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Macbeth Tragic Hero Analysis

Decent Essays

The story of Macbeth has its share of twists and turns including some very strong ideas. However, through all these twists and turns the argument of if Macbeth is a tragic hero is still one of the most iconic arguments of all time. Which brings to the point of this essay, Macbeth is indeed the Tragic hero you don’t want to believe he is. So enough talking let’s dive into the argument of if Macbeth is tragic hero or not.

Macbeth is a tragic hero for the following reasons that will be listed in this paragraph, please take these reasons into consideration. At the start of Macbeth, you see him kill a traitor that threatened the king of Scotland (Duncan), from the beginning we all see Macbeth is a hero. However, in Act 1 Scene 3 on line 86 Macbeth runs into witches which tell him he shall be king and this leads to the following dialogue of “Malcom your children shall be kings” which signals Macbeths start as a tragic hero. Now if we go even further into the story of Macbeth you also hear Macbeth say “To prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself” (Act 1 scene 7 lines 26-29). This line from the story shows you Macbeth’s greatest character flaw which is essential to a tragic hero. However, even with strong evidence like this there are still people who refuse to believe Macbeth is a tragic hero for the following reasons.

The people or readers who don’t think Macbeth isn’t a tragic hero believe this for the following reasons. One of the biggest Arguments they present is Macbeth had a choice point blank period, show how is he considered “tragic”? Disbelievers of Macbeth being a tragic hero also state strong evidence such as this line when Macbeth doesn’t want to commit as proven when Macbeth says “I am afraid to think what I have done” (Act 2 scene 3 lines 48-50). That line actually proves that Macbeth lacks an important tragic hero trait commitment. The last piece of real evidence these people have is on act 1 scene 7 on line 46 when Macbeth says “I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none” which proves Macbeth doesn’t want to is not willing to commit to being a man and if he is to be a true tragic hero he must first commit to being a man to start with. That

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