In ambition, by killing theking, and now

In ambition, by killing theking, and now

In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, wediscover that Macbeth is a tragic hero. Macbeth is veryambitious, courageous, and a moral coward: all these thingslead to his tragic death at the end of the play. At thebeginning of the play, Shakespeare defines Macbeth as ahero very clearly. From the courages in defense of Scotlandis significant in the opening scene. However, he is veryambitious to be king.

At the beginning of the play, he wasloyal to the king. While he did imagine of murder his mindrejects it and said, “Why, if fate will have me king, why,chance may crown me,” – Act I, Sc 3, p.44-45. Yetincreasingly his ambition defeated his good nature. WhenDuncan named Malcolm the Prince of Cumberland,Macbeth decided on the murder of Duncan.

When Duncanarrived at Inverness, Macbeth controled his ambition for thetime being and did not kill Duncan. The failing of his decisionwas soon reflected by Lady Macbeth who called him acoward. From then on, after the murder of Duncan,Macbeth entered into a life of evil. Since he overcomed hisgood nature, he no longer needed to be with his friendBanquo. He wanted to protect his ambition, by killing theking, and now he killed Banquo, due to the prediction ofwhat the witches said about Banquo’s son becoming theking.

Macbeth wanted to ensure that he would reach hisambition without problems. Macbeth, who now no longerneeded any encouragement from Lady Macbeth, started toleave her in ignorance of his plans. Near the end of the play,Lady Macbeth sleepwalked and had a dream about thekilling of Duncan and Banquo. She died because of all thispressure and her guilt about the murder.

Soul of Macbethhave been destroyed since Macbeth love Lady Macbethvery much, as shown in Act I, Sc. 5, p.58, “My DearestLove.” The power of nemesis is shown clearly at the end ofthe play when Macduff came back to murder Macbeth.Macbeth would never have guessed that Macduff wouldcome back for revenge for the killing in Macduff’shousehold. This nemesis shows an additional force beyondMacbeth’s control. Because of Macbeth’s strong beliefs inambition and the witches, when he found out Macduff wasnot born of woman, and also found out the Birnam Woodhad been seen moving, he realized that the third apparitionhad deceived him and he understood he was no longer safe.

Through the development of this tragedy, Macbeth hasturned from a fine natured person to an evil person. Hisambition, strong belief in the witches, has brought him to atragic end of his life, and caused many people to lose theirlives.