Macbeth Tragic Hero Essay

“To be a tragic hero, characters do not have to die- they just have to suffer,” (Kibin). Tragic hero's create their suffering, through what they choose, and the decisions they make. Macbeth is an ideal example of a tragic hero, due to the fact that he promoted his downfall, fell from his own estate, and faced a deserved punishment. In the event of meeting with the witches, Macbeth begins his journey down the path of becoming a tragic hero; constructing his downfall. “I stood rapt in the wonder of it came missives from the king who all hailed me “Thane of cawdor,” … and referred me to be the coming on of time with “Hail King that shalt be.”,” (Shakespeare 31). Macbeth was a meritorious person with meritorious intentions until he had learned of this prophecy from the three witches. Once he had heard these things, he wrote about it to his wife, and together they both went down a road of no return. Together, both Macbeth and his wife went ballistic with killing people. It all started
“Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, for it hath cowed my better part of man! And be these juggling friends no more believed that palter with us in a double sense, that keep the word of promise to our ear and break it to our hope. I’ll fight not with thee,” (Shakespeare 187). At this point in the book Macbeth accepts that death is inexorable. He had lived out his prophecy; there is nothing left for him to fulfill in life. There is not a reason for Macbeth to fight anymore and when he’s facing Duncan he tells him that he’s done fighting, and accepts his fate of what’s to come. Macbeth still had that meritorious quality inside of him, and that’s part of the reason why he was so willing to accept the fact of what was to come. He had been through the ringer, and was mentally done with dealing with the effects of murdering those innocent people. The exhausted Macbeth gave up fighting and let death overtake