Journal Response: Tragic Hero
I think Macbeth fits Aristotle's idea of a tragic hero really well. First of all, he makes a false judgment as he kills Duncan to become king, even though according to the prophecies told by the witches he is going to become king eventually, so it is not necessary for Macbeth to kill Duncan. Macbeth is too impatient and overtaken by ambition which causes him to make this mistake and set the beginning of his downfall.
Secondly, Macbeth starts out as an honored, respected, loyal kingsman that’s beloved by the king, but after the mistake, everything that he earns all disappeared and replaced by what people see as cruel and wicked. Macbeth falls from someone that everyone praised upon to what people look down upon. Macbeth loses the person who trusted him the most, Duncan which he kills and Lady Macbeth who suicides as she is taunted by all the evil things that she did which prevented her from sleep. Through the things that he keeps doing onwards he loses everyone around him. He loses all his friends that
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Macbeth first starts regretting his mistake after he killed Duncan as he says, Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst” (II.II.93). During the fight with Macduff, he also expresses the guilt of killing his family as he says, “My soul is too much charged\With blood of thine already” （V.VIII.6-7). At the end, Macbeth knows that the prophecies told by the witches have become true once again as Birnam Wood came to Dunsinane and he is fighting Macduff who is not women born. These all mean his life is coming to an end as what he is told all became reality. Then last words that Macbeth says is, “Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane,\And thou opposed, being of no woman born,\Yet I will try the last” (V.VIII.35-37). Macbeth suspects that he will be killed by Macduff so he rather tries his best to fight and die with honor than suiciding and die as a