macbeth
...and must be an element of choice in order for there to be a true tragedy. The tragic hero falls because he chooses one course of action over the other. In the case of Macbeth, his fate was laid out to him by the witches, but it was he who chose the path he was to follow, to kill the king, etc. The fourth characteristic would be “The punishment that Exceeds the Crime” usually the audience (the reader) must not be left feeling that the tragic hero got what he deserved. Part of what makes the action “tragic” is to witness the injustice of what has occurred to the tragic hero. Thou this is the only one of the characteristics of a tragic hero I don’t feel Macbeth feel under, I feel he got what he deserved, but some may argue he didn’t deserve death, so… The fifth and final characteristic is “Increased awareness”. It is crucial that the tragic hero come to some sort of an understanding of what went wrong or of what was really going on before he comes to his end. Macbeth slowly understanding really what’s going on piece by piece, as his whole world gets reversed around on him. When he believes that “none who was kept birth by a women could kill him” and “that he couldn’t be won until Birnan wood gets up”. But he finds out that Macduff was not born truly of a women, and was killed by him, and that birnan seemed to be moving up, and realized the great threat that lye ahead. Many factors accumulated to make Macbeth a tragic hero, but three main ones stand out. The witches, the prophecies which were told by the witches were one of the factors, which contributed to the degeneration of his character. If it had not been for the witches telling him that he was to be Thane of Cawdor, Thane of Glamis, and King of Scotland, Macbeth would still be his ordinary self. As a result of the prophecies, this aroused Macbeth's curiosity of how he could be King of Scotland. As the play progresses, Macbeth slowly relies on the witches prophecies. Shakespeare uses the witches as a remedy for Macbeth's curiosity, which corrupts his character. The influence of Macbeth's wife, Lady Macbeth also contributed to his degeneration of character. Lady Macbeth's character in the beginning reveals that she is a lovable person. When Lady Macbeth was ready to kill King Duncan herself, it showed that Lady Macbeth could not murder King Duncan because he reminded her of her father. This proves that Lady Macbeth has a heart deep inside her. Lady Macbeth plays an important role in this play because she provided a scheme, which caused Macbeth to assassinate King Duncan. After Macbeth had killed King Duncan, he later regrets on his wrongdo...