Macbeth Seminar Prep

It takes both the audience’s pity and fear to make a tragic and heroic character become a tragic hero. Macbeth earns both. The audience can fear Macbeth because they know that he is capable of murder. He lacks the ability to stand up to Lady Macbeth when he knows something is not morally right and that is frightening, but even after all the pain and suffering of other characters the audience

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragedy in which the main characters are obsessed by the desire for power. Macbeth’s aspiration for power blinds him to the ethical implications of his dreadful acts. The more that Shakespeare’s Macbeth represses his murderous feelings, the more he is haunted by them. By analyzing his hallucinations it is possible to trace his deteriorating mental state and the trajectory of his ultimate fall. Throughout the play Macbeth is never satisfied with himself. He feels the need to keep committing crime in order to keep what he wants most: his kingship. The harder Macbeth tries to change his fate the more he tends to run into his fate. His ambition and struggle for power was Macbeth’s tragic flaw in the play.

History is brimming with examples of people who, in a ravenous quest for power, have met their untimely end. Lord John Acton famously quipped: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." Perhaps, prior to making those astute remarks, Lord Acton had studied The Tragedy of Macbeth. The complex characters and their interactions in William Shakespeare’s iconic play reveal that corrupting force power can have on man.

Shakespeare’s bloody and tragic play Macbeth, written in the seventeenth century, portrays blind ambition, appearances can be deceiving and corruption of power. It follows the reasons behind Macbeth’s downfall. The play analyzes how other outside forces can easily change the path of ones desires and decisions. The witches’ intrusion, Lady Macbeth’s manipulation and Macbeth’s dark desires all interfere and manipulate Macbeth’s decisions. He goes from being praised as a noble soldier to a traitor and corrupt king. In the play, Macbeth commits many terrible crimes; however he is solely not responsible for all of them. The outside factors manipulate his decisions and are responsible for his downfall at the end.

With anger, illusions, stress and so much more I will analyze Macbeth and lady Macbeth for their problems and disorders. In my research I will decipher between certain diseases such as bipolar disease, anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive, panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia, sleeping disorder, and paranoia to see exactly which one of these stress/hurtful symptoms in which they both share. I’ve got my observation information from many resources such as doctor, psychiatrist, prison guards, and the dictionary. And overall I would find them very resourceful.

Macbeth is a tragic hero, in The Tragedy of Macbeth, as many people refer it as, has a main antagonist Macbeth who is by fault of character flawed and is destined to experience death, suffering, and downfall. And during the beginning of the play there was a supernatural force involved in giving Macbeth the temptation. And many can argue that the 3 witches in the beginning of the play made him do it but that’s not necessarily true they never forced his hand in the murder of King Duncan and the numerous murders he had involvement in. He did this on his own due to the lack of his loyalty, sanity, or whatever trait other people wish to give him. Regardless of what trait he lacks the story and Macbeth do follow in the criteria of a tragic hero.

A character’s tragic downfall is often influenced by other characters, but this is not the case in Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth. Macbeth conforms to the conditions of a tragic hero because in the beginning of the play, Macbeth is an honourable and trustworthy nobleman to King Duncan and all of Scotland. However, throughout the play, Macbeth commits evil deeds such betrayal, treason, and murder solely because of his ambitions to remain in power. Macbeth murders others upon hearing the witches’ prophecies and even proceeds to return to them to remain in power. Macbeth is influenced and manipulated by his wife Lady Macbeth and The Witches, but he is ultimately responsible for his own tragic downfall. Macbeth’s tragic downfall is caused by his ‘vaulting ambition’ to become king. Thus, Macbeth has no one but his ruthless, cruel, and greedy self to blame for his own tragic downfall.

