From Heaven To Hell: Macbeth as a Tragic Hero
William Shakespeare's Macbeth, a play written for the Elizabethan Theater circa 1606, tells the story of an esteemed Scottish nobleman who rises to the throne by murder and subterfuge, only to descend again into madness and damnation. Critics through the years have heralded Macbeth as one of the finest English tragedies by England's finest dramatist. However, some might still ask: "Is Macbeth truly a tragic hero, or is he simply the protagonist of a bleak satire, doomed by powers beyond his control?" The answer to the former can be only an adamant, "Yes." Before one can fully understand that Macbeth is a deeply tragic character, it must first be established, in brief, what a tragedy is, and that Macbeth is one. Shakespearean drama inherits many of its roots from the Greek drama of many centuries before. Aristotle, the quintessential philosopher of the Greek era, considered tragedy to be a genre that is serious in nature, deals with the emotions of pity and terror, and gives the audience a heightened sense of being through the "catharsis" of these emotions. In his book, Poetics, which is widely considered to be the first definitive model of literary criticism, Aristotle stated that, "Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an act
After he kills his King to gain rank, he goes on to kill his closest companion to secure that rank. As his ambition and arrogance, or hubris, grow, so too does his evil. 3 138-145)Here it can be seen that Macbeth has doubts about how he should handle these prophecies, and it is this self-doubt, present in the early acts of the play, that allows him to be manipulated by the witches and by his wife so easily. Later, the famous dagger soliloquy gives the reader a glimpse into Macbeth's inner turmoil, furthering the sense of pity while at the same time instilling fear of what Macbeth is about to do. Realizing, as Aristotle's preferred hero, Oedipus, that there has been great error in his ways, Macbeth's own words best describe his descent from greatness to nothingness:I have liv'd long enough: my way of life Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf; And that which should accompany old age, As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have; but, in their stead, Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. Allowing the character to simply be a victim of unpredictable and undeserved calamities violates the principle of the tragedy, but Macbeth's calamities are neither unpredictable or undeserved: he may be manipulated and tricked into them, but they are results of his own decisions. While Macbeth's accomplices and even the supernatural persuade him along the path of evil, the choices leading to his downfall are his own. 3 25-31)At this point, Macbeth has lost almost all that he ever had. Moreover, Aristotle required that a tragedy must be composed of six traits: plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, and song. Soon, he sees not only the error in his ways, but also how he has been tricked by the three Weird Sisters.
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