Tragic Hero Essay

Tragic Hero

    According to wikipedia “A tragic hero is the main character in a tragedy. The idea that this be a balance of crime and punishment is incorrectly ascribed to Aristotle, who is quite clear in his pronouncement that the hero's misfortune is not brought about "by vice and depravity but by some error of judgment”.  I think this best defines Macbeth.  Although, Macbeth didn’t seem like a hero, and visibly didn’t “save” anybody there are some aspects that assemble to make him a tragic hero. 

    To begin with, one of the characteristics that demonstrate Macbeth’s ability to be tragic hero is, the capacity for suffering.  He suffers because he believes in what he is doing, and because he feels both guilty and guiltiness.  For example, in the play “Macbeth” he says, “With all the great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?  No, this my hand will rather multitudinous seas incarnadine making the green one red”?  After murdering Duncan, Macbeth still has the evidence on him and starting to feel the guilt and weight that comes with killing someone.

  “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man that functions is smother’d in surmise and nothing is but what is not”, I believe this quote is connected to, the characteristic, a sense of commitment.  Once the forces of the conflict are set in motion, he is committed.  In this quote Macbeth feels obligated and committed to kill everyone to gain and maintain power.

    The final characteristic of a tragic hero I found in Macbeth is, vigorous protest, the tragic hero objects with vehemence, logic, and pain against the situation in which he finds himself.  “I go and it is done; the ball invites me hear I not Duncan, for it’s a knell that thee to heaven or to hell”.  I think that Macbeth understands the punishments that he will have to undergo of the aftermath of killing Duncan, and that his violence will cause major problems and obstacles in his life.

  In conclusion, Macbeth fits into each category of the characteristics of a tragic hero.  I also read that a tragic hero usually dies in the end for the better.  I think specifically in Macbeth the tragic hero is killed, but the better for everyone else is in place.