Furthermore, the number one thing that shows Macbeth as a more tragic hero is his overconfident trait. In an article by Paul Case says, “A tragic hero is described as a noble character you can empathize with, and whose flaw leads to his demise.” Macbeth is a tragic hero because he was born of a noble birth, as well as Hamlet. Also Macbeth has that tragic flaw of being overconfident that leads to his demise while Hamlet couldn’t decide if he should kill his father's murderer. In the play Macbeth, Macbeth states, “Let them fall all Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane, I cannot taint with fear.”(Shakespeare, Macbeth 3.5.39) Macbeth is stating that he couldn't care less if the greater part of his men abandon him and is demonstrating to the readers that when he is pompous he settles on hurried choices that are exceptionally rash that end up gnawing him in the butt. This makes Macbeth the tragic hero because Macbeth is being the only one fighting while his men are running away like cowards leaving him to fend for himself. Albeit one may contend that Hamlet additionally had a sad blemish of being uncertain which is expressed in the play Hamlet, “Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood And do such bitter business as the day Would quake to look on. Soft, now to my mother.”(Shakespeare, Hamlet, 5.2.45) Hamlet is by and by going to slaughter his dad's killer, however then chooses, he needs to converse with his mother demonstrating to us that he is too ambivalent to execute Claudius. This makes Macbeth look more of a tragic hero because

In life, there are two types of people: those who do the right thing and those who don’t. In the play Macbeth, by Shakespeare, the main character Macbeth is given a prophecy by three witches that says he will become king; however, there is no descending line of kings of his own blood. With the knowledge of the Witches’ prophecy, Macbeth’s ambition, and manipulation from his wife, Lady Macbeth, Macbeth is quickly dragged into a never-ending, bloody murder rampage to obtain the crown and get rid of those who stand in the way of obtaining it as well. Macbeth constantly battles with his moral dilemmas; however, he easily falls victim to influences that go against his morals. Influences on major characters emphasize how easily one’s decision making can be negatively affected, resulting in one going against his or her morals/integrity.

To start off with, Macbeth is an example of a tragic hero because of him being the protagonist. Throughout the play, Macbeth had many qualities as well as some tragic flaws. He was a courageous and brave man who was flawed by the witches and with his ambition. This all happened due to the prophecies that the witches told him, which was of Macbeth to be king. In Act 1, Scene 7, Macbeth says, “I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent , but only/ Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself/ And falls on th’ other.” This drove Macbeth to commit murder on King Duncan of his desire to be king. Although he was courageous and brave and he is seen as the hero at the beginning of the play, his overconfidence causes his downfall.

The tragedy seen in this play is the loss of the man that Macbeth could have been, hadn’t he given in to fulfilling his ambition. Shakespeare leads us to see the deterioration in both Macbeth’s character and his morality. Macbeth, being the tragic hero of the play, undergoes some great changes throughout the acts. Macbeth cannot resist his ambition, and this leads him to his downfall. After a lot of deliberating within himself he decides to act on the witches’ prophecies. He freely decides to believe in what the witches

Although William Shakespeare created the play, Macbeth, to be a tragedy, the tragic hero can hardly be considered to be one. For the entirety of one of Shakespeare’s most magnificent works, Macbeth is controlled and manipulated into committing atrocious acts that the witches and his wife desire. He is powerless to their tricks and through their sorcery/cunning words and his own morals (or lack thereof) “sustain[s] the central paradox–the heroic murderer” (Cusick). Despite the fact that he laments the loss of his king, Duncan, he still continues down his path of evil that only has one ending: his death. Although Macbeth gains a few insights on his inner self, his lack of ability to resist manipulation, willingness to kill, combined with his

Of the many plays written by William Shakespeare, Macbeth is considered by many to be his darkest work. This play displays the significant amount of events that Macbeth experiences throughout to obtain the crown by rushing his fate. He acts out of unrestricted ambition with no moral limitation. Macbeth struggles between the dominance of good and evil. His unrestricted actions lead to the transformation and downfall of once the brave solider we first meet to the ruthless murderer he becomes.

Macbeth is the tragic hero in the play Macbeth. He has a tragic flaw that ends up ruining his character. Macbeth’s tragic flaw is ambition. Though ambition is usually a good thing, too much can be fatal. Macbeth’s character changes dramatically throughout the duration of the play. What once was a noble knight, is now a cold blooded killer.

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, there are many issues that may have had an affect on the play. The complex marriage between the power hungry Macbeths, lady Macbeth’s dominant character directing Macbeth in the murders, the role reversal during the murders, Macbeth’s reaction to his wife’s death, and male and female marriages for authority. When analyzed these issues help describe the Macbeth’s relationship. They are the very issues that eventually lead to the “Great Tragedy”.