Going into Act 3 of William Shakespeare’s tragic play MacBeth, I contemplate on
whether or not the main character, MacBeth, plays the role of a tragic hero or a villain in this
piece of literature. Up to Act 3, MacBeth has played the role of a tragic hero. That being a tragic
hero is defined as a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her
own destruction according to the famous figure Aristotle. The play starts off with three witches
sharing their prophecies they have for MacBeth and his friend, Banquo. Both of them doubt
every word, but still carried it with them up until this point in the play.Leading from that,
MacBeth starts off playing as a hero, winning two battles in a row. One was against
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MacBeth drew such great pride in his position as the Thane of
Glamis(Scotish) that he disgraced MacDonwald’ s body, furious and striving to complete the
witches’ prophecy of him becoming the Thane of Cawdor and then the King. So far his actions
have lead him to great things, but like many evil prophecies, one will give another many little
truths and one big lie in order to lead the other to destruction.
Since the battles and promotion to the Thane of Cawdor by Angus, MacBeth returns
home and meets with his wife. At this point Macbeth will not let anything get in his way of
completing the witches’ prophecy, and his wife provides the (what he thought was at the time)
perfect plan to become King. He plans to hold a party with the King and many other important
people at his home. And at the right time during the night, he planned to murder the King in his
sleep and frame his slaves for it. Though his plan backfires on him. The King had earlier told
MacDuff and Lennox to come pick him up early in the morning. And as told, they came early the
next day, really early. Just as MacBeth murdered King Duncan, the two came knocking at