflects on his worry for the consequences he may receive for committing murder. It symbolizes how Macbeth’s mind is slowly succumbing to insanity since, regardless of what he thinks is right and wrong, he still accepts to do the deed of killing Duncan to gain power. Macbeth is the only one in the banquet that sees Banquo’s ghost. During the celebration of his crowning as King, Banquo enters the scene as a ghost after being killed by Macbeth’s murderers. Macbeth tells the ghost, “Thou canst not say I did it: never shake Thy gory locks at me,” (3.4.63-64). He explains to Banquo that he cannot tell anyone that he caused his death, meaning that his conscience still plagues him to the point he sees an illusory

Insecurities, weaknesses and inadequacies. These are qualities that represent itself in the play of Macbeth. Fallacies and human nature are a vital part in the play, it shows how many character are formed and are dealt with. For the sake of better understanding of fallacies and human nature, we will solely focus on Macbeth. Some make these insecurities are very clear whereas some are more hidden and need to be deciphered of what the message behind the insecurities are. In MacBeth, by William Shakespeare, MacBeth not only possesses’ insecurities, weaknesses and inadequacies, he makes them very clear through the ways by which they motivate and fuel him and his actions. MacBeth’s actions are taken into play by his insecurities, which are described by how he was influenced by the three witches,

And thence it is,/That I to your assistance do make love,/Masking the business from the common eye/For sundry weighty reasons”(3.1.121-129). This shows that Macbeth will kill his partner to stay king since Banquo thinks Macbeth is the murder of King Duncan. After he hears the answers from the witches, he decides to kill all of Macduff’s family because Macbeth thinks killing Macduff’s family would stand in line of his inheritance:”The castle of Macduff I will surprise,/Seize upon Fife, give to th' edge o' th' sword/His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls/That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool./This deed I’ll do before this purpose cool./But no more sights!—Where are these gentlemen?/Come, bring me where they are”(4.1.157.163). Macbeth will orders the murders to kill anyone that can overtake his

Macbeth murders many to gain power. He causes the suffering of families and murders former friends. The violence starts with the murder of the king, Duncan, who’d trusted and honored Macbeth; Macbeth kills him to gain the position of king. Duncan’s death is the catalyst; Macbeth subsequently begins to use violence as a regular way to attain power. He murders his former friend, Banquo, refusing to accept that Banquo’s sons will be kings as prophesized by the witches. He says in regard to the prophecy, “Rather than so, come fate into the list, / And champion me to th' utterance.” Instead of accepting fate, he challenges the prophecy and orders Banquo’s death. His final homicide is the massacre of Lord Macduff’s family. When Macduff hears of the brutal slaughter, he cries, “That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on, / And would not take their

Macbeth has been noticing that the three witches predictions have been coming true lately, Macbeth thought back about what they said about how Banquo would father future kings. Macbeth doesn’t want to see a threat towards him not being king, so he hires three murders to kill Fleance and Banquo. Macbeth tells the murders that he hires to kill Banquo “both of" them "know Banquo was" their "enemy” (Shakespeare 3.1.129-130). The murders fail at killing Fleance, who gets away, however the murders succeeded in killing Banquo. After the death of Banquo, Macbeth finds out that Macduff was not showing up to the dinner due to him running to England. Macbeth wants to kill Macduff's family since he showed disrespect towards the king by not showing up to dinner. Macbeth orders for “the castle of Macduff” to be “surprise,/ seize upon Fife, give to th’ edge o’ th’ sword/ his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls/ that trace him in his line” (Shakespeare 4.1.171-174). Macbeth eliminates all of Macduff’s loved ones that eventually gets back to Macduff to teach him a lesson not to disrespect him again. When Macbeth makes the decision to kill Macduff’s family he doesn’t realize the consequence of how Macduff may react to the event that cost him his life in the

Macbeth’s act of killing the King spirals into more violent actions that cause him more problems and leave him with guilt. As it continues, he develops more internal conflict. In Act , Scene 3, Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost at dinner, after sending out the murderers to kill him. His guilt from killing the King makes him paranoid and hungrier for power. Macbeth’s insecurity about his manhood pushes him to keep murdering so he can keep his power.

Amongst all of Shakespeare's tragedies, Macbeth is the most inconsistent and fragmented. Like the mental state of the protagonist, the tragic structure of the play is in disarray from the very onset. According to Aristotle, all tragedies must follow a certain set of characteristics, and the most important of these is the presence of a tragic hero. This tragic hero must possess a tragic flaw, or hamartia, which is a good quality taken to such an extreme that it now exhibits immoral behaviour from the hero. He must also draw sympathy of his plight from the audience. Macbeth, although the protagonist, is not a tragic hero because he does not possess this hamartia. This significant absence of a flaw leads to his actions being without

In the first act, Macbeth met the witches whose prophecies claimed Macbeth would be made thane of Cawdor and eventually King of Scotland. At the same time, they claimed Banquo, who was with Macbeth, would be the father of kings. Shortly after, Macbeth and Banquo were greeted by two noblemen who announced that King Duncan had appointed Macbeth the new thane of Cawdor for his brave actions. Macbeth became consumed with the witches’ premonitions. Their vision for the future coupled with his ambition drove Macbeth to make choices that ultimately destroyed him. With significant influence from Lady Macbeth, he decided to take action and murder King Duncan. As part of their plan, they get the King’s attendants drunk so they’d black out then they could blame them for the murder. Macbeth ends up killing them the next morning when Duncan’s murder is discovered, pretending he is enraged by their crime. When Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo, he decides to visit the witches again. More prophecies are cited including that Macbeth must beware of Macduff. When Macbeth learns Macduff fled to England to meet up with Malcolm, King Duncan’s son, he orders Macduff’s wife and children killed to tame his anxieties. This ultimately led to his demise as Macduff sought revenge and ends up killing Macbeth in battle. This choice of blood and battle to feed his ambitions of

Lady Macbeth brings out Macbeth’s tragic flaw when she proposes the idea of killing King Duncan and he states, “I have no spur . . . but only vaulting ambition” (1.7.25-27). Once King Duncan has been murdered, this flaw is revealed because his actions reflect on his ambition to stay king. Macbeth begins by planning on killing Banquo and his son because the witches told Banquo “thou shalt get kings, thought thou be none” (1.3.68). Macbeth must kill Banquo and his son, so no one will have the opportunity to take the crown away from him. When Macbeth sends murderers to kill them, Fleance can get away while Banquo is brutally attacked; however, luckily for Macbeth, Fleance is never heard from again. When Macbeth goes to visit the witches again and the first apparition tells him to “beware Macduff” (4.1.71-72), he then realizes he must eliminate any other obstacle that could potentially keep him from staying king. He says he will “give to th’edge o’th’sword his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls” (4.1.150-151) just to ensure his throne. By doing these horrible deeds, Macbeth proves he is willing to go above and beyond to remain king until his

Throughout a variety of Shakespeare’s tragedies, the audience is presented with a protagonist who appears to be a “tragic hero” in the overall play. In other words, this character is one who has made an error in his judgement, providing that this error eventually leads to their own ruin or destruction. Within Macbeth, Macbeth the character is regarded as a tragic hero, but with the distinct and evident explanation of his evil and the succession of his acts of violence, it may not be as clear cut as to whether he is a tragic hero or not. Though Macbeth does commit an error that leads to his eventual destruction, he knows that his judgement is evil and he is aware of the nature of the deed that he wishes to commit in order to reach his ambitions. His knowledge of the nature of his thoughts and actions first appears after an incident he experiences with his imagination and in fact, imagination plays a big role in the motivating identity for his will to commit regicide. Imagination begins by acting as a self-contradicting identity by providing a form of motivation, but also contributing to some hesitation towards the murderous act. As the play progresses though, it becomes solely a motivating identity towards the evil that contributed to the deterioration of Macbeth, and it is this resulting torment that becomes evidence of what evil does onto Macbeth’s mind and heart.

More people start to become treats along with becoming suspicious to Macbeth. In order to make sure that he stays in power without letting anyone know about his previous scandals Macbeth hires people to do it for him. Macduff finds out that his family was murdered and wants to kill Macbeth before he destroys the kingdom. At the end of the story. Macduff battles Macbeth saying “I have no words,My voice is in my sword. Thou bloodier villain,Than terms can give thee out! (Act 5 Scene 8) meaning that Macduff is full of rage and wants Macbeth dead. As the battle continues, Macbeth is defeated knowing that he couldn't be killed from anyone born from a

Sophocles’ Oedipus is a dramatic play that deals with tragedy and comedy. Tragedy can awaken humans to the place of grasping hope and growth; Aristotle’s and Sophocles’ display an all-inclusive story of the tragedy of fate. Sophocles’ tragedy is an emotional story of a ruler who kills his father and unwarily takes his mother as his significant other. A tragic hero characterizes one who makes unwise decisions that prompts catastrophe overcome. Due to the prophecy that their new son would kill his father, Laius and, Jocasta, King and Queen of Thebes, gave their infant to a shepherd with orders that he be left on a mountainside to die. The shepherd, however